Soneva Jani — Hotel in South Miladhunmadulu

Overall: This was our 2nd visit to Soneva Jani in two years and our experience was even better this time! My wife and I returned to Jani in December to spend 6 nights with our 6 month old daughter. Our prior experience with Soneva overall inspired us to come again a year later all the way from Canada. While our first visit to Soneva Jani had some flaws (Jani was in between a couple of GMs at the time), since Eddie Teh took over (previous Soneva Fushi GM) his impact was noticeable. Primarily, the service level has been elevated (I recognize the service at Soneva properties is already high), but there is a conscious effort of all staff to ensure you’re maximizing your enjoyment with regular check in and anticipating your needs. More details about this during our stay detailed below: ||Room: On arrival, we were upgraded to a 2 bedroom water reserve (Chapter 2). This was a total highlight of our stay. Having stayed in a 1 Bedroom Water Retreat (Chapter 1) during our last stay it was awesome to see how much refinement they’ve been able to make in the Chapter 2 villas. A few things to note: fully air conditioned, enclosed bathroom (with the option to open sliding doors), villas higher from the water (which makes for a more comfortable stay when it gets windy), and the deck lay out both larger with more shaded seating plus the infinity pool set up makes for some jaw dropping sunrise and sunset views. I also believe they’ve used a different type of wood in Chapter 2 which is stronger yet still very soft for your feet. ||Specifically, the 2 bedroom water reserve is absurdly large and also has an air conditioned living/movie room. This was very appreciated and useful with a 6 month old that can only handle so much heat / sun per day. I’d highly recommend a villa on the sunset side to take advantage of some of the insanely beautiful sunsets that Soneva Jani gets.||Barefoot Butler: During our last visit we struggled with our barefoot butler. While he was a really nice person he was just a bit too relaxed. While we love Soneva’s ethos of barefoot luxury / no news no shoes, we also really like the service experience of other top hotel brands like Four Seasons, Belmond, Rosewood. This time around we had Visam, who I would highly recommend to request if you visit Soneva Jani. Visam was the perfect balance of relaxed and professional. He was constantly engaging us to ensure we had everything we needed and that our daughter was comfortable. He was very flexible and adaptable to changing plans (which happens when travelling with an infant). One thing to note about Soneva, the barefoot butlers play a huge part in your stay and really have the ability to customize and tailor your stay to your preference - so make sure you let your interests and preferences be known! One example for us was that my wife is really big into Christmas and we stayed in early/mid Dec, which is just before Soneva’s official festive decorations rolled out. When our barefoot butler, Visam, found out suddenly many xmas decorations and surprises started to appear throughout Soneva Jani and our Villa (I have outlined more about this below - see Christmas Experience).||Experiences: We had the opportunity to do three experiences while at Soneva Jani: Cast Away Picnic, Wine Tasting, and Dolphin Cruise.||I would highly recommend all of these with a couple of tips: For the Cast Away Picnic, the food is spectacular (as is all the food at any Soneva property) so be ready and hungry as you can wind up with a lot of food! If you book a wine tasting make sure you ask for Evelyn as she is super knowledgeable and has amazing stories about all of the wines/wineries she procured from. If you have a passion for wine, you will have an amazing experience and conversations with her. For the dolphin Cruise, ours didn’t pan out too well as it was quite windy. Of note, at Soneva Jani you have to cross the channel to see the dolphins and, if the wind is high, the waves will be big (1-2M +) so make sure you’re ready and prepared (or even better try to do it on a calm day). We were fortunate enough to be at Soneva Fushi for 8 nights after Jani and had a calm sunset dolphin experience there and saw many dolphins (well worth it and breathtaking).||Baby sitting and the Den: We had 2-hours of baby sitting services included each evening for dinner (part of Soneva’s family offer) plus we opted to add additional babysitting throughout our stay. First off, one babysitter was dedicated to us for our entire stay which made establishing a routine and confidence much easier and allowed us to get relaxed / into vacation mode sooner. Our babysitter, Gulira, was amazing and treated our daughter like family. She was focused, attentive, and very warm and was a part of the Den (kids club) staff. This all started to make sense when we made our first visit to the Den which made my wife and I very jealous and wish we were kids again. It is a state of the art brand kids haven that offers a wide variety of amenities. As soon as we walked in, we quickly realized it wasn’t just Gulira, the entire Den staff was absolutely amazing. It is clear that Soneva intentionally focused on having amazing kids amenities and child care available to totally put your mind at ease when you bring a child of any age to their resort. During our stay, we had let the Soneva team know our daughter was turning 6 months old and they did an amazing surprise at the Den by hosting a mini party for her with a cake. ||Baby/Infant Amenities: Travelling halfway across the world with an infant was an intimidating task. However, Soneva has everything that you need including: Crib, baby monitor, high chair, baby bath, change station, baby cleaning supplies, sanitizer, unscented baby cleaner, bottle warmer, for purchase: there were diapers, wipes, and the baby formula of your choice (make sure you let the reservations team know in advanced). All of these supplies reduced the burden on us to bring some of these items with us which was really nice (plus Soneva’s complimentary laundry service makes things very easy with an infant). When we checked in, the crib and all items were set up which made getting her for a nap a breeze! Another thing was the breakfast chef at The Gathering was constantly checking in to see if he can make our daughter something specific to eat (i.e. puree’s). In addition, almost every staff member remembers our daughter's name and was asking about her when we would be without her. It really added to the fact that the staff simply care about their guests. ||The Food & Dining: One of the reasons you come to Soneva is for the food. It is outstanding. From start to finish we didn’t have a single mediocre meal, each meal was excellent. The breakfast is the second best in the world (the best is still Soneva Fushi), with tons of options both buffet an a la cart, as well the ability to dine at the south beach, the gathering, or in your villa. We got to do all three and they’re all equally amazing. For other meals we got to try: Down to Earth, Over the Sea, So Primitive, In villa Dining, and Around the World Buffet - hands down the quality of the ingredients and thoughtfulness of the menu just blows any other resort dining experience out of the water. If you’re concerned about dining well on vacation, you won’t be let down.||Christmas Experience: As mentioned above, we arrived slightly before the festive program was slated to start. When they got wind of our passion for Christmas, many decorations started to pop up starting with the trees: on the north beach for the managers cocktail reception, in the gathering, at the south beach, AND in our Villa (which our daughter loved) to name a few. Living in Canada it was quite an experience to see the festive decorations in tropical paradise and I would highly recommend it to anyone considering travelling during the festive time of year. They also start offering Christmas themed cocktails and ice creams. Finally, in addition to coordinating a ‘Soneva’ Christmas tree in our villa, our barefoot butler set us up with Christmas cookies, chocolates and other snacks + decoration. Many more little things I have likely missed but it was something we won’t forget and hope to be back during Christmas or other festive seasons. ||Reservation Team: The reservations team was a sore spot for us during our last trip. As others have provided feedback on, they don’t match the Soneva brand and were often difficult to deal with. This time was totally different and if I had a most improved part of our experience it would be with the reservations team. They were prompt, flexible and overall operated with a much more professional manner. Special call out to John and Shaibaan who really...

This trip was an absolute dream come true. We've never in our lives experienced such a place where the service was so perfect, we honestly don't think it can be improved. Each and every staff member simply blew our minds with the level of service they provided and were EXTREMELY amazing at anticipating our needs. We stayed 14 nights and I'd say by day 3, the entire staff at the resort knew who we were (we are not celebs) and what we liked. Though everyone was absolutely amazing, there are a few names I'd like to mention that really stood out. First and foremost, our Barefoot Guardian Saeed. This gentleman is the epitome of what guest service is. His ability to read the minds of guests and deliver, without the guest ever having to ask for what they want (because he somehow already knew) magnified the experience I had at this resort 100-fold. Communication was very easy, and any inquiry I sent him (via text on WhatsApp, the preferred method of communication at the resort) was acknowledged and answered in under 3 minutes, barring him driving the golf cart at that moment. If we did happen to need something from him, he was there with almost no wait. He also provided service the entire 15 day duration we were on property. I appreciate that we had the same butler our entire stay. | Next I'd like to mention Alim, our daily server at The Gathering for breakfast. Such a kind and pleasant gentleman, again who was amazing at anticipating our needs. Each morning he took us to our one particular favorite table which always seemed to be available (I wondered if he tried to keep that seat open for us, knowing we would arrive soon) and again by the third day into the trip, we did not even need to place our drink orders. The coffees and juices we preferred were brought out within minutes of taking a seat. Further into our stay, we would walk into the gathering for breakfast and as we made our way to our preferred table, the drinks were already sitting there! I chuckled to myself in amazement, so grateful that Alim "took us under his wing" as what made us feel like his own personal guests. We could clearly see his desire and pride to offer a level of service fit for a Royal family. He succeeded. | Now for the guys that will make your culinary dreams come true: Chef Senthil and Chef Rajesh. Oh boy. I could write a book on how great these two are. This was our first experience with Indian food, and it was very impressive. Once these two masterful chefs found out we took a liking to Indian food, they were not at all shy about preparing an enormous amount for us. I'm a big guy so I really appreciated being fed like that. I was so excited to try all of their food that they were so proud to make, each morning changing things up a bit to sample a full variety. I think we've been presented with every type of Dosa that exists, and every version of it was mind-blowing amazing. Chef Senthil and Chef Rajesh were the highlights of our trip, and we are so glad we stayed a longer duration to have enough time to sample a great variety of their mastery. On our last morning, Chef Senthil was not scheduled to work. In an amazingly kind gesture, he rearranged his schedule to work that day, just to see us off, after taking care of us morning, noon, and night for two weeks. Knowing we had 22 hours of flight time ahead of us, he packed a to-go box with some of our favorites to ensure we never went hungry on the journey home. | Other masters of their craft are Chef Marlon at Directors Cut who takes immense pride in his work and is very cordial, and Chef Mahesh who prepared a few dinners for us at So Wild. So Wild has a set menu which we really enjoyed (this is an experience you MUST do, and it's included in the meal plan) but Chef Mahesh, realizing we came back within the same week, would have been served the same food, decided to go "off menu" for us in a subsequent visit, and created the most amazing zucchini pasta imaginable. The noodles were actually the zucchini! Very crafty, and a very unique experience. Despite being a big eater, I did not leave Diana Von Cranach's garden hungry. Quite honestly So Wild was my single favorite restaurant at the resort. | Finally, Yenda, our housekeeper, flawlessly executed the cleaning of the villa to perfection. She left plenty of amenities and towels as she knew we were constantly in the water all the time. The villa was perfectly turned down each night we returned from dinner. They also have an amazing Dr. on property. My excessive fooling around in the water earned me "swimmers ear" but the Dr, well equipped, had what was needed to correct that. He was prompt and followed up everyday until I was better. Food server Pear provided amazing service as well.|| The Villas are beautiful. Comfortable, ample space, love the large pool, and especially the slide. Extremely comfortable bed and you can choose your own bedding! The kitchenette is ample, and I really appreciated the included WineArt dual bottle wine preserver. Liking to sip wine, it takes several days to finish a bottle and that included WineArt preserver keeps your wine, red or white, at the perfect temperature while extracting the oxygen out of the open bottle and sealing it up. Excellent touch. I'd love to own that WineArt preserver but can't find one in America for some reason. || The resort is expansive, and they include e-bikes to get around. It is fun to bike through the jungle and take a ride to the crab shack, a nice area to simply hang out and enjoy some lazy time. Nice amenities on land, including a padel ball court wrapped in thick glass so you can play all by yourself against the glass if you'd like. You won't get bored here. We stayed two weeks, did not register for many activities, but were still never bored. It's just too beautiful. Nighttime is a treat as well. The entire resort is lit up in 'salt lamp' type lighting. Almost no light pollution so you can enjoy the stars at night. Floating breakfast is a must!|| We don't feel we need to sell anybody on the physical beauty of the resort. You've all seen the pictures. What I'd like to convey to anyone considering this resort is something you can't put a price tag on. This staff is genuine. They truly care about taking care of you. They are masters of anticipating your needs, and executing as perfectly as human beings possibly can. Thank you Soneva Jani for the experience...

Maldives. This was our third visit.|I run a restaurant, and my wife is a novelist.|Through this trip, we finally came to understand what we had been seeking on our repeated journeys to the Maldives. Thanks to Soneva Jani, our Maldives story has finally reached completion.||We had always believed that a trip to the Maldives could offer something more than just rest—perhaps something that could truly change our lives. Though no trip had actually changed our lives before, we always planned each one with the hope that this time, it might.||Over the course of two and a half years, we stayed a total of 22 nights at three different resorts. Including our 3 nights at Soneva Jani, that makes 25 nights in the Maldives. We kept choosing resorts with excellent underwater environments, thinking that the more we explored the sea, the more we might gain from the experience. We obtained freediving and scuba certifications in Korea, and eventually experienced current diving in the Maldives as well. It was all beautiful—undeniably so—but there was a subtle emptiness.|We had seen the ocean clearly, but it didn't feel like it had changed our lives.|I found myself wondering, “We’ve gone scuba diving in the Maldives together… now what?”||And then, we visited Soneva Jani.|We considered diving in Noonu Atoll too—but we decided to explore something else, something new. What we received in return was far beyond our expectations.||1) Landscapes That Stir the Heart|Everything at Soneva Jani is visually stunning.|It wasn’t just beautiful—it was breathtaking in a way I hadn’t experienced in any other place I had traveled, not even other resorts in the Maldives.|The phrase “It’s just beautiful to look at” is often heard, but for me, this was the first time I truly felt it.|Until now, I realized I had been sharing photos and videos of the Maldives to let people know, “Hey, I’m here.”|But at Soneva Jani, I simply wanted to share the moments with people I care about.|There was a kind of purity in that desire I’d never felt before.|And I couldn’t stop taking photos—not for display, but because the urge to share beauty was irresistible.||2) A Culinary Revelation|Good food begins with great ingredients, and Soneva sources them with care.|I had the freshest salad of my life here, and every other dish radiated quality from its ingredients.||We’re a couple that enjoys dining at Michelin-starred restaurants in Korea, and I also run a restaurant myself.|So when I say that Crab Shack was truly exceptional, I mean it.|In my view, it deserves three Michelin stars—it meets every standard of "exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey."|Of course, inspectors may not make it out here easily, but still 😊|I would return to Soneva again just for this restaurant.||Overseas was also wonderful. The Smoked Sashimi of Salmon was an absolute delight—especially to my wife, who adores French cuisine and amuse-bouches.|As a couple who doesn't drink alcohol, we also loved the variety of fresh juices offered at breakfast. Sunrise Jani was our favorite.||So Primitive also surprised us—especially with a grilled fruit dessert that we found both rare and delicious.||We had long assumed that food at Maldivian resorts was just “okay.”|Soneva Jani completely overturned that belief and gave us meals that sparked new thoughts and perspectives.||3) The Architecture of Comfort|While features like the retractable roof and the spacious pool were impressive, what truly moved us was the emotional resonance of the space itself.||The bed allowed us to sleep more deeply than we had in years—our insomnia melted away.|The layout of the villa, from the bathroom to the kitchen to the living room, gave off a feeling I still struggle to describe—perhaps stability, hospitality, or emotional warmth.|Even after returning home, I can still recall the structure vividly.|Simply being in that space seemed to awaken something deep inside us.||After returning from the trip, I found myself reading Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space, wanting to better understand what kind of impact Soneva had left on us.||4) People Who Left an Impression|All of the staff felt like one unified team, each with their own charm but working in perfect harmony.|Two staff members stood out to us:|Saneem from Down to Earth, who greeted us warmly even late at night, and Novika from Overseas, who cared for us with great attention during breakfast and dinner.|Their presence deeply moved us.||As someone who also works in service, they reminded me of the mindset and attitude I want to embody in my own work.||🍀 In Closing...|I think we were looking for something “real” through all of our Maldives trips.|And at Soneva, we finally found it.||My wife and I have always strived to create what is real.|Soneva was truly real. It gave us a new dimension of awareness.||We both feel that we have changed—almost as if we’ve become different people.|My wife, as a writer, gained enormous creative energy.|I, as a restaurateur, gained a completely new perspective on how to run my business.||Just as Soneva changed us, we now feel inspired to create things that will change others too.|Before we begin our next chapter, we will...