Review of Royal Davui, by John Borthwick

An ancient banyan tree grows right in the middle of the open-air restaurant deck at Royal Davui Island Resort. Its massive lattice of taproots, limbs and trunks could be the symbolic heart of this ten-acre island. It is certainly the fulcrum around which the walkways, buildings, social life and appetites of the luxury resort pivot.

This is a blessed tree, literally. When Fijian fishing entrepreneur Grahame Southwick was building this exclusive resort off the south coast of Viti Levu, his staff insisted that the tree be exorcised of the mischievous spirits believed by Fijians to inhabit banyans. Thereafter the tree's "gremlins" would not bother the occupants of this previously uninhabited island.

It seems to have worked. Royal Davui opened in late 2004, making it one of the newest kids on the block in Fiji's collection of luxury four- and five-star island resorts. While the self-rating of some resorts here may be open to question, there's no dispute that Royal Davui's five stars are valid to an international standard. My one and only "complaint" about the resort is wondrously trivial: in a bathroom that had everything from a double spa tub to an electronically opening louvred ceiling (for simultaneous "indoor/outdoor" showering), I couldn't find - wait for it - a cotton bud. For my ears, post-snorkelling. If that is the worst thing one can say about a new resort, well, it's pretty complimentary.

The facilities

My freestanding suite is known as a Premium Vale - vale (vah-ley) being the Fijian word for a home, as opposed to the more familiar term, bure, meaning house. Home, however, was never quite like this. There's a wrap-around deck that oversees the turquoise planes of Beqa (pronounced Benka) Lagoon, and beside it an outdoor plunge pool with jacuzzi jets. Indoors, the elegant living area invites dereliction of all duties while you lie supine on a sofa that faces the lagoon. Electronic distraction is limited to a small CD system, with TV and DVD banished to a distant room somewhere near the reception desk. There are polished timber floors everywhere and a few tasteful Fijian artefacts. The bedroom is mercifully free of clutter and, other than a net-canopied, king-size bed, doesn't attempt to compete with the royal vistas that are yours from that bed. The bedroom segues, sans walls, in one easy step to a roomy shower-bathroom-wardrobe zone.

On a world where scores of reefs claim to be "one of the top ten dive sites in the world," Beqa Lagoon - a huge span of reefs and shoals off Pacific Harbour - can cite a very authoritative source for its own boast. Skindiver magazine nominated the lagoon as its number one dive spot, worldwide, because of the variety of protected and open water dives, as well as soft and hard corals, pinnacles and drop-offs.

An added bonus is that you can dive straight off Royal Davui's "front doorstep," its reception beach. If you just want to snorkel, swim 20 metres out from this beach and you are instantly amid an octopus's garden and a parrotfish's forest, all in one - shallows so thronged with creatures and corals that snorkelling here makes scuba diving almost redundant. Few resorts anywhere have such a treasure house "house reef", and one that has never been trammelled by the dragging anchors and crushing feet of day-trippers. Sensibly, the luxury resort has declared their whole reef area a marine sanctuary, banning fishing and shell collecting.

Royal Davui draws its name from the davui conch shell traditionally used to summon important communal meetings in Fiji. The royal appellation indicates that the island is owned by the region's paramount chief. The real name of this granite (not coral) upthrust, Uggaga (pronounced Unganga), simply means, "Look at that!" And indeed you do. From the tiny fish that dance like electrons around the coral heads, to the angular frigate birds that circle overhead all day, to the blueberry pancakes for breakfast - you look, you taste, you revel, and then look again.

Part of the royal flush that is Davui is the privacy it offers. Each of the 16 vales faces the sea and is sufficiently distant from its neighbour that this might as well be your own private island. Indeed, some guests have commented on how fortunate they were "to have the whole island to ourselves" - when in fact, there were many other guests also in residence. Such is the space here that, unless you bump into people in the restaurant (on the seaview deck beneath that grand banyan), you may think that, at last, you've scored a designer "desert island" all to yourself. Royal Davui is adults-only sanctuary, and there are no more than 32 guests on the island at any one time.

"Our guest activities aren't scheduled," explains the manager. Guests are free to head to the marine centre anytime and take out a kayak or Hobie cat, arrange a dive or go snorkelling. Landlubbers can try croquet or boules, grab a book from the library, enjoy a spa massage or stay cool by the pool. Or just stroll. The tropical gardens are a chorus of colour, with the heliconia, bougainvillea, fan palms, ornamental cassava and tree orchids seeming to be the terrestrial reply to the siren song of the Beqa reefs.

Too much luxury can weaken the will, or so they say. But what the heck, think of three days amid Davui's serenity and exceptional dining as a just reward for all the "character-building" stuff that gave you the wherewithal to afford its fairly steep tariff. Importantly, among the true pleasures here are the Fijian staff - men and women whose dignity, warmth and intelligence remind you that good service has nothing to do with servility.