Review of Cocoa Island, by John Borthwick

There are luxury resort spas and then there are pleasure domes of bling with a pricey rubdown thrown in. Cocoa Island's Como Shambhala Retreat spa is not one of the latter. "This is a spa for grown-ups - and a good spa isn't just about how many orchids you can arrange on a towel," says Jorge Carlos Smith, general manager of this svelte and discrete hideaway just south of the Maldives' capital, Male.

Cocoa Island is (by its own description) "the Indian Ocean outpost of Como Hotels and Resorts," owners of such distinguished luxury retreats as the Metropolitans in Bangkok and London. The island, locally known as Makunufushi, once belonged photographer Eric Klemm who in 1980 built a four-bungalow hotel here. By 2002 it had transformed into Como's lovely 33-room piece de resistance. Singaporean architect Cheong Yew Kuan's mix of contemporary and indigenous elements features rooms styled after converted dhoni boats, as used by Maldivian fishermen. (If they actually sailed, I would have un-tethered my Dhoni Loft Suite and sailed for home, so much did I like its Kathryn Kng-designed white-timbered interior, mezzanine bedroom, couches, kitchen, vast bathroom and lagoon view.)

The facilities

There are eight Dhoni Suites, nine Dhoni Loft Suites and ten Loft Villas "moored" (on solid foundations) that make up this luxury resort, beside a sinuous walkway over the lagoon. Featuring New Zealand pine, thatched roofs, high ceilings and teak flooring, all accommodation has floor-to-ceiling glass windows opening up to a deck with direct access to the water.

Cocoa Island's restaurant, Ufaa (meaning "happy' in Divehi) features an all-day dining menu with a predominance of organic vegetables and locally caught fish, plus plenty of coriander, ginger, tamarind, okra and green chili flavours.

The slender island - it's 350 metres long - extends to a sandy spit that temporarily disappears with high tide. Offshore is the Guraidhoo Channel that comes alive each evening with hundreds of spinner and bottlenose dolphins. Don't miss this cruise. As well as snorkeling, Cocoa Island has qualified instructors to lead dive or instruct beginners at more than 20 different dive sites in the area. The water temperature is around 27-30 degrees Celsius all year.

The island is just a 40-minute speedboat transfer from the international airport on Malé (the main island). As you zip down to Cocoa/Makunufushi, passing other little dots of green jungle and golden sand, it's easy to see what moved the formidable traveler Ibn Battuta, a visitor to the Maldives in 1583, to utter: "By God, I envy this man his island, and wish that it was mine to withdraw to."

In my case, I "withdraw" to the spa, or to give it its preferred title, the Como Shambhala Retreat. A Balinese masseur, Nyoman leads me to a small beachside pavilion of timber, glass and thatch. Being of the "no pressure, no point" school of thought about massage, I ask for my treatment, the signature Como Shambala Massage, to be "strong" pressure. Certainly. We start with an Indian head massage that soon has my neck, face and scalp tingling, liberated (at least for a while) from their excess baggage of city tension.

Then comes the massage - a full, diligent hour of Nyoman's best. When you're adrift on a white table, beside an azure Maldivian lagoon and in the hands, literally, of an expert who's dissolving your tensions, it's hard to recall too much technical detail. Suffice it to say that a Como Shambhala Massage synthesizes elements of Balinese, Thai and Swedish traditions and features sustained, long muscle massage plus moderate stretching.

As he works with his elbows, forearms and thumbs, then does deeper tissue work on my calves, I'm reminded of the advantage, in terms of simple strength, that a 70 kg gent like Nyoman has over your average 45 kg resort spa masseuse. Having started with firm pressure, he maintains the intensity for the entire duration rather than lapsing to "medium" then "mild", as can often happen. Como Shambhala Retreat's philosophy is to genuinely treat the full body: not for them the coy avoidance of glutes, pecs and abdominals that is increasingly found in many luxury resort spas. I emerge, reluctantly, from my treatment, feeling as supple as rubber. The session concludes nicely with 15 minutes of foot reflexology, during which my toes, soles, ankles and calves all get their own spoiling, with none of the painful pressure that sometimes accompanies zone therapy.

Should I want it, there's much more. This tranquil, palm-shaded spa has a huge, free hydrotherapy pool, four treatment rooms (including one for couples), steam rooms and gym. The treatment options include deep tissue, ayurvedic and detoxifiying routines, plus facials and cleansing baths. There's a terrific Indian yogin, Pramod Kumar, who leads complimentary classes each evening in an open-air seaside pavilion. Like the rest of this exceptional resort, the spa is about essence not embellishment - bling is simply not Cocoa Island's thing. The therapists, mostly Balinese, are there because of their skill and sensitivity, not some pseudo-exoticism. And their treatments run a full hour, not 50 minutes. After a session here, I'm primed to step back into Cocoa Island's barefoot luxury, with the sand between my toes and champagne chilling in the ice bucket.