Soneva Soul: Inside The Transformative Maldives Wellness Festival

Fee Drummond finds sanctuary at the Soneva Soul festival in the Maldives

Soneva Soul: A Review

Arrive at any Soneva resort, and your shoes will be confiscated, slipped into a bag labelled ‘no news no shoes’, and you will be invited to walk, cycle and reap the grounding benefits of being unashamedly without shoes for your entire stay. This is true barefoot luxe and the most comfortable I have felt at a five-star tropical island resort. 

Walking the wooden jetties to and from my stilted house over the translucent waters at both Soneva Jani and Soneva Fushi is a joy. I’m ever hopeful of spotting precious baby sharks chasing shoals and stingrays playing in the shallows. Wandering between lush mangroves encasing treetop wellness rooms, the occasional wild rabbit hops across my dusty path. This is a place to feel at home in nature.

I am here for Soneva Soul, a retreat and health summit featuring panel discussions with globally renowned thought leaders and speakers. With toes in the sand, we listen and learn from speakers including oncologist Dr Nasha Winters, who shares her metabolic approach to cancer and Jamie Wheal, founder of the Flow Genome Project offering leadership and performance training. 

My experience is transformational in many ways – but a memorable treetop sound bath led by two very special souls remains a highlight. A belly-deep gong powerfully vibrates through everything in its wake and I am immediately transported as though leaving my body and up, up, up into the air. From there, I appear to watch the gong’s momentous waves ripple and reach, racing like liquid mercury to fill dark caves and tidal caverns. I smile often, unable to keep the creases at the corner of my mouth straight. The feeling of restoration is powerful.

Highlights

Encounter With An Ocean Soul

A turtle and I embark on an extraordinarily poignant experience, floating together for 45 minutes with just inches between us. The current guides us, as we eyeball one another along the reef. I mirror his gentle glide, joining him as he comes up for air. I eventually bid goodbye when I realise how far away I am. This moment with an old ocean soul will never leave me.

Sanctum On A Sandbar

Jumping on a boat as dawn breaks, we are deposited on a secret sandbar to let loose our minds, bodies and spirits during a Sanctum class with Luuk Melisse. He is the co-founder of this fusion practice of fitness and holistic wellbeing that has swept London recently. The energy and vulnerability of Luuk’s leadership throughout this energetic class is one of my favourite experiences here.  

Ice Baths & Breath Work

So used to my cold-water sea swims at home on the blustery British south coast, the idea of an ice bath in the tropics seems balmy. After intense breath work led by Marcel Hof, whose lilting Nordic voice reassuringly echoes his famous brother Wim’s, we are led to the baths, completing our cellular reset as a group, witnessing each other through the biochemical highs and lows that come with breath and hot-cold therapy.

Sushi Sublime

Korean-American Chef Akira Back – who has 28 restaurants around the world – meticulously leads us on the most exquisite sushi journey. We savour delicacies and considered cuts of fish and find ourselves mesmerised by his art and precision, chef’s clogs clacking on the floor amid the sounds of the waves.

When Is It?

The next Soneva Soul takes place from 9 – 13 October 2025, find out more at soneva.com