‘Gazing at the Indian Ocean is a therapy in itself': welcome to the world of luxe hotel wellness

The Guardian

16-05-2025

Sited on a coral atoll, with six sandy swooshes of beach, Hilton Maldives Amingiri Resort & Spa fits anyone's idea of paradise. Curving wooden jetties lead to cabanas built on stilts above the Indian Ocean. Equally joyous is the transfer from airport to island. A resort speedboat zips for 20 minutes across aquamarine shallows, under which whale sharks, giant mantas and 1,000 other sea life species play. It's paradise found.
Yet Amingiri is special even among the 1,192 islands of the Maldives. The resort exudes a life-affirming magic that's hard to find elsewhere. Parents, couples and solo travellers report that they leave feeling younger than when they arrived. This Indian Ocean sanctuary is a tonic for the soul.
The person in charge of guests' mental and physical journey is Marisol Cerniaz, the resort's director of wellness and leisure. She has the experience to visualise a remedy simply by seeing the emotion on a guest's face or the pressure on their shoulders. 'But you don't just quickly tell them their treatment, or recommend a certain massage,' Cerniaz says. Nor prescribe a fitness regime in the gym, or aerial yoga above the ocean. 'It takes time to have an intimate conversation to personalise their experience,' she says.
Hilton Maldives Amingiri Resort & Spa is an island of tranquility in the Indian Ocean
Cerniaz's dedication to wellness has a personal resonance. 'I was sickly when I was young,' she recalls. 'So my grandmother [in the Philippines' remote Eastern Visayas islands] practised on me.' The region is renowned for traditional healing. As a young girl, Cerniaz learned timeless techniques such as hilot, a massage-like stroking method that aims to remove negative energy, and bentosa, a cupping therapy said to draw toxins from the body. 'Now, wellness for me is about giving the service back and rejuvenating others,' she says.
The journey to rejuvenation can be emotional. When guests arrive at the Hilton Maldives Amingiri Spa & Resort, 'it is part of the experience for them to let go of whatever personal emotions they have', Cerniaz says. A visitor may have lost someone, or be discovering someone new. They might have cause to celebrate, or take stock of life. 'When they do sunrise yoga, or starlight meditation, they feel comfortable to release their worries.'
'Wellness for me is about giving the service back and rejuvenating others,' says Cerniaz
Cerniaz is backed by a team of fitness specialists, yoga teachers, salon stylists, masseurs and podiatrists, ensuring wellness is tackled from all angles. And, to refresh the wellness experience, visiting health practitioners stay for a month or more in residence, bringing healing techniques such as acupuncture and sound baths. 'Right now,' says Cerniaz, 'we have a visiting gyrokinetic practitioner, who works on spine movement and flexibility for all ages.' Feeling young never gets old.
Speaking of feeling young, kids and teenagers are welcome to experience the benefits of wellness for themselves, with a specially curated offering for their specific needs, thanks to the resort's kids' club – one of the largest in the Maldives. Junior guests have their own pool and spa packages with massages and manicures, while teenagers can be tempted from their phones to engage in high-intensity Tabata workouts, kayak competitions and tubing games. Whisper it, but teens may even prefer a break from their own parents on vacation.
Guests can make their stay as active or relaxing as they wish
Part of the wellness process is pressing pause on 'the real world' by forging new memories. The Hilton Maldives Amingiri Resort & Spa is a small island with big adventures. Expect starlit movie screenings, turtle snorkel safaris and the first cocktail laboratory in the Maldives. For sporty guests, the resort has a futsal field, a multi-purpose court and, now, a padel arena. Some visitors like to paint with watercolours in the evening, as the sky ripens into a watermelon sunset above the swaying palms. Therapy comes in many forms.
Sound baths are among the many therapies on offer
Guests can continue their relaxation in restaurants such as Habitat, which crafts dishes like achari jhinga, marinated Sri Lankan tiger prawns cooked in a tandoor and served with mint chutney. There are scores of ways to de-stress.
Perhaps the most celebrated healer in the Maldives is the Indian Ocean itself. Guests rejuvenate in one of 108 seaside villas, each with a private outdoor pool. Overwater villas can access the warm sea directly via their own staircase.
Resort guests stay in seaside villas, each with a private pool
The resort's dive shop has added to the local reef by sinking discarded items in front of the Habitat restaurant, including a bike, metal furniture and glass bottles, which coral grows upon. This shallow aquatic playground has become a nursery for baby blacktip sharks. They regularly corkscrew up above the water in pursuit of reef fish. They share the waters around the reef with clownfish, snappers, parrotfish, stingrays, lobsters and schools of jackfish.
The resort's resident marine biologist can accompany divers farther out. 'There are more than 30 dive sites nearby,' says Cerniaz. Out here, reef manta rays make their ghostly processions, humphead wrasse rise languorously through the ether, while butterflyfish perform dazzling dances as they tenaciously defend their territory. It's Finding Nemo in real life.
Wellness may be timeless but attitudes have changed during Cerniaz's 20-year career as a practitioner. 'Years ago, wellness was considered a luxury,' she says. 'These days, many guests want to return from holiday rejuvenated and ready to face life again.' For some guests, wellness might be as simple as paddling in a glass-bottomed kayak with their partner. And that's totally OK, says Cerniaz. 'For me, gazing at the Indian Ocean is a therapy in itself.'
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