Six Senses opens in Lanka

Six Senses Resorts & Spas is to open Six Senses Before Galle and Six Senses Meeraladuaa in Sri Lanka which is to be built in partnership with Aitkin Spence hotels. Six Senses Before Galle will be a resort of 54 villas, designed and built following Six Senses signature of luxury married to sustainability. Six Senses Meeraladuaa, positioned on an island nearby, will be an environmentally low impact site of semi tented structures. Both resorts will open in late 2012.

Six Senses Before Galle is located on the western coast of Sri Lanka, some 70 kms south of Colombo. The resort will have 54 villas; 24 one bedroom villas, 8 one bedroom duplex villas and 8 two bedroom duplex villas. There will also be 14 residential villas, available for sale.

The design of the resort has been inspired by the work of renowned Sri Lankan architect, Geoffrey Bawa, who established tropical modernism. The 14 private residences will be built along the beach. Each will be airy and spacious, with two large bedrooms, a large area for living and relaxing, as well as a dining room and full kitchen facilities. There will be a study too, which can easily be converted into a third bedroom. Each private residence will have its own beach front infinity pool.

In fact all the villas in the resort will be airy and spacious and will have their own pool, together with an outdoor terrace and pond. The sense of arrival at Six Senses Beyond Galle will be very special. Guests will arrive through a tall, fort-like gateway, into an enclosed courtyard. The main restaurant will be surrounded by satellite areas to eat and drink, including a wine cellar and a patisserie counter. Close by will be the library, Six Senses Gallery, jewellery shop and meeting room. The design of the main bar reflects an early 20th century ambience, serving champagne by the glass and freshly shucked oysters.

In addition there will be two club houses, mirroring their services of a bar, wine cellar, movie room and gym — the two clubs, creating a smaller, more intimate ambience for guests to enjoy. Both will have elegant restaurants, with a refined fine-dining menu and classical, informed service.

The Six Senses Spa at Before Galle will have 12 treatment rooms, including 2 herbal Hammam rooms and a cave treatment room. The extensive gym will be equipped with Kinesis equipment, as well as a spacious yoga deck.

Located on the island of Meeraladuaa in the Madu Ganga wetlands of Sri Lanka, will be Six Senses Meeraladuaa, a 16 room tented camp. It has been specifically designed for guests to experience the extraordinary wild life of the area, taste the traditional Sri Lankan cuisine, benefit from the pristine calm of the nature reserve surrounding it and to enjoy the experience with the lowest possible effect on the environment.

The zero carbon tented camp will be powered by photovoltaic solar panels and will use biomass fuel for food preparation. The resort’s own organic vegetable gardens will provide vegetables, mushrooms and sprouts to both the island restaurant and the mainland restaurant at Six Senses Beyond Galle. Other ingredients will be sourced from local farmers and fishermen. In style with Six Senses signature of Michelin star level cooking, the chefs from both resorts will deliver fresh, delicious and unique gastronomic delights. The camp has been designed to offer a range of novel dining possibilities, including a floating pontoon, a treetop dining pod and romantic dinners on a miniscule island nearby.

Each villa at Six Senses Meeraladuaa will be ‘bio-climatically’ designed to ensure guests have maximum comfort but use the minimum amount of energy.

The camp will give guests the opportunity to slowly explore the mangroves, in traditional Sri Lankan canoes, where they can see monitor lizards, mugger crocodiles, giant squirrels, purple-faced leaf monkeys and over a hundred different species of birds.

Following the opening of its first property, Soneva Fushi by Six Senses, in 1995, Six Senses has been recognised as the global benchmark for eco-responsibility in the hospitality sector. Its philosophy is developed around the core purpose of creating innovative and enlightening experiences that rejuvenate their guests’ love of Slow Life: sustainable, local, Organic, and wholesome-learning.

Six Senses currently operates 14 high-end resorts branded as Soneva, Six Senses and Evason in the Maldives, Thailand, Vietnam, Oman and Jordan. There are also several new developments underway in locations such as Morocco, Turks and Caicos and China.  The Six Senses Spa division has 27 company-operated spas, with new spa developments underway in several locations, including India, Morocco and, Oman. The group recently launched the Six Senses Sanctuary brand, of destination spas.