The welcome
The Maia Luxury Resort & Spa, like the eldest and loveliest of the seven Pleiades nymphs from which it takes it name, brings something special to the cosmos. The diversion from the formulaic luxury hotel experience is made clear upon arrival by the absence of a lobby. Instead, guests are delivered at Maia's entrance: a bridge over a lily pond. After being escorted by the resort manager to a golf buggy parked on a paved path that winds through the property's intensely fecund tropical gardens, I was shuttled up the hill to my villa. Maia has 30 of them, all private, gated and hidden from view - both from the outside and from each other - for maximum privacy.
The neighbourhood
For a programme that includes diving, sunning, hiking, or deep-sea fishing, there's no place on the island more pristine or more accommodating. Though it's hard to imagine coming down with cabin fever here on Anse Louis, the beach along which Maia sits, downtown Victoria is a 30-minute drive away.
After a jaunt into town, I returned in time to experience a sunset so Botticellian and profound that it left me smitten on the daybed until the mosquitoes came out. Mahé's acacia- and cinnamon-lined roads are well-maintained and there are high-speed ferries to the neighbouring islands of Praslin and Le Digue, but Maia's helicopter can get you there in half the time or, alternatively, to a private island for a romantic lunch. For a grittier and more authentic experience, a bus ride to any point on the island costs six Seychellois rupees (Dh1.75). The locals are generally friendly and fluent in English, French and Seychellois Creole.
The scene
How does a remote hotel manage not to be remotely like a hotel? There's nothing understated about Maia's splendour but like some great beauties, it plays a little hard to get. Everything that's public - the world class open-air spa, the restaurant, the offices - are accessed through the vegetation or descended into by staircase, staggering me each time I stumbled upon something undiscovered and amazing. Clean, contemporary wooden furnishings in the library and beachfront lounge keep the spaces from feeling stuffy or manufactured and more like some lucky person's seaside estate. Everywhere are immaculate details - flowers in bowls, candles lighting a walkway - a seamless merging of relaxed and meticulous.
The room
The villas have a few particularly nice touches - separate Wi-Fi, a direct phone line, an ice machine, an espresso machine, Le Prairie bath products, and, my favourite, a dried coconut husk to hang over the gate to signal the wish to be left alone. I appreciated the hulking bunch of little bananas hanging by the bar, hacked from a tree on the premises and left for me to consume as they ripened. Unfortunately, the birds got to them before I did.
Master suites at Maia have the simple warmth of canvas fabric, earth tones and fine woodwork, although the mattress was marginally firmer than I would have liked. Full-length glass doors open onto a roomy terrace and a private, infinity-edged swimming pool; outside the bathroom suite is an outdoor sunken bath along with a private dining area and daybed. The prime real estate houses Maia's signature villas, high on a rocky crest from which one's mind can be appropriately blown by the panoramic view of the bay; the beachfront villas seem woefully inferior by comparison.
The service
Consistent with Maia's (fantasy) home away from (real) home guest policy, a personalised butler is appointed as your primary correspondent for the length of your stay; be it unpacking, housecleaning, replenishing supplies, delivering breakfast and dinner, running bubble baths or arranging a doctor. Maia general manager Frederic Vidal adheres to a strict ratio of one butler per villa - he compares the role of a Maia butler to that of a guardian angel. It's an ideal set-up for travellers who enjoy not having to engage in daily transactions with a varying rotation of hotel staff. My butler, Gabriel, was always ingratiating and never cloying in his desire to please.
The food
Unless otherwise specified, breakfast and dinner are included but you won't find anything resembling a buffet here - and even the menus are merely suggestive. Meals can be taken anywhere on the property or in Maia's restaurant, TecTec. Chefs are available for private barbecues cooked at the villas, and with four of them, Seychellois, Indian, Syrian and Thai (as well as an astoundingly talented pastry chef responsible for a coconut tart that was easily the best dessert I've eaten this year), there's a whole arsenal of skills ready to tackle the most uncommon of demands. The Maia vision was to eliminate any undue pressure on guests to sit down to a conventional, structured meal. Stick to off-the-menu recommendations from staff: I had an extraordinary "millionaire's salad" with fresh hearts of palm, and a divine chicken soup with bamboo shoots straight from Maia's garden. But three dishes containing prawns and crabmeat were a surprising letdown, and my rib-eye was a colossal mistake.
Loved
The villa, the view, the Maia Signature Massage, the daily delivery of the New York Times, and my butler, Gabriel, who gave me a bag of beautiful seashells as a parting gift.
Hated
Considering how many culinary bases are covered by Maia's limited kitchen staff, mediocrity in certain areas seems inevitable. But the Maia paradigm - and pricing - leaves no room for mediocrity, and the food could use some work.
The verdict
My stay here quickly became the blueprint for a dozen new daydreams. Maia is the goddess of spring, a season that seems eternal at Maia. The colour of the Indian Ocean below reminded me of the Paraiba tourmalines, one of the rarest stones on earth and one of the most expensive.
The bottom line
Maia's Signature Villas cost from US$2,390 (Dh12,111) per night. Maia Luxury Resort & Spa, Anse Louis, Victoria, Mahé Island (www.maia.com.sc; 00 248 4 390 000).