5-star feel without the 5-star formalities


One of solomon Islands’ newest resorts— Sanbis—sits almost concealed among the ubiquitous coconut trees that tourist brochures associate with such locales.

Only the wooden jetty jutting out from the sandy beach into the aquamarine lagoon betrays its position to prying eyes, if at all.

It boasts of “offering something totally laid-back that has the five-star feel but without the five-star formalities.”

Unseen from the fibreglass boat ferrying you there are the great lengths developers have gone through to preserve the naturally growing trees.

How they have built two of the five bungalows closer than they would have liked, just so they wouldn’t cut down any of the trees; how they even modelled the lounge space around another so you have an honest-to-God living trunk piercing the thatched roof with a bat named Bernie perched at the top; and how for good measure they planted an additional 4000 trees to add to all the others they did not destroy.

Karl Svendsen, general manager of Solomon Watersport, hosts the guided tour of Sanbis Resort. Attention to detail permeates every aspect of the resort and its design and building, and led to more than a few emotional exchanges between operations manager Svendsen and managing director Hans Mergozzi.

“But we always sorted things out,” Svendsen says, “and we now have what we believe is the best resort if not in the Solomon Islands, certainly in Western Province.”

The bungalows are built in a way that makes air conditioning unnecessary. Situating them partly over the water ensure they catch naturally cooling sea breezes.

The resort also runs on renewable energy with its 12-volt electrical system relying on solar power. There is no noisy generator running at night with power demands met by an array of storage batteries.

“Basically our target market is anyone looking for quality, not quantity,” Svendsen says. “Anybody seeking a different environment-oriented holiday, couples, divers, fishermen—people who have the environment at heart.”

Sanbis, which means sandy beach in the local pidgin dialect, is a six-minute boat ride from Gizo, the provincial capital. Gizo is about an hour's flight from Honiara.

But a stay at Sanbis means being cut off completely from the outside world. There are no phones, mobiles or fax machines on the island. Just you and a maximum of nine other guests at any one time.

“Limiting it to 10 guests at a time ensures visitors get the best service,” says Svendsen.

The isolation does not imply a lack of activities. While lazing around your private beach is an option, guests can go for a leisurely snorkel or a more adventurous game fishing trip, or scuba dive at the site of numerous World War Two wrecks.

“We have an in-house PADI dive centre that caters for all kinds of watersports, as well as adventure and cultural trips,” Svendsen says. These services are provided by Sanbis Resort’s sister company Solomon Watersport Ltd. A third company, Solomon Connect, provides transport and ferry services to all parts of Western Province.

Svendsen is also operations manager of Solomon Watersport and with his wife Sally, run that outfit on their own. In fact, apart from the Swiss-trained chefs at Sanbis, Mergozzi and the Svendsens virtually run all three operations between themselves. The cuisine at Sanbis is a mix of Western and traditional recipes. The resort has its own vegetable and herb gardens and fresh seafood is bought daily from fishermen in the area. “We try to use local produce as much as possible, but whatever we cannot get here, we import,” Svendsen says.

Like the large selection of wines, cheeses and cold meats. Otherwise, the fresh fruit is local. Even the bread is baked in the in-house wood-fire oven.

“Meals are prepared according to your requirements, so there is no mass cooking. And if your preference lies more towards a romantic barbecue for two on the jetty as you watch the sun set, that can be arranged as well.”

For a change of scenery or menu, guests can also visit Fatboys, an over-the-water restaurant up the coast, where patrons have been known to slip off the edge into the lagoon for a pre-meal swim in 30 degrees water.

Svendsen says they are not trying to compete with established destinations like Fiji or the Cook Islands “because we are offering something different, something unique”.