It's fitting that Sonu and Eva Shivdasani met while vacationing—the former trader and ex-model now own eight resorts throughout Asia and the Pacific. Their company, Six Senses Resorts & Spas, got its start in the Maldives, where the couple spent winters after they married. "I was blown away by the white beaches but fed up with the tile floors and plastic roofs at the places where we stayed," Sonu says. In 1995, the Shivdasanis bought a hundred-acre island and built their first luxury eco-resort, Soneva Fushi. The 50 villas have floors of ivory sandstone and wood, and roofs of coconut-leaf thatch, supported by old telegraph poles from Great Britain. Their newest property, Evason Hideaway at Ana Mandara on the beaches of Ninh Van Bay, Vietnam, has that same getaway feel: It's accessible only by boat, and each of the 54 villas has its own pool. It's eco-conscious, too: The owners have planted about 3,000 palm trees. DETAILS 949-640-1198 or sixsenses.com.

Published December 2004