Opening 2029 (earlier reporting floated 2027)

Soneva

Soneva Okinawa

Name: Soneva Okinawa
Address: Gushikawa Island, Okinawa, Japan

Soneva's first property in Japan, on the uninhabited Gushikawa Island in Okinawa Prefecture

Gushikawa Island, Okinawa, Japan

First look

Soneva is heading to Japan for the first time, and it has picked an unusual address: Gushikawa, an uninhabited island in Okinawa Prefecture sitting between Iheya and Izena. The working-name project is announced and under development, with the opening reported for 2029 (earlier reporting floated 2027, so we will take the timeline as a moving target until the brand commits). The plan on paper runs to roughly 129 keys, split between about 106 low-rise land rooms and around 23 overwater villas, for something like 500 guests at capacity.

What we will be watching for is whether Soneva carries its barefoot, slow-luxury template into a Japanese setting rather than a Maldivian one, and how the overwater villas read in Okinawa's waters versus the Indian Ocean originals. There is no dedicated official page yet, so the room split and timing could still shift. Reporting comes from Nikkei Asia, the Skift Daily Lodging Report and regional Okinawa outlets; once Soneva publishes a property page we will firm up the details.

Not yet scored. We publish a Fat Score only once a hotel is open and real guests have stayed and written about it — this is a first look, not a verdict.

Sofie, who runs the Fat Voyage booking desk with Nicolas

Want us to get you in when it opens?

Nothing to book yet — rates usually load a few months out. We're Sofie and Nicolas; tell us roughly what you're after and we'll come back the moment Soneva Okinawa is bookable, with rates, what the rooms are actually like, and whether we'd go in the first season.

You'll be dealing with the two of us the whole way through, which is why we only take on a handful of trips at a time — if we're full, we'll say so. We reply by email, usually within one working day. The hotel pays us, not you: your rate is the same as booking direct, and the perks come on top.

Open now

What you can book today

Soneva Okinawa is still under wraps. Here's what's already open and scored in our collection — more from Soneva, and nearby in Japan.

Fat Legend

Soneva

Soneva Fushi

Baa Atoll, Maldives

Soneva Fushi is the resort most of the Maldives has spent twenty years copying, and reading through a year of guest reports, it mostly still earns that. Butlers get named constantly and specifically: one guest's butler, Miqdad, kept planning a couple's engagement without being told it was coming; another's, Choco, ran a full evening of villa dining logistics without a hitch. Dining is the other thing people single out, distinct restaurants that hold up across 10-14 nights, with a half-board structure repeatedly called more generous than the price suggests. Families describe it as the standout in the Maldives right now; The Den and the spread-out, multi-generational villa layout mean grandparents, toddlers and teenagers can all keep their own pace on one island. The costs are structural, not incidental. A longtime guest returning after a gap described the jungle canopy visibly thinning under recent management, with villa furniture and small amenities quietly disappearing, worth knowing if you've stayed before and expect the same island you remember. The open-air construction that gives Fushi its wildness is a genuine trade-off too: guests mention noisy nights, weak air conditioning, and wildlife finding its way indoors (one had a lizard drop on them from the sofa), and a few reports flag villas without direct beach views in a resort large enough to feel confusing at first. That's the deal if you want real barefoot-in-the-jungle immersion, not what you want if you're after hermetic five-star quiet. Guests who've done both consistently say Fushi wins on sense of place, snorkeling and family activity, while Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru in the same atoll is the more polished, conventional stay. If the reef and the wildness matter more to you than a flawless building, book Fushi for the island, not the finishes.

Fat Favorite

Soneva

Soneva Jani

Noonu Atoll, Maldives

The villas are the reason to book, and they're bigger than almost anything else in the Maldives: overwater structures with retractable roofs, and by multiple guest accounts every category now comes with its own private slide, not just the ones marketed as an upgrade. More than one traveller describes being charged an extra $600 a night to "upgrade" into a slide villa, only to be told by their own butler on arrival that it was never necessary. If a slide is the reason you're paying more, confirm with the resort directly which categories already include one before you hand over the difference. The butler service is where Soneva's reputation earns its keep: quick response times, honeymoon touches that read as thought-through rather than templated (a cake and note staged on the bed before anyone asked). Dining doesn't hold the same line, guests are fairly consistent that quality swings between outlets, so this isn't the trip to book around the table. It also runs more social and family-heavy than its sister property; guests who've done both describe Fushi as the quieter beach-villa reset and Jani as louder, denser with families, and windier since it sits on the atoll's exposed edge, which cost some travellers restful nights in an overwater room. Worth knowing before you pick a room category. Worth booking for scale, a slide off your own deck, and butler service that performs at a consistently high level rather than in flashes. Less so if you want a quiet couples week or came for the food specifically. The evidence here is a handful of detailed recent reports rather than a large base, so the slide-pricing point especially is worth confirming directly. For the villas and the service alone, it's hard to leave disappointed.

Fat Approved

Aman

Aman Kyoto

Kyoto, Japan

Kerry Hill's forest pavilions sit inside a three-generation garden in the hills above Kyoto, and at $3,000 to $5,000 a night, the land is the reason people book this over anything more central: moss paths, cypress and cedar pressing right against the rooms, a stillness one guest says genuinely quieted their nervous system on arrival. The outdoor onsen shows up as one of the best settings anyone's sat in anywhere in Japan. Taka-An backs it up: pre-arrange a seasonal ingredient like snow crab and the kitchen builds a whole multi-course menu around it, sushi to chawanmushi, good enough that one couple booked a second night on the spot. The isolation is the whole idea, not an oversight. Complimentary house cars (BMW i7s and X7s) get you into central Kyoto in 15 to 20 minutes: fine if you want a deliberate retreat rather than a base for temple-hopping, grating if you don't. Weigh that against no pool and no gym at this price, a gap more than one guest flags as worth knowing before you book. Service mostly earns the rate: at this 25-room scale, staff learn names fast, and one guest credits a garden tour with Seou as one of the best hours of their whole trip. But full-rate stays also report small lapses: a forgotten drink order, common areas one visitor called sparse rather than serene, a dining room some found undersized for what they paid. At $5,000 a night those slip harder than they would elsewhere. Book it as the quiet chapter of a longer Japan trip, ideally paired with something central like the Park Hyatt Kyoto for the days you actually want to be in the city. On the garden, the onsen, and Taka-An, nothing else near Kyoto is close.

Fat Favorite

Aman

Aman Tokyo

Tokyo, Japan

Kerry Hill's 33rd-floor lobby is still the reason people book: washi-paper ceilings, unbroken sightlines to the Imperial Gardens and, on a clear morning, Mount Fuji sitting on the horizon. The suites run larger than almost anything else in central Tokyo, the pool and onsen keep getting called some of the best of any city hotel in Asia, and Chef Musashi's eight-seat hinoki counter, where he grows his own rice and wasabi, is a genuinely singular meal rather than a hotel restaurant going through the motions. Where the money gets harder to justify is everything built around that room. Recent guests describe a concierge team that struggles to land tables at Tokyo's top sushi counters, occasionally leaving people to DM chefs themselves or hire an outside fixer. In-room breakfast, once a real strength, shows up in 2026 accounts as broken hollandaise and dry Western plates, a visible step down from what people were posting even a year earlier (the Japanese set still gets praised more consistently). And the price comparison keeps surfacing unprompted: travellers who've done both routinely say Bulgari Tokyo answers with better English, a proactive butler team and round-the-clock breakfast for meaningfully less per night, sometimes citing a gap of several hundred dollars for a similar suite. Service overall reads as reactive rather than anticipatory, a real gap from the SE Asian Aman properties guests compare it to. None of that touches the room itself, which nobody disputes. Book it for the space, the light and the bathing ritual, go in expecting the concierge to need chasing, and treat breakfast as a coin flip rather than a guarantee.

Get notified

Be first when Soneva Okinawa opens

We'll email you the day it opens — and our first honest verdict once guests have actually stayed. No paid placements, ever.

Joins the Fat Voyage list — leave any time.

More anticipated openings

All openings

Aman

Asia

Aman Niseko

— Japan's fourth Aman, on the slopes

Niseko, Hokkaido, Japan

A ski retreat on the slopes of Mount Moiwa in Hokkaido's powder capital — Aman's fourth address in Japan, and its first dedicated to winter.

Expected

2030

First look →

Park Hyatt

Asia

Park Hyatt Phu Quoc

— Park Hyatt's first resort in Vietnam

Phu Quoc, Vietnam

Park Hyatt's first resort in Vietnam lands on Phu Quoc with around 110 rooms plus villa residences.

Expected

Q3 2026

First look →

Mandarin Oriental

Asia

Mandarin Oriental, Suzhou

— A lakeside debut on the east bank of Suzhou's Jinji Lake

Suzhou, China

Mandarin Oriental is opening on the east bank of Suzhou's Jinji Lake in 2026, a 146-room lakeside property announced in early 2025.

Expected

Late 2026

First look →