“YOU’RE a Maldives junkie, aren’t you, Laurence,” Sonu Shivdasani once said to me as we sat at the bar of his resort, Soneva Fushi. “It’s the best type of junkie to be,” I replied, adding: “Although it’s becoming an expensive habit.”

Sonu’s island is the gold standard of Maldivian beach resorts. It doesn’t get any better than Soneva Fushi - the island’s 21st-century luxury was unimaginable when I first discovered the Maldives back in the mid1970s.

I was “Visitor 76”. At least that was what was stamped in my passport. It was 1975 and I was waiting for a bus to take me to work during one of those bone-soaking English rain-storms when I happened to glance in the window of a travel agent. I couldn’t take my eyes off a photograph of what looked at first to be poached eggs topped with parsley floating in sapphire-blue ink.

Captivated by this photograph, I asked the travel agent where this nirvana was and who went there.

“I think they’re called the Maldives,” said the agent, “but I’m not altogether sure where they are . . .”

“Wherever they are, I want to go. How much will it cost?”

For £259 for a fortnight, full board, I got there on Air Lanka, which flew me from London to Colombo. After a 12-hour wait I took a connecting flight to Hulele airstrip.

And when I arrived at the wooden hut that was the Maldives airport arrivals hall, I remember the immigration officer checking my bags, looking for anything deemed to be nonMuslim. I had a copy of Penthouse and the official made me cover up the nipples on the centrespread with Elastoplast. Today the airport is large and international. Sea planes and not single-engine dhonis - traditional boats - take the tourists to their destination. In terms of sophistication, Robinson Crusoe has given way to James Bond.

Thirty years later I continue to visit the Maldives and am considered by the locals to be something of an expert on their country. Today I am sitting on Soneva Fushi in high season and whereas I am entitled to expect nonstop brilliant sunshine, I can no longer be certain. Sadly, the world’s weather pattern has shifted by three months, yet despite this unseasonal monsoon, I still adhere to Hans Haas’s description: “The Maldives are certainly one of the great wonders of the natural world.”

It was after I had visited more than 20 of the island resorts that I accidentally stumbled on Soneva Fushi. In 1996, shortly after the island resort had opened its doors for the first time, I paid my first visit. I had been told that it was quite luxurious. Luxurious? Nothing in the Maldives was luxurious. The whole Maldivian experience was meant to be of the Crusoe variety. The food was fairly basic, some islands still had saltwater showers and I would have been lucky to find any technology to connect me to the outside world. Yet none of these limitations bothered me: the reason I went to the Maldives was for the atolls and islands forming the most incredible patterns in that deep blue sea of the Indian Ocean, which transforms into the emerald green of the coral reefs, against which are the snowy white sands.

So I bit the bullet and ventured forth to Soneva Fushi. It is 60 miles (96km) north of Male, the country’s capital, and were it not for the fact that one can reach it by air - it used to be on an old Soviet helicopter, nowadays it is by seaplane - it would take a further eight hours on the water.

As I stepped off the helicopter, I immediately realised that I was in for an unexpected treat. Everything was about 20 degrees better than on any other Maldivian island I had visited. The rooms were luxurious, the restaurant served a quality of food that I didn’t believe possible in the Maldives, and even the caster-sugar sand felt softer underfoot. And the service . . . all I can say is that it was equivalent to a five-star European hotel. I couldn’t believe my fortune.

Ten years on and I returned to find Soneva Fushi has changed - for the better. In 1996 it boasted just one restaurant, 25 Rehendi rooms, 12 Crusoe villas, and five grand villas. Today there are 16 different room categories, most with private pools, an open-air cinema, a tennis court, an award-winning spa, and a wedding chuppa, where couples can renew their vows above the jungle treetops.

Today one can choose from three remarkable restaurants, offering Asian fare, organic food from Soneva Fushi’s own vegetable garden, and international cuisine, all with an unsurpassed wine list. There is even a champagne bar at the end of a jetty on the sunset side of the island. Yet for all the splendour, and I defy anyone to show me more luxurious rooms on any resort in the Maldives, Soneva Fushi has managed to retain its Maldivian authenticity, and that is what sets it apart from other Maldivian five-star resorts. When I speak to Sonu Shiv-dansani, I ask him what more can he possibly do to enhance his paradise island?

“At the end of this year I will have gone halfway to making this the first carbon-neutral holiday in the Maldives and probably anywhere in Asia,” he said — an ambition he intends to fulfil by 2010. It helps that Soneva Fushi is the largest tourist island in the Maldives, covering 100 acres, but yet it is possible to get out of bed, take the 50 steps into the ocean and not see another soul.

The Maldives has certainly changed since those early days. I have noticed over the decades how the dollar has become the principal currency, how drinks prices have skyrocketed. Sophistication has crept into the Maldives without too many noticing.

Soneva Fushi’s sister island, Soneva Gili, opened its doors six years ago and was then badly damaged in the Boxing Day tsunami. But after renovations it is once more up and running. Or should I say floating, for whereas Soneva Fushi is a desert island resort, Soneva Gili uses water as its theme. The ultra-luxurious bungalows are all on stilts in the water, while the social centre is on the island itself: a beach restaurant and bar-restaurant, serving high-class cuisine at high-class prices.

If Soneva Gili has a fault it is that the social centre is a long way away from the accommodation, so there isn’t camaraderie among guests and it would be easy to choose not to leave your water bungalow. As many of the bungalows are occupied by honeymooners, I suppose seeing other guests is fairly low on their lists of priorities.

The clientele has changed too. In 2007 the Maldives are among the most popular of long-haul resorts for British holidaymakers. Quickly after you arrive on Soneva Fushi you will hear the expression “No shoes, no news”, although that is no longer strictly so. I have spotted Ferragamo and Chanel beach shoes, and every room offers satellite TV. The world is now at your fingertips.

Need to know Laurence Marks travelled with Soneva Resorts - a stay at Soneva Fushi starts at £300 a night. A Villa Suite at Soneva Gili costs from £550 a night.

Getting there: Qatar Airways has 14 flights a week to the Maldives via Doha. Return fares from £570.