Maradiva Villas Resort & Spa

Sir Kailash Ramdanee was a pioneer of the pharmaceutical industry in the 1970s, and the resort his family owns and runs at Wolmar keeps an Ayurvedic doctor in its spa: a family in the medicine business, hedging its bets. Maradiva has 27 acres of garden behind 750 metres of Tamarin Bay, with Le Morne Brabant across the water. In 2023 it closed for eight months and came back in the island's black basalt and Burmese teak. All 64 villas are on the ground floor, and even the smallest runs to 163 square metres, with 15 square metres of heated pool to itself. Among the endemic plants is the Jardin des Stars, planted by famous visitors: the one bed in the garden with a guest list.

Recommended for couples who want a pool to themselves, and for families who want the same with a second bedroom, which the Family Pool Villas add. The Peter Pan Kids Club takes four- to twelve-year-olds and gives them a shallow pool and a dining area cut down to their size; under-fours get babysitting on request, and grown-ups a pool of their own in the spa courtyard. The reef close offshore is there for snorkelling, and the concierge books catamarans out into the bay to swim with dolphins. Black River Gorges, 35 minutes' drive inland, is for walking. Then the sunset over the bay from Lantana, and teppanyaki at Haiku or Indo-Mauritian at Cilantro. The doctor will advise on what to eat and pass it on to the kitchens, which leaves the sunset as the one thing at Maradiva taken without a consultation.