One&Only Le Saint Géran

Sol Kerzner picked out this peninsula at Pointe de Flacq in 1973 and opened a hotel on it two years later. It is the first in the One&Only collection, which makes every other one a sequel. Sixty acres of tropical garden stop at a mile of white sand, sheltered by the reef, with thatched parasols in rows along it and blue-canopied daybeds under the palms behind. The bar beside the pool is thatched, with curtained daybeds on decks out in the water. So is the pavilion at the end of a jetty over the lagoon, which has lanterns down the boards and a single table for two, and so settles the guest list. In the beachfront rooms the bed faces glass doors that open onto a terrace and the sea, which is the right way round.

Recommended for families who want the beach by day and a proper dinner after it, and for couples happy to share a mile of sand with them. Children from three to eleven have a club of their own, included in the rate, and there is paid care for under-threes. The water takes the day. Kayaks, windsurfers and the glass-bottom boat go out from the hotel's beach at no charge, diving and deep-sea fishing cost extra, and a catamaran crosses to Ile aux Cerfs for a day on someone else's beach. Adults have the spa pool to themselves, looking over the lagoon from wooden cabanas, and the eleven treatment rooms of the Guerlain spa. Book Tapasake, the pan-Asian restaurant out over the lagoon, for sunset, and leave the children where they are: the kids' club stays open until ten.