Vakkaru Maldives

At the far end of Vakkaru's overwater walkway, where the pale lagoon drops into a blue hole, stands the Vakkaru Overwater Residence: two storeys, more than 950 square metres, four bedrooms, a 55-square-metre infinity pool, and its own chef and butler. The island behind it is quieter about itself. It lies in Baa Atoll's UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, ringed by more than 2,300 coconut palms and its own house reef, and OT Design, a Dutch firm, built it in thatch and white walls in 2017. Beach villas sit back under the trees with a plunge pool in the sand; the overwater villas branch out over the reef, and from an overwater bedroom a four-poster under sheer white curtains looks across a covered deck to open sea. Both blue holes are a few minutes from the beach by kayak, for anyone who would rather look into one than sleep beside it.

Recommended for families who want a house reef at the door and somewhere for the children while their parents are out on it, and for couples, for whom the reef is reason enough. The Parrotfish Club takes ages 3 to 12 from 8:30am to 6pm at no extra cost, there is a separate children's pool, and every stay comes with three hours of babysitting free for the same ages; the beach residences run to four bedrooms and twelve guests. The house reef is there for snorkelling, and Hanifaru Bay, half an hour by boat, has manta rays, with whale sharks from June to November. The resident marine biologist gives a talk on marine life every week, so on a longer stay most of the audience will have met the cast.