Honeymoon, first week

Udaipur, Rajasthan

The island in Lake Pichola. You arrive by boat, which sets the tone, and the suites keep the royal artefacts and the history intact. Ask for a lake-facing room and take the boat over at dusk.

Udaipur, Rajasthan

Three minutes' walk from Lake Pichola and built on the scale of an actual palace.

Maldives

Overwater villas with the lagoon right under the deck, and the island villas if you'd rather have sand. This is the one I recommend when a couple wants water and nothing else on the schedule.

Maldives

Overwater villas built from sustainable materials, with paddleboards and snorkelling straight off the deck. Solo travellers should know it is a quiet resort, not a social one.

Maldives

Overwater rooms on Rangali with direct access to the water, plus tennis and a sauna if you want more than swimming. The express check-in matters after a long seaplane day.

Maldives

Seventy-one individually decorated villas on Kunfunadhoo, so no two feel the same.

Maldives

I'd send a couple here who want to be left completely alone.

Maldives

Small enough that the staff learn your name by day two.

Maldives

Maldives

Very few rooms, so book early if the dates are fixed.

Maldives

Joali is for a couple who want the island to feel designed rather than generic.

Maldives

Adults only, overwater bungalows with direct lagoon access.

Maldives

Villas with outdoor bathrooms and rainshowers, on white sand in Laamu. Airport pick-up and drop are arranged, which you'll want given how far south it sits.

Udaipur, Rajasthan

On Lake Pichola with the grandeur you'd expect and yoga on site. The lake position is the reason to pick it over anything newer in Udaipur.

Udaipur, Rajasthan

An eighteenth-century palace in Delwara village, in the Aravalli hills. Twenty kilometres out, so plan your Udaipur days properly.

Udaipur, Rajasthan

Set on a lake about twenty kilometres from Lake Pichola, with locally sourced food and a real sustainability programme. Choose it if you want quiet over being near the old city.

Kerala

Four cottages on an island in Lake Vembanad, built with reclaimed materials and local architecture. Nothing to do, which is the entire reason to go.

Kerala

On the shore of Vembanad Lake in Kottayam, with kayaking and bicycles on site. Low-rise and green, and you can stay put for days.

Kerala

Come for the treatments and the water, not for a packed itinerary.

Kerala

On the banks of Vembanad Lake, traditional architecture, an art gallery on site. Niraamaya do the unhurried thing properly.

Kerala

Keralite architecture with Balinese touches on the Bekal backwaters, with archery and yoga if you get restless. Plenty green, plenty quiet.

Bali

On a clifftop above the Indian Ocean in Bali, with Balinese hospitality that isn't performed. Big property, so ask for a room away from the main wing.

Bali

For a first week where you don't want to leave the grounds.

Bali

Tented rooms in the Ubud rainforest that stay properly comfortable. Couples who like the idea of camping without any of the reality.

Bali

Bali

On the edge of the ocean in Bali, built with local materials and very quiet. Come for the isolation; you'll need a car for anything else.

Bali

Fourteen villas in the hills above Bali's north coast, among spice plantations, with one very good restaurant. Bali as it was.