Island water villas

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.

Maldives

The Bluetooth speaker in the villa is a small thing I kept using.

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.