Maldives

Every Maldives resort is its own island, and the differences matter more than the brochures suggest. Soneva Fushi set the tone for what “barefoot luxury” actually means here — staff collect your shoes at the dock before you’ve even stepped off the boat, and you don’t put them back on until you leave. Kandolhu Island is smaller and quieter: after a few weeks island-hopping, we extended our stay specifically to end the trip somewhere intimate instead of grand.

The Conrad Maldives is the one for people who want more to do than lie on the beach — swimming with sea turtles among the highlights, on its own private island. And when it came time to leave Velassaru Island, we couldn’t do it straight: instead of flying back to Europe, we took a seaplane and then a speedboat, stretching the trip out by a few more island stops rather than end it in one flight.