Review: Velaa Private Island

This is the place to book if you dream of chilling in your stilted villa looking over the endlessly turquoise water of the Maldives, but are way too restless to tolerate that level of lollygagging for very long. The turtle-shaped Velaa Private Island, a speck in the Noonu Atoll, somehow contains a José Maria Olazabal-designed golf academy with nine tees, six greens, seven bunkers, and a lake; a grass tennis court, squash court, and water sports from wakeboarding to kite surfing. The appetite you work up will have plenty of outlets, be it the pizza ovens at Athiri, or the Teppanyaki grill at Tavaru, a tall, tented structure that looks like a giant chrysalis (Velaa also has the largest wine and champagne collection in the Maldives). The Czech owners built the resort’s 45 wood-and-glass villas and residences, most with pools, to have plenty of privacy and to resemble sea turtles, which you’ll be able to spot in person from the resort’s own mini submarine. One other nifty feature: The spa has the region’s only snow room, to boost circulation and quite literally chill you out.