Blue heaven

The good news is that there is so much competition in the Indian Ocean that after the peak Christmas holiday season, great deals - which can include free nights, spa treatments and boat trips, or a room upgrade - will be available if you shop around, especially in new hotels keen to offer incentives.

Don't dismiss the idea of a charter to keep down costs. Thomson Airways has premium-economy cabins and cheaper fares than scheduled rivals. Also check onward connections, which can bump up the package price. Boat transfers to atolls closest to Malé, the capital, are cheaper than a connecting flight.

All packages quoted are based on two sharing a room and include return flights from either Heathrow or Gatwick, and transfers.

Constance Halaveli Resort for the spa

The powder-blue octopus that lives underneath treatment room 2 in the spa at the new Constance Halaveli Resort on the North Ari atoll must have an interesting time of it, peering up at face after blissed-out face through a tunnel that looks into the water from the massage bed.

The spa at chic Halaveli, a resort of 86 villas (57 are stilted water villas) that opened in June, is the place for transporting treatments with 11 treatment rooms and 15 therapists, and a chilled-out vibe. The spa programme has been put together by manager Rebecca Hayes, a holistic therapist, who even makes the spa products herself - cool salt scrubs and hot pepper wraps that will leave your skin soothed, shining and energised. If you've had a long day in the sun, her blue aloe and lavender lotion straight from the fridge is a must.

On the treatment front, the bespoke "From Skin to Within" spa "journeys" are generally excellent. Facials are good but, as with many remote resorts, manis, pedis, threading and waxing will not necessarily produce the same results as you're used to at home.

Sovereign (0871 664 0227, sovereign.com) is offering one week at Halaveli from £2,125 per person, B&B. The offer is available throughout 2010

The Beach House for splendid isolation

The development of the north Maldives began in 2004, but most resorts are still clustered in the central atolls. So there are easier places to reach than the lush island of Manafaru, which hosts the country's northernmost resort, although the final hour-long race in a speedboat from Hanimaadhoo airport simply adds to the adventure.

The Haa Alifu atoll is relatively untouched and this island in particular is out on a limb, so guests often see turtles, and the dive spots play host to manta ray and shark. The area is near an international shipping route and there are wrecks nearby for divers to explore.

The Beach House has 16 beach villas, 12 beach suites, and 38 water villas with glass-floored sitting rooms and open-air loos. Wandering around the 35-acre island's leafy pathways, it feels as though there is hardly anybody else there; if you get lost, follow the sound of the waves to get back to the beach.

There are three restaurants, three bars and the Cellar, for wine tastings. The pizza at the Amazon Bar is of Neapolitan quality, and there's wagyu beef, sushi, local seafood, all perfectly cooked and balanced, made all the more special by the difficulty of maintaining a regular supply of ingredients.

Sovereign (0871 664 0227, sovereign.com) is offering one week at the Beach House arriving May 16, 2010, for £3,125pp, half-board

Baros for romance

Every inch of Baros has been designed with serious romancing in mind, from the Sails bar, where couples snuggle up on candlelit sofas, to the canoodle-friendly double hammocks swaying between the palm trees. You can gaze into each others' eyes without any disruption from noisy children (under-eights are not allowed).

Of course, there are activities - diving, surfing, snorkelling, sailing - but some guests never venture beyond their deck. Choose from one of 75 elegant villas, either perched over a shimmering turquoise lagoon or nestled in tropical vegetation on the white sandy beach. The spanking new pool villas each have their own infinity pool, giant four-poster, outdoor shower and the perfect hostess - on call 24/7.

Room service is so popular the restaurants are empty at lunch, and there is more bubbly sold during the day than at night. Couples occasionally drift into the lagoon for a swim, wander to the Aquum Spa for pampering or head out to the house reef, their snorkels bobbing in tandem, to ogle the fish. Kuoni (01306 747008, kuoni.co.uk) is offering seven nights at Baros for the price of six, for arrivals in May 2010. Packages start at £1,722pp, half-board.

Naladhu for boho glamour

There are just 19 island cabanas hidden among giant palms and tropical flowers, all in shabby-chic luxe, with white gables, airy high ceilings, vintage furniture and open-air bathrooms.

A-listers love Naladhu - Kate Moss and Roger Federer recently visited (not together), revelling in the island's laid-back luxury and utter privacy.

The staff not only know your name, but remember your favourite cocktails and canapés. Then there are the lobster dinners - featuring bisque, ravioli and thermidor - dawn yoga with resident teacher Andrei or just chilling in your own outdoor bed swing. No wonder Kate adored it.

Next May and June, Kuoni (01306 747 008, kuoni.co.uk) is offering seven nights at Naladhu from £5,571pp B&B

Conrad Maldives Rangali Island for a unique lunch

Two islands (plus a deserted one for picnics), two spas, seven restaurants, a gym, a kids' club and water activities galore. There's room at the Conrad resort for couples and families in the 150 beach and water villas, including some groovy modern ones with white leather furniture. The more unusual food options include calorie counting in the spa restaurant (surprisingly delicious), serious tasting dinners in the wine cellar and fromage-based nibbles in the chilly cheese store.

But 13ft below sea level, you can literally dine with the fishes in the Maldives' only underwater restaurant, distracted from your simple but beautifully prepared lunch (a hefty £120, half-price for under-12s) by the life aquatic going on beyond the curved Plexiglas. Use the identification card on the table to play "fish bingo", spotting clownfish, parrot fish, grouper and 3ft-long peacock rock cod.

Mango sorbet, coffee and chocolates finished, you feel the pangs the Little Mermaid must have suffered, trying to choose between life on land and the fluid shimmering grace of the underwater world.

Ultimate Hideaways is offering seven nights at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island in a water villa from £2,741pp, half-board, valid May 15-July 31, 2010 (01425 673 848, ultimatehideaways.co.uk)

Shangri-La Villingili for local colour

Still bedding in after its opening just three months ago, this combines classic resort features with original twists. As well as 60 water villas and 29 beach villas, it has 16 tree houses, on the eastern shore of the 1.8 mile-long island, facing away from the Addu atoll lagoon to the wilder waters of the Indian Ocean, and raised on stilts among the shoreline treetops. As well as a large bedroom suite, there is a separate living room at right angles across the deck and 10m infinity pool.

Summon room service to feed you, or a butler to make you cocktails, or a spa therapist to administer a "bath ritual" in the giant pale stone egg-shaped tub, and you hardly need to venture out into the rest of the family-friendly resort. If you do, using one of the free bikes provided by the management, the features you'll find include a gym, a spa that offers philosophy classes and ayurvedic medicine as well as treatments, a resident marine biologist looking after the interests of the reef dwellers and a large beachside pool where there is an attendant whose job is to clean your sunglasses. You can put your bike on a boat and head across the Addu atoll (the only part of the Maldives that is south of the equator) to explore non-resort life on the islands of Gan and Feydhoo.

During the second world war, Gan was a strategic British base offering support to troops in Singapore. The buildings are still there, though the church is now a mosque. On village-like Feydhoo, kids frolic in the sea and life seems tranquil - but nobody offers to clean your sunglasses.

From May 15-October 15, 2010, Seasons in Style (01244 202 000, seasonsinstyle.com) is offering one week in a pool villa at Shangri-La Villingili for £2,565pp, half-board

Diva for variety

As one of the largest hotels in the Maldives, Diva stretches over three miles of coastline, with about 200 suites and villas on and off the water and nearly 500 staff to ensure the smooth running of the five restaurants, two communal infinity pools and numerous bars.

Senses serves up deliciously light Indian street food - the locally caught reef fish curry is definitely worth a taste - or there's the western buffet at Noo, the eastern buffet at East, the pizza/pasta Italian vibe at Allegria or the high-class Japanese food at Pure.

But it doesn't feel big and busy: most of the beach villas come with their own infinity pool out the back, and swathe of near-private sand out the front, which you'll only have to share with the odd passer-by and a few crabs.

Thomas Cook Signature (0844 879 8015, tcsignature.com) is offering seven nights in a junior suite at the Diva Maldives from £2,999pp, full-board, from January 2010.

Soneva Fushi by Six Senses for boho luxury

Before you set foot on Soneva Fushi they take your shoes. You can keep your flip-flops on if you insist, but it isn't necessary - they even pad the pedals of the bicycles that come with each of the 65 beach villas so you can explore the jungly interior of the island.

If Robinson Crusoe hooked up with a hippie heiress, Soneva would be the result. The two-storey villas have rough plaster walls, chunky wood and rope fittings, few straight lines, lots of big squashy cushions and outdoor "garden" bathrooms. They also have thousands of tracks loaded onto the iPod that feeds into the speaker system.

Other cool stuff includes an outdoor cinema, an observatory with powerful telescope for stargazing, an organic kitchen garden and a Japanese-Peruvian fusion restaurant.

The food is lavish in all its three restaurants and Soneva even makes the dreaded running buffet an occasion of style and elegance with inter-course palate cleansers.

From May 15-October 15, 2010, Seasons in Style (01244 202 000, seasonsinstyle.com) is offering seven nights at Soneva Fushi from £2,090pp full-board.

Six Senses Latitude Laamu for natural elegance

Fushi has been going for 15 years, and next year the company will open its third Maldives property, Six Senses Latitude Laamu, promising eco-friendly features. Just don't pack your stilettos.

From January 13-March 31, and April 9-December 19 next year, Seasons in Style (01244 202 000, seasons instyle.com) is offering seven nights in a beach villa at the Six Senses Latitude Laamu from £2,415pp, half-board.

Cocoa Island for a secluded retreat

A tiny teardrop of an island trails a 100m white sandbar out into the turquoise waters. There's one bar, one restaurant, a small pool, a dive shop, a yoga pavilion and a four-room spa where surprisingly firm massages are administered by dainty therapists with thumbs like knouts. From the deck of one of just 33 stilted water villas, you can slide straight into the warm shallows to swim with ray and (harmless) shark.

Dine on Maldivian "short eats" of curry and coconut, refined international cuisine or healthy options from the Como Shambhala spa menu. There is nothing to do but relax.

Cocoa Island with Ultimate Hideaways from £2,350pp for seven nights, half-board, from May 15-October 15, 2010 (01425 673 848, ultimatehideaways.co.uk)

Resorts visited by Valentina Harris, Camilla Long, Pip McCormac, Karen Robinson and Janine Thomas