My next stop was dreamy COMO Cocoa Island, 40 minutes by speedboat from Malé. It’s ideal for solo travellers, couples or anyone looking for a full-on spa experience.

Being a relatively small island, all accommodation is overwater – spacious, light and super-comfortable; and there’s just one restaurant, Ufaa, open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with menus varying daily – including the predominantly vegetarian COMO Shambhala menu.

Activity-wise, there’s kayaking, catamaran sailing, windsurfing and paddleboarding; and you can snorkel directly from your room as it’s just a short swim to the edge of the reef, where there’s an abundance of marine life.

And then there’s the Shambhala Spa which takes up almost a quarter of the island! There’s morning yoga on the sandbanks or in the Yoga Sala, a hydro-therapy pool, Pilates studio and a wide range of treatments, including the fabulous Taksu massage.

A 60-minute seaplane ride from Malé or 45 minutes from COMO Cocoa island, COMO Maalifushi is in one of the Maldives’ most southerly atolls and is the largest island I visited (golf buggies are on hand to get around).

This is a brilliant resort for couples and multi-generational families, with three restaurants, the wonderful COMO Shambhala Retreat and a complimentary kids’ club for 4–12-year-olds, open 9am to 6pm (there is an extra charge for activities like cooking classes, however).

The watersports centre can arrange diving at any of their 33 dive sites, PADI certificates, windsurfing, paddle-boarding, wakeboarding, waterskiing and tubing; and the house reef is just in front of the pontoon at the front of the resort.

Again, there’s great snorkelling from any of the overwater accommodation and I’d thoroughly recommend taking a trip out to Lavadhoo or Palm Island – COMO’s private island just moments away by speedboat.”