Maldives

The Maldives is the lowest country on earth, with an average ground elevation of about 1.5 metres above sea level. The nation is made up of 26 natural atolls and 1,192 islands, all of them sitting on top of an underwater mountain range that rises from the floor of the Indian Ocean. From above, it reads as 99 percent water and 1 percent land: white-sand beaches, overwater villas, jetties reaching half a kilometre out into turquoise lagoons, and some of the clearest reef water on the planet.

A yacht charter opens up what one resort cannot, because it lets you cross the channels between atolls, drop anchor off uninhabited islands, and reach dive sites otherwise visited only by liveaboards, the dedicated diving boats that work the same routes for weeks at a time. Baa Atoll, in the north, has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2011, and the channel at Hanifaru Bay inside it holds the largest manta ray aggregation in the world between May and November each year. South Ari, further south, has a resident population of whale sharks all year round. The northern and central atolls are where the five-star resorts cluster, while the outer atolls are quieter and harder to reach without a boat.

The dry, calm season runs December to April, with water visibility regularly past 30 metres and the sea as flat as glass. From May to November, the southwest monsoon brings plankton currents that feed the manta rays and whale sharks, in exchange for slightly shorter visibility and softer light overhead. Most charters pick up in Malé and run for ten to fourteen nights, which is the realistic minimum for a destination this far away and this spread out.