The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, Fari Islands

Character and identity

A 45-minute boat ride from Velana, this 100-villa resort sits within the Fari Islands, a four-island man-made archipelago in the North Male Atoll, and breaks decisively from Maldivian convention. Kerry Hill Architects designed the circular one-bedroom overwater villas and the halo-shaped spa around them to echo ocean currents; thatched roofs are nowhere in sight. Seven restaurants and bars range from southern Italian at La Locanda to Cantonese at Summer Pavilion (an offshoot of the Singapore Michelin-starred original), teppanyaki at Iwau, and Middle Eastern Arabesque. Butlers, called Aris Meehas, greet with a hand-on-heart gesture; the register is warm rather than starchy.

Who's it for

Bottom line

The defining draw here is the architecture: the late Kerry Hill's most ambitious resort commission, and a genuinely different visual proposition from anything else in the Maldives. Book a circular one-bedroom overwater villa to get the full effect of the disappearing floor-to-ceiling windows and lagoon soundtrack; families should take the straight-edged two-bedroom beachfront. Time a stay around sunset at Eau Bar for the bodu beru drum ceremony.