ESCAPE TO THE
REETHI RAH and COCOA ISLAND offer
two visions of BEACHSIDE PARADISE
MALDIVES THINK DESERT-ISLAND PARADISE, and a variety of tropical images inevitably come to
mind: sandy beaches that are ultra-white and silky under foot, a crystal sea studded with colorful coral reefs, azure skies, perfect palm trees and, of course, quiet seclusion. If one destination matches this mental checklist, it’s the Maldives, an island republic sprawled across 56,000 square miles of the Indian Ocean. The Maldives has the distinction of being the world’s lowest-lying country; its sandy hillocks rarely reach more than a few meters above sea level. That’s because the entire country is a constellation of coral reef atolls. Twenty-six atolls comprise 1,192 small islands, only 202 of which are inhabited. Of these, about 90 are resort islands, and of the 90, perhaps 18 are truly special, the location of some of the most rarefied resorts anywhere.
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