The benchmark keeps rising in the booming luxury resorts business. There is no such thing as the 'ultimate' resort experience. You do not stay in a room, you take a villa, sleep in a designer bed, eat Michelin-star food, have a personal butler to wait on you and cruise the surrounding turquoise waters in a luxury yacht. You do not have to buy an island when you can own one for a week, with all the luxury trimmings. Here we look at four of the most exclusive resorts.
Urban luxury in a tropical haven
One&Only Reethi Rah
North Male Atoll, The Maldives
960 664 88 00
Celebrities are gravitating to this sublime 130-villa resort built on an atoll. The natural features have been enhanced with 1.5 million tonnes of fine sand and 15,000 palm trees, making the site four times bigger than the original and raising the ground to two metres above sea level.