24 of the best overwater villas in the Maldives

Times

6 days ago

There's something almost mythical about an overwater villa, a private deck strung above aquamarine shallows, sea breezes slipping through open doors and a staircase that leads straight into the warm embrace of the Indian Ocean. While these stilted bungalows were first dreamt up in Tahiti, it's among the Maldives symphony of blues that they've been elevated to an art form. Today's offerings range from rustic, palm-roofed hideaways to sleek, glass-floored suites with infinity pools, cut-outs so you can watch reef fish from bed and even cocktail butlers. Most are set on private islands, arranged like strands of pearls over turquoise lagoons so clear they seem lit from within. These are our pick of the 24 most spectacular.
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£££ | POOL | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 5
Kanuhura's largest overwater villa is a two-bedroom perched at the end of a long wooden pier with vast ocean views and a sizeable, ocean-facing infinity pool — what it doesn't say on the website is that it can be expanded to include a second one-bedroom pool villa making it ideal for larger groups. Both villas have soothing, chalky-coloured interiors, big netted beds and stand-alone bathtubs, but what really makes this one special are the neighbours: stingrays, eagle rays, reef sharks and shoals of triggerfish and parrotfish, all of whom swing by with delightful regularity.
• Discover our full guide to the Maldives££ | POOL | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 9
This stilted, semi-circular, two-storey residence sits at the end of the hotel's long overwater walkway, ensuring a feeling of complete privacy. The main bedroom is upstairs, flanked by two second bedrooms on the lower level; a large living room, with a dining table and oversized sofa, links the spaces. Outside, there's a vast terrace with loungers, a cabana and a crescent-shaped infinity pool, from where you can watch lemon sharks, blotched fantail stingrays and pods of dolphins frolicking in the morning light. £££ | POOL | Sleeps 3
There's a dreamlike quality to this airy one-bedroom villa with its cathedral-like proportions, undulating ceiling and pink and pistachio colour scheme. Like the rest of this Maldives wellness retreat, it's been designed to convey a sense of being at one with nature, something that's fully realised as you step outside onto an expansive wooden deck with a hanging sofa and huge infinity pool merging into the Indian Ocean. Make sure to take advantage of it in the evening — turn off all the lights and your sun lounger becomes a star lounger as you stare up in awe at the Milky Way.££ | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 2-4
You know you're staying somewhere special when you need to hop on a pontoon and putter across an Indian Ocean lagoon to reach your room. While all of the villas at Gili Lankanfushi are overwater, there are seven special Robinson Crusoe residences completely cast out at sea. Everything about them feels like an adventure, be it the thatched roof and clapboard exteriors or the netted beds, indoor-outdoor bathrooms and split-level decks strung with catamaran nets.
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£ | Sleeps 2
Don't come here expecting the largest or grandest overwater villas in the Maldives — but do bank on being suitably charmed. Shaped like traditional Maldivian dhoni boats, these villas have wooden decks that descend straight into the Indian Ocean and loungers where you can curl up with a cocktail and watch the sun set. The interiors were revamped last year and echo the resort's easy-like-Sunday-morning vibes, with white tongue-and-groove walls, dark teak floors and huge bathtubs.
££ | POOL | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 2
Check in at Patina Maldives if you like your island resorts cool and conceptualised — its sleek architecture and a fabulous art collection will quickly impress. Book ahead: of the 110 villas only 38 are overwater, and each has feathery grey walls, sofas and bedsheets, light-diffusing bamboo screens and glass walls that retract on three sides. Plunge pools share the deck space with stone bathtubs — just be careful not to flash any passing boats.
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Set at the very end of the boardwalk and facing southwest, the three-bedroom John Jacob Astor Estate is one of the largest and most lavish private pool villas in the Maldives. You'll be surprised: for a heritage brand the interior design is surprisingly modern, with pentagon armchairs, plush rugs and abstract chandeliers that look like swooping birds. All eyes are likely to be drawn outside, towards the supersized wooden deck, the 92 sq m swimming pool and the seemingly never-ending expanse of turquoise water.
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This two-bedroom overwater villa is made up of four conical buildings topped with chunky coconut thatch. Interiors pop with pretty oranges and yellow, which zing against the intense blues of the ocean, while the deck has a teardrop-shaped infinity pool with steps descending into the sea. From here, you're just a few strokes from the house reef, which teems with stripy sweetlips, orange clownfish and eagle rays.
Read our full review of the Nautilus££ | POOL | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 2-10
The service, food and facilities are wonderful, as is the location in the northern Noonu Atoll, known for its to diamond-white beaches. But the clincher is the sensational overwater villas — think sun-bleached wooden decks, private pools, sunken bathtubs, glass panels in the ceiling so you can stare at the stars from your bed, and waterslides whooshing straight into the big blue. The 'Chapter Two' water reserves come with Soneva's version of all-inclusive, including dolphin cruises and unlimited spa treatments.
Read our full review of Soneva Jani
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Swoon over uninterrupted views of the Indian Ocean by day and the Milky Way by night from the deck of your two-bedroom overwater pool villa at Anantara Kihavah. Set at the end of a long wooden way, this plush pad feels deliciously cut off from the rest of the resort. As well as from a striking infinity pool and two spacious bedrooms, there's a private gym and a spa suite with glass panels below the treatment beds so you can gawp at butterflyfish while you have a massage.££ | POOL | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 2
Venture 40 miles north of the equator and you'll happily stumble across one of the remotest resorts in the Maldives. Unsurprisingly, you'll find wide, empty horizons, bountiful turquoise waters and not a chink of light pollution at night. Here, overwater villas are separate from the island and set in an exclusive ring out at sea. Proportions are extravagant inside; the decor is cream and duck-egg blue; and they all have capacious wooden decks with macramé hammocks, glass-floor viewing panels and glorious private pools.£ | POOL | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 22
The Crescent is a half-moon of five overwater villas that can be booked together as an exclusive hideout for up to 14 adults and eight children. Set on a secret strand of wooden walkway, a few dozen paces from an exclusive patch of white sands, each villa is paired with its own infinity pool and wooden deck with steps leading into the Indian Ocean. Book as a group and you'll qualify for some brag-worthy perks including a sunset dolphin cruise and an outdoor movie night with plenty of snacks.
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£££ | POOL | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 8
Surrounded by wide ribbons of white sand, and with a vibrant house reef and manta ray teeming Hanifaru Bay within easy reach, is Vakkaru — where Madonna chose to stay on a 2020 visit to the Maldives. The hip Four Bedroom Beach Pool Residence, with four en suite rooms, is ideal for superstars (and big family groups) who want to spend their days quietly dipping in the huge pool and the house reef — just a few strokes away from your wooden deck.
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£ | POOL | Sleeps 2
Thatched, sun-bleached and open to the breeze, the Laamu Water Villas with pools are every wannabe castaway's dream. Aside from instant access to your own patch of bath-warm Indian Ocean — thronging with enormous schools of jacks, wahoo and tuna — each has its own plunge pool, sunken glass-bottomed bathtub and rooftop terrace; ask the butler to make up a bed to sleep under the stars. Bag a villa on the sunrise side and it's likely you'll see large pods of spinner dolphins travelling from their deep-water feeding grounds to rest by the atoll for the day.££ | POOL | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 4
This luxury resort occupies a sizeable island in the Baa Atoll: the very spot where Sir David Attenborough once came to film the world's highest concentration of manta rays. It's also home to some of the most coveted overwater villas in the Maldives — all huge and exceptionally private, elegantly designed in grey and Wedgwood blue with lengthy private pools. Check in to one of the sunrise villas for views of the never-ending Indian Ocean.£ | POOL | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 2
This fashionable five-star resort dazzles with its array of accommodation — beach villas, treehouse villas, transparent bubble rooms tucked away in quiet coves — but it's the rambling overwater villas that steal the show. They're stylish, have their own infinity pools, and sit beside a technicolour house reef. Drop off your deck and into the turquoise water to meet a flock of parrotfish, a curious hawksbill turtle or a nurse shark; don't worry, they're toothless.££ | POOL | Sleeps 4
Of all the resorts in the Maldives, Finolhu might be the most fun — and nowhere is that playfulness more apparent than in the two-bedroom Rockstar Villa. You'll find it at the very end of a jetty, after arriving on your own personal buggy that looks like a tiny Bentley. Inside, the decor channels Missoni, with chevron stripes, macramé chandeliers and a disco ball hanging above the bar. You won't want to go outside, but you should: there's a spacious wooden deck and aquamarine infinity pool.£ | POOL | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 4
If a far-flung location and bountiful marine life ranks higher than your desire for bling and designer digs, then pack your snorkel for this friendly island resort. Dhigurah's one-bedroom water villas are larger than average and simply furnished, with verandahs and big private pools that face the open ocean. As is common in this atoll, the island is long and large, offering up two and a half miles of cottony white sands and a sea turtle bonanza — you can hardly move without bumping into the critters.£ | POOL | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 2
Spot stingrays, eagle rays, reef sharks, dolphins and turtles without even getting your feet wet when you stay in one of the bodacious overwater bungalows at Sirru Fen Fushi. They've got the usual irresistible wooden decks and infinity pools, plus a chic modern-Maldivian look that mixed vaulted ceilings and carved woods with black jute rugs and strings of macramé lights. When night falls your sun lounger will double up as a perch for stargazing; the night skies are phenomenal here.££ | POOL | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 3
Joali's house reef isn't terribly impressive — it's small and a little bare — but the beach is brochure-worthy and the overwater villas wow with their gallery-like proportions and artistic design. Towering carved teak panels frame sumptuous sofas; swing chairs resemble bird's nests; manta rays fashioned from twigs hover overhead. Out on the deck, kick back in dusky pink peacock chairs and dip your toes into the infinity pool, or head to the lower deck — it's freckled with loungers and has stairs that drop into the lagoon.
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£ | POOL | FAMILY-FRIENDLY | Sleeps 4
Yes, getting to Malé is a pain, but these all-inclusive villas are just a 25-minute speedboat ride from the airport and don't have the almost unavoidable honeymoon vibe that pervades the Maldives. There are two types of overwater villas available: ocean pool suites, which are set on stilts along the shore, and ocean pool suites with slides, which offshoot a long wooden walkway. All are grand-sized with boho interiors and private pools, but the latter are larger and more private, and come with waterslides — which tends to seal the deal.££ | POOL | Sleeps 2
The Ritz-Carlton Maldives, which opened in the man-made Fari Islands complex in 2021, was designed by the late Kerry Hill, who made his name creating wondrous tropical resorts for Aman. The circular ocean pool villas are the highlight, with Zen-calm interiors and glass floor-to-ceiling sliding doors that open onto curvaceous wooden decks, plunge pools and the shimmering Indian Ocean. Do tear yourself away: there's a superb spa.£££ | POOL | Sleeps 6
The Conrad Rangali's showpiece suite, the Muraka, is an overwater villa and an underwater villa all at once. It's of the most overtly ostentatious abodes in the Maldives and has two ocean-view bedrooms upstairs, alongside an infinity pool and yoga pavilion, and a glass-encased master suite submerged 5m below the surface of the Indian Ocean. The suite is particularly beguiling at night when nocturnal creatures, including lobsters and octopus, come out to play. Neptune himself never had it this good.£££ | POOL | Sleeps 2
Big-name guests head to Velaa to keep a low profile — but you don't need to be a Russian oligarch or Middle Eastern royalty to join them. This is a private island in the truest sense: seclusion is a given in all of the villas, which are all cloaked in greenery and have private pools, but the Romantic Residence takes the splendid isolation factor to another level. It's only accessible by boat, so there's no pressure to explore; and you can while away your days flitting between the Indian Ocean, infinity pool, circular bathtub and dramatic master bedroom.
velaaprivateisland.com
Additional reporting by Richard Mellor and Imogen Lepere
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