Relax on a deserted, Tahitian getaway

Judging by what’s been filling weekend travel sections all year, cruises are back in vogue. But even if the idea of spending large chunks of your holiday on the open ocean leaves you cold, you don’t have to miss out on the relaxation a holiday on water can provide. A wide range of over-water resorts now offer the joys of life on the sea – without ever having to get on a boat.

Le Taha’a in Tahiti is a fabulous example

The resort is the only habitation on an otherwise deserted island in the Tahiti archipelago. The chalets, located on stilts over the water, offer far more than the average cruise liner cabin. At night, you drift off to sleep listening to the Pacific waters lapping around you. Private steps lead from your chalet into the sea, and “you can choose air-conditioning or tropical breezes. Also, you have petal-strewn baths and Champagne should you so wish”, says Paul Miles in The Sunday Telegraph.

Or maybe a visit to cooler waters is what you are looking for.

How about an invigorating trip to the Canadian wilderness?

“You don’t have to endure any deprivations to enjoy the natural world at King Pacific Lodge,” says Harriet O’Brien in The Independent on Sunday.The resort rests on the chilly waters of Barnard Harbour with the world’s largest nontropical rainforest as a backdrop. “This is a remote and breathtaking corner of British Columbia,” says The Independent – so remote you can only get there by sea plane. There are rare, white “spirit bears”, otters and eagles to spot, and kayaking or fly-fishing to try. Or you can just lie back and be pampered in the hotel. Where the spa offers an array of treatments, including a Canadian Shield mud wrap.

But if you’d prefer somewhere closer to home, at the Badwell Ash Lodges in Suffolk you can relax in your own hot tub with a bottle of champagne while watching “black swans swim up to your veranda”, says Miles. Should you feel more active, you can fish in the lake. But only as long as whatever you catch makes it back into the water safe and well – this is a catch and release lake.

For more information on Le Taha’a Private Island and Spa, visit Letahaa.com. Badwell Ash Lodges can be contacted at badwellashlodges.co.uk. To find out more about King Pacific Lodge, visit Kingpacificlodge.com.