REETHI BEACH RESORT

This boutique resort admits that it is modelled on neighbouring island Soneva Fushi (a famous celebrity magnet) — but you’ll pay about 50% less for Reethi’s take on rustic chic. The thatched bedrooms are charming: white walls, wooden floors and pitched ceilings, dominated by beds draped in white muslin and strewn with flower petals. Don’t bother with the expensive water villas: the beach rooms are nicer, with their own section of lush garden and easier access to the house reef. There’s a good choice of restaurants, including one specialising in Maldivian cuisine. Reethi Beach is small, but even though its 100 rooms are almost always fully occupied, you shouldn’t feel claustrophobic. Should you come over all Greta Garbo, the hotel owns some of the uninhabited surrounding islets, which you can hire and call your own for the day.

The pros: a lovely little spa on the beach; a good sports centre with free aerobics sessions.
The cons: bathrooms are disappointingly old-fashioned.
Best for: those with more dash than cash.
Get me there: Hayes & Jarvis (0870 850 3565, www.hayesandjarvis.co.uk) has seven nights from £754pp, B&B, including charter flights and transfers.

FULL MOON

This resort is unashamedly aimed at confettied couples, with an intimate, romantic atmosphere despite having 156 rooms on an island that takes no more than 30 minutes to walk around. The beach accommodation is simple but stylish — cream for the walls and tiled floors, with the odd splash of sunrise orange — and some rooms have outdoor showers. Its main selling point is the spa, which is operated by Per Aquum (the company that also runs the underwater spa at the ever-so-trendy Huvafen Fushi). Full Moon’s pampering paradise is on its own little island, accessed by a wooden footbridge.

The pros: a great beach bar.
The cons: from some rooms you can see Malé and its busy ferry traffic.
Best for: stressed-out types in need of some hands-on TLC.
Get me there: Kuoni (01306 747008, www.kuoni.co.uk) has seven nights from £738pp, B&B, including charter flights and transfers.

KUREDU

The cheap and cheerful option, with a huge dive school. It is the second-largest tourist island, so there’s room for a six-hole golf course, a football pitch and even something approaching a main street, with shops, bars and restaurants. Great if you want something redolent of a Med resort, but not for those who yearn for the one-palm-tree-and-us experience. The 330 rooms include pleasant overwater and Jacuzzi beach villas, but even the standard bungalows are comfortable. No rooms have television sets. Kuredu has two vast sweeps of beach, adding up to more than two miles. In Europe, it would be packed; here, more often than not, you have it almost to yourself.

The pros: the main buffet restaurants offer surprisingly tasty dishes.
The cons: it’s an hour by seaplane from Malé, painful after a long-haul flight.
Best for: hard-core divers and party animals.
Get me there: First Choice (0870 850 3999, www.firstchoice.co.uk) has seven nights, all-inclusive, from £915pp, including charter flights.

WHITE SANDS RESORT

This resort has 134 rooms in two blocks: the island village and the more expensive water village. Those on land are simple, white A-frame cottages, hidden among the bougainvillea and sea-grape trees, with pretty outdoor garden showers and terraces with beach views, while the overwater villas are very Robinson Crusoe, built in the style of Maldivian houseboats, with serene wooden interiors. White Sands is perfect for de-stressing, with few facilities other than the glorious beach and a coral outcrop teeming with tropical fish.

The pros: its recently updated spa has first-class Balinese therapists.
The cons: the evening entertainment can be tacky.
Best for: do-nothing types.
The package: Tropical Sky (0870 907 9600, www.tropicalsky.co.uk) has seven nights from £799pp, half-board, including charter flights.

MEERU ISLAND RESORT

This is a large island, with a bustling, summer-campish atmosphere. The 276 rooms are divided between the family-orientated main resort and the slicker Meeru Village with its adults-only overwater villas. Avoid the standard rooms, which are horribly basic, and upgrade to the good-value land villas (rooms 401-418 have the best access for snorkelling). These are spacious and inoffensively decorated in cheery slate blues and zesty oranges, with simple cane furniture. All have verandas, which, although not particularly private, often have great views. The resort has no interconnecting rooms and no official kids’ club — but there is plenty to occupy junior, particularly the washed-ashore skeleton of a blue whale.

The pros: there is a dedicated children’s wading pool.
The cons: the food in the two main buffet restaurants is rather bland.
Best for: an active family that needs some space.
The package: Hayes & Jarvis 0870 850 3565, www.hayesandjarvis.co.uk) has seven nights, half-board, from £679pp, including charter flights and transfers.

LAGUNA

This is a good all-rounder: not too large to sacrifice that desert-island ambience, not so “honeymoonish” that parents will be constantly wishing their offspring came with a mute button, and not so quiet that active guests risk boredom. Many of the 115 rooms are in two-storey blocks, set back from the beach and shaded by lush vegetation. It has wonderful sweeps of beach and, although every island in the Maldives has a frill of magnificent turquoise water, the shallowness of the lagoon here means that the sea retains that stunning Tiffany colour as far as the eye can see.

The pros: food is a cut above offerings in many other resorts.
The cons: dated decor.
Best for: groups of thirty- or fortysomethings.
The package: Kuoni (01306 747008, www.kuoni.co.uk) has seven nights, B&B, from £747pp, including charter flights and transfers.

Times recommends

• New York's top 10 new hotels
• A Scottish monastery retreat
• Welcome back to Rwanda