Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa

They’re no stranger to dry-land resorts. And if there’s any worry about whether Park Hyatt can handle overwater villas on an atoll in the Maldives, it’s rather misplaced. We’d argue that most of the heavy lifting is done by the time the location is secured — just about any resort concept would be improved by a setting as magical as this, and that’s certainly true of the Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa.

There’s a sense in which it’s true that if you’ve seen one overwater resort you’ve seen them all, but you’d have to be pretty jaded to actually find yourself saying it. It’s a concept that surprises all over again with each iteration, and in this case it definitely doesn’t hurt that the villas themselves are as stylish as they are. The Aqua Villas are the ones on stilts, and they’re necessarily striking, but the Island Villas, half of them with private pools, are in no way second-class.

Inspiring modern architecture and top-flight hospitality are a given. In fact there’s virtually nothing to find fault with. Some overwater resorts can feel a bit isolated, with the focus entirely in-room — here there’s quite a lot going on in the communal spaces, from the Maldivian/Moroccan restaurant to the poolside cigar bar to the garden-set spa and yoga pavilion. It’s nothing less than atoll tourism done exactly right.