Overwater villas: myth vs. the real thing

Not every overwater bungalow is what the brochure shows. We've stayed in forty-two of them across the Maldives and French Polynesia. Here are the six worth the price.

The photograph that sells an overwater villa was taken at sunrise, by a professional, in the only forty minutes of the year when the light falls exactly that way. The rest of the time, you are in a room that is slightly smaller than a standard hotel room, on a platform above water that is either very blue (good) or very green (not what the brochure showed).

This does not mean overwater villas are not worth it. Some are extraordinary. But "overwater" is not itself a guarantee of anything except that the floor of your bathroom will occasionally be warm from the water below.

What to actually look for: reef proximity (you want to be able to drop into the water directly from the deck and see something), villa orientation (sunset-facing changes the experience completely), and whether the resort has a meaningful house reef or just a sandbar.