Maldives

The Maldives is 1,200 islands spread across 900 kilometres of Indian Ocean, and most of the world knows approximately one of them - the overwater bungalow, the turquoise lagoon, the honeymoon. That version is real and the water genuinely is that colour. What is less known is the inhabited Maldives: Male, one of the most densely populated cities on earth, packed onto an island two kilometres across; the local island culture of the southern atolls, where guesthouses have opened the country to travellers who are not arriving by seaplane; the reef systems that remain among the healthiest in the Indian Ocean, if not for much longer given what is happening to the sea temperature around them.

Our guide is being written from the ground up, with the time this place deserves.

We are still gathering the notes that make a guide worth keeping: local island ferry routes, Male's fish market, southern atoll guesthouses and the dive sites that the resort boats do not reach because they require a longer boat and an earlier start.