20 paradise islands

Sipping cocktails by the seashore, diving on a perfect reef or basking in midnight sun above the Arctic Circle - whatever your dream, somewhere out there is the right island for you. Jill Crawshaw reveals the world's most fabulous castaway experiences

Sunday September 28, 2003
”The Observer”

1 Mnemba Island, Zanzibar
Barefoot luxury is the theme at Mnemba, the heart-shaped coral atoll which has been voted one of the most romantic islands in the world. You'll kick off your sandals when you wade ashore from the boat bringing you from Zanzibar.

Your HQ will be a banda, or cottage, made from handwoven palm, thatch and driftwood, with a verandah and your own patch of shell-strewn sand. There are only 10 of them hidden among the casuarina trees, so you are more likely to meet a turtle or flock of waders than your nearest neighbour as you stroll around the island.

Don't expect sophistication. Dress code for the day is a straw hat and Swahili wrap, entertainment is watching the outrigger canoes deliver lobsters for your supper, and action is snorkelling and diving. Take your flippers - who needs shoes?

· Journeys by Design (01273 623790; journeysbydesign.co.uk) offers a seven-night holiday including all meals, drinks, transfers and two dives a day, but not flights, for £2,730.

2 Lofoten Islands, Norway
Nowhere does the midnight sun shine to greater effect than on Norway's Lofoten Islands, anchored above the Arctic Circle. Their purple mountains and green meadows, bright fishing boats and rust-red cottages on stilts are mirrored in Caribbean-blue sea. Edgar Allen Poe described the seas around as 'lashed into ungovernable fury... the bed of waters seamed and scarred into a thousand conflicting channels bursts into frenzied convulsion - heaving, boiling, hissing'.

The main tourist islands, Austvagoy, Vestvagoy, Flakstad and Moskenes, appeal to writers and artists as well as outdoor enthusiasts, with climbing, hiking, riding, canoeing, biking, rafting and fishing highly popular. Puffins, cormorants, guillemots, eagles and seals bring in the wildlife watchers. For anyone with Viking ancestry a visit to the new Viking museum at Borg is a must.

3 Roatan, Honduras
Slightly honky-tonk, utterly chilled, Roatan is the kind of island Hemingway might have holed up in if he hadn't discovered Cuba first. While upmarket holidaymakers head for the smarter hotels of Sandy Bay, West End is the main independent travellers' hangout, with dirt roads, an indolent charm and attractive guest houses strung out as far as the superb beaches at West Bay and Half Moon Bay. In between are dive shops and bars doing a line in the local Salva Vida (lifesaver) beer. They open when the owner feels like it and shut when he wants to go to bed.

Tourist attractions include an iguana breeding farm and bird park, and you can swim with the dolphins at the Marine Sciences Institution in Antony's Key Resort. But Roatan's pièce de resistance is the barrier reef, the second largest in the world - even if you can't dive there is superb snorkelling from the beach.

· Trips Worldwide (0117 311 4400; tripsworldwide.co.uk) offers six nights mainly half board in Roatan on a 12-night holiday to Honduras including flights from £1,800.

4 Wilson Island, Australia
Australians call the Great Barrier Reef the eighth wonder of the world, and it's on every traveller's wish list. Alas, like so many reefs, this 1,500-mile stretch is ecologically fragile. But castaways can set sandal on the 'new' Wilson Island knowing that their creature comforts are based on sound environmental principles; heat and light are by solar power and each of the six tents are created out of natural materials. There are separate bathrooms for each tent.

Beachcombing and birdwatching, swimming and snorkelling, reef walks and relaxing in your hammock are what Wilson Island is about during the day. Wining, dining and socialising take place later in the communal Longhouse.

· Turquoise Holidays (0870 443 4177; turquoiseholidays.co.uk) offers three nights on Wilson Island and two on Heron Island for £698 including transfers from Gladstone, meals, drinks and activities.

5 Sveti Stefan, Montenegro:
Princess Margaret, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren used to beat a track up the sandy causeway to Sveti Stefan, the most exclusive watering-hole in the former Yugoslavia. Now part of Montenegro, the former fishing village is returning to its former glory - Claudia Schiffer and Jeremy Irons have certainly given it their seal of approval.

Many consider Montenegro to be the most beautiful part of the Adriatic, with its stupendous mountain backcloth, national parks and deeply indented fjords. Lord Byron was a fan. 'When the pearls of nature were sown, handfuls of them were cast on this soil,' enthused the poet.

The whole of Sveti Stefan was turned into a luxury hotel in the Sixties, its stone cottages, tiny chapels and alleyways earning it the title of the St Tropez of the Balkans, with its excellent sandy beaches flanking the causeway.

· Holiday Options (0870 013 0450; holidayoptions.co.uk) offers a week's half-board from £569 including flights.

6 Angra Dos Reis Bay Islands, Brazil
Forget Rio and Ipanema, Angra dos Reis, 150 miles south, is where well-heeled Brazilians like to oil their pecs, hang out in boats and sip their caipirinhas. Some of the seafood restaurants, even those only accessible by sea, are harder to get a table at than London's top haunts.

There is said to be an island for every day of the year in the Angra dos Reis Bay, so take your pick. If you are into big and busy, go for Ilha Grande, a prison until 10 years ago. It has dozens of sandy beaches, restaurants and fishing villages. Stay in the little Pousada Sitio do Lobo in a wild tropical setting in the north of the island.

If you prefer small, head for the 100m by 20m private island of Ilha do Ourico and the ultimate beach house. It has just five cabanas (the island only sleeps 10), with palm-thatched, Indonesian-styled sitting rooms and a glass-panelled floor so guests can watch the underwater action. If such a sybaritic lifestyle begins to pall, the island speedboat can whisk you off to another beach, and a traditional old fishing boat is available for longer odysseys.

· Cazenove & Loyd (020 7384 2332; caz-loyd.com) offers the Pousada Sitio do Lobo for $350 (£250) for a night's B&B per double room. The Ilha do Ourico can be rented for £15,000 a week. Flights and transfers can be arranged.

7 Petit St Vincent, Caribbean
Now known simply as PSV and much beloved by honeymooners, the 113-acre dot in the Grenadines was completely deserted until 30 or so years ago when wannabe round-the-world sailor Haze Richardson washed up there with only the crabs and birds for company. He fell in love with the island and set about building a hotel where wealthy Crusoes could enjoy luxury and seclusion.

You won't find anything remotely primitive about the 22 stone cottages, all with king-size beds and lavish mod cons. Should you decide to pass an hour walking around your island domain, you can flop into a conveniently placed hammock and a passing Mini Moke will deliver pina coladas to help you on your way. There are also watersports and floodlit tennis for the energetic, and a clubhouse where passing yachties like to drop in on Saturday nights.

But Richardson's dream of the perfect hideaway hasn't been lost; there are no phones, no TVs in the cottages, which all have their own flagpole - if you fly the yellow flag it means 'room service' and red means 'leave us alone'. And if you want to get even further away from it all, a speedboat will zoom you out to a sandy spur and maroon you for the day with a parasol and a picnic.

· ITC Classics (01244 355400; itcclassics.co.uk) offers a full-board week at PSV with flights from £2,338.

8 Madagascar
If you fancy a search for the aye-aye or any of the other 49 species of tree-dwelling lemur, or have the urge to identify 300 or so types of reptile, Madagascar is your island. It is the world's fourth largest (the the size of France and Switzerland put together), and having broken away from the African mainland 165 million years ago, its flora and fauna have followed their own evolutionary path.

The island's habitats, from rainforest to limestone plateaux, are home to the rarest of birds and the smallest of primates. The terrain can make travel difficult, but if you are a natural history gourmet, Madagascar has no equals. For light relief you can sneak off to Joanna Lumley's castaway island, Tsarabanjina.

· Wildlife Worldwide (020 8667 9158; wildlifeworldwide.com offers a fully inclusive 12-day tour for £2,395.

9 Korcula, Croatia
The greenest, most independent and most interesting of Croatia's 1,000 or so islands, Korcula was a favourite Greek holiday spot over 2,000 years ago. Very much a law unto itself - as you might expect from a community that resisted the sieges of centuries - Korcula town is a mini-fortress enclosed with honey-coloured stone walls that contain hidden treasures, from icons to Tiepolos, as well as architectural delights in every narrow, cobbled street. Yet the island is very much a living community, as you witness for yourself if you watch the wild Moreska dance performed on summer weekends.

Explorer Marco Polo was from Korcula - or so they insist - and his house is open to the public. Twentieth-century adventurer and war hero, the late Sir Fitzroy McLean, bought a house there after the war and was the only foreigner allowed to own property in what was then Yugoslavia, a tribute paid to him in gratitude for the battles he fought alongside Tito's partisans against the Nazis.

Ideal then for those who want more than just beaches on their Mediterranean island, although there is a rare sandy one at Lumbarda. The local wine, GRK, is one of the best in the land, with restaurant food better than in the package hotels which are up and running again after the recent conflict. Korcula, in any case, was not attacked.

· Holiday Options (0870 013 0450; holidayoptions.co.uk) offers a week's half-board from £355.

10 Bazaruto, Mozambique
Note the names Bazaruto, Benguerra and Quilalea. Tipped among the hottest destinations of the twenty-first century, they are the stuff of dreams, with squeaky-clean sands, pristine reefs and more turtles and dolphins than people. While Mauritius and the Maldives were building luxury holiday palaces, civil war between 1976 and 1992 cut Mozambique off the tourist beat. The archipelago's new national park status will hopefully save it from overdevelopment.

The first full-on resort hotel, Indigo Bay, has recently sprouted on Bazaruto, the largest island, where the beaches are spectacular (Sailfish Bay is a photographer's dream). The hotel offers a wide variety of sporting activities, from sailing, diving, kayaking, kneeboarding and game-fishing to dune-boarding and horseriding along the sands.

· Africa Exclusive (01604 628979; safari.co.uk) offers a week's half-board with flights via Johannesburg, transfers and some activities for £1,650.

11 San Blas Islands, Panama
There are more than 300 islands in the San Blas archipelago, but no one is really sure. Only about 50 are inhabited. They are some of the most interesting islands in the Caribbean and home to the indigenous Kuna Indians, who retain regional autonomy over their idyllic, palm-fringed domain and are keen to keep control over tourism. The social code for holidaymakers means no nudity, topless bathing or photography without asking. The Kuna women wear wonderfully decorated traditional dress, and most hotels are Kuna-owned and run.

Facilities on the island can be basic. But where else can you still find a little pad on a deserted island where the waves lap up the beach outside your thatched cottage and you have your fish caught and cooked for your supper that day - at amazingly modest cost?

· Trips Worldwide (0117 311 4400; tripsworldwide.co.uk) can arrange a stay on the islands as part of a tailor-made two-week trip to Panama, starting at £2,175 (including flights).

12 Formentera, Balearic Islands
It's a bouncy 60-minute crossing by ferry, half that by hydrofoil, but an interesting one, past towers that kept watch for pirates, and islets where the millionaires now moor their yachts. Most visitors arrive on day trips from Ibiza and hire bikes (around £10 a day) from the harbour at La Savinia - escapists holiday here.

Formentera is one-fifth the size of Ibiza, mainly flat, patchworked with drystone walls, cacti and saltpans and with some of the best, and least known, beaches in the Med. Breezy Platja de Mitjorn pulls the watersport set with its five miles of sand, Cala Saona is the family favourite with a safe white beach and protected cove; Llevant and Illetas on a sandy spit of endless dunes are meccas for backpackers, nudists and yachties.

There's a dusty capital, San Francisco, plus a fishing village, El Calo, with a couple of superb seafood restaurants. And a memorial to Jules Verne on the lighthouse above splendid cliffs at La Mola. Very low key, laid-back and pleasant.

· Thomson Holidays (08702 413157; thomson.co.uk) offers a week's half-board (with flights) at the Hotel Cala Saona for £488.

13 Taprobane, Sri Lanka
Why bother renting a villa when you can have the whole island - or in this case an island on an island? Extraordinary Taprobane is a tiny, jungly islet 200m off Weligama beach in Sri Lanka, and you'll have to paddle through a bit of Indian Ocean to reach its hexagonal lobby.

Built in the 1920s for an eccentric count, Taprobane is colonially stylish but not OTT - with panoramic sea views, an infinity pool, lots of antique-filled nooks and crannies, four-posters and en suites in all four bedrooms, and staff who'll whip up curries whenever you want them.

This is the perfect retreat for a family with older children - teenagers can tuk tuk off to trendy Unawatuna beach nearby, while their parents potter around Galle's great fort and ramparts.

· Colours of Sri Lanka (020 8343 3446; partnershiptravel.co.uk) offers 10 nights for £1,452 for each of 10 sharing (including flights); the property can only be rented as a whole.

14 Los Roques, Venezuela
Venezuela's Caribbean islands - there are about 40 of them in the archipelago - rarely feature in British holiday programmes, but they've hit the big time with the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith.

They come for sea and seclusion rather than sophistication. Even on the main island, Gran Roque (two miles long and half a mile wide), there are no cars, the streets are sandy and the pelicans greatly outnumber the residents. Forget about posh hotels - holidaymakers either camp, island-hop in sailing boats or stay in posadas (small inns).

Sailing, diving and fishing are the magnets, the archipelago's shallows providing some of the world's best bonefishing. The area was declared a National Marine Park in 1972.

· Last Frontiers (01296 653000; lastfrontiers.com) includes four nights full-board in a posada on Gran Roque and an island-hopping trip, on a 15-day Venezuela tour. The price, excluding international flights, is £1,885.

15 North Island, Seychelles
The Indian Ocean's 'new' drop-dead luxury island, named after botanist Marianne North and opened this year, is already making waves. It has recently notched up Ben Kingsley, who was there filming Thunderbirds . And a spa combining both western and oriental treatments is due to open on 1 October.

You certainly get plenty of your own space in the island's chunky wooden villas - there are 11 of them facing a blinding beach; each with its own pool, gazebo, internet access and 24-hour butler. You could fit an entire rugby team into the Balinese-style bathrooms and have a party in the mini-bar.

North Island is following rival Frégate's environmental polices by rehabilitating natural habitats for endangered indigenous species.

· ITC Classics (01244 355400; itcclassics.co.uk) offers seven nights with flights and full-board for £6,033 (based on two sharing).

16 Funzi Keys, Kenya
The wow factor kicks in fast when you land on the private airstrip at Funzi Keys off Kenya's southern tip and head for Funzi Keys beach camp. Some camp! The six thatched bungalows are large, lofty and lavishly furnished with spa baths, hand-carved four-posters and your own private bit of beach where you can sit by your own campfire each evening and sip your sundowner. Dinners are served on a dhow anchored off the beach and are prepared, rumour has it, by a chef who trained with Jamie Oliver.

For those with itchy feet there is plenty to do: a big pool to tone up in, a bevy of Lasers, windsurfers, kayaks and deep-sea fishing boats to play with and a dhow to drift around in for picnics. There is also superb diving and every chance of dolphin-spotting in the Wasini Marine Reserve nearby.

· Journeys by Design (01273 623790; journeysbydesign.co.uk) offers a week full-board excluding flights for £2,058.

17 Dhoni Mighili, Maldives
The Maldives boasts some of the world's swankiest islands and hotels, but Dhoni Mighili, which is about to open in the Ari Atoll, must cap the lot. Look what you get: your own beach bungalow (two of them have private freshwater plunge pools) and your own dhoni, a luxury version of the local fishing boats, to live and sleep on if you feel like a change of scene, plus your own thakuru , or butler on call 24 hours a day. All (except the butler) kitted out with Frette linen, Philippe Starck bathrooms and designer label toiletries. The spa, scuba and watersports centre and luxury cruiser come almost as an afterthought. Even the transfers to the airport and back are highlights. You can do it by dhoni - your own, of course.

· Kuoni (01306 747001; kuoni.co.uk/worldclass) offers a week full-board with flights from £2,829. The whole island can also be booked exclusively.

18 Aitutaki, South Pacific
You've leapfrogged oceans, continents and time zones, and you're sandbagged with fatigue. But there could be no more instant cure for jet-lag than the sight of Aitutaki's sparkling lagoon.

At 4,500 acres and the second largest island in the Cook Islands after Rarotonga, Aitutaki is regularly tipped as the most beautiful island in the South Pacific, although Bora Bora probably has the edge in looks, while Tahiti and Moorea are infinitely more sophisticated. Moreover Aitutaki's hotels are OK but hardly state-of-the-art, and some of its bays are too shallow for swimming.

What the island can offer even the most blasé traveller is a kind of innocent time warp, with high rises and high crime rates replaced by singing in church on Sunday, spirited local dancing on Friday nights, and every other man and woman wearing a hibiscus behind their ears.

There is more to the island than sun and sand. Dotted among the lush tropical vegetation, you'll see marai, the stone temples where Polynesian gods were worshipped - Captain Bligh came and went. But the island's unique selling point must be the lagoon; take an outrigger canoe trip to play real-life Crusoe on one of its uninhabited atolls, learn to fish and catch clams, weave plates from banana leaves and gather fruits for your dessert. No Michelin-star banquet will ever taste better.

· Turquoise Holidays (0870 443 4177; turquoiseholidays.co.uk) offers three nights B&B in an overwater bungalow at the Aitutaki Pearl Beach Resort for £729, the prices including flights from Rarotonga and a lagoon cruise.

19 Panarea, Italy
With its sugar-cube houses and trailing bougainvillea, you might think you've landed on a Greek island. But Panarea, the most picturesque of the Aeolian islands, is where savvy Italians go for their version of hedonism - which means some of the most stylish boutiques and restaurants in the Med. They have to leave their Ferraris behind, though - only buggies are allowed in the steep, narrow alleys.

The place to stay is the extraordinary Hotel Raya, which is split in two, with public rooms at the water's edge and the 30 bedrooms a five-minute climb up the hillside. The latter aren't particularly spacious but have mindblowing views.

· Italian Expressions (020 7435 2525; expressionsholidays.co.uk) offers a week's B&B (with flights) at the Hotel Raya from £1,040. Transfers are not included but can be arranged.

20 Samothraki, Greece
Their fans always claim the very best Greek islands are the ones the package tours don't reach and are likely to involve a tortuous journey.

Samothraki is certainly proof of that theory. To get there you have to travel to Kavala or Alexandroupouli and take the ferry, possibly spending a night en route. So if you're a holidaymaker who lives by strict schedules, give it a wide berth.

This strange eastern island is full of secret treats: sandy beaches that don't appear on any map, a hilltop chora hidden in a fold of mountains. And the haunting Sanctuary of the Great Gods where mythical rites were once performed, and the Winged Victory, now in the Louvre, originated. You will almost certainly have it to yourself.

If you explore further, you will stumble across hot springs and villages serving up feasts of roast kid. Climb the 5,500ft Fengari (the Mountain of the Moon) and you will be on the summit from which Poseidon followed the progress of the Trojan war.

· Filoxenia (01422 371796; filoxenia.co.uk) offers a week's B&B at George's Taverna (he speaks English) from £508 including flights.