I think many people might say that Biyadhoo Resort has the best house reef. I went there many years ago, when the hotel was in the Taj group, and the reef was simply incredible. However, the hotel was never much good and I think today it's barely a ***. The fish don't know that, of course.

Today, I reckon the Angsana Ihuru would take some beating. It ticks all the boxes for me - small island with a sensible number of rooms (45); pleasant decor; great beaches and a house reef which everyone raves about. It's a simple sort of place, ideally matched for its location. These big chain hotels which have arrived in the Maldives seem incredibly bling and vulgar to me.

The whole overwater bungalow thing, which I think started in French Polynesia, was originally quite exotic but nowadays it's become a commercial expedient - if you have a tiny island you can treble the capacity by building these ugly blocks on stilts. The examples in the Maldives are far worse than anything in French Polynesia.