THE MALDIVES

With a near-endless supply of sugary white sand, warm seas and sunshine, this archipelago of some 1,190 tropical isles is most famous for being a place to unwind in style. But go beneath the surface and you'll discover island-hopping sailings to shipwrecks, active adventures from surfing to scuba diving and paddleboarding, and laid-back residential islands where you can gain a real insight into local Maldivian culture

- GEORGIA STEPHENS

LAND OF SEA & SKY

ISLAND-HOPPING OFFERS THE CHANCE TO GO WHEREVER THE WINDS TAKE YOU: EXPLORE SHIPWRECKS, SNORKEL CORAL REEFS, SIP A BOTTLE OF RUM ON A DESERT ISLAND.

The ship has seen better days. It's leaning for one thing, to the port side and the point of near-capsizing. The bridge, ordinarily the source of all life on board, is dark, emanating the kind of macabre magnetic energy that simultaneously fascinates and unnerves. There are gaping holes in the hull, which is corroded from many years of exposure to the elements, with a rusty bike chained above with a large, black eel sprawled languidly in its basket. A shoal of bright orange anthias clouds around the stern, a whirl of startling technicolour in a world of muted blues.

The Keyodhoo shipwreck has lain, half submerged and caked in coral, in the Felidhu Atoll for half a decade. Even its origin story is mysterious - some say it's an Indonesian vessel that drifted empty into the island constellation one day. My guide - 28-year-old Mohamed Hailam, or Hai to his friends - thinks it's a Maldivian supply boat that ran aground on the reef. He's freediving several feet below where I'm snorkelling, taking a closer look at the bridge where the controls lie calcified in the positions of their final voyage, his long, black fins pumping methodically. On each one is a map of the Maldives, the islands picked out in brilliant white. Hai was born in Laamu Atoll, many nautical miles to the south, and now lives like many locals do, shifting from island to island with the sands but always inevitably drawn back to Malé, the capital.