Just on two-hour drive from Havana, gets you to Palma Rubia, a central point for the Archipelago de los Colorados, a cluster of small islands facing Florida, covered by lush greenery of tropical mangroves and bordered by sugar-white, soft-sand beaches. The most impressive retreat among these is Cayo Levisa. There is nowhere to stay except your own tent or twenty little bungalows, dotted among the pine trees and right on the beach. Photo by: Kristin Lyseggen

An outdoor bar is a central point, when the sun goes down and the friendly barmen keep the cocktails and Cuban music flowing. Other than the bar and grill, there is one restaurant and that is it. The only thing could disturb you are the day-trippers who arrive mid-morning and leave late afternoon. There is abundance of marine life and with snorkeling and scuba diving on tap – this area is hoe to one of the largest coral reefs in the world. Photo by: suavekeith

The great happiness of Cayo Levisa is that it is different from other Cuban resorts, which are crowded and block-booked by cheap vacations. This, by contrast, is practically your own private island. The island is just several hundred yards wide with sand washed by a warm clear aquamarine sea.The archipelago includes Cayo Paraiso, an even smaller little island reputed to be  a favorite fishing haunt of Ernest Hemingway. Photo by: radiotelescopio

The Mayans were notoriously clever. The splendid ruins of their advanced civilization lie all around the luxury Tulum resort of Azulik, taking visitors back to the time when humans and their surroundings were in much closer harmony. Azulik’s greatest asset is precisely this way of blending ancient feelings and wonders with a contemporary outlook. One of the major draws is the Maya Spa, which provides a large list of treatments that range from familiar Western techniques to ancient healing skills and relaxation treatments, including traditional Mayan massages. Photo by: ninahale

The ocean-side resort is also well known for its fifteen wooden villas, each with its own thatched roof and authentic decoration. Located on a cliff top, the villas offer outstanding sea views, especially Numbers 1 and 12 – both perfect for incurable romantics and honeymooners. Strolling along the white-sand beach, clad in as much or as little as you wish, is as a memorable experience as kayak trips around the coral reefs or hiking through tropical forest. Photo by: holly.worton

You can also just relax in your villa, enjoy sea breeze on your own patio, or take a dip in your hand-carved bathtub. There is no electricity at Azulik; come evening candlelight provides an enchanting ambiance as the Mexican nights descend. It is unique feeling to close one’s eyes, listen to the nocturnal soundtrack of the jungle, and reflect that the Mayan spirit that left such a mementos cultural imprint. Photo by: holly.worton

Location: Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Photo by: holly.worton

Modern-day fairy tales do not come much better than this. Cuixmala is a hot resort where luxurious villas are tucked away in a vast 25,000-acre (10,117-ha) ecological reserve fringed by golden beaches. This is a private sanctuary in more ways than one. Come there to rest your head, laze on deserted beaches, and get close nature. Then discover the birds and animals that have made their home in this eco-reserve – from jaguars and sea turtles to exotic zebras and antelopes. Photo by: flickrimagesearch

The top house is Casa La Loma with its distinctive blue and yellow striped dome. It looks like a castle and has a view out across the empty beach of Costa Alegre to the rolling Pacific surf. There are four other villas, fully staffed and decorated in sumptuous Mexican and European designs, as well as nine comfortable casitas (small villas) with a shared pool, clubhouse, and restaurant. Make yourself at home, then explore the organic farm on horseback, past mango and papaya trees, citrus orchards, and all those beaches. Photo by: Max Stuedlein

Some are perfect for kayaking and snorkeling; other have hammocks strung between coconut palms to escape the sun. Enjoy a picnic on a stretch of unspoiled beach, followed by a boat trip across the lagoon where you can watch the sunset as well as spot dolphins and whales. Finish a day with a cold margarita. Photo by: Maddog 2007

Celebrities adore this superb eco retreat. Food served in the gourmet dining room has been grown originally at the ranch of highland farm, and the two-tiered seating in the screening room has Indian pillow-topped settees the size of double beds. Location: Jalisco, Mexico. Photo by: Maddog 2007

This traditional Polynesian style resort is located in a delightful setting near magnificent Cook’s Bay. Situated between the pristine lagoons, lush tropical gardens, and breathtaking mountain peaks, this is the perfect place for one an unforgettable tropical vacation.

This award-winning resort features a variety of bungalow – 28 overwater at the edge of the reef, 9 beach and 28 garden bungalows. All bungalows offer air-conditioning, sundeck and tea and coffee maker.

The Moorea Pearl Resort & Spa features 2 gourmet restaurants, bar, PADI dive center and Manea Spa that offers traditional Polynesian massages. The coral reef (surrounds the resort) is home to hundreds of every type and color of tropical fish and sea life and offer an unforgettable underwater experience. A wide range of activities is available: diving, snorkeling, kayaks, canoes, swimming, beach volleyball and Jacuzzi.

Napili Kai Beach Resort is a deluxe resort situated on 10 beachfront acres on beautiful Napili Bay in West Maui, Hawaii. Children’s activities are also free, making this a good place for families.

The resort offers 163 hotel rooms, studios and one- and two-bedroom suites (most with kitchen facilities) in 11 low-rise plantation style buildings. The rooms closest to the beach have no air-conditioning, but ceiling fans usually suffice.

Amenities featured in guestrooms include DVD players, coffee/tea makers, and clock radios. All guestrooms provide microwaves and refrigerators. Bathrooms feature shower/tub combinations, hair dryers, and complimentary toiletries.

 Napili Kai Beach Resort has an outdoor pool, a spa tub , and a fitness facility.

Beach offers good swimming, snorkeling in calm waters, and body surfing and more.

Sea House, the resort’s full-service restaurant, serves Pacific Rim cuisine.

For owners Irena and Jeremy Hutchings, the vision to bring sustainable safari-style camping to Australia started in Africa. On their return, they happened upon pristine Jervis Bay and set up camp in a protected bush wetland. The rest, as they say, is history.

With twelve tents floating on timber platforms underneath a canopy of spotted gums and peeling paperbark trees, Paperbark Camp is the perfect foil for those who like roughing it, without actually roughing it. Wafts of eucalyptus and pine tickle your senses at every turn, and eco-tourism is taken very seriously.

Paperbark is near one of the world’s best beaches (Hyams), and you can rent a canoe for paddling along Currambene Creek, or a bicycle for forays into the eucalyptus forest, woodland, or nearby town of Jervis Bay. Locals come from miles around for gourmet treetop dining at the Gunyah Restaurant. Aboriginal for ”meeting place”, the Gunyah doubles as the camp’s nerve center – a place to chill with a book by day and chat by the fire at night.

The eclectic menu might include kangaroo kebabs with lemon and myrtle yogurt, salmon baked in paperbark, and kaffir lime and ginger sorbet with lychees and rum. Pesky possums have been known to poke their noses into unzipped tents and, come morning, you will wale to a dawn chorus that is second to none. Location: Jervis Bay, New South Wales, Australia. Photos by: great outdoors direct

The Beau Rivage Resort is on the east coast of Mauritius and it is a wonderful retreat with twelve-brand new thatched villas. They are decorated with Chinese porcelain and Indian artworks that reflect the peculiar Mauritius mix of cultures that represent the quest for perfection and pure indulgence that is an ongoing challenge at the Beau Rivage resort.

Overlooking an offshore coral lagoon and the powdery-white sands of Belle Mare beach, Beau Rivage is one of the leading resorts in a country that prides itself on having some of the finest tropical hideaways anywhere. Rooms have plush interiors and plantations shutters on the windows: butler service and swimming pool. For diving enthusiasts, nine dive sites up to 11 feet (34 m) in depth are just a ten-minute boat ride away. Near all water sports are complimentary, and there is dedicated children’s pool.

The east coast of Mauritius is the least development region in the country. It offers guaranteed evening breezes through warm Maurutuan summers, and can still give you deserted island atmosphere that is becoming increasingly hard to find elsewhere.

The supreme comfort of the bedfellows is of paramount importance there. The treatments tents at the resort spa are as exotic and exclusive in feel as the Beau Rivage itself.

Azura is not easy to get to: it is a two-hour flight from Johannesburg, followed by a breathtaking helicopter swoop over the myriad hues of the Indian Ocean, but it is worth the effort. Although the lodge itself is a honeymooners’ idyll, the real draw is the pristine beauty of the island itself. 

The retreat was created in 2007 by British couple Christopher and Stella Bettany, who saw their opportunity when Gabriel Cossa, a Mozambician who ran a backpackers’ resort on the site, was told to upgrade or move out. Happily, Cossa is now the Bettanys’ business partner, his son Zito has been to hotel school in Durban, and many of the original staff are still working there. 

Local techniques and talents are on the show in the construction and decoration of the fourteen wooden villas. Driftwood stools and timber floors conjure a mood of laid-back beach chic, whereas tasseled leather stools and Panton chairs add boutique funkiness. Guests can be as private or as sociable as they choose, with firelit dinners on the beach or communal drinks at the Gecko Bar, stargazing in hammocks. 

The diving and fishing are both exceptional – you can expect unbleached corals, turtles, and sailfish – and humpback whales can be seen between July and October. There are magical excursions to Pansy Island, a sandbar sprinkled with the delicate skeletons of sea urchins at high tide, or a vast dune with the ocean on one side and freshwater pools full of crocodiles and wading birds on the other. Alternatively, just sit by the beach, musing on the moon and the tides. 

Location: Benguerra Island, Mozambique.

The City of Destin is home to the most beautiful white sand beaches and turquoise crystal clear waters along the Gulf of Mexico. Also it’s among the favorite spots for snorkeling. You can dive reefs and wrecks night or day any time of the year. You can swim, relax in between or sun bathing and play all day. All of this has given the Destin area a reputation as one of America’s premier vacation destinations.

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Reaching Greystoke Mahale is an adventure. It is set on the remote eastern shores of vast Lake Tanganyika, and getting to the camp involves a four-hour flight on a small plane from Arusha, followed by a ninety-minute dhow trip on the lake. There are no roads within 60 miles (100 km) of this secluded sanctuary, and it is a two-hour boat ride to the nearest town. It is well off the tourist map, so if you are seeking solitude, Greystoke Mahale has plenty.

Accommodation consists of six traditional thatched huts, common in Central America. The beach fronted huts are stylishly designed, with open fronts, spacious decks, and interiors crafted from old dhow timber, giving the camp a look and feel of modest, rustic charm. 

At night, gaze at the starts while enjoying a barefoot meal at the water’s edge, sip cocktails on a dhow, or head to the bar, which is set picturesquely in the rocky headland. The dining area has four decks that face in every direction, affording fabulous views of the landscape. The lodge also has a library of rare books on the local wildlife. 

Behind the lodges are the dense forests of the Mahale Mountains, home to Africa’s last remaining wild chimpanzees, mankind’s closest relative. Trek through the lush rain forest to spot the endangered primates as they swing noisily and energetically from tree to tree. The rain forest is dotted with waterfalls and giant verdant vines and populated by leopards, monkeys, porcupines, mongooses, butterflies, and birds. 

There are treasures, too, to be found beneath the lake’s transparent water, where 250 species of tropical fish reside, making it ideal for swimming, snorkeling and kayaking. With no cell phone reception or wireless Internet, this is a perfect hideaway. Location: Tanzania. Photos by: ianthegecko and kkwhite919

Chole Mjini’s tree houses seem to meld into the canopy of the ancient baobab trees that provide them with shelter. Crafted from wood, ropes, and reeds, the rustic hideaways are open on three sides and are set amid verdant jungle, wild orchards, mangrove forests, and age-old Hindu ruins slowly being strangled by the roots of fig trees. The area teems with wildlife, and guests can see fruit bats dangling upside down in the tree branches that surrounded their rooms, as well as monkeys and a variety of exotic birdlife. Photo by: Murky1

Even though six of the seven rooms are up in a tree, they house four-poster beds lined with fine Egyptian cotton and elegantly swathed in mosquito nets. There are also alfresco showers surrounded by bamboo. If sleeping in a tree bothers you, ask for the ground house suite, complete with sunken Persian bath. Photo by: apatek

The place is perfect for serious escapism. There is no electricity (although oil lanterns are left overnight and reading flashlights are provided) on the tiny island of Chole. Which means there is no telephone, television, cars, e-mail, or air-conditioning. Chole is part of the Mafia archipelago and is situated some 60 miles (100 km) south of Tanzania. Scuba diving and snorkeling are big in these parts, with turtles, rays, dolphins, and ray sharks providing the underwater attractions. Photo by: Heather and Mike

At Chole Mjini, meals are usually of fresh fish with plenty of fruit and vegetables, and guests eat with the friendly lodge owners in a number of different locations, the best of which is among the ruins, lit by lanterns hanging from the trees. A stay there means you are going a bit for the community, too, because the owners donate $10 per visitors per night to a trust fund that pays toward the local hospital, school, and training programs. Photo by: Murky1

Salt Cay calls itself ”the island that time forgot”, because since the salt trade dried up, it has stood still. All around it, Caribbean islands have soaked up the tourist traffic and grown luxury hotels; 2-mile-long (3.2-km) Salt Cay, however, has planted its feet in the past. There you can rent a villa that has no key – because you don’t need one. Roosters wake you in the morning, there are few cars, cell phones have no receptions.

The island is not just for those who wish to switch off and enjoy rum punch, sunset, and grilled fish. Divers admire the pristine reefs, especially the 7,000 – foot (2,134-m) Columbus Passage, a top drift-diving destinations. Between 3,000 and 5,000 North Atlantic humpback whales migrate around these islands every year, from December to mid-April, making it the world’s largest humpback whale breeding grounds. Photo by: James R.D. Scott

Only around eighty people live on Salt Cay. Tourism is still small scale, and you might find yourself one of the only non-natives here. You are certainly will have a large part of the island’s white-sand beaches to yourself for romantic strolls, beach-combing, an whatever you wish, before technology and moder world cluttered it up. 

Location: Turks and Caicos. Photos by: candisfl

Located in the confluence of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, Isla Contoy is the most important nesting place for seabirds in all of the Mexican Caribbean. The little island, just 5 miles long, is a protected nature reserve and a well-known spot for an eco-adventure. Photo by: Judy Knesel

Just 200 visitors are allowed on its silky-sand shores every day, arriving in boats that run from Isla Mujeres or Cancun (approximately a two-hour trip). There you can sit on the beach and watch the brown pelicans and double-crested cormorants on the water, or head inland to the Puerto Viejo lagoon, an important nesting site. Climbing up the observation tower provides you with a great view of the whole island. Photo by: mario-949

It is no just the birds that love to nest there. Isla Contoy is an important nesting site for four types of sea turtle, with white-sand beaches giving them the chance to bury their eggs undistributed. The water around the island is crystal clear, so you can see from your boat what is going on under the sea: great manta rays swooping around and plenty of tropical fish against a backdrop of coral. Photo by: mario-949

Boat trips to the island typically stop at the lxlache reef so that visitors can go snorkeling. Giant stingray, primary-colored parrot fish, clown fish, barracuda, and angel fish are just some of the species you might see – not to mention the turtles. Every summer visitors have the chance to see the world’s largest living fish pass by Cancun – a safari. A trip to the island is certainly an adventurous addition to any journey to this part of the Mexican coast and is not be missed. Photo by: mario-949

On the edge of a small fishing village in the heart of a natural park, Picinguaba Pousada is a relaxing hotel in a former colonial mansion run by unpretentious Brazilian couple. It sits on the stunning Costa Verde (green coast), a UNESCO World Heritage Site full of spectacular landscapes. Photo by: Jacada Travel

The ten comfortable rooms are decorated with Brazilian native art. Each has a balcony with a hammock and views onto lush subtropical gardens. It is an excellent place to disconnect because there are no television, no Internet access, and no cell phone signal. Ceiling fans and natural sea breeze provide all the air-conditioning needed. Photo by: hiddenpousadasbrazil

Lounge by the pool on the deck by the ocean or enjoy massages carried out in a linen-draped pavilion in the gardens. Guests are encouraged to enjoy drinks and canapes together at night, although flexibility is paramount and you can eat breakfast late, or ask for a dinner in a different settings. Organic food is served buffet-style using locally sourced fruit and vegetables. Fish is specialty, from seviche to Picanha Churascos, a South American barbecue. Photo by: hiddenpousadasbrazil

The adventurous can borrow the hotel’s kayaks and cross the bay to Praia Fazenda, a deserted 3 km stretch of gorgeous beach ideal for walking. Guided treks, surfing classes, fishing, diving and boat trips to deserted island can be arranged. For a taste of town life, there are eateries, street markets and classy boutiques a twenty-five-minute drive away in the colonial port of Paraty. Alternatively, stay in your bikini and sip the house lemonade while daydreaming. Photo by: indexorama

Photo by: cwipp33

Photo by: hiddenpousadasbrazil

Fernando de Noronha is one of Earth’s peerless places. It was a stop on Charles Darwin’s famous 1839 Beagle expedition, become a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001 (with nearby Rocas Atoll), and is one of Brazil’s top scuba-diving spots, with spectacular flora and fauna. Its environmental fragility means it is monitored by Brazil’s Environmental Protection Agency. Visitors are limited to 700 a day, and Fernando de Noronha’s sixteen beaches are kept immaculate with clear waters giving visibility of up to 50 m. Photo by: alexrobinsonlightbox

Pousada Maravilha has only eight exclusive rooms (five bungalows and three deluxe apartments), with huge beds, outdoor showers (and bamboo hammocks), Japanese hot tubes, and furniture from top Brazilian designers Artefacto. The infinity pool is one of the few places, you may actually see a fellow guest before having a dinner that has been lovingly prepared by chef Adriana Sala. Organized activities include guided island tours, scuba diving, surfing, and the magical experience of watching baby Green Sea turtles hatch on the beach in the middle of velvet night, just as Darwin did almost two hundred years ago. Photo by: Zumk

Photo by: ngaala