Laamu Atoll

Laamu, known officially as Haddhunmathi, is remote and pristine, with a calm that is hard to match: right for those who want rest and real marine nature away from crowds. It has about 80 islands, few of them inhabited, and only two resorts share it, so its reefs and beaches stay almost empty.

You arrive by a domestic flight of under an hour to Kadhdhoo, then a short speedboat ride. At Six Senses Laamu, our resort here, one of the largest teams of marine biologists in the Maldives works within the Maldives Underwater Initiative, with the Manta Trust, the Blue Marine Foundation and the Olive Ridley Project.

Laamu's signature is its seagrass, which the resort pledged in 2017 to protect rather than clear. Green turtles graze there; the team has identified nearly 400 green and hawksbill turtles at more than 30 sites around the atoll, alongside rays and seahorses, and over 150 individual mantas have been catalogued in Laamu's waters. Grey reef sharks and eagle rays patrol the channels, and from March to October the Yin Yang break draws experienced surfers.

The atoll's history runs far deeper than tourism. On Isdhoo there are Buddhist-era mounds, and from there came the Loamaafaanu copper plates, among the oldest writing in the Maldivian language.