Private Seaplane Scenic Flight over the Atolls

You board a de Havilland Twin Otter from the water itself, doors open to the warm air, and climb over a scattering of emerald islands set in a hundred shades of blue.

For forty unhurried minutes you trace ring-shaped reefs, glittering house reefs and the deep channels that divide the atolls, with the cockpit doors open and the pilots flying barefoot — the only way to truly grasp the geometry of the Maldives.