Maldives

• Go in the summer silly! - Indian Ocean
• Lovers in Luxury - Maldives
• Feet first into the Maldives - Maldives
• No news, No shoes - Maldives
• My wedding pact with David Walliams - Maldives
• Push the boat out - Seychelles
• Relaxation Addict - Seychelles
• Mauritius the Delicious - Mauritius
• Mr Perma-Tan in Paradise - Mauritius
• Never seen you looking so lovely - Mauritius
• Island Iffy No Longer - Sri Lanka
• Having a swell time! - Seychelles
• Perfect, even for the world’s pickiest guest! - Maldives
• Do not disturb - Mauritius
• My tantrum in paradise - Mauritius
• Calendar girl makes a date - Maldives
• Lipstick and high heels not required - Maldives
• The five-star survivor! - Mauritius
• Strictly Unwinding - Maldives

IWAS TOTALLY WORN OUT when I touched down in the Maldives, as drained as if I’d completed a non-stop dance marathon. For large parts of the year this is just how my working life seems.

I’m often appearing on Strictly Coming Dancing in London at the same time as I’m a judge on Dancing With The Stars, the US version, in Los Angeles. When the two overlap it all gets very intense, with a weekly commute back and forth across the Atlantic.

After months of this I was feeling in need of rejuvenation. The Maldives was the perfect escape. It’s as if you’ve been taken to another world. That other-world feeling starts with the seaplane transfer from Male airport to the resort, which takes about 25 minutes.

I loved it – it made me feel like Indiana Jones. Let the adventure begin! I was staying at the Centara Grand Island Resort & Spa, a new all-inclusive resort. Right from the start I was hugely impressed at how the concept worked.

Let’s start with one of my passions – food. In a word: Wow! There are half a dozen places to eat and drink and they’re all very good. The main restaurant is the Reef, which describes itself as a ‘melting pot of Asian and Western cuisines’. You help yourself to the food at a buffet.

They have cooking stations, and each has a chef who will cook your beef, fish or duck right in front of you. The Reef has great choices for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They have an authentic Indian tandoor oven and a ‘fiery wok’ and, as they promise, the food is ‘interactive, exciting and freshly cooked’ with different dishes available every night.

Let the adventure begin!

The standard is extremely high. The Centara also has its own Italian restaurant, the Azzuri Mare, - and my God, it’s fantastic! The chef used to work for the Four Seasons hotel in Milan so he has a wonderful pedigree. This is one of the restaurants in the resort that you have to book.

I booked it most nights. Amazingly, the menu was different every time: five courses of deliciously inventive Italian food. The choice was glorious: fresh seafood platters, antipasto with Italian cured meats and a fine selection of chargrilled entrees and sensuously sinful desserts.

One of my favourite dishes was cannelloni with spinach and crab meat, which I’d never had before but is simply wonderful. Equally marvellous was the quail with pancetta. The Lotus restaurant also serves very good Thai food.

And I was sorely tempted by the themed buffet every night in the main restaurant: Chinese, Maldivian, Japanese or Mediterranean and a section of other Asian dishes. Actually I used to skip lunch so that I could fill my boots in the evening.

I had to be careful not to overeat: I didn’t want to come back and have to get all my suits refitted! The standard of the restaurants is just an indication of how well everything is done here.

Despite being quite a small resort, the Centara manages to cater efficiently for families as well as individuals who travel there in search of peace and quiet. All the accommodation is very large. The villas are spacious, very comfortable and supplied with everything you could possibly want – including a big bedroom in which you can comfortably fit a whole family, with the beach right in front of them.

The little fish glitter like jewels

Some villas also have their own pools. Families tend to keep to one side of the resort. On the other side, what I call the sunset side, is the romantic part of the resort where you have villas built on stilts right on the edge of the lagoon. I had a villa on stilts with two sundecks and a huge bathroom.

These villas are built for honeymooners, so the bath is big enough for two people, as is the shower. The view from my villa was wonderful. I could see forever and was able to snorkel straight from my sundeck. I took my iPod but never used it. I just wanted to hear the sound of the waves.

From first thing in the morning to last thing at night, you are surrounded by breathtaking beauty. At sunset I used to sit on my sundeck overlooking the sea with a glass of delicious Orvieto Italian white wine in my hand (covered by the all-inclusive price).

While the Maldives feel otherworldly, they have all modern connections, including wifi and 3G for your BlackBerry. But I went low-tech: no BlackBerry, not even a wristwatch. I worked out what time it was by the light.

While the Maldives feel otherworldly, they have all modern connections, including wifi and 3G for your BlackBerry. But I went low-tech: no BlackBerry, not even a wristwatch. I worked out what time it was by the light.

However, I did take my laptop so that I could keep up with my emails because I was preparing for a Strictly Come Dancing UK tour. But I checked my inbox only every two days and logged on and off as quickly as I could. The big attraction of the Maldives is the sea.

It’s aquamarine and the little fish in it glitter like jewels. You can step right from your patio into the reef and swim surrounded by these lovely creatures, which I would feed by hand. Have you seen Finding Nemo?

I felt as if I was walking on air

Like the film, you see tiny parrotfish swimming very near you around the orange coral – it’s amazing. I also swam with a shark and saw turtles. What I really liked about the Centara is that it was able to cater for families while remaining great for anyone who wanted complete relaxation.

My favourite hideout was a special area in the resort that’s known as the Island Club. It provides exclusive use of the island clubhouse and swimming pool. As you sit next to the pool, staff supply you with refreshing mist sprays, cold towels, tropical fruits and refreshing sorbets.

There is also an incredible Ayurvedic spa. With Ayurvedic therapies you are treated according to your body type: it’s all based on Indian medicine, pressure points and special oils.

My first experience was a fabulous massage, which lasted two hours. When I left I felt as if I was walking on air – it was absolutely sublime. Then I discovered another wonderful treatment: the head massage. I liked it so much I went back for another (my head obviously needs sorting out).

Of course, there are lots of activities on offer at Centara. You can go diving, have salsa lessons or enjoy lunch on a desert island. My visit has fired me with a desire to get back to the Maldives to try to see as many of these wonderful little islands as I possibly can. They are very precious jewels.