In March my husband and I stayed at the Amari Vogue, a fantastic beach resort around 40 minutes west of Krabi Airport on Tub Kaek Beach in Thailand.

There are only four hotels at Tub Kaek and the Vogue is the last before you reach the National Park at the end of the road. If you enjoy walking, there is a path you can follow through the tropical forests to a waterfall. You need good footwear and a long-sleeved top, but it is a great experience to climb up the path through the trees, over little streams and fallen tree trunks, accompanied by the sound of monkeys calling in the distance.

The beach is quite long in both directions, and is very quiet and secluded, unlike some of the other beaches around Krabi. The sea is shallow and very calm, which means at low tide it is great for spotting crabs, starfish and other sea creatures crawling across the small sand banks. We also saw a kingfisher down at the beach, a couple of white egrets and some smaller birds that flew in and out of the trees in the hotel gardens.

The resort has wonderful sea views across to the limestone islands the area is famous for. Set on a hillside, the hotel reception is at the top with all the rooms set either side. Most of the rooms look out onto the gardens, which include large ponds and swimming pools surrounded by wonderful tropical flowers and trees. Some of the rooms also have wonderful sea views and all are large and include a shower and bath, plus all the other luxury amenities you expect to have in a five star hotel.

There are five small swimming pools in total, three of which have bubble jet seats set into them. A pool down near the beach is very shallow and ideal for small children. The hotel also has two great restaurants. The Lotus has a mainly Thai menu and is where breakfast is served, while Bellini, next to the beach, serves Italian food. We enjoyed both, but mainly ate at Lotus, because we love Thai food.

The staff are all very helpful and there is a spa where you can have a soothing massage or facial. The Sunset Lounge is the ideal place to sit and sip your cocktail while you watch the sun set behind the islands, before deciding if it’s Italian or Thai for dinner.

There is a complimentary hotel bus service which runs to Ao Nang town and beach, which leaves daily at 10am or 2pm and returning at 2.45pm or 6.45pm and takes approximately 40 minutes. This saves on taxi fares and gives you plenty of time to take a trip over to Railay Bay or Chicken Island, if you don’t fancy the longer boat ride from the beach at the Hotel.

We decided to take a boat trip from the hotel over to Chicken Island where the snorkelling was lovely, straight off the boat into quite deep water. Then it was onto Tup Island, where there was a very shallow sandy bottom to the sea, with a wonderful variety of fish and other sea creatures, and then finally to Poda Island where you could have a good swim as the water was quite deep.

We also went to Hong Island, one of the islands you can see from the hotel. There is a lagoon at the back of the island with an impressive entrance, and some of the small islands next to Hong are teaming with fish and in very deep water. Hong Island itself has a beautiful sandy beach and you can either stay in the shallows or follow the edge of the island to where it drops away quite sharply. You can also walk round the Island, but we spent all our time in the water watching puffer fish, parrot fish and lots more.

Because of the hotel’s quiet location, it is a great place to stay after several days touring round this part of Thailand, or if you have been hard at work and just want to get away from a noisy world. We loved it and if we got the chance to go again, would jump at it.

During my stay at Olhuveli Beach and Spa Resort in the Maldives, I couldn’t resist indulging in a few treatments at the resort’s Sun Spa.

Located near to reception, the spa is an oasis of calm with quaint wooden bridges and walkways over ponds leading to private spa pavilions. The whole area is concealed behind thick vegetation and is bursting with flowers and birdsong – much nicer than my local beautician’s. Here it is quite different…

The spa rooms are stunning. Each pavilion has a toilet and separate changing area and the large covered room has two treatments beds and an open-sided back wall that leads into a private outdoor garden area with fountain, shower, bath tub and lovely plants.

Whilst perusing the spa menu – and there is an impressive choice of massages and treatments on offer – the staff kindly bring some herbal tea to enjoy and are happy to make recommendations. Eventually I opted for the Jet Lag Recovery massage as I was aching a little from the flight. At $70 US this hour-long full body massage was pure bliss - it involved a deep tissue massage using essential oils and a little bit of back and neck cracking which really woke me up and I felt fantastic afterwards! So much so, that I immediately booked in for an Ayurvedic Dosha massage at 6pm the next day.

This is definitely the best time to enjoy a treatment - the sun is setting and therefore you get to hear all the birds singing in the trees which is very therapeutic! I would also highly recommend Santha, my spa therapist, for Ayurvedic massages as she was very firm (without it being painful) and very professional. At $85 US this massage also lasted an hour and involved lots of deep tissue massage and more cracking of the back, neck, shoulders, fingers and toes. I felt as if I could walk on air afterwards!

There’s one thing that sets Palm Island in The Grenadines aside from all other Caribbean resorts – it has a mobile phone free beach!

Offering the perfect escape from the humdrum of modern day life, this resort is proud to point out that in addition to no usage of phones or Blackberries on the beach that there are also no TVs or telephones, so you can totally chill out without any interruptions at all.

We stayed in their new Sea Feather Villa, which included a living room, dining room, kitchen, king-size bed with en-suite bathroom and shower as well as splash pool and private golf cart. The villa also had a second bedroom with its own bathroom which suited us perfectly as we were holidaying with my sister and her husband.

The villa’s terrace overlooked the ocean so many a game of backgammon was played here at the end of the day whilst enjoying an aperitif! I was equally impressed that the kitchen came stocked with tea, coffee, cereal, fresh fruit, snacks, a bottle of champagne, some house wine, selection of spirits, soft drinks and beers – it was very accommodating indeed!

Palm Island is very laid back and activities are low-key and generally focused upon the sand and the sea. So, a few days into the holiday after enjoying all the lovely food, we were definitely in need of some exercise and chose to walk around the island on one of the three suggested hiking trails that you can take. The views are wonderful and you can even see some of the other islands in the distance. There were also bikes available at the hotel, but I must admit they took a bit of getting used to, so I would definitely recommend walking instead.

We booked a trip on the Captain Yannis to the Tobago Keys and, as there was only the four us on board, it felt like a private charter. We snorkelled off the boat and, aside from lots of brightly coloured fish, also saw a turtle, ray and a reef shark! All in all, this was a totally relaxing and chilled-out holiday and I for one can’t wait to return.