Maldives

One of the most attenuated countries in the world, the 1,196 Maldive Islands, in 26 distinct coral atolls, are spread over a total area of 90,000 square kilometres (about 36,000 square miles) of the Indian Ocean, yet less than 0.5 percent of this is dry land. Some 200 of the islands are inhabited.Its closest neighbors are India and Sri Lanka.The Laccadives lie to the North and the Chagos Group to the South.

Until the arrival of tourism, fishing was the main occupation in this nation of seafarers,and the relaxed pace of life in the Maldives seems to have carried over into the twenty-first century.

Resorts in the Maldives woo tourists with promises of 'the last paradise on earth', and if your idea of paradise is a pristine tropical island with swaying palm trees, pure white beaches and brilliant turquoise lagoons, then the Maldives will not disappoint.