Our three island getaways will take your breath away. Loved by celebrities the world over, these slices of paradise are the perfect places for a holiday of a lifetime.

Check out which famous faces holiday at these three idyllic island getaways

Ocean therapy: Huvafen Fushi, The Maldives.

Celebrity appeal: Kate Moss, Liz Hurley, George Clooney, Celine Dion, Zoe Taylor
Wow factor: underwater spa
Pocket: luxe
www.huvafenfushi.com

Here's an excellent rule of thumb for telling if your choice of honeymoon destination is a good one: if you're picked up from the airport in a high-speed luxury jet boat, you're in for something special.
Transport from any airport in the world is usually by taxi, tuk-tuk or whatever passes for the local train system. At Huvafen Fushi in the Maldives, with its swag of service and design awards, ranging from World's Best Beach Resort to Best Overseas Spa, these things are considered passé at best. This is a place you visit once in your life, and it shows. From the food to the artisan quality furnishings to the fibre optic-lit infinity pool, it shows.

Huvafen Fushi means "Dream Island" in the local dialect and it's easy to see why. When you arrive, after you've inspected your beach bungalow (see right) or palatial ocean pavilion and walked a couple of laps of the island (which won't take long; it's only a few hundred metres end to end), you'll wind up sunning yourself by the infinity pool, studiously ignoring all the kayaking, water skiing and scuba diving you could be doing. This is when the first extraordinary thing, not counting the jet boat from the airport, will happen.

You'll order a cocktail from the comfort of your sun bed and it will cost, even after converting from US dollars in your head, less than in most upmarket Sydney bars. This is extraordinary because honeymooners considering the Maldives generally hear two things: alcohol is incredibly expensive and in around 30 years the whole place will be underwater. If that second fact doesn't put a hop in your step and encourage a visit sooner rather than later, then the one place in the Maldives already beneath the waves should: it's called Lime, it's the world's first underwater Day Spa, and it's the jewel of Huvafen Fushi.

A steep staircase at the end of a long jetty descends to a serene triple chamber resting on the pure white ocean floor. Inside, massage tables, relaxation beds and floor to ceiling windows look out on an abundance of coral and tropical marine life. Even when you're facedown on a treatment table, angled mirrors mean you won't miss a single curious fish flitting by. Spa treatments are special in and of themselves, but this is like being transported to another world. The underwater wildlife is varied beyond belief. Hundreds upon hundreds of tropical species inhabit the temperate waters and coral formations within arm's reach of shore. Brightly coloured parrot fish, small and large rays, sweetlips, butterfly fish, tiny harmless sharks and even the absurdly beaked unicorn fish … it's almost too much to take in.

When it comes to lodgings, you can be tucked away half on the beach, half in the jungle, or you can get yourself out over the water. Over-the-ocean bungalows (see left) or pavilions with private plunge pools are the stuff dreams are made of, so it's difficult not to go that way when you book. But the beach bungalows do have a lot going for them. Their enclosed rear gardens are incomparably tranquil, with bathtub, private pool and outdoor shower reminiscent of a waterfall tumbling from a darkened rock face. They're also nice and close to the main lagoon. Which is where, with its infinity pool, restaurants, bar and wine cellar, you'll be doing most of your eating, sunbathing, relaxing and socialising with other overawed honeymooners.

Dining options are varied, from the outdoor decking of breakfast favourite Celsius to the protective canopy of shady palms at Fogliani's, from wine education dinners in the cool underground Vinum cellar to health-conscious Raw and Salt at the terminus of a long jetty cluster. The food is of superb quality no matter how complex or simple your tastes. And most of the drinking, dining and socialising areas feature soft floor coverings of the whitest beach sand, so it won't take long to forget what wearing shoes ever felt like.

A warning, though. Not all the alcohol at Huvafen is competitive with Australian prices. For example, the cheapest champagne is $135. The most expensive bottle is a 1989 Chateau Yquem sauterne for $21,000. The 1998 Penfolds Grange is $3750. But this is once-in-a-lifetime stuff, remember? You're there to spoil yourself. And if there's one thing Huvafen Fushi does dish up superbly, it's the chance to live a waking island dream.

FLY: Singapore Airlines (tel: 13 10 11; www.singaporeair.com.au) has multiple daily flights from Australia to Singapore with a daily connection to Male. From Male, Huvafen Fushi is a 40-minute jet boat ride, or you can opt for a seaplane.
GO: November to April is ideal, with monsoonal rains possible outside these months.

Networkers' paradise: Turtle Island, Fiji.

Celebrity appeal: Naomi Watts , Britney Spears, Kevin Federline, Brooke Shields, Billy Zane, Rob Lowe.
Wow factor: The Blue Lagoon
Pocket: splurge
www.turtlefiji.com

On Turtle Island in Fiji, one of the world's most luxurious resorts, they live on Turtle time. Staff on the island refer to it so new guests remember there is a one-hour time difference when they arrive by seaplane from Nadi. This is all the more important as each night Turtle Island puts on a communal dinner for the guest couples at 7pm sharp.

Five-star travellers may have become used to a hushed existence in private enclaves, but here on Turtle Island, the opposite is true. Each evening, guests are gathered together in house-party style. It's a sort of up-market tropical holiday-camp approach that takes getting used to, especially when there's the roulette of who one's fellow guests will be.

Also known as "Richard’s island", after its 73-year-old American owner Richard Evanson, the resort now hosts a well-moneyed mix of executives, honeymooners and resort regulars from English-speaking countries around the world (to encourage easy communication and improve networking opportunities at the communal dining table).

It's a far cry from Blue Lagoon, the film that catapulted Turtle into the spotlight in 1980, in which Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins play two shipwrecked teens who fall in love in splendid isolation.

The island covers 20 hectares and, like its five neighbours in the 90km-long volcanic Yasawa chain (35km off the west coast of Viti Levu, Fiji's main island), is hilly and densely vegetated. An around-the-island tour by electric cart takes us past coconut groves and lush stands of banana trees to beaches with names, such as Devil's and Nudie.

There are 14 super-spacious thatched-roof bures threaded through gardens filled with hibiscus and red-and-green parrots and divided by a pathway from the beach – open plan, with four-poster bed, the sort of soaring woven ceilings you'd expect to find in a village chief's hut, stocked fridge (the tariff includes all drinks), lounging area plus a cushioned day bed on the covered porch.

Turtle is a curious cocktail of Fijian customs and hospitality and American congeniality. While a popular and undoubtedly romantic honeymoon destination, being a guest at Turtle comes with certain expectations: that you will participate while on the island, network if you will, and most importantly share your experiences and inspiration with the other guests and the staff who are looking after your every need.

This is a destination for couples — those newly in love and those seeking to reconnect. There are 14 beaches, divvied up between the guests to ensure whole days of solitude, with only a gourmet lunch and fantasising to interrupt. Ignore the family dining experience at your peril. It is here that you meet and greet your fellow castaways, ("Hi, I'm Randy and this is my wife Shania. We got married in Mississippi last week and we're here on our honeymoon"), and then announce your intentions ("We're looking forward to relaxing, doing some fishing and stuff. The wedding really took it out of us") and then say your goodbyes ("We've had a swell time. It's been fun partying with you . Thank y'all for havin' us").

In the circumstances, it's odd Britney Spears and Kevin Federline chose Turtle Island for their honeymoon — with 15 bures and the communal dining approach, it hardly offers absolute seclusion. Spears wrote a farewell poem — "As we sit and prepare to make our part, I thank you, Turtle Island, with all my heart!"

A pity, really, that photos taken of her during her time on island have since made their way into the tabloid press.

What Billy Zane, Rob Lowe and Naomi Watts thought of it remains a mystery. The beaches and the Blue Lagoon is magnificent (yes, it really does exist, not just in the film). Warm, with coral formations directly off the beach, it offers fantastic snorkeling among neon fish — a slice of marine paradise.
The food is outstanding and the guest-care provided by the "bure mama" system and congenial managers attentive, but unobtrusive.

In the end, it is the warmth of the Fijian staff (be prepared for hugs and kisses) and the flashing smiles and soaring voices of the local children that stay with us. "Kip smilin'," exhorts the chalkboard at the breakfast table each morning. And we did.

FLY: Qantas (tel: 13 13 13; www.qantas.com.au) has 20 flights a week from Australia to Nadi, Fiji.
GO: The dry season between May and October, when there’s lower humidity and less risk of cyclones.

Romance on the reef: Hayman Island, Queensland.

Most people's views of Hayman are tinted by the '80s when children were banned and men had to wear a dark suit to dinner. Times have changed, but that's not to say Hayman has gone downmarket — far from it. It's still one of the world's sought-after luxury resorts, and we mean luxury. It's just that they've loosened the top button a little. Nowadays, it's almost as if there are two Haymans.

You can arrive in a chopper like Alan Bond, Kevin Costner and Sean Connery once did — and stay at the exclusive Beach Villa. It comes with a deck, plunge pool, your own piece of Whitsunday beach and a butler, of course.
If you’re splashing out on this palm-fringed palace, why not hire the seaplane for a candlelit dinner on a sandspit, where the only uninvited guest would be a green turtle.

Then there's the other Hayman Island, that's well within the reach of most people: you'll arrive by luxury, like our couples, in a million-dollar launch and stay in one of the Palm or Pool Suites, which have either tropical garden or pool views over the enormous Hayman pool, and Lagoon rooms overlooking lily-filled ponds. Hidden, however, in thick tropical foliage, behind the original 10 single-storey beachfront rooms, are 16 retreat rooms, which must be the island's best-kept secrets. On a resort map, they look like second-best offerings, as they're on a winding path behind the beach rooms, with limited outlook over the beach. In reality, they've had a wonderful makeover and are wonderfully attractive.

A shining beacon of excellence on Hayman is the food. The seafood buffet in the contemporary, beachfront Azure restaurant, where breakfast is served each day, is always superb. And there are many other options: Chinese and South-East Asian cuisine at the Oriental, French fare in the more formal La Fontaine and Italian at La Trattoria. Not forgetting, your pick of a secluded location any where on the island.

Hayman is undeniably romantic. It must be all those couples. When they're not taking romantic picnics on deserted sand spits, or seaplane flights over Whitehaven Beach, they're booking massages at the spa or in the timber pavilions by the beach — for two, of course.

FLY: JetStar (tel: 13 15 38; www.jetstar.com.au) flies direct to Hamilton Island. Hayman guests take the island's luxury launch from airport jetty.
GO: May to October is when it sparkles.

Check out which famous faces holiday at these three idyllic island getaways