Elle, Tom Marchant founder of bespoke travel website blacktomato.co.uk
6 Oct 2008
Fundu lagoon, Zanzibar Archipelago
You can only get to this remote Pemba Island hideaway by boat, which creates a fabulous sense of isolation. Co-owned by fashion designer Ellis Flyte, the style is the last word in barfoot chic, with rugged wooden walkways and thatched tented lodges. Each lodge is almost hidden in tropical foliage, and has a private pool and an open side facing the ocean, so at night you fall asleep listening to the waves.
Enquiries blacktomato.co.uk. Doubles from around £999 for seven nights, full board.
Hangerstone Island, Australia
Do you like the idea of spear-fishing for your own dinner, then eating it on a sand cay surrounded by turquoise water? How about waking up in a polished-timber tree house set high in the jungle canopy, accessed only by rope bridge and with ocean views? For total Castaway-style isolation you can?t beat staying on a private island this one is 600km off the coast of Cairns, and comes complete with lush jungle, white-sand beaches and blue lagoons. Accessible only by charted aircraft and boat, it sleeps up to eight in luxe hand-built huts. I dived on coral reefs, relaxed on my own private beach and trekked the wild jungle. Meals are prepared by the very people who discovered the isle.
Enquiries blacktomato.co.uk. From £2,500 pp for seven nights in double room, full board, including transfers and activities.
