Overwater villa

An overwater villa is a hotel room built on stilts directly over a lagoon, usually with a glass floor panel in the living room for watching fish, a private staircase straight down into the water, an outdoor deck just above sea level, and sometimes a small infinity pool. The first overwater bungalows were built in Tahiti in 1967 at Bali Hai Moorea by three American hoteliers; the Maldives, Bora Bora and Belize then copied the idea. Today the iconic ones are at Soneva Jani (with a waterslide from the bedroom into the lagoon), Cheval Blanc Maldives, Anantara Kihavah, the St Regis and Four Seasons in Bora Bora. Rates run $2,500 to $15,000 a night. The honeymoon hotel cliché, but the cliché is good.