Beware the Polynesian magic. Over the centuries, writers, painters and mutineers have been enthralled by the charms of this cluster of South Sea islands. Many have found they couldn’t bear to leave. Can you resist? 

 

The islands of Polynesia – tiny dots in the South Pacific – have a reputation to uphold. In this luscious tropical paradise around 3,000 miles from Australia, the welcome is legendary, the colours every bit as dazzling as in the paintings, and the way of life ultimately relaxed. A stay on the French Polynesian islands of Tahiti, Moorea or Bora Bora is the perfect way to unwind after an action-filled antipodean adventure. Rest your weary limbs and soothe your mind in some of the world’s most rarefied luxury resorts. Feast your eyes on coral beaches and heavenly volcanic scenery; then indulge in the islands’ imaginative cuisine. Stick a tiare blossom in your hair: this is castaway territory. 

 

Perhaps nowhere on earth feels quite so close to paradise as French Polynesia. For countless visitors, this far-distant archipelago in the South Pacific represents an unsullied idyll. Sick of the West, the post-impressionist painter Gauguin settled there to live a life of sybaritic pleasure, and spent the rest of his days trying to convey their people and bright cathode-ray technicolour landscape.