Test the waters for staying socially distanced in style

Innovative hotels are finding ever more ingenious ways to help guests stay socially distanced, with a flotilla of hotel boats launching this spring.

Bali’s serene, green Nirjhara (nirjhara.com) resort will introduce Vela, a smart Indonesian sailing boat with six cabins for private charter, to take guests around Bali’s loveliest bays. Also in Indonesia, Nihi Sumba – one of the world’s most beautiful and sustainable island hideaways – has collaborated with Aqua Expeditions to create the ultimate Indonesian voyage aboard the 15-suite Aqua Blu, formerly HMS Beagle, a British Naval Explorerturned-luxury-yacht. The seven-night experience includes four days cruising around the islands of Sumba, Komodo, Moyo and Gili Lawa, among others, to see dragons, dive with manta rays and swim in secret waterfalls; and three nights at Nihi’s villas (nihi.com; $280,552/£206,740 for seven nights and up to 30 guests).

In Turkey, party hotel Macakizi’s Halas 71 is not your average superyacht but an old Istanbul passenger ferryturned-luxury boat (Princess Margaret is among those to have slept in her mahogany cabins) which has been repurposed for exclusive Blue Cruise trips along the Turkish Riviera (€125,000 a week for up to 24 guests, May-Sept; macakizi.com).

Closer to home, Scotland’s Glenapp Castle ( glenappcastle.com) is offering guests a four-day Hebridean Sea Safari (£3,250pp) on its RIB to remote islands where you can camp in bell tents on a deserted shore, alone but for the sea birds – and staff grilling lobster suppers on the barbecue.

Macakizi’s Halas 71 was a passenger ferry that hosted Princess Margaret