This week’s dream: a luxury cruise in remote French Polynesia

Landing in its capital, Papeete, you might wonder if French Polynesia has been spoiled beyond repair. But get past that city’s “clogged traffic” and fast-food joints, and you can still find traces of the Pacific “utopia” that entranced Paul Gauguin and Robert Louis Stevenson, says John Wogan in the FT. Nowhere is French Polynesia more pristine than the Tuamotu Archipelago, a 930-mile-long chain of 77 atolls fringed by “deserted, palm-lined beaches” and “electric-blue lagoons”. For a long time, the region’s allure was tempered by its “bare-bones, pension-level” accommodation, but an alternative has emerged in recent years for those who can afford it, in the shape of the luxury charter yachts that now spend seasons there.

The most “compelling” of these is Senses, a 59-metre motor yacht only used until recently by the family that owns it, but now available for charter from $325,000 per week. Built in 1999 and recently upgraded, it has interiors by Philippe Starck and Therese Baron Gurney in “nautical” shades, and a master suite complete with a stabilised Norwegian bed (one of only four of its kind) that is meant to eradicate seasickness when you lie on it. “Toys” on board include a helicopter (in which to check out surf conditions), several speedboats that seem to attract spinner dolphins “like a magnet”, and Quadskis, which “morph seamlessly” from jet skis to dune buggies.

Days are spent snorkelling over coral reefs, surfing off deserted beaches, or diving in the company of experienced instructors. For divers, the pièce de résistance is the Fakarava South Pass. A Unesco biosphere reserve, it’s known as “the wall of sharks” for the hundreds of blacktip and grey reef sharks that swim there, “in eerie formation”, as countless other fish – from enormous humphead wrasse to neon parrotfish – weave around them. Y.CO (0207584 1801, www.y.co) has private yacht charters from $33,950 per week. Senses sleeps 12 and costs from $325,000 per week.