Hoshinoya Taketomi Island

Water buffalo carts are the taxi service on Taketomi Island, which tells you almost everything about the pace here. Hoshinoya's beachfront resort is built to look like a traditional Okinawan village, red-tiled roofs intact, to satisfy the island's heritage codes, though the interiors answer to no such constraints. Pavilion rooms mix tatami or Western layouts with soaking tubs and open-air windows. A spa, pool, and white-sand beach round things out.