Maldives is hugely overrated- sure it's nice but everything is very poor value for money and the culture is near non-existent. Unless you have LOADS to spend, the food in the hotels and restaurants is pretty meh. Also being on the beach all day is boring as hell. (And I like beaches BTW, but there is nothing to do!). It's about 11 hrs from London (Sri Lankan Air is the cheapest direct service, but BA also go from Gatwick, or Emirates via Dubai). Then you need to add on seaplane/ boat to the resort island. Like I said, much better places to go IMO though.
Dominican republic is a good shout though.
Brazil is good but a bit expensive, amazing scenery beaches, food, lovely people though.
SE Asia, Thailand, etc good, but getting very touristy now... It's like Spain or Greece except full of middle- class 'Gap Yuh' students in my experience.
