When Courtnie Nichols’ client requested an overwater bungalow for her Caribbean honeymoon, Nichols knew that finding availability — even six to eight months out — could prove tricky.

She tried three Sandals Resorts all-inclusives, and the client offered to be flexible with travel dates, but the pair still came up empty.

“Every property we looked at didn’t have the dates we needed,” said Nichols, founder and CEO of Virginia-based TravelBash Corp. “And we changed the dates three different times.”

Her client ultimately opted for a different accommodation type altogether.

 “It’s one of those luxury products where procrastinating will cost you,” said Nichols. 

A decade ago, overwater bungalows and villas were most commonly associated with far-flung getaways in the Pacific or Indian oceans. But today, they’re dotted throughout the Caribbean, and they rank among the most sought-after accommodations in luxury travel. In some regions, they are among the hardest to book. 

For example, the waiting list for Sandals’ first five overwater units, which debuted in late 2016 at the Sandals Royal Caribbean in Montego Bay, Jamaica, jumped to 15 months almost immediately. The brand built 12 more at the property within the year.

Today, Sandals has nearly 50 overwater units across several properties: Sandals Royal Caribbean and Sandals South Coast in Jamaica, Sandals Grande St. Lucian in St. Lucia and Sandals Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. But still, demand well outpaces supply.

“Traditionally, a hotel room is a hotel room, and a suite is a suite,” said Jeremy Jones, regional managing director of Jamaica at Sandals Resorts International. “But with an overwater villa, the fact that you’re looking out over the water with only the sky up above, and you have that privacy element, adds a whole different feel to the holiday experience. We can’t build and open them fast enough.” 

Overwater bungalows’ history

Had Nichols’ honeymoon client been willing to fly to the Maldives or French Polynesia, overwater options would have been far more plentiful. 

The modern overwater accommodation concept has its roots in Tahiti, inspired by the stilt structures long used by Polynesian fishermen. According to Tahiti Tourisme, the first overwater bungalows were built in Raiatea in 1967 by three Americans who owned the Bali Hai Hotel. Taking their cues from traditional Polynesian architecture, the accommodations were built from local wood with roofs of pandanus leaves and were intended to give guests water access in an area where sandy beaches were lacking.

The concept spread quickly across French Polynesia and eventually farther, to the Maldives, where calm, clear waters proved equally well suited to the format. Today, French Polynesia and the Maldives remain the dominant overwater markets, even as the idea has gradually spread elsewhere.

But for U.S. travelers, who have shown an outsize appetite for the style, the concept has been especially slow to take root in destinations closer to home. Brands like Sandals are working to fill that gap, along with a small but growing number of players adding new overwater options across the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America.

For Nichols, these options are a great fit for clients looking for a luxury overwater experience minus the long-haul flight.

“They say, ‘We don’t have 21 days, we don’t have 15 days, but we have about five.’ They want to optimize both experience and accessibility,” Nichols said. “That’s where the Caribbean comes in, that’s where Mexico comes in, that’s where Belize comes in.” 

Sandals’ Jones echoed that sentiment. 

“The proximity means you can do away with the jet lag and start enjoying the holiday experience as soon as you get there,” he said. 

Jones added that Sandals’ overwater options have helped attract an entirely new guest: travelers who may have started their search looking for an overwater experience and found their way to the brand from there.

“Somebody may not have looked at St. Lucia or Jamaica as a vacation option, but they looked at an overwater and thought, ‘I don’t want to go all the way to the Maldives,’” he said.

Easier accessibility has also helped reframe the type of client who books overwater accommodations. According to Leah Bergner, a senior travel advisor with California-based Coastline Travel, overwater bungalow requests now come from a far wider cross-section of travelers than they once did.

“When I first started, it was either the once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon or a more established, financially set couple that could afford such accommodations,” she said. But today, thanks in part to expanded inventory and closer-to-home options, that profile has broadened considerably. Bergner pointed to bachelor and bachelorette groups, friend groups, solo travelers and luxury travelers who simply want the experience “just because.” 

“It’s really just people wanting to escape the hustle and bustle of daily life, reconnecting with a partner or family,” Bergner said. “There are now lots of reasons.”

Overwater accommodations at properties like the Rosewood Mayakoba in Mexico’s Riviera Maya, she added, have been particularly useful in that regard. 

“It’s a little more approachable for people who can’t commit to a longer trip,” she said. 

Premium product, premium rates

Overwater accommodations in these markets generally are among the most premium products any resort has to offer.

A sister property to the Riviera Maya’s Rosewood Mayakoba, the Banyan Tree Mayakoba added seven Lagoon Sunset Rooftop Pool Villas in 2022, positioning them over the property’s mangrove lagoons. The two-story units run close to 2,000 square feet and include a private heated pool, outdoor bathtub, open-air rain shower and a rooftop solarium with lagoon views. Average rates run from roughly $2,700 per night to $4,000 or more.

“I would not describe them as a mass-market product,” said Afonso Cunha, general manager at the Banyan Tree Mayakoba. “The guests buying this type of product are looking for something that feels very special; not a common room and not a common experience.”

Sandals’ most recent overwater additions, the Vincy Overwater Two-Story Villas at the Sandals Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, are similarly lavish. The 1,248-square-foot units are set within a private cove and feature amenities like a daybed suspended above the water and a dedicated second-floor deck as well as a signature Sandals soaking tub.

Rates across Sandals’ overwater portfolio start at $1,325 per person, per night for the Vincy villas, with the highest starting rates reaching $2,532 per person, per night for the Overwater Private Island Butler Villa with Infinity Pool at the Sandals Royal Caribbean.

Royalton Hotels & Resorts is another all-inclusive brand that has leaned into the category. The company debuted its first overwater units at the Royalton Antigua in 2019, and today, Royalton offers six Chairman Overwater Bungalows at the Royalton Antigua and 12 overwater suites at the Royalton Chic Antigua, which introduced its own overwater product in 2024. The bungalows at Royalton Antigua measure 1,440 square feet and include a living room with a glass floor lounge, dining room, bar, indoor Jacuzzi and a deck with plunge pool. Rates start at around $1,400 per night.

“We wanted to bring that traditionally long-haul, aspirational experience from the Maldives and Fiji closer to North American travelers,” said Alejandro Rodriguez del Peon, vice president of marketing and PR at Royalton Hotels & Resorts, adding that occupancy for the overwater units runs at roughly 95% year-round and that the typical booking window exceeds 120 days.

Overwater accommodations can even be found inland. 

Walt Disney World in 2015 rolled out 20 overwater bungalows at its Polynesian Village Resort property in Orlando that are linked by a private-access boardwalk. The two-bedroom bungalows have a living room, full kitchen and dining area and deck with plunge pool, hanging-basket chairs and unobstructed views of the Magic Kingdom. The music accompanying the nightly fireworks display can be piped into the deck’s speaker system so guests can watch from the comfort of their “home.” Michelle Allen, owner of New Jersey-based Travel Magic, said the Disney bungalows are among the hardest-to-nab accommodations she books. With only 20 units available, they’re gone almost as soon as the booking window opens. And adding to that challenge is the fact that they’re part of the Disney Vacation Club program, meaning DVC members get first dibs before travel advisors or the general public

“They’re just very, very hard to get,” she said. “We check at least daily for our clients to see if inventory has changed.” 

As for budget, Allen said clients should come prepared to spend at the very top of the Disney price spectrum. 

“You’re basically spending the most money that you can at Disney World,” she said, estimating rates of roughly $3,000 to $4,000 per night in the off-season and well over $5,000 per night during peak periods like Christmas week. 

IHG Hotels & Resorts’ luxury Six Senses brand, meanwhile, is preparing to bring its first overwater resort and residences in the Americas to Belize. Set to open in 2028 on the private island of Emerald Caye off the Belizean coast, the Six Senses Belize will feature 40 overwater bungalow hotel suites as well as 16 branded residences, with prices starting at $3.8 million.

“All of the accommodations, including the branded residences and resort villas, will be positioned over water,” said John Turley, development partner of the Six Senses Belize, adding that while “demand for overwater accommodations has grown over the past several years, there are only a handful of comparable offerings in the Caribbean and Central America.”

Challenging, expensive to build

Part of that continued scarcity comes down to the unique challenges of building overwater units in these regions, where the marine environment looks very different from that of the Maldives or French Polynesia.

“The conditions have to be right,” Turley said. “You need calm water with a natural sandbar, environmental sensitivity, the right permitting framework and the ability to support a more complex construction process.” 

Foundations, utilities, materials and long-term maintenance also have to be designed for saltwater conditions and hurricane resistance.

For the Six Senses Belize, that means building each villa on a deep pile foundation, with a substructure combining reinforced precast concrete and glue-laminated hardwood timber. Other materials used, including limestone, hardwood decking, white-cement stucco cladding and natural cedar shake roofing, were selected due to their ability to hold up in a saltwater environment.

The overwater development process at Sandals can be similarly painstaking, Jones said. It spent a year and a half securing permits for its first overwater units, with requirements that included relocating sea grass, protecting coral and deploying fish aggregate devices, which Jones described as electronic underwater tools designed to attract and stimulate marine life, to replenish the area’s ecosystem.

“It is not an inexpensive venture,” he said. “It’s very time-consuming, but it’s something we really respect and embrace..”

At the Banyan Tree Mayakoba, Cunha cited similar challenges. 

“The region has been slower to embrace this concept because the coastline and environment are sensitive: There’s the mangroves, the reefs, the dunes, the sargassum, the protected coastal ecosystems throughout the Riviera Maya,” he explained. “And we also have hurricane season, which creates more permitting for construction and higher maintenance costs. From an investment perspective, this construction is way more complex and more expensive than traditional builds, but supply and demand really justifies the premium rates.”

No signs of cooling down

Even with the recent increase in options, advisors say the overwater inventory in places like the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America is still small and that placing clients in these accommodations remains challenging.

For prime dates, Nichols recommended booking at least nine to 12 months out. Bergner suggested staying current on promotional windows, as complimentary third- and fourth-night offers appear periodically at properties like Rosewood Mayakoba and can significantly shift the value equation of an overwater stay for more budget-conscious clients.

Sandals’ Jones also offered a tip for clients already on property: After they arrive, they should ask at the front desk about overwater availability. If an overwater villa has an opening due to a small gap between bookings, it could be worth it for guests to upgrade for a night or two.

Setting the right expectations also matters, according to Bergner, as not all overwater accommodations offer access to swimmable water. Banyan Tree’s overwater lagoon villas, for example sit above mangroves, not open sea; Disney’s are over Seven Seas Lagoon, where no-wading signs nearby warn of alligators. Additionally, Bergner said, strict age limits apply for many overwater accommodations. And seasonality in Mexico and the Caribbean, from hurricane season to sargassum cycles, can affect the experience in ways that destinations in the South Pacific generally do not. 

“You really have to pair the property well with the guest and make sure they understand the big picture of what it is,” said Bergner.

Those kinds of booking nuances have done little to cool demand, Jones said.

“Even as a young hotel man growing up in the business, I always had visions of being able to travel to the Maldives to enjoy this type of experience,” said Jones. “It has that mystique, and people are just lining up and waiting to get in there.”

Social media has only served to amplify that pull.

“Folks swimming under the glass floor, waving to their spouse above and taking photographs — it’s all a great photo experience,” Jones said.

He added that Sandals is in the permitting process for additional overwater units; Jamaica is high on the agenda.

More broadly, he predicted the category would continue to expand across the region over the next few years and one day may reach the same level of ubiquity as swim-up rooms, which were once viewed as a premium novelty and available at just a handful of properties. But over time, they proliferated. 

“I think the overwater bungalow is going to follow that same trajectory,” Jones said. “The cost to build is pretty high, and not everybody will be able to afford to do it, but the return on the investment is very, very beneficial.”