Where to stay in Okinawa: the best areas and resorts

Naha is where every trip to Okinawa begins, and it deserves more than a night on the way through. Kokusai-dori, the main street, is a mile of souvenir shops, steak houses and bars playing sanshin music; duck into the covered arcades behind it and you find the public market, piled with tropical fish and pigs' trotters. Up the hill in Shuri is the seat of the old Ryukyu kings.

It is also the one place on the island where you can manage happily without a car. The Rihga Royal Gran Okinawa is steps from Kokusai-dori, as is Hotel Monterey La Soeur; the DoubleTree by Hilton is ten minutes from the airport by car or monorail; and the Okinawa Harborview is a long-standing city hotel with several restaurants. There is no real beach scene here, so pair Naha with a few days up the coast.

Chatan is Okinawa's oddest and most cheerful town. Its Mihama district is home to American Village, a waterfront entertainment quarter of shops, restaurants and bars that owes its flavour to the US bases nearby. Sunset Beach, as the name promises, faces due west, and Araha Beach is a short drive down the coast.

It is the liveliest place to stay outside Naha, and about halfway between the capital and the main resort coast. Lequ Okinawa Chatan Spa & Resort is steps from American Village and five minutes from Sunset Beach, with an outdoor pool and a sauna; the DoubleTree by Hilton Okinawa Chatan Resort is the big-name option; and Araha Resort Arapana is right on the sand.

When people picture an Okinawa beach holiday, they are picturing Onna. This long village on the west coast is one resort after another, each with its own strip of sand, strung along a shore of low cliffs, coral shallows and absurdly clear water. Days here are for snorkelling, glass-bottomed boats and doing very little.

The range is wide. Halekulani Okinawa is the splurge, with a spa, several pools and a tennis court. The Atta Terrace Club Towers is adults-only, with French dining by the pool. Families do well at the Sheraton Okinawa Sun Marina, which has a private beach, an indoor pool and a waterslide, and the Okinawa Kariyushi Beach Resort runs a shuttle to its own sand. There is little in the way of a town, so expect to eat in or drive.

Nago is the last proper town before the forests of the far north, and its coastline holds some of the most polished resorts on the island. On the west side they continue the Onna coast around Cape Busena, where a marine park lets you peer at the reef without getting wet. On the east side everything goes green and quiet.

The Busena Terrace is the grande dame, with a spa, indoor pool and waterslide. Kanucha Bay Hotel and Villas is a world of its own, with a golf course, two outdoor pools and seven restaurants. For less money, the Best Western Okinawa Kouki Beach sits directly on white sand, every room with a balcony facing the sea, and the Kariyushi LCH Resort is on the beach a mile from Busena Marine Park.

The Motobu peninsula sticks out from the north-west of the island like a thumb, and it is home to Okinawa's biggest draw: the Churaumi Aquarium, where whale sharks and manta rays glide past a window the size of a cinema screen. It sits in Ocean Expo Park alongside Emerald Beach, and the village of Bise next door is known for its lanes of old fukugi trees.

Stay up here and you can be at the aquarium doors when they open. Fukugi Terrace is a cottage in Bise, a short walk from Emerald Beach; Ala Mahaina is a condo hotel with kitchens, useful for families; Marea Resort Motobu is by the sea, five minutes' drive from the Sesoko bridge; and in neighbouring Nakijin, Magachabaru Okinawa is two minutes' drive from the ruins of Nakijin Castle. Bridges lead on to little Sesoko and Kouri islands, both worth the detour for a swim.

Ishigaki lies closer to Taiwan than to the Okinawan mainland, and it feels properly remote. The island is green, mountainous and fringed with coral, and its showpiece, Kabira Bay, is a scatter of wooded islets in luminous water. From the port, ferries shuttle to the neighbouring islands of Taketomi and Iriomote, which makes Ishigaki the natural base for island hopping.

The Nest Ishigaki has an ocean-view barbecue restaurant and a seasonal pool; Jusandi is a small four-star with a pool and garden, within a 15-minute drive of Kabira Bay; and the Ishigaki Resort Hotel adds tennis and a fitness centre. In town, Hotel Miyahira has four restaurants and an outdoor pool, handy for early ferries. You fly here, either from Naha or direct from the mainland.

Miyakojima is the beach purist's Okinawa. The island is low and flat, with no rivers to cloud the sea, so the water is astonishingly clear and the sand is the fine white stuff of screensavers. Long bridges arc across the shallows to smaller neighbouring islands, and the snorkelling starts a few steps from shore.

The south coast is dominated by the Shigira resort, a spread of hotels along the shore. The Shigira is all-inclusive, with a spa; Hotel Shigira Mirage and Shigira Bayside Suite Allamanda both have access to a private beach. For something smaller, Villabu Resort is a little hideaway with its own beach and pool. Like Ishigaki, Miyakojima is reached by air.