Greece
Alonissos
A vast marine park where monk seals still hold their coves — Greece's wild northern Sporades.
If a monk seal surfaces in the cove — a dark shape rolling in green water, then gone — you will not forget it. You are inside one of Europe's largest marine protected areas, and off Peristera islet a classical wreck of 425 BC has become Greece's first public underwater museum.
Certified divers can visit the Peristera wreck in season with an authorised dive centre, and a land-based information centre in Old Alonissos interprets the site for everyone else. The wider marine park exists for the Mediterranean monk seal — one of the world's rarest marine mammals — and the boats that enter it keep respectful distance as the price of the privilege. Pine-backed coves, clear water and the restored hill village complete the island.
Couple
Boat into the marine park with eyes on the water — a seal surfacing makes the day — then dinner above Patitiri harbour.
Family
Pine-backed coves with calm water make the family days; the old hill village supplies the ice-cream evenings.
- A vast marine park shelters a wide Northern Sporades seascape used by Mediterranean monk seals.
- Certified Advanced Open Water divers can visit the Peristera wreck with an authorised dive centre in season.
- A land-based information centre in Old Alonissos interprets the wreck for non-divers.
- Boat routes, coastal paths and the restored hill village add a full island experience beyond the museum.
Alonissos tyropita — the famed cheese pie, fried crisp around its soft filling.
Hamalia — triangle sweets of nut, semolina and honey — close the meal.
Boca Brava
Panama
At dawn and dusk the whole island howls, a monkey chorus above the whale gulf.
Delta do Parnaíba
Brazil
Every dusk, thousands of scarlet ibis come in to sleep in the mangrove canopy.
San Juan Islands
United States
An archipelago where two nations once nearly went to war over a shot pig.
Uvita & Marino Ballena
Costa Rica
A sandbar shaped like a whale's tail emerges where real humpbacks come to breed.
Chania Old Town
Greece
A Venetian harbour glowing at dusk where lighthouse and minaret share the skyline in tangerine light.
Corfu Old Town
Greece
Venetian alleyways hung with laundry open onto a cricket pitch — Greece's most Italian island.
Milia
Greece
An abandoned Cretan hamlet rebuilt from stone into an off-grid eco-settlement deep in chestnut forest.
Tzoumerka
Greece
Stone villages half-emptied on a mountain ridge, wind moving through open doorways.