India
Teardrop coral atolls where bioluminescent plankton washes up on uncrowded sand in the Arabian Sea.
The boat runs aground on sand โ there is no jetty, just knee-deep turquoise water and the walk to shore. The atoll has one resort and zero roads. After dark, the shoreline glows blue with bioluminescent plankton.
Bangaram is a teardrop coral island in Lakshadweep, reached by boat from Agatti. The whole atoll runs to about 120 acres inside a fringing reef, its lagoon patrolled by reef sharks, rays and turtles, its paths bare sand between the coconut palms. After dark, phosphorescent plankton washed onto the coral sand gives the beach a bluish glow โ the official tourism board's own description, and for once the official line undersells it.
Solo
Confirm the permit with the resort, then let the island shrink your world to sand, lagoon and stars.
Couple
Wade the bioluminescence together after dinner โ the shoreline glows where you step.
Family
The lagoon is a natural shallow pool โ children snorkel from the beach with turtles for company.
Smลk, the island's all-day restaurant, runs Indian, Continental and Asian tables โ the resort is the whole food scene.
Mas min โ dried tuna tossed with fresh coconut and spice โ is the Lakshadweep taste worth requesting.

Golfo Dulce
Costa Rica
A tropical fjord of bathwater-warm calm, ringed by primary rainforest and cruised by dolphins.

Loch an Eilein
Scotland
A castle ruin on a loch island surrounded by forest so old the trees remember wolves.

Praia do Rosa
Brazil
Right whales leave Antarctica to calve in this bay, and you watch from the headland.

Cathedral Cove
New Zealand
A cathedral-scale rock arch framing turquoise water, earned by coast path or kayak.

Rann of Kutch
India
A salt marsh stretching to the horizon that turns blinding white under the full moon.

Kalpa
India
Apple orchards clinging to steep ridges directly facing the razor-sharp granite of the Kinnaur Kailash.

Mechuka
India
Wild horses grazing a high valley closed to outsiders until 2005, pines climbing to snow.