Solomon Islands
Ghizo Island
Children paddle canoes over the Toa Maru wreck while reef sharks circle the hull below.
The long-line boats are already in by mid-morning, and tuna is being filleted on the wharf while reef sharks circle in the harbour shallows below. Ghizo Island moves at the pace of its tides — unhurried, salt-crusted, and centred on the water that surrounds it on every side.
Ghizo is the urban centre of the Western Province in the Solomon Islands — a small, walkable town on a hilly island surrounded by reefs and WWII wreck sites. The Toa Maru, a Japanese transport ship sunk in 1943, lies in shallow water close enough to shore that children paddle canoes directly over the hull. Reef sharks patrol the wreck's perimeter. Kennedy Island is a short boat ride west, and the diving around Ghizo encompasses both war relics and pristine reef walls. The 2007 earthquake and tsunami devastated the island's coastline, but Ghizo rebuilt and remains the transport hub for the Western Province — flights from Honiara, boats to Marovo, and dive charters to sites across the region depart from here.
Solo
Ghizo's small size means you'll know the town within a day, then spend the rest exploring outward — dive the Toa Maru, boat to Kennedy Island, snorkel reef walls. A compact base with expansive reach.
Couple
Waterfront meals of fresh tuna sashimi, wreck snorkelling minutes from town, and boat trips to uninhabited islands. Ghizo offers Pacific island romance without pretension.
Family
The shallow Toa Maru wreck is visible from the surface — even young children can see a WWII ship from a canoe. Kennedy Island is an easy day trip with snorkelling and a story children remember.
Friends
Ghizo is the perfect dive hub — multiple wreck sites, reef walls, and shark encounters all within short boat rides. Post-dive tuna sashimi on the wharf seals every day.
- The Toa Maru, a Japanese transport ship sunk in 1943, lies at 20–45 metres in Ghizo harbour, still carrying wartime cargo in its holds — one of the most intact large wrecks in the Pacific.
- Ghizo's covered morning market sells whole fresh-caught tuna and reef fish alongside garden produce; the town's trade stores, run by the same Chinese families for three generations, stock exactly what they always have.
- The house reef at the main dive lodge descends directly from the jetty — no boat required, no appointment, no other divers in the queue.
- Kennedy Island is visible across the water from Ghizo — a context that makes the JFK story feel immediate rather than historical.
Tuna sashimi at the waterfront, sliced minutes after the long-line boats dock.
Kokoda — raw fish cured in lime and coconut cream — served at the PT 109 restaurant.
Niagara Falls
United States
Six million cubic feet of water per minute plunging into mist you feel a mile away.
Santa Maria
Portugal
The Azores' oldest island hides a red clay desert and golden beaches the other islands lack.
Santa Maria
Cape Verde
Trade winds blast a long golden beach where kitesurfers trace arcs above turquoise Atlantic rollers.
Jericoacoara
Brazil
Windswept dunes where the sun melts into the sea from a natural stone arch.
Marovo Lagoon
Solomon Islands
Turquoise corridors between coral walls where master carvers paddle ebony sculptures to your canoe.
Skull Island
Solomon Islands
Ancestral skulls stacked in coral shrines on a jungle islet, guarded by their descendants.
Kennedy Island
Solomon Islands
The coral speck where a shipwrecked JFK carved a rescue plea into a coconut shell.
Savo Island
Solomon Islands
Volcanic steam hisses through jungle where birds bury eggs in earth heated by magma.