Australia
Lizard Island
A coral cay where giant clams glow electric blue and marlin run in the deep.
Giant clams glow electric blue in the shallows, their mantles iridescent in the clear water. A black marlin surfaces beyond the reef edge, its dorsal cutting the surface before it sounds. Lizard Island sits at the reef's northern frontier, where luxury meets genuine wildness.
Lizard Island is a granite island on the outer Great Barrier Reef, 240 kilometres north of Cairns, accessible only by light aircraft. The island's 24 beaches — most unnamed, most unvisited — ring a landscape of dry eucalypt woodland and mangrove. The reef here is outer-edge pristine, with giant clams, potato cod, Maori wrasse, and reef sharks common in the surrounding waters. From September to December, the waters off Lizard Island host the world's most celebrated black marlin fishing season. Captain Cook climbed the island's highest point in 1770 to chart a passage through the reef — the view remains essentially unchanged.
Couple
Twenty-four beaches, most of them empty, on a private island where the reef starts in waist-deep water — Lizard Island is exclusive without being exclusive about it.
- Giant clams glow electric blue in the shallows — the reef starts in waist-deep water.
- Black marlin run off the continental shelf from September to December — the world's premier gamefishing ground.
- The island has 24 beaches, most of them unnamed and never visited by anyone.
- Luxury resort suites open directly onto beach — barefoot from bed to reef in under a minute.
Resort chef-prepared degustation dinners with ingredients flown in daily to a runway on coral sand.
Catch-and-cook marlin fishing — land a giant and the kitchen will prepare it for your sunset dinner.
Azenhas do Mar
Portugal
White houses stacked into a sea cliff, a tidal rock pool carved at the base.
Fanjove Private Island
Tanzania
A sand island where nesting green turtles vastly outnumber the handful of guests allowed ashore.
Cassis
France
White limestone calanques plunging into water so blue it silences conversation on the boat.
Ginzan Onsen
Japan
Gas-lit ryokans lining a frozen gorge that looks like a Ghibli snow scene.
Kangaroo Island
Australia
Sea lions lounge on beaches, koalas sleep in roadside trees, and the air tastes of eucalyptus.
Arkaroola
Australia
Billion-year-old granite under a night sky so clear the Magellanic Clouds look close enough to touch.
Karlu Karlu (Devil's Marbles)
Australia
Granite boulders balanced like marbles by millions of years of wind, sacred in Warumungu Dreaming.
Ningaloo Reef
Australia
Swim beside whale sharks straight from shore — wade in and the reef is beneath you.