Australia
Moreton Island
Fifteen deliberately sunk ships now bloom with coral, creating an underwater city for snorkelling.
Fifteen ships rest on the sandy bottom, their hulls now colonised by coral fans, sponges, and schools of tropical fish. They were scuttled here deliberately — sunk in formation to create an artificial reef. The Tangalooma Wrecks turn destruction into a snorkelling garden.
Moreton Island sits in Moreton Bay, 40 kilometres off Brisbane, the third-largest sand island in the world. The Tangalooma Wrecks — fifteen vessels deliberately sunk between 1963 and 1984 — now form an artificial reef habitat teeming with over 200 species of fish, sea turtles, and rays. Sand tobogganing down the island's towering dunes reaches speeds of 40 kilometres per hour. Wild bottlenose dolphins visit the Tangalooma resort shallows each evening to be hand-fed — a population that has returned nightly for decades. The island is 98% national park, with 4WD-only access ensuring visitor numbers stay naturally limited.
Family
Hand-feeding wild dolphins, snorkelling through shipwrecks, and sand tobogganing — Moreton Island packs family highlights into one sand island.
Friends
Wreck snorkelling, dune boarding, and dolphin encounters — the island delivers group-adventure moments within an easy day trip from Brisbane.
- Fifteen deliberately scuttled ships now bloom with coral, sea fans, and tropical fish — snorkelling through a fleet.
- Sand tobogganing down the island's massive dunes reaches speeds of 40 kilometres per hour.
- Tangalooma dolphins visit the shallows each evening to be hand-fed — a wild population that returns nightly.
- The island is 98% national park — 4WD-only access keeps visitor numbers naturally low.
Tangalooma Resort buffet after a day of hand-feeding wild dolphins that arrive at the jetty each dusk.
Beach barbecues on the western shore while dugongs graze the seagrass beds offshore.
Jericoacoara
Brazil
Windswept dunes where the sun melts into the sea from a natural stone arch.
St Ives
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Light so luminous it lured a century of painters to this harbour of turquoise shallows.
Philae Temple
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A temple rescued from rising waters, reassembled stone by stone on an island in the Nile.
Esteros del Iberá
Argentina
Caiman drift among giant lily pads in a freshwater marsh where time itself pools and stills.
Strahan
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Cruise the Gordon River past Huon pines that were saplings when Rome was still a republic.
Maria Island
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A car-free island where Tasmanian devils roam free and convict ruins crumble into wildflower meadows.
Dampier Peninsula
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Red pindan dirt meets turquoise sea at Aboriginal communities where the country is still the boss.
Sydney
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Ferries carve blue water between surf beaches and opera sails as cockatoos screech overhead.