Vanuatu
Port Olry
Dugout canoes land the catch on white sand where the village speaks French.
Port Olry curves around a bay at Santo's northern end, white sand and shallow turquoise framed by green hills and offshore islets. Fishermen bring the morning's catch in by dugout canoe, children fill the shallows after school, and the talk along the beach runs in French.
This is a living Francophone fishing village of around 1,300 people, its roots in a Catholic mission and its school still run on the French system, at the end of Santo's sealed east-coast road. The bay does the rest. Kayaks rent from the beach bars for the paddle to Dolphin Island, or to the islet on the bay's far side where a colony of bats hangs in the trees and the snorkelling is the area's best; at low tide a sandbar lets you walk to one of the islands with dry shoulders. Turtles and reef fish work the seagrass and coral, locals lead rides along the sand on horseback, and a beach restaurant on the harbour turns the day's catch into long lunches. Port Olry has electricity, shops and bungalows now; what it keeps is the rhythm of a village that fishes first and hosts second.
Solo
Stay in a beachfront bungalow and fold into the village's pace: market fish, a kayak, a sandbar walk, an early night.
Couple
Paddle to Dolphin Island in the morning, then settle over a slow seafood lunch above the sand with lime juice or a green coconut.
Family
The shallows are broad and calm, kayaks and horses fill the days, and children can walk the low-tide sandbar to an island.
- A Francophone fishing village of around 1,300 people, its school on the French system and its catch landed by dugout canoe.
- Kayaks rent from the beach bars for paddles to Dolphin Island and to the bat islet whose reef holds the bay's best snorkelling.
- At low tide a sandbar lets you walk out to one of the offshore islands.
- A harbour-beach restaurant serves the day's catch with green coconuts and fresh lime juice.
Order what the boats landed that morning at the harbour-beach restaurant and drink a green coconut or fresh lime juice with sand underfoot.
Coconut crab is the east coast's plate, served for lunch at beachside shacks; asking a day ahead spares disappointment.
Nature's Valley
South Africa
One road dies at a forest lagoon where beach begins and almost nothing follows.
Matema Beach
Tanzania
Mountains fall into a freshwater lake that snorkels like a sea without salt.
Lake Bogoria National Reserve
Kenya
Geysers erupt beside a flamingo-pink alkaline lake where hot springs boil from fractured earth.
Velas
India
Tiny turtle hatchlings scrambling for the Arabian Sea while a whole village stands guard.
Port Vila
Vanuatu
A capital where France and Britain ruled at once, and kava quiets the harbour at dusk.
Mount Yasur
Vanuatu
Molten rock bursts skyward several times an hour from a rim you reach at dusk.
Vao Island
Vanuatu
Giant tam-tams boom across a ten-minute strait; on Vao, rank is earned, never inherited.