Vanuatu
Port Resolution
Beach hot springs at Captain Cook's 1774 anchorage, where Yasur paints the night sky orange.
Volcanic warmth seeps through black sand where hot springs meet the tide, steam curling off pools that shift between scalding and sea-cooled with every wave. Behind the beach, Mount Yasur's glow stains the night sky a pulsing orange, close enough that each eruption thumps in your chest. This is where Captain Cook anchored HMS Resolution in 1774 — and the bay has barely changed since.
Port Resolution is a natural harbour on the eastern coast of Tanna, Vanuatu, named after Cook's ship during his second Pacific voyage. The bay sits at the foot of Mount Yasur, one of the world's most accessible active volcanoes, and the combination of beach hot springs, volcanic spectacle, and historical layering makes it unlike any other anchorage in the Pacific. A bare-bones yacht club operates from the beach, serving cold beer and grilled fish to the sailing crews who still use Cook's harbour. Local kastom villages welcome visitors for cultural exchanges and earth-oven feasts. The geothermal activity that feeds the beach hot springs is a direct expression of Yasur's magma system — you swim where tectonic forces literally heat the water beneath you.
Couple
Hot springs at sunset with a glowing volcano as backdrop — this is raw romance without a resort wrapper. The isolation and natural drama create an intensity that manufactured luxury cannot replicate.
Family
Children can splash in the tide-cooled hot spring pools while Yasur puts on its nightly show. The bay is sheltered, the beach is gentle, and the volcano is close enough to thrill without genuine danger from the viewing areas.
Friends
The combination of volcano hikes, beach hot springs, and the no-frills yacht club bar creates a natural base camp atmosphere. Days have structure without schedules — and every evening comes with a light show.
- Volcanic hot springs bubble directly out of the black sand at the waterline — you lie in a natural pool as the tide mixes cool seawater with thermal water.
- From the beach at night, Mount Yasur's eruptions glow the horizon orange — no volcano tour needed, just a view from wherever you are sitting.
- Captain Cook anchored HMS Resolution in this exact bay in August 1774 — the anchorage point is still marked and visible from shore.
- Small eco-bungalows sit 50 metres from the hot spring beach — the loudest sound at night is the volcano rumbling across the island.
The Yacht Club — a bare-bones beach bar — serves cold beer and freshly grilled fish as the volcano glows.
Traditional Tanna lap lap with island cabbage and coconut cream, cooked in the earth oven behind the bungalows.
Watamu
Kenya
Bio-rock frames regenerate coral beneath glass-clear water while whale sharks cruise the channel offshore.
Nungwi
Tanzania
Dhow builders hammer wooden hulls on the same beach where bioluminescence lights the midnight shallows.
Tarrafal
Cape Verde
A concentration camp turned resistance museum sits behind the cove where political prisoners once swam.
Gothenburg Archipelago (Southern)
Sweden
Car-free granite islands reached by ferry, where the only schedule is the tide.
Port Vila
Vanuatu
Melanesian, French, and British threads woven through a harbour town where kava shells clink at dusk.
Vao Island
Vanuatu
Tam-tam drums tower three metres high on a coral island where rank is earned, not given.
Erromango
Vanuatu
Missionaries killed on this beach in 1839 — vast kauri forests now stand where few tread.
Ambae
Vanuatu
Residents trickle back to an island evacuated for its volcano, its acid crater lake shifting colours.