Fiji
Rabi Island
Banabans resettled here after phosphate mining ate their island — a culture preserved in Fijian exile.
Banaba Island in the Central Pacific was one of the most phosphate-rich places on Earth, which is why the British removed its people. The Banabans were relocated to Rabi in 1945, and the island they were given — purchased with their own mining royalties, without their consent — is where their descendants live today. That history is alive on Rabi in a way that archived facts never quite are.
Rabi Island, off the northern coast of Vanua Levu, has been the home of the Banaban people since 1945, when the British colonial government relocated them from Banaba (Ocean Island) during and after World War II. The relocation was connected to the resumption of phosphate mining on Banaba, and Banaban mining royalties were used to purchase Rabi without consultation — a colonial act the subject of ongoing legal advocacy. The Banaban community on Rabi has maintained its language (Gilbertese), cultural practices, and chiefly structures across generations. The island holds the Banaban archives — the primary record of a culture whose homeland is now ecologically compromised. The island is accessible by boat from Savusavu.
Solo
Rabi is extraordinary for travellers interested in Pacific colonial history and indigenous resilience — there is no equivalent story anywhere in the region.
Couple
The weight of the island's history and the warmth of its community create an encounter entirely unlike any tourism experience in Fiji.
- Banabans were removed from Ocean Island in 1945 after British Phosphate Commission mining made the island uninhabitable — they purchased Rabi with their own royalty payments.
- The community has maintained a distinct cultural identity for 80 years, with their own council, dances, and the traditional bonriki fish-trap practice.
- Rabi is self-governed under Fijian law as a scheduled territory; the Rabi Island Council manages access and any development.
- A community guesthouse hosts researchers and those specifically seeking out this displacement history — casual tourism infrastructure does not exist.
Banaban cooking differs from Fijian — pandanus fruit, preserved breadfruit, and reef fish prepared I-Kiribati style.
Fresh coconut crab and lobster from the reef surrounding the island.
Traditional Banaban desserts made from pandanus fruit and coconut cream.
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.
Yasawa Islands
Fiji
Volcanic spines pierce the Pacific, each island a different shade of turquoise solitude.
Taveuni
Fiji
The 180th meridian slices through this rainforest island, splitting today from yesterday underfoot.
Suva
Fiji
South Pacific hustle where Hindi temples share streets with Fijian markets and colonial verandahs.
Levuka
Fiji
Fiji's first colonial capital frozen in the 1870s, wooden shopfronts sagging under tropical rain.