Iceland
Rauðisandur
A ten-kilometre beach of glowing red sand where seals sleep beneath black cliffs.
The sand shifts from rust to amber to pale gold as the tide retreats, and grey seals lie scattered across the wet expanse like smooth boulders. Rauðisandur in Iceland's Westfjords is a 10-kilometre beach that changes colour with the light — a place that looks different every hour and never looks like anywhere else in Iceland.
Rauðisandur gets its distinctive red-gold colour from crushed scallop shells mixed with iron-rich minerals in the volcanic bedrock — a composition found almost nowhere else on Iceland's overwhelmingly black coastline. The beach stretches roughly 10 kilometres along the southern edge of the Westfjords' Látrabjarg peninsula, backed by dark cliffs that heighten the colour contrast. Grey seals haul out in large numbers on the sand, particularly in summer, and can often be observed from a few dozen metres. At the beach's eastern end, the small Sjávarkirkja church and the ruins of Melanes farm tell the story of centuries of remote habitation — including a notorious 19th-century double murder that became one of Iceland's most famous criminal cases. Access is via a steep, winding gravel road from Patreksfjörður that deters casual visitors.
Solo
A 10-kilometre beach with seals, shifting colours, and nobody else — Rauðisandur is the kind of solitary coastal walk that recalibrates the mind. The gravel road approach adds to the earned isolation.
Couple
Walking together across colour-shifting sand with seals for company and black cliffs behind — Rauðisandur is a Westfjords romance that earns its remoteness.
- One of Iceland's only red-sand beaches — the colour comes from crushed scallop shells and iron-rich minerals.
- A 10-km stretch of colour-shifting sand that turns from red to gold depending on tide and light.
- Grey seals haul out on the sand in large numbers, especially in summer.
- The small Sjávarkirkja church and Melanes farmstead tell centuries of remote settlement history.
Traditional 'French' soup made from local ingredients at a small coastal farm.
Waffles with wild berries eaten while looking out across the rust-coloured shoreline.
Hideaway Island
Vanuatu
Post a waterproof postcard from the world's only underwater post office, then snorkel its coral reef.
Ureparapara
Vanuatu
Sail into the flooded crater of a horseshoe-shaped volcanic island where fewer than 500 people remain.
Isla Magdalena
Chile
Magellanic penguins in their tens of thousands, nesting so close you walk through their colony.
Buracona
Cape Verde
At midday, sunlight plunges through volcanic rock and ignites an underwater cave into electric blue.
Seyðisfjörður
Iceland
A rainbow-paved path leading to a pale blue church beneath snow-streaked fjord walls.
Húsavík
Iceland
Wooden sailing ships chasing the exhales of blue whales in a sapphire northern bay.
Stuðlagil Canyon
Iceland
A turquoise glacial river surging through geometric towers of perfectly hexagonal basalt.
Heimaey
Iceland
An island where houses remain half-buried in volcanic ash beside millions of nesting puffins.