Fiji
Turtle Island
A barren island bought in 1972, half a million trees planted: fourteen couples share it now.
Richard Evanson arrived on uninhabited Nanuya Levu in 1972 with a generator, a refrigerator and a tent, and started planting. Half a million trees later, the island that played The Blue Lagoon takes at most fourteen couples, each with a Bure Mama to arrange their days.
Turtle Island's shape has held for decades: fourteen beachfront bures, a dozen private beaches with names like Devil's and Honeymoon, and picnics of lobster and champagne dropped on whichever sand a couple claims for the day. The Blue Lagoon was filmed here in 1979 and the resort opened the following year; today 110 Fijian staff, many second and third generation from the neighbouring villages, run the island, while its own farm supplies dairy, eggs, vegetables and honey from 120,000 bees. The island is a couples' retreat above all, reached by seaplane from Nadi or private boat.
Couple
The whole operating model is two-person exclusivity: a private beach on rotation, a Bure Mama devoted to your stay, and dinner set wherever on the island you choose.
- Half a million trees were planted to bring the barren island back; its forest now hides just fourteen bures.
- A dozen private beaches can each be claimed for the day, with staffed picnic bures and hammocks waiting.
- Each couple is assigned a Bure Mama, a personal attendant for meals, beaches and days.
- The island played The Blue Lagoon in 1979, the year before its first guests arrived.
Village fishermen deliver tuna, trevally and lobster, and the island farm adds dairy, eggs and honey from 120,000 bees.
Picnic lunches land on a private beach with a staffed bure and hammocks; on lovo nights, dinner comes out of the ground.
Azenhas do Mar
Portugal
White houses stacked into a sea cliff, a seawater pool set in the rocks below.
Fanjove Private Island
Tanzania
Green turtles nest beside a lighthouse whose ground floor serves dinner.
Capri
Italy
Azure grottoes lit from below, limestone stacks rising from impossible blue, lemon-scented air.
Vík í Mýrdal
Iceland
Jagged black sea stacks rising from a charcoal beach where the Atlantic roar thunders.
