Compare 576 Travel Destinations

The island that invented the overwater bungalow (Hotel Bora Bora, 1967) — a volcanic peak (Mt Otemanu, 727m) ringed by a turquoise lagoon and a barrier reef 50m offshore. Access is Tahiti (PPT) international then a 50-minute Air Tahiti hop to BOB. Honeymoon-grade resorts (St. Regis, Four Seasons, Intercontinental Thalasso) dominate the main atoll; Matira Beach is the public gem. May–October dry season is peak; November–April is cyclone risk. XPF (CFP Franc) is the currency, pegged to the Euro.

An archipelago of 333 islands where the first "Bula!" hits like a physical thing — warm, oceanic, genuine. The Mamanuca Islands are 30 minutes by speedboat from Nadi; the Yasawas are a 4-hour catamaran ride with the Blue Lagoon and manta ray encounters at Drawaqa Passage. Taveuni's Rainbow Reef is rated top-10 globally for diving. The kava ceremony, the Garden of the Sleeping Giant, Sabeto's mud pools, and a culture that invented the overwater resort experience.

French Polynesia's main island and the only international gateway to the South Pacific — every flight to Bora Bora, Moorea, the Tuamotus and the Marquesas first lands at Faaa (PPT). Papeete's Marché is the country's best market; Pointe Vénus is where Cook observed the 1769 transit of Venus; the Musée Gauguin and the Arahoho blowholes line the windward coast. Tahiti Iti's southeastern peninsula hides Teahupo'o — the planet's heaviest barrelling reef wave and a 2024 Olympic surf venue. The volcanic interior (Mt Orohena, 2,241m) is essentially unvisited.

A 74-island archipelago in the Coral Sea off central Queensland — protected within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (UNESCO) and the Whitsunday Islands National Park, with most islands uninhabited. Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island runs 7 km of 98% pure silica sand — so fine and white that it stays cool underfoot in 35°C summer sun, and repeatedly voted one of the world's top beaches. Hill Inlet's tide-shifting cream-and-turquoise sand patterns are the iconic Whitsundays photograph; Heart Reef (visible only by helicopter or seaplane) is the heart-shaped coral formation in the outer Great Barrier Reef. Add multi-day sailing trips through the Whitsunday Passage's reliable trade winds, snorkelling at Hardy Reef pontoon, and Hamilton Island's resort scene with One Tree Hill sunsets — Australia's most photogenic tropical archipelago.