Ask most seasoned travellers about their favourite island and they'll rarely name the obvious one. Capri, Santorini, Mykonos, Bali – all popular for good reason, all worth visiting. But next to each of them, and scattered across oceans most itineraries never reach, are islands that quietly offer something just as good and sometimes better. These six are a good place to start looking.
Ischia, Italy
Capri gets the headlines but Ischia, just across the Bay of Naples, is the island Italians actually go to. Thermal springs fed by volcanic activity bubble up across the island – many accessible directly from the sea. A medieval castle sits on a rock connected to the shore by a bridge, the fishing villages are largely intact, and the food is rooted in Campania’s finest ingredients. The fact that it lives in Capri's shadow says more about marketing than merit.
Flores, Indonesia
Most visitors use Flores purely as a stepping stone to Komodo, which means the island itself goes almost entirely unexplored. The interior is mountainous and dramatic, traditional villages preserve customs that have survived centuries, and the marine environment is among the most biodiverse on earth. The pink beach at Pantai Merah is real and genuinely extraordinary. You’ll stay longer than you planned to.
Vieques, Puerto Rico
For decades the US Navy used Vieques as a weapons testing range, which inadvertently kept development out entirely. What remained is one of the least built-up islands in the Caribbean – empty beaches, a slow pace, and Mosquito Bay, one of the world's brightest bioluminescent bays. On a moonless night the water glows electric blue around anything that moves through it. It sounds like an exaggeration, until you see it.
São Tomé, West Africa
A tiny former Portuguese colony in the Gulf of Guinea, covered in equatorial rainforest and producing some of the world's most celebrated cacao. TAP flies direct from Lisbon, making it more accessible than it sounds. The beaches are largely empty, the colonial architecture is faded and beautiful, and the chocolate is worth the trip on its own.
Faial, Azores
Within the already undervisited Azores, Faial is one of the least explored islands. The caldera at its centre is wide enough to walk into. The marina at Horta has been the first port of call for transatlantic sailors for centuries – the harbour walls covered in thousands of painted murals left by crossing crews. Whale watching here is among the best in the world, and the island sees a fraction of the visitors that São Miguel receives.
Lifou, New Caledonia
A coral island in the South Pacific that most people outside France have never heard of. The lagoon is the kind of turquoise that looks Photoshopped but, trust us, it isn't, the beaches are largely empty, and the Kanak culture remains very much intact. There are French bakeries producing excellent bread in villages with no other signs of the 21st century. New Caledonia is a French territory, meaning EU passport holders need no visa – a handy-to-know detail.
If you'd rather let someone else handle the logistics, these itineraries are a good place to start.
