The best islands in the world for scenery, history and food

Islands sell two contradictory ideas at once: total isolation and definite arrival. Crossing water changes the terms of a trip in a way a highway never does, which is why a 20-minute ferry can feel like a border crossing. The best islands in the world earn that feeling through geology, culture or the collision of the two.

These islands take very different forms. Some are volcanic remnants with black sand beaches and vines planted in ash. Others are coral-ringed peaks in the South Pacific, limestone archipelagos riddled with hidden lagoons, or cold-water outcrops where seabirds far outnumber residents. What they share is a concentrated sense of place — a few square miles holding an entire identity, a distinct cuisine and often a language or dialect of its own.

The islands here built their reputations over decades or centuries rather than through tourism campaigns. Several shaped the archaeology, agriculture or surf culture of whole regions. A few are known for turquoise water and overwater bungalows. Others matter because of Bronze Age ruins, Baroque towns rebuilt after an earthquake, or a gorge that takes most of a day to walk.

Isolation does practical work too. It raises the cost of imported goods, shapes which species evolved in one place and nowhere else, and often limits how many visitors can arrive at once. Parts of several islands on this list can be reached only by boat or by a long drive on gravel.

They also differ in how they are governed. Some are provinces or territories administered from capitals hundreds of miles away, their histories layered with colonization, trade and migration. Those histories stay visible in architecture, religion, farming and language.

This is a survey rather than a ranked countdown, since weighing a Greek caldera against a Vietnamese national park is close to meaningless. What follows covers where each island sits, what formed it, which season suits it and what separates it from the next one over.

Illustration: Quartz

Santorini is a crescent of volcanic rock in the southern Aegean, and its shape is the direct record of a catastrophe. A major eruption around 1600 B.C. emptied the magma chamber beneath the island. The center collapsed into the sea, leaving the flooded caldera that every clifftop terrace now looks out over.

The rim rises steeply, reaching roughly 1,000 feet above the water at its highest points. Fira, the capital, and Oia, at the northern tip, sit along that edge, their cube-shaped houses stacked down the slope. The whitewash is not purely decorative. Lime wash reflects heat and works as a disinfectant, which made it practical on densely packed village walls.

Beaches here are dark rather than pale. Perissa and Kamari run along black basalt sand on the southeastern coast. Red Beach, near the village of Akrotiri, takes its color from iron-rich volcanic rock in the cliffs behind it.

The same soil shapes Santorini's wine. Growers train Assyrtiko vines into low coiled baskets called kouloura, which shelter the fruit from constant wind and salt spray. The resulting whites are dry and high in acid, and the technique is rare outside the island.

Akrotiri is the archaeological counterweight to the caldera views. The Bronze Age Minoan settlement there was buried by ash from the eruption, which preserved multistory buildings, drainage systems and wall paintings. Comparisons to Pompeii are common, though no human remains have been found at the site.

Fira connects to its old port by a zigzag path of nearly 600 steps, long traveled by donkey and now also served by a cable car. Boats cross the caldera to the volcanic islets of Nea Kameni and Palea Kameni. Walkers climb to a steaming crater there, and swimmers reach warm sulfur springs offshore.

Sunset crowds concentrate in Oia from late spring through September. Imerovigli and the inland village of Pyrgos offer comparable views of the caldera with far less congestion.

Illustration: Quartz

Bora Bora is a volcanic island in the Leeward group of French Polynesia's Society Islands, roughly 140 miles northwest of Tahiti. A barrier reef rings it, enclosing a shallow lagoon that shifts from pale green to deep blue. The island is the eroded remnant of an extinct volcano, and Mount Otemanu rises about 2,385 feet at its center.

The reef explains the color. It blocks open Pacific swell, leaving a protected shelf of sand-floored water only a few feet deep in places. Shallow water over white sand scatters light instead of absorbing it. Small sand islets called motu sit along the reef and hold most of the resorts.

The overwater bungalow was developed in French Polynesia during the 1960s, and Bora Bora became the address most associated with it. The format has changed little: a timber cabin on stilts, a ladder down into the lagoon, and in many cases a glass panel set into the floor above the coral.

Arrival is unusual. The airport occupies Motu Mute, a reef islet where U.S. forces built an airstrip during World War II, when Bora Bora served as a supply base. Every traveler finishes the journey by boat rather than by road. Vaitape, on the main island, is the commercial center and the main ferry landing.

Manta rays gather at cleaning stations off Anau, on the lagoon's eastern side, where smaller fish pick parasites from their skin. Blacktip reef sharks are common in the shallows and pose little risk to swimmers. Organized shark and ray feeding excursions are sold widely, though the practice draws objections from conservation-minded operators.

Otemanu is not a hiking summit. Its upper basalt is steep and crumbling, and the peak holds cultural significance for residents. Four-wheel-drive tours instead climb partway up the slopes to World War II coastal gun emplacements that look out over the reef.

Tahitian and French are both spoken. The dish travelers meet most often is poisson cru, raw tuna cured briefly in lime juice and finished with coconut milk.

Illustration: Quartz

Bali is the only Hindu-majority island in Indonesia, a country that is otherwise predominantly Muslim, and that religious distinction shapes its temples, festivals, farming, and food. It sits between Java and Lombok in the Lesser Sunda chain, small enough to cross by car in a few hours.

The terraced rice paddies around Tegallalang, north of Ubud, are irrigated by subak, a cooperative water-sharing system run through village associations and temple priests rather than by the state. UNESCO inscribed the subak landscape in 2012 as agricultural infrastructure built around Balinese Hindu philosophy and its emphasis on balance among people, nature, and the spiritual world. Water moves downhill through a sequence of fields on a schedule agreed collectively, not by whoever holds the highest ground.

Ubud, inland and at modest elevation, functions as the island's arts and wellness center. The Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary sits within the town, along with galleries, woodcarving workshops, and venues staging legong and kecak dance. The southern coast developed along different lines. Kuta and Uluwatu built reputations on surfing in the 1970s, drawing on consistent swells off the Bukit Peninsula decades before yoga retreats reached the island.

Mount Agung, Bali's highest point at roughly 9,900 feet, is an active volcano and the symbolic center of the Balinese universe. Its 2017 eruption closed Ngurah Rai International Airport and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents living on its slopes.

Besakih, the largest and holiest temple complex on the island, sits on those same slopes. Tanah Lot, on the southwestern coast, occupies a rock formation cut off from shore at high tide. Both require visitors to wear a sarong and sash, usually available at the entrance.

Balinese cuisine follows the same Hindu traditions. Babi guling, spit-roasted suckling pig seasoned with turmeric, lemongrass, and shallots, is prepared for ceremonies and sold at warungs — a dish that would be unusual almost anywhere else in Indonesia.

Illustration: Quartz

Maui is the second-largest Hawaiian island, formed by two volcanoes: Haleakala in the east and the older West Maui Mountains. A low central plain connects them, which is how the island earned the nickname the Valley Isle. Its two best-known drives climb to a summit above 10,000 feet and trace a rainforest coastline.

Haleakala's summit rises above much of the island's cloud layer. The National Park Service requires an advance reservation to drive up during the sunrise window. Temperatures near the top can approach freezing before dawn, which leaves visitors who packed only beach clothing underdressed. Below the rim lies a high-altitude landscape of cinder cones and ash, crossed by trails that descend from the crater edge.

The Road to Hana runs roughly 64 miles along the northeastern coast, with more than 600 curves and 59 bridges. Many of those bridges carry a single lane of traffic. The route passes waterfalls, bamboo groves and the black sand beach at Waianapanapa State Park, where non-residents must reserve entry in advance. The drive rewards a full day rather than a rushed loop, and the stops matter more than the arrival.

Humpback whales winter in the shallow, sheltered Auau Channel between Maui, Lanai and Molokai. They arrive around December and stay into April to breed and calve. Shore sightings are common along the west and south coasts during those months.

Lahaina, a former whaling port on the west side, was destroyed in large part by wildfires in August 2023. The fires killed more than 100 people and leveled much of the historic district. The town's banyan tree survived in damaged condition. Recovery continues, and access and services change, so current local guidance is worth checking before traveling to that stretch of coast.

Upcountry Maui, on Haleakala's cooler western slopes, produces sweet Kula onions, lavender and protea flowers. The island's last sugar plantation closed in 2016, ending more than a century of commercial sugarcane growing on the central plain.

Illustration: Quartz

Crete is the largest island in Greece and the seat of the Minoan civilization, the earliest advanced culture in Europe, which flourished roughly between 2700 and 1450 B.C. The Palace of Knossos, just outside the capital of Heraklion, is the most extensive Minoan site excavated anywhere. Its scale is what pulls most first-time visitors to the north coast.

British archaeologist Arthur Evans dug at Knossos in the early 20th century and rebuilt sections of it in concrete, painting columns red and reassembling frescoes from fragments. Scholars still disagree over how much of the standing palace reflects the Bronze Age and how much reflects Evans. The Heraklion Archaeological Museum holds the original frescoes and the artifacts recovered from the site.

Size is what separates Crete from smaller Greek islands built around a single harbor. The island runs about 160 miles end to end and holds several mountain ranges, including the White Mountains in the west, plus inland plains planted with olive groves. Crete is one of the country's major olive oil regions, and the Seven Countries Study led by Ancel Keys in the mid-20th century helped turn Cretan eating patterns into the template for the Mediterranean diet.

The Samaria Gorge cuts through Samaria National Park in the White Mountains for roughly 10 miles. It ends near the Libyan Sea at Agia Roumeli, a village reachable only by boat. The trail opens around May and closes in October because of flood risk, and most walkers need five to seven hours.

Chania and Heraklion both carry Venetian and Ottoman architecture, the legacy of centuries of foreign rule before Crete joined modern Greece in 1913. Chania's old harbor curves around a Venetian-era lighthouse.

Beaches vary widely. Elafonissi in the southwest has sand tinted pink by crushed shell fragments. Balos Lagoon in the northwest is reached by boat from Kissamos or along a rough unpaved track.

Illustration: Quartz

Palawan is a long, narrow island in the western Philippines known for limestone karst cliffs and hidden lagoons. Its best-known site is the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where small boats enter a cave that runs underground before reaching the sea.

The island stretches roughly 270 miles between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. Puerto Princesa, on the east coast, is the capital and main point of arrival. El Nido, at the northern tip, anchors the Bacuit Archipelago, a cluster of karst islets. Its lagoons are reached through narrow gaps in the rock by kayak or small outrigger boat. Big Lagoon and Small Lagoon draw the most visitors, and both are entered by paddle rather than engine, which keeps the water calm.

The subterranean river was inscribed by UNESCO in 1999 and sits inside a national park that also protects the lowland forest above the cave. Guided trips cover only part of the navigable channel, passing stalactite chambers and colonies of bats and swiftlets. Permits are capped daily, so visits are usually arranged in advance.

Coron, in the same province but on Busuanga Island to the north, is the base for wreck diving. Japanese supply ships sunk during a U.S. air raid in September 1944 lie in relatively shallow, clear water. The hulls have become artificial reefs, and the shallower wrecks are visible to snorkelers from the surface.

Palawan sits within the Coral Triangle, the band of ocean across Southeast Asia and Melanesia with the richest marine biodiversity in the world. Long isolation also produced land animals found nowhere else, among them the Palawan peacock-pheasant and the Palawan bearded pig.

UNESCO named the whole province a Man and the Biosphere Reserve in 1990. Conservation rules and the distance from Manila have kept building lighter than on the region's more developed beach destinations. Many beaches are reachable only by boat, which limits crowds without formal visitor quotas.

The dry season runs roughly from November to May, when seas are calmest for island-hopping.

Illustration: Quartz

The Westfjords form a clawed peninsula in northwest Iceland, joined to the rest of the country by a strip of land only a few miles wide. Fewer than 10,000 people live in the region, and it sees a fraction of the traffic that moves along the Ring Road, despite holding some of the country's steepest coastline.

Latrabjarg, at the westernmost tip of Iceland, ranks among Europe's largest seabird cliffs. It runs for roughly nine miles and rises to about 1,440 feet at its highest point. Puffins, razorbills, guillemots and kittiwakes nest there in dense colonies from late spring into August. The puffins tolerate close approach, but the cliff edges are unstable and unfenced.

Dynjandi is the region's signature waterfall, falling about 330 feet in tiers down a broad rock face. It widens as it descends rather than narrowing, which gives it the fanned shape it is named for locally. A short walk up from the parking area passes several smaller cascades before reaching the base of the main drop.

Isafjordur serves as the regional hub, with an airport, a hospital and a fishing fleet that still anchors the local economy. Sudavik, a short drive east, is home to the Arctic Fox Center, which focuses on Iceland's only native land mammal.

Hornstrandir, the peninsula's northern tip, lost its last permanent residents in the 1950s and is now a nature reserve with no roads. Boats from Isafjordur carry hikers in during summer. The Arctic foxes there are protected and show little fear of people.

Raudasandur, on the southern coast, breaks from Iceland's usual black volcanic sand with a long beach of crushed shell that reads red or gold depending on the light. Hellulaug, near Flokalundur, is a small unstaffed hot pool set into the shoreline rocks above the water.

Summer is the practical season for a visit. Many Westfjords roads are gravel, mountain passes close with early snow, and winter driving here calls for real experience on ice.

Illustration: Quartz

The Isle of Skye is the largest island in Scotland's Inner Hebrides, linked to the mainland by the Skye Bridge since 1995, with ferries still running on shorter routes. Its appeal rests on landforms rather than beaches: serrated peaks, collapsed cliffs and sea stacks shaped by volcanic rock and erosion.

The Cuillin dominate the south of the island. The Black Cuillin are formed largely of gabbro, a coarse rock that grips boot soles and holds some of the most demanding mountaineering terrain in the U.K. Sgùrr Dearg's Inaccessible Pinnacle is the only Munro that requires rock climbing to reach its summit, which stops many hillwalkers short of finishing the full list. The neighboring Red Cuillin are granite, rounder and gentler, and far more approachable without ropes.

Northern Skye holds the Trotternish ridge, the product of a long series of landslips. The Old Man of Storr, a pinnacle left standing when the hillside slumped away, sits at the end of a steady uphill walk of roughly an hour. Farther north, the Quiraing is still moving, and the single-track road crossing it needs regular repair as the ground shifts beneath it.

Crofting shaped where people live here — small tenant holdings worked alongside fishing. Land agitation across the Highlands in the 1880s led to the Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act of 1886, which gave tenants security of tenure. The scattered townships that resulted are still visible from the road.

Dunvegan Castle, on the northwest coast, has been the seat of Clan MacLeod for around 800 years and ranks among Scotland's longest continuously occupied castles. Gaelic remains part of daily life, supported by Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic-medium college at Sleat. Talisker, the island's distillery, has operated at Carbost since 1830.

Rain and low cloud are common even in July, and summer brings midges to sheltered ground near water. Portree and the Fairy Pools draw heavy traffic from June through August, so early starts and shoulder-season trips make the roads and trails much easier to manage.

Illustration: Quartz

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean, and it offers two distinct draws. One is Mount Etna, an active volcano roughly 11,000 feet high. The other is a stack of Greek, Roman, Arab, Norman and Spanish rule still legible in the island's buildings and its food.

Etna sits on the eastern side of the island above Catania and erupts often enough that ash shuts the local airport in some years. UNESCO added the volcano to its World Heritage list in 2013. Guided vehicles and a cable car run on the lower slopes between eruptive phases, and the summit craters can be reached only with authorized guides. The mineral-rich soil below supports the Etna DOC appellation, built largely on the Nerello Mascalese and Carricante grapes grown on terraced slopes.

The Greek inheritance runs strongest in the south and east. The Valley of the Temples outside Agrigento preserves a line of Doric temples from the fifth century B.C. The Temple of Concordia survives there nearly intact, partly because it was later converted into a church. Taormina's Greek theater, begun in the third century B.C. and rebuilt under the Romans, still hosts concerts and film screenings, with Etna visible behind the stage on clear days.

Palermo carries the Arab-Norman layer most visibly. The Cappella Palatina, consecrated in the 12th century inside the Norman Palace, holds Byzantine gold mosaics, a wooden muqarnas ceiling of Islamic design and Latin Christian iconography in a single room. It belongs to a UNESCO listing inscribed in 2015. The city's street food follows the same lineage, from arancini to panelle, the chickpea fritters tied to ingredients introduced during Arab rule.

Southeastern Sicily was rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake, which produced the ornate limestone towns of Noto, Ragusa and Modica. The group is known as Val di Noto and was added to the World Heritage list in 2002. Along the northwest coast, the Zingaro Nature Reserve, established in 1981 as Sicily's first, protects coves and cliff trails reachable only on foot.