Royal Holiday

1. Wakaya (Fiji): A $200 bargain

Wakaya is a truly beautiful and well preserved private island, purchased in the nineteenth century for $200. And there, in this dreamy place of the Fiji archipelago, its current owner, David Gilmour, has built one of the best hotels in the Pacific. For his friends and for those who can appreciate a true paradise.

Wakaya is not one of those islets that you can drive around in five minutes. In its 13 square kilometers, there are hills a few hundred meters high ending in towering cliffs, there are closed forests where deer roam, and there are beaches that look like the last corner of the world, the perfect place to hide. This is the place that customers of the Wakaya Club can enjoy, one of the most exclusive hotels in the Pacific.

Wakaya is within the Lomaiviti group of islands, just east of Viti Levu, the main island of Fiji. There is only one way to get there: to fly in a small aircraft that is the whole fleet of Air Wakaya. It’s a 15-minute flight from the airport of Suva -the capital- flying over the sparkling ocean and some islands surrounded by reefs.

2. Maui (United States): The charm of Hawaii

It is one of the islands that form the most exotic archipelago of the US, but it’s not just any island. Maui is a special place where the beaches, volcanoes, waterfalls and even dawn seem taken from a tale. It is a place where nature seems unreal, no wonder it’s known as “the magical island”.

The sound of “aloha” welcomes you, necklaces and flower tiaras, surfers and pretty girls with hula skirts make up that preconceived popular image of Hawaii, the one you may have seen in countless movies and TV shows. It is obviously much more than that. And within that “much more”, Maui has always had a prominent place. The second largest island of Hawaii boasts, in the South Pacific, having taken a good slice of natural charms when volcanoes distributed its beauty through the archipelago. Hawaiians themselves admit this with their Maui no ka oi, “Maui is the best”, and even the legend tells it: the demigod named Maui pulled out all the islands from the bottom of the sea with his magical hook. And the island that he named must have kept much of that magic, as it has been crowned the best island in the world by the international press on many occasions. Different from the other Hawaiian islands, with small towns, a leisurely lifestyle and natural wonders such as the Haleakala National Park, Maui is famous for its long beaches, waterfalls, romantic sunsets and a broad variety of adventurous activities.

3. Palau (Republic of Palau): Diving in private

There are thousands of islands scattered across the Pacific Ocean that offer the best gifts of nature. But if what you really like is to enjoy a unique place, where besides dreaming you can go diving in the strictest privacy with 350 species of coral and 1,400 species of fish, that place is the archipelago of Palau.

The Palau have never been involved in any headlines in the international press nor are they excessively known by the general public. Perhaps that is why they have become the secret refuge of such characters as the director of Titanic, James Cameron; and Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. A set of islands that no more than a hundred years ago were under Spanish sovereignty until they were sold to Germany in 1899, along with the Mariana and the Caroline Islands. The nature here is impressive. The feeling of paradise that invades its landscapes is overwhelming. The transparency of its crystalline waters is almost insulting, and splendor of its nature is immeasurable. So many adjectives that have led them to become, in recent years, one of the five preferred destinations for scuba divers.

4. New Caledonia (France): An almost perfect cocktail

In a shaker, we put a bunch of Melanesian culture, a few drops of Eastern exoticism and a nature so primitive that it would seem as if it were taken from an album of children’s cards. We then add the finest essence of French “savoir-faire” and place it in the Pacific Ocean. An almost perfect cocktail. It’s called New Caledonia.

Image courtesy of https://flic.kr/p/tajuXg at Flickr.com

5. Aitutaki (Cook Islands): The dream of the South Seas

Aitutaki seamlessly combines all the elements that define the dream island of the South Seas: a barrier reef surrounding a lagoon of waters of impossible color, white sandy beaches, palm trees, and the most admired dancers in Polynesia. 

6. Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia): A goal of artists and adventurers

We know the innermost archipelago in the planet by the paintings of Paul Gauguin, the trips of famous adventurers and the works of great writers such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Herman Melville, or Jack London. They created a myth that still captivates those seeking a holiday in peace.

7. Tonga (Kingdom of Tonga): The land where time is born

Tonga, the Kingdom of 169 islands, is a place where so many Western beliefs contradict themselves that it could only be born in a different time. A favored place of humpback whales, this is the only nation in the Pacific that has never been colonized and it is just above where the time zone ends… or begins.