Travelling to the world's most isolated islands
Below we have listed some of the world’s most isolated island locations, complete with instructions on the easiest ways to access them.
If you are planning on visiting any of the following exotic locations please bear in mind that they all require long journey times and some of them may have certain traveller restrictions in place, so do visit the island’s tourism website to check out all the serious stuff. You can find links to each of the islands' tourism websites below each island heading.
The islands or island groups covered on this page are; Tristan da Cunha, Easter Island, Hawaii, Bermuda, the Galapagos Islands, Christmas Island, Tonga, Pitcairn Island, the Falkland Islands, Iceland, Tokelau and the Faroe Islands.
TRISTAN DA CUNHA
Tristan da Cunha is home to the world’s remotest community and is situated 1,509 miles from it's nearest neighbour, the equally remote island of St Helena, in the south Atlantic Ocean.
Tristan da Cunha is a British overseas territory which is only accessible by boat, from it's small harbour located near it's capital city, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, pictured above.
You can find the Tristan da Cunha shipping timetable by visiting - www.tristandc.com/ships.
Three ships a year make the 1,743 mile journey from South Africa’s capital city, Cape Town, a journey of about five days, and various mail or cargo vessels make the 1,509 mile journey, which takes around four days, from the remote island of St Helena or the 2,021 mile journey from Tristan Da Cunha's other neighbour, the equally remote Atlantic isle of Ascension Island.
Image courtesy of Michael Clarke, wikimedia commons.
EASTER ISLAND / RAPA NUI
Easter island is a region of Chile which is situated 1,242 miles from it's nearest neighbour, the equally remote Pitcairn Island, in the south Pacific Ocean. Easter Island is renowned for it's eight hundred and eighty seven monolithic statues, pictured above, which have rendered the whole island a national park and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The island's tiny Mataveri International Airport, located at Hanga Roa, is the world's remotest airport and can be accessed by way of a nine hour flight from Chile’s capital city, Santago, or by way of a five and a half hour flight from Fa’aa International Airport on the equally remote Pacific island of Tahiti in French Polynesia.
Image courtesy of Ian Sewell, wikimedia commons.
For Australia, New Zealand and other Pacific / Oceanic Island flight times, visit our page - flight-durations-around-oceania
HAWAII
Despite this Polynesian archipelago of hundreds of islands being situated across 1,500 miles of Pacific Ocean and located 994 miles from it's nearest neighbour, as they are an American State they are surprisingly easy to access.
Hawaii is both the U.S.A's only island state and it's youngest state and is synonomous with high end, exotic holidays. Because of this the island chain is easily accessible from most major airports in the U.S.A or by way of direct flights from several Asian, Australian and New Zealand cities to it's capital city Honalulu situated on the island of Oahu, pictured above.
From the island of Oahu there are also several daily flights or sea crossings over to neighbouring islands by way of local air or sea services.
Image courtesy of Cristo Vlahos, wikimedia commons.
BERMUDA
Bermuda, also known as the Somers Islands, is a British Overseas Territory situated in the Sargasso Sea, which lie 667 miles from it's nearest neighour on the east coast of the U.S.A.
Bermuda is renowned for it’s pink beaches, pictured above, scenic golf courses and laid back lifestyle, which have made the island a tourist hot spot on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Bermuda is accessed by way of a two hour flight from several north east coastal cities in the U.S.A or by way of a seven hour and forty five minute, direct flight, from London, England, to it's L.F.Wade International Airport located on St David's Island.
Image courtesy of the Bermuda Ministry of Tourism.
THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS
Situated 500 miles from the west coast of Ecuador, this Pacific archipelago of sixteen islands and numerous rocky outcrops which straddle the Equator, are renowned for their unique eco - systems and giant Galapagos Island tortoises, shown above.
The islands are served by two airports, one on the Island of Baltra and one on the island of San Cristobal. There are daily flights to the islands from Mariscal Sucre International Airport located in Ecuador’s capital city, Quito, which take around two hours, and daily, one and a half hour flights, from Jose Joaquin de Olmedo International Airport, located in Ecuador's largest city, Guayaquil.
Image courtesy of David Adam Kess, wikimedia commons.
CHRISTMAS ISLAND
This Australian island territory, named after it's discovery on Christmas Day 1643, is situated in the Indian Ocean some 560 miles from it's nearest neighbour, Cocos Island, and is renowned for it's unique eco - system, endemic plant, animal and bird species and it's annual, red crab, migration every November, pictured above.
Despite it’s isolation Christmas Island is easily accessible by way of one, two hour and thirty five minute flight every week from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and four flights a week, which take around three and a half hours, from Perth International Airport in Western Australia.
Image courtesy of Rebecca Dominguez, wikimedia commons.
TONGA
This Pacific island kingdom is the world's remotest monarchy situated 552 miles from it's nearest neighbour, the equally remote Republic of Samoa, which is just a one hour and twenty three minute flight away.
The island is served by the tiny, Fua’amotu Airport, situated just outside it’s capital city of Nuku'alofa, where five hour flights from Sydney in Australia, two hour and forty minute flights from Auckland in New Zealand and various other Pacific island flights can be taken.
Image courtesy of Stefan Heinrich, wikimedia commons.
PITCAIRN ISLAND
Britain's second most remote overseas territory, the tiny Pacific island of Pitcairn, is renowned for having been populated by HMS Bounty mutineer Fletcher Christian and his crew in 1767, where the island's Bounty Bay, pictured above, was their first landfall.
Pitcairn is situated 298 miles from it’s nearest neighbour, Mangareva Island in the Gambier Islands of French Polynesia, and is only accessible by boat, a journey of about thirty two hours.
You can find the Pitcairn Island shipping timetable by visiting - www.visitpitcairn.pn/claymore2.
Flights to Mangareva Island, which is served by a small airport at Totegegie, can be taken by way of a two and a half hour flight from Fa’aa International Airport on the Pacific Island of Tahiti in French Polynesia, where a seven hour and twenty minute flight from Sydney in Australia, a five hour and twenty minute flight from Auckland in New Zealand, an eight hour and ten minute flight from Los Angeles in California or a twelve hour and twenty minute flight, via Los Angeles, from Paris, can all be taken.
Image courtesy of MakeMake, wikimedia commons.
THE FALKLAND ISLANDS
Yet another British Overseas Territory, the Falkland Islands, are an archipelago of 778 rugged and wind swept islands, islets and rocky outcrops which lie 287 miles from the Argentinian coast in the south Atlantic Ocean.
The islands are served by the Mount Pleasant Airport which accepts twice weekly flights from the Comodoro Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport in Chile's capital city Santiago, a flight of nine hours and ten minutes, and the Presidente Carlos Ibanez del Campo International Airport in Punta Arenas, Chile, a flight of five hours and five minutes.
Image courtesy of Ben Tubby, wikimedia commons.
ICELAND
Europe’s remotest island the Republic of Iceland is situated in the north Atlantic Ocean 180 miles from the west coast of it’s nearest neighbour, Greenland.
Lying just short of the Arctic Circle and renowned for it’s midnight sun, raised oceanic ridge and ancient, geothermal geysers, Iceland is just a two hour flight from it’s nearest neighbour’s capital city of Nuuk, which is situated 1,435 miles from Iceland’s capital city, Reykyavik.
The shortest flight times to Iceland from Europe are from the United Kingdom, which take just over three hours from several major British airports to Iceland's Keflavik International Airport.
Direct flights to Iceland from major cities in the north east of the U.S.A or eastern Canada take between five and six hours.
Image courtesy of Brad Weber, wikimedia commons.
TOKELAU
The New Zealand territory of Tokelau is another island which is only accessible by boat, in this case by way of the MV Tokelau, pictured above, which makes just one crossing a month from the neighbouring island of Samoa.
The journey time from Samoa's capital city Apia, to Tokelau's largest settlement Fakaofo, takes around thirty six hours. There are no scheduled passages, so visitors will only be able to make the journey if they happen to be in Samoa when the boat is going out.
Accessing the island of Samoa is not quite so problematic, as the 2,924 km journey can be taken from Auckland in New Zealand by way of a three hour and forty six minute flight.
Image courtesy of Cloud Surfer, wikimedia commons.
FAROE ISLANDS
The Faroe Islands are an archipelago of eighteen islands located in the north Atlantic Ocean some 450 miles east of Iceland, 320 miles west of mainland Scotland and nearly one thousand miles from their motherland of Denmark.
The island chain are quite easily accessible by way of regular flights from Denmark, Scotland, Iceland or the Republic of Ireland to the group's only airport, Vagar Airport, situated on Vagar Island or by regular ferry services, also from either Denmark, Scotland, Iceland or the Republic of Ireland, to the island group's largest island of Streymor. The islands of Vagar and Streymor are linked by way of an underwater tunnel.
The island group as a whole is further served by reguler inter-island ferry services or by way of a series of inter-island road bridges.
Image courtesy of Loranchet, wikimedia commons.
If you are interested in visiting any of the South Pacific Islands visit our sister site - South Pacific Island travel - where you can find more information about the above mentioned South Pacific islands or the many others that are located there.
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