It doesn’t matter if you’re in Washington, D.C. The epic antidote to the Northern hemisphere's chilly climes Jonathan Melmoth South Island, New Zealand | Andrew Peacock/Getty Images Just be sure to follow that up with more nothing. Take a shipwreck-dive if you’ve got the nerve (the black-tip sharks like it down there too). Inland, hike up the verdant Mount Tapioi or hack through bamboo jungle to a trio of cascading waterfalls. For a dose of culture, head to the UNESCO-approved archaeological site at Taputapuatea, featuring some of the best blocks of stone this side of Easter Island. There aren’t any beaches, but you can take a boat out to a motu (an uninhabited tuft of palm trees and white sand poking out of a lagoon) and live out your desert-island fantasy. Just find yourself a hammock and breathe in the hibiscus-scented air. And anyway, it’s only a 45-minute flight from the capital, Papeete. Jade peaks, swaying palms and a thousand shades of brilliant blue - this is the kind of place you see on the front cover of a travel magazine and announce “ Phwoar, it’s amazing what they can do with Photoshop these days.” As for the “faraway” part - sure, it’s a little trickier to get to than cruise-accessible Tahiti and honeymooner-infested Bora Bora, but that just means means it’s a taste of a quieter, wilder, more wondrous French Polynesia. Raiatea means “faraway heaven,” and it delivers on that promise. Society Islands, French Polynesia | maloff/ShutterstockĪn under-the-radar South Pacific paradise MORE: Want to avoid tourists? Check out these under-the-radar Greek Islands. And if you’ve got your heart set on rocky hills dropping into crystalline waters, look no further than Balos beach, one of the true treasures of the Mediterranean. The largest Greek island, Crete is also home to one of Europe’s most dramatic canyons, the Samaria Gorge, perfect for a daylong hike through stunning mountainsides (keep an eye out for the endemic Cretan wild goat, the kri-kri). And in this part of Greece, ordering a raki won’t get you the ouzo-esque Turkish tipple rakı, but rather a Cretan version of grappa. You’ll spy, for example, an oddly rounded gift shop that looks out of place along Chania’s gorgeous old Venetian waterfront, until you learn it used to be a Turkish mosque. Over the course of its history Crete has played host, with varying degrees of reluctance, to Roman, Venetian, and Turkish empires, whose cultural and architectural influences all converge on the island if you look close enough. You get it.Ĭrete has a flavor all its own. A whitewashed chapel on a cliffside ledge. Dry, rocky hills drop dramatically into crystalline waters. Don’t get us wrong - we love the Greek islands, but they can blend together after a while.
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