Out of This World – the Top Five Remote Island Destinations for the Eco-Traveller

Cruise Passenger Magazine’s Adventure Cruise Guide Names the Top Five Remote Island Destinations Accessible Only by Expedition Vessel.

Our planet is transforming every day. The climate is changing, forests are vanishing, endangered species disappear daily and the polar ice is melting at an alarming rate.

All this could be a good reason to stay at home and lock the door, but adventure and expedition cruisers are travelling like, well, there is no tomorrow.

Small ships and expedition vessels, often with less than 100 passengers aboard, transport environmentally sensitive and ecologically aware travellers to some of the world’s most remote and fragile destinations on Earth.

“Expedition cruising is quite possibly the purest form of ecotourism,” says Roderick Eime, editor of Adventure Cruise Guide, “Adventure ships take small numbers of thoughtful people to places where there is no infrastructure and leave nothing behind.”

“Some of the world’s most remarkable destinations can only be reached aboard a small ship – and thank goodness for that.”

Here are five such destinations you can’t fly to or ever hope to visit aboard a 3000-passenger behemoth.

1. Macquarie Island, Australia

Inhabited by around 20 Australian scientists and support staff, Macquarie has only featured as a ‘tourist’ destination since adventure vessels heading to the Antarctic started looking for somewhere to break the many days at sea.

2. Fatu Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia

The second most remote archipelago in the world (next to Hawai’i) is the Marquesas. Fatu Hiva is well known as centre for Marquesan arts and crafts, centred around the village of Omoa on the western coast and has one of the largest selections anywhere in the archipelago.

3. Espanola (Hood) Island, Galápagos Islands

Tiny Espanola was named by the Spanish for, you guessed it, Spain. The British also named it after the famous naval man, Samuel Hood.

4. Deception Island, Antarctica

This collapsed volcanic caldera off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula is one of the most talked about islands on any of the southerly itineraries.

5. Beechey Island, Canadian Arctic (74°43′N 091°51′W)

If it weren’t for some odd blips in history, Beechey Island would still be the infinitesimal featureless, uninhabited satellite of its much larger neighbour, Devon Island in Canada’s Wellington Channel.

The fourth edition of Cruise Passenger Magazine’s Adventure Cruise Guide contains all the information you need to travel to any of these impossibly remote locations with a comprehensive listing of all major operators. You can also learn what to pack, who is cruising and what adventurous add-ons are available to extend your adventure.

The 2011 Adventure Cruise Guide is available in selected newsagents, by direct request and online at www.adventurecruiseguide.com