Read more in our Ultimate Best Islands to Live On Guide.

Tonga

Vancouver Island

Tuvalu, Fiji

Lombok

Hvar, Croatia

Roatan, Honduras

Palau

Dominica

New Zealand

Florianopolis, Brazil

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If you’re keen on the idea of island living, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of cons. Fresh, tropical fruits, soft, sandy beaches and unique, communal cultures are all part of the full package when living on an island. From prices for housing and local cuisines to distinct, cultural qualities, each island is different, though. Finding the right one for you can be difficult.

Luckily, the Islands team has surveyed expats, researched the costs and made scouting trips to the world’s most enticing islands. The result: our list of the 20 best islands to live on.

Travel Down Under to New Zealand for a true, au naturel experience (this is also one of the best places for foodies). Head to Malaysia, and put down a relatively small amount for a piece of an island in one of the most culturally packed places in the world: Southeast Asia. Looking to stay in this hemisphere, try Culebra, Puerto Rico, that’s just 15 miles off the coast of the U.S. territory.

Whatever your interests or wherever you’re looking, read on for our list of the best islands to live on.

No. 20 – Hvar, Croatia

20. Hvar, Croatia

This Croatian island straddles the line dividing “historic” and “trendy.” Villas with views of the sea can be found in the $500,000 range and up. Fixer-upper stone houses and vacant lots, on the other hand, hit a much lower end of the cost spectrum. If island fever hits, ferries head to neighboring, rarely visited islands daily.

No. 19 – Culebra, Puerto Rico

19. Culebra, Puerto Rico

Fifteen miles off the east coast of Puerto Rico is the tiny island with a public school and a year-round population of about 2,500. It’s quieter than Vieques, even. Flying a family of four to San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital, and back to the U.S. can be done for a little more than $1,000, and the ferry to mainland Puerto Rico is only a few U.S. dollars, making it one of the best tropical places to live.

No. 18 – Vanuatu

18. Vanuatu

The laid-back lifestyle and need for very few possessions are huge attractions to people considering a move to these South Pacific islands. The island folks are among the friendliest in the world because, as photographer Jon Whittle says, “They don’t stress themselves with the things that occupy the western world.” Beachfront homes start as low as $350,000. The town of Port Vila is more mainstream with sidewalk cafés and an amateur expat theater group.

No. 17 – Penang, Malaysia

17. Penang, Malaysia

Relocating here is a relatively simple process because of Malaysia’s “My Second Home Program.” Deposit $90,000 in a local bank, and you can come and go as you please on one of the cheapest islands to live on. Major residential projects have been developed recently.

No. 16 – Ambergris Caye, Belize

16. Ambergris Caye, Belize

Life moves slowly on this tax-free, English-speaking island off Belize. Transportation is by golf cart or bicycle, but telecommunications are modern. There’s a fun night-life scene in San Pedro, and, as the town’s main sign says, “You won’t be a stranger for long.” Modern resorts offer real-estate investments. Belizean Cove Estates, for example, has a three-bedroom, 2300-square-foot, furnished, beachfront villa available for sale for $800,000.

No. 15 – Anguilla

15. Anguilla

Pictures of the island’s centenarian population line the walls of Anguilla’s national heritage museum, a positive sign for retirees. With enough beaches to visit one per day for a month, it’s no wonder people live to 100 here.

No. 14 – Bocas Del Toro, Panama

14. Bocas Del Toro, Panama

A solid expat community organizes barbecues and beach outings. There’s no minimum age requirement to be considered a retiree and collect benefits in Panama. We’ve seen jungle lodges (homes) listed at under $200,000. Want to get a taste of Bocas del Toro? The Red Frog Beach Island Resort & Spa offers villas, island lots, jungle lodges, residence-club units and marina slips in the most ideal setting one can imagine.

No. 13 – Mallorca, Spain

13. Mallorca, Spain

The cost of living on the Spanish island is less than it is in many other European population centers, with villas and homes available from around the mid-$300s. A network of exclusive (and costly) private schools offers British curriculums and bilingual language lessons. All of that said, you can elect to pay $20 million for a perch on a rock overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

No. 12 – St. Thomas, USVI

12. St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

Most flights into the U.S. Virgin Islands go through St. Thomas, which helps explain why it’s home to the most expats among the USVI group. The infrastructure is hard to beat, with major home-improvement stores (you’ll be a frequent visitor) and public transportation. The result is more jobs, too. And the airport means more trips from friends and family back in the States.

No. 11 – Palau

11. Palau

Most islanders speak English, and the currency is the U.S. dollar. Yet, your feet are far away from other population centers: 500 miles east of the Philippines, to be exact. Those who move to this South Pacific island group typically do it for the underwater adventures.

No. 10 – Philippines

10. Philippines

Yes, there’s still undeveloped, beachfront property available on Siargao Island in the Philippines. But more “supply side” real estate is in the realm of rustic homes and villas — traditional island life. One Islands contributor who moved here says he did it mostly because of the people: “Everyone is quick to smile, old and young, and that kind of attitude is contagious. You can’t put a price on it.”

No. 9 – Fiji

9. Fiji

The expat community on Taveuni is growing because of available beachfront property and easy access to the main Fijian island of Viti Levu. English is spoken in schools, but lessons in Fijian culture are central to the curriculum. Property with ocean views and natural settings are found in the $400k range, depending on the island — often with solar power and rain-water catchments.

8. Kauai

Beautiful American islands combining both luxury, beauty and relaxation are sometimes tough to come by. But look no further than Kauai. The average life expectancy on Kauai is among the best in the U.S., due in large part to the natural setting and fresh foods. The population density here is half of that on other Hawaiian islands, and many people drive their vehicles fewer than 1,000 miles annually. One of the island’s nicest, new communities is Kukuila, where home prices range from $2.2 million to $8 million.

7. Turks and Caicos

The majority of people live on Providenciales (aka Provo), including expats who have obtained residency by investing at least $250,000 in property. Eight airlines offer nonstop service from the States, and tourism has created a job market. For those who want complete solitude, Middle Caicos is three times the size of Provo but with a year-long population of only about 300 people (better have a job you can do from a really remote locale).

6. Maui

Maui is one of our top-three choices every year for raising a family. Children can grow up in an exotic culture but still receive an education on par with that in major American cities (or better). Field trips embrace nature: whale-watching tours, hiking and snorkeling excursions, to name a few. Being outside year-round has proven through medical studies to result in healthier and longer lives.

No. 5 – St. John, USVI

5. St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands

St. John is the most frequently mentioned island when we ask our Facebook friends where they’d consider moving. Because it’s a U.S. territory, the transition is easier than most, yet the Caribbean vibe is strong (“the happiest happy hours and breeziest open-air lunches,” according to contributor David Lahuta). The island has 7,000 acres of national park and is notoriously hilly, which means a Jeep should be in the plans, making it one of the best islands to live on.

No. 4 – Roatan, Honduras

4. Roatan, Honduras

Away from Roatan’s busy West End, the main island in the Bay Island group is largely undeveloped. There’s a close-knit American expat population and a growing list of direct flights to U.S. cities.

“Expats don’t have time to rot in front of the TV,” says one local. Volunteering at places like the expat-inspired medical clinic bonds newcomers with other islanders.

No. 3 – Bahamas

3. Bahamas

It’s cheating to lump the Bahamas into one spot on the top-20 list. On a sparsely developed island like Eleuthera, entrepreneurs could find a niche (the place needs auto mechanics). Out in the Exumas, it’s a different world where high-rollers have been buying private little island spits for as much as $85 million (hey, it includes a house with space for 22 people and the boats are included.

And then there’s Nassau, the melting pot. As one friend says about her family life there: “Our kids are exposed to the whole world through their classmates at school.”

No. 2 – New Zealand

2. New Zealand

Away from the busy hubs of Auckland and Wellington are places like this: Mr. Nicholas Station, a working farm on the South Island. People who move to New Zealand’s more civilized regions praise the good roads, schools and health-care systems, but the biggest draw is the clean outdoors, which also means organic, fresh food and fresher air.

No. 1 – Hawaii’s Big Island

1. Hawaii’s Big Island

Combine all of the Hawaiian islands (Maui, Oahu, Kaunai, Lanai, Molokai and their smaller siblings), and the entire land area still doesn’t add up to Hawaii’s big island. Yet, the population is shy of 200,000, providing opportunities for a myriad of activities. One colleague who moved here more than 10 years ago says, “I wound up in a village called Volcano, atop Kilausea. To do it, I had to ignore the advice of more than few friends. I eventually admitted, ‘Yes, I’m foolish. Maybe I’ll come back to Earth in six months.’ I haven’t come down yet.”

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Best Islands to Live On | Best Beachfront Hotels for $200 a Night or Less | Caribbean Snorkeling Resorts

10. Kastawei Island, Vanuatu: $199,000

Kastawei Island may be just less than an acre in size, but this little piece of real estate has a natural bay that’s perfect for a boat — and some of the prettiest water we’ve ever seen.

Learn more about Kastawei Island on privateislandsmag.com.

9. Tahifehifa Island, Tonga: $370,205

Just beyond the surrounding reef, you can spot whales in the water — while standing on your own beach.

Learn more about Tahifehifa Island on privateislandsmag.com.

8. Pink Pearl Island, Nicaragua: $500,000

Besides your own tropical paradise, the purchase of this island also comes with three thatch bungalows (your new home) and a speedboat (appropriately named The Black Pearl) to take you to the mainland — if you ever decide to leave.

Learn more about Pink Pearl Island on privateislandsmag.com.

7. Motu Opuou, French Polynesia: $742,886

This might be the perfect island. Flanked by two larger islands, Motu Opuou is protected from winds, and a barrier reef offshore keeps the lagoon water crystal clear.

Learn more about Motu Opuou on privateislandsmag.com.

6. Pelican Cay, Bahamas: $2,500,000

Yep, you can own 3 acres of pure bliss on this Bahama island. During the day, go snorkeling at the reef, and at night, curl up in your private one-bedroom bungalow under the coconut palms.

Learn more about Pelican Cay on privateislandsmag.com.

5. Bannister Caye, Belize: $2,500,000

This 2.8-acre island is currently leased out as cruise-ship stop, where lucky guests can enjoy snorkeling or hanging out on the floating trampoline. But when it’s all yours, the only guest you have to please is, well, you.

Learn more about Bannister Caye on privateislandsmag.com.

4. Dumunpalit, Philippines: $3,400,000

Dumunpalit also goes by Turtle Island, a nod to the 150-plus-foot-high volcanic towers that resemble fins flipping through the turquoise waters.

Learn more about Dumunpalit on privateislandsmag.com.

3. Portofino Caye, Belize: $4,500,000

Get the whole fam to pitch in for this Caribbean island. With three villas, separate staff quarters, an open-air palapa (perfect for family gatherings), six gazebos, commercial-grade kitchen facilities, a secluded plunge pool and a private marina, you’ll have all the space in the world to stay as close (or as far away) as possible.

Learn more about Portofino Caye on privateislandsmag.com.

2. Manuhangi Atoll, French Polynesia: $8,667,003

Who needs a private pool when you can have a private lagoon surrounded by a coral reef?

Learn more about Manuhangi Atoll on privateislandsmag.com.

1. Saddle Back Cay, Bahamas: $12,995,000

Saddle Back Cay is named after the saddle shape of the island. Want to see it for youself? The island boasts a killer 360-degree view from one of the highest points in the Exumas. When you feel like coming back down to sea level, a hidden sandbar that appears with the rise and fall of the tides is the perfect place to feel grounded again.

Learn more about Saddle Back Cay on privateislandsmag.com.

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I’ll call her Anna.

She had a long and slender face and a pear-shaped figure, and she moved gracefully through the water, ballerina-like, gently undulating and occasionally performing pirouettes. I stopped cold when I first spotted her. My heartbeat quickened, and as she drifted slowly past I reached out my hand and waved. This probably sounds silly—waving at an animal—but at the time it seemed like an entirely appropriate reaction. For what we were having, this creature and I, could only be described as a moment—a chance encounter sustained by mutual curiosity. As Anna came to within six feet from my face, and checked me out, I looked directly into her eye. She was the prettiest whale I’d ever seen.

There is whale “watching”—you spend three hours on the deck of a boat glued to binoculars, and consider yourself lucky if you see a whale breach the water, but you’ll settle for fluke sightings—and then there’s swimming with these gentle giants, an experience of true contact that approaches something spiritual. There are only three countries in the world were such intimate encounters are allowed, including the Kingdom of Tonga, a remote archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean. Tonga’s deputy prime minister, whom I met in the sleepy capital town, Nuku’alofa, explained that this was a direct result of his own clever lobbying in the mid-90s. “I said to the IWC”—the International Whaling Commission—“there’s two choices: we can either eat the whales, or we can swim with them,” he told me, chuckling at the memory. “I was only joking. But it worked.”

Most Tongan whale tour operators run day trips out of the northern Vava’u group of islands, but our boat, the Fiji-based NAI’A, is the area’s only liveaboard, and leads 10-day sojourns around the relatively empty Ha’apai Island group during the whale’s winter breeding season. Humpback whales spend a few months a year around Tonga birthing, mating, competing, sleeping and socializing—everything but eating, which they do the rest of the time in Antarctica. We would witness up close the full range of whale behaviors: breaching, singing, fin slapping, and lollygagging, an unscientific term for the idle activity that our affable British guide Sam described as best for encounters. (Put another way: try to hold their interest when they seem to have nothing better to do.)

Anna demonstrated to us the tender ways of homeschooling—a mother’s education in the ways of being a whale. This sublime moment, however, was abruptly disturbed by another fact of life. As the two circled closely around me, a lone male suddenly emerged from the depths below. Such was his brash arrival that I quickly branded him a rogue, and I scrambled away to avoid a possible collision. Clearly, Anna felt the same way: she flicked the hopeful mate off with a mighty tail strike, and took off with her calf, disappearing quickly into the oblivion. The male slinked off, out of sight.

The scene reverted to an empty blue space, and I looked down into the void. Twenty feet below, a solitary white-tip reef shark was swimming by.

Nearly three-quarters of all the animal extinctions recorded in the past 500 years have occurred on oceanic islands. Of the most recent extinctions, the greatest concentration have taken place in Hawaii, but islands throughout the world—most of which are high in endemic species not found elsewhere—all face the similar perils of human being rise, habitat demise, and invasive species. Island peoples are often faced with what they see as a choice between conserving their natural resources and providing for their own. This is often a false choice—but sometimes conservation does require a little incentive.

Seacology, a Berkeley, Calif.-based organization devoted to preserving island environments, steps in with that. They propose to island communities what they call “win-win” deals: the islanders receive a tangible benefit—something they say they’re in need of—in exchange for a commitment to protect their local environment. The funds needed to build themselves a school, in exchange for establishing a 30,000-acre forest reserve, say. A power generator for a marine protected area. On Hainan Island in China, Seacology funded the education of children in four villages in exchange for protecting the habitat of the highly endangered Hainan gibbon. In a village in the Philippines, they supported the construction of guardhouses, conservation area patrol boats, equipment, buoys and signage, and also purchased cashew production equipment to encourage an alternative economic lifestyle; the community in turn established large marine and mangrove-protected areas for 25 years.

The investments are relatively small–$25,000 here, $15,000 there—and the results are measurable and immediate: Seacology projects are currently protecting nearly two million acres of coral reef and island terrestrial habitat worldwide.

Swimming with whales was what you might call our incentive for the main purpose of this trip, which was to visit a new Seacology project in Tonga. A few times a year Seacology organizes such expeditions, which are open to anyone and combine scuba diving, snorkeling, hiking or kayaking with a visit to an island community that has received Seacology support. The community visits amount to only a brief part of the trip, but the cultural immersion is unique and not the conventional reception—the songs, the dances, the jaded locals—that typically greets an island tourist. At least this is how I felt during our visit to Felemea.

Around 200 people live in Felemea, one of two villages on ‘Uiha Island in central Tonga. It’s subsistence living: pigs, fish, bananas, taro. In 2008 the Tongan government, with funding from Australia, established six marine protected areas in the Ha’apai Island group, including a 4,000-acre zone around Felemea. The waters off shore contain clams, sea slugs, seaweeds, crab, lobster and reef fish—resources of high commercial value that have been threatened by overfishing. The designation of the “special management area” around Felemea prohibited outsiders from fishing there, and mandated that the villagers themselves use it sustainably. But local management of the marine reserve lacked focus. Seacology offered the villagers some encouragement: $25,003 to refurbish Felemea’s existing community hall—tiling, repainting, electrical repairs, a plastic water tank, etc.—for their engagement in protecting 368 acres of marine habitat over ten years.

“The Ministry of Fisheries in Tonga had been there for years, but tying the [reserve] to something that so immediately benefits them has really brought it home on another level,” Duane Silverstein, Seacology’s executive director, told me. “As does the mere fact that 15 of us came from the United States to a village that doesn’t often receive people from outside just see what they are doing with conservation.”

The villagers had prepared a grand ceremony for our arrival. A group of village women greeted us as we landed on the beach with hand-woven flower necklaces. The community hall, nearby, was a basic, low-lying white and blue structure; the cement veranda was ornamented with beautiful tapa cloths, the traditional painted fabrics that Tongan women make from the bark of a paper mulberry tree. Villagers milled about, sitting in the shade, sitting on chairs under a white tent that had been erected on the grass outside the hall. A two-man band—crooner, synthesizer—played tunes through a set of loud speakers.

The event—billed on a printed schedule as a “prayer program” to mark the hall’s completion—was kicked off by a beautiful hymn that the men and women of Felemea sang in harmonies. This was followed by speeches.

“Before the completion of the hall, it was almost like nothing to us,” the emcee, a Felemea man, delivered earnestly. “There were too many holes. It was dusty. But we are more than grateful for the kindness and the love that you have donated on us. In the new hall are the local products made by the poor hands of our people.” After he said this, he paused to stop his tears. “I know for sure it won’t be worth the great amount that you have helped us. But this is the best that we have. We’ve given it with all our hearts. And please do accept it, and take it to your home as a souvenir. As a remembrance of this poor island.”

The band struck up a festive tune and after a ribbon cutting we were danced and twirled into the village hall by local women. On the tables inside were laid woven purses and hand fans and necklaces and trays, on which was painted: “Tonga Friendly Island.” (This was the nickname Captain James Cook gave the islands after his warm reception in 1773; it was insincere—the islanders plotted to kill him—but it’s not untrue, either, and out of it Tonga inherited a great marketing slogan.)

Outside the hall, the villagers had laid out enormous banquet. Mussels steamed in banana leaves and whole roasted pigs and taro and shredded beef and grilled fish. The emcee introduced a series of traditional dances, performed solo by teenage girls in tapa dresses, whose arms glistened from coconut oil that stuck the paper money that other villagers walked up to offer them. “Unlike the vigorous tamure of Tahiti and Cook Islands or the swaying hula of Hawaii,” explained a dated pamphlet on Tongan dancing I’d picked up at the main airport, “dancing in Tonga is a dignified, graceful portrayal of the choreographer’s art.”

But what the Felemeans later presented was more like Tongan vaudeville. A large lady in a tapa skirt stepped out to the music adorned in a boa of red balloons and a necklace strung with aluminum soda cans. Her slow hand twirling mimicked traditional dance movements but the absurdity of her outfit had the locals in stitches. “Have you seen enough? Or do you have time for one more dance?” the emcee asked us. Cue the boxers: two women in plastic grass skirts emerged wearing red boxing gloves and proceeded to pretend spar with each other. One of them walked over to the audience, over to me, and poised her arm for a right uppercut. She faked the punch, and I threw my head back. She landed another. On the third, I collapsed to the ground, feigning knockout. The villagers laughed approvingly, and my looming adversary—our group would later nickname her Tonga Tina—took her her plastic pearl necklace and offered it to me, as if to say: “Thank you for playing.”

We had been sailing for about an hour when someone called out from the top deck: “Thar she blows! 11:00 off the bow!” After several days on the NAI’A, the mere sight of whales often provoked a tepid response. I grabbed my camera from the dining room, where two other guests sat playing gin rummy.

“There’s a whale out there!” I told them. “Yeah, I heard. We only get up for two,” one replied jokingly, nose in his cards.

It was true: we had all become a little jaded, or maybe, just spoiled. No less appreciative of the beauty of these animals; no less exhilarated by a majestic, out-of-water breach, or entertained by a pod of lollygaggers slapping their pectoral fins, or endeared by one poking its head up vertically to steal a glance above the surface (“spyhopping”), or marveled by the raw and rowdy energy of a group of males in hot pursuit of a female (a “heat run”). But we had all been touched more deeply, below the surface.

That afternoon we tracked a pod of pilot whales that had become curious about our boat, and we set out in the skiffs to follow them. Pilot whales are actually dolphins, and move swift and torpedo-like through the water. The boatman sped in front of the pod and turned off the motor. “Get in!” he said. I put on my snorkel and slid quietly into the water. Immediately, the pod surrounded us, whizzing by in all directions. They produced an overwhelming soundscape of high-pitched whistles that called to mind squealing pigs. I looked down as a dark body rapidly approached me from below, and it passed by four feet from my face. I stared straight into its right eye for a second—and then it was gone.

Her name was Princess Mele Siu’ilikutapu Kalaniuvalu Fotofili, but she said to just call her Mary. According to protocol, I addressed her as “Your Royal Highness,” and it occurred to me, after I did, that I’d never said those words before, to anyone. Tonga is the only South Pacific island nation to have avoided formal colonization (although it became a British protectorate for a time, and recently became a constitutional monarchy). On our last day in Tonga, on the main island of Tongatapu, Seacology had arranged for our group to have an audience with the eccentric King of Tonga, George Tupou V, whose family dynasty traces back to 950 A.D. He was out of the country on official business; Mary, his niece, obliged. We visited her at her small estate, which sat on the edge of a tranquil bay at the now overgrown site of Tonga’s original wharf.

Dressed in a white-and-black flowered dress, red shawl and pearl necklace, Mary had the dignified and elegant presence of a royal, and the unassuming warmth of a Pacific islander—a “friendly” islander. She is now in her 60s, and her English accent carried the 22 years she spent living in New Zealand. We chitchatted on the veranda for a half-hour, sitting in red velvet-backed chairs that bore the royal insignia (“GvT”). As we got up to leave, I asked Mary how she would explain Tonga to people she met living abroad, people who probably had never heard of the place—or, as what seemed to be the case with my friends before the trip, assumed it was in Africa.

The princess considered the question. “You’re going to get something here that’s lost,” she replied. “We’re still carrying on traditions that have been lost, a lifestyle that is not common. You’ll see pomp—this is the last kingdom in the Pacific islands. We have something here that you won’t get anywhere else.”

Mary wasn’t referring to the whales, but she may well have been.

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The women on stage could stop traffic. Not just with their beauty, which is plentiful, nor their smiles, which are dazzling. These girls could stop traffic with their bare hands. Because the contestants in Tonga’s Miss Heilala competition are enormous. Many top 6 feet. Some must weigh nearly 200 pounds. I’m sitting so close they could reach out and touch me, or break me in half, since I’ve been roped into judging. “We like our women big,” says a grinning Semisi, a fellow judge and native Tongan. He’s cool. I’m sweating. I do not want to get this decision wrong.

I came to Tonga to write a story about the sunrise. While I walked along the beach, a large man from the Tonga Visitors Bureau caught up to me. “One of our judges for the Miss Tonga contest is sick,” he said, placing a mighty hand on my suddenly small arm. “We’d be so honored to have an English-man judge our queens of beauty.”

The sunrise story would wait.

When the competition starts, it’s immediately obvious that one person stands out in this hurricaneproof hall: me. I’m the only palangi (non-Polynesian) on the judging panel. I feel like Gulliver in the land of Brobdingnag, where everyone’s 72 feet tall. I’ve never felt so English, so small in frame and so uncomfortable. Don’t get me wrong. The Tongans I’ve met are friendly, but so is a bear in the right mood. Even a former king of Tonga described his subjects as “fairly dangerous people.”

The 14 contestants on stage have come from various spots in the 176-island country that stretches across 500 miles of the South Pacific. Tonight’s event is the tau’olunga, a traditional island dance. “It’s incredibly sexy,” Semisi promises. Each “Miss” wears a traditional teunga dress woven from pandanus leaves, and a sash with island sponsor names like Miss Tonga Visitors Bureau or Miss Good Samaritan Inn. The smooth-skinned ladies are accompanied by men in grass skirts who sing and play guitars. Before they even start dancing, my shirt is sticking to me, heavy with perspiration. It’s the heat of the moment.

The women dance, knees locked together, crouching and rising, arms gyrating in poetic patterns. One by one they walk past me, fingertips outstretched in invitation. More sweat.

Everything inside the venue shines. The ladies are covered in coconut oil, making them gleam like basted poultry. The foreheads of Tongan male dignitaries are moist because the men are enraptured with such quantities of female flesh. Maybe my sweaty underarms will be mistaken for excitement.

By contestant four, the dance stage is drenched in oil. She moves deliberately across the floor, so I give her a few bonus points for being thoughtful. There’s no telling what kind of disaster would ensue should one of the ladies fall.

It’s about this time, on the last night of competition, that I realize I’m out of step with the rest of the judges on the panel. My favorite is Miss Made-on-Earth Leather Gear (tender smile, graceful clapper), but the other judges have her near the bottom of their lists.

“She is the slimmest,” Semisi points out with a shrug. I nod my head, glad to know we’re in total agreement.

“Exactly,” I say, “It’s an easy call.”

But “slim” is Semisi’s way of explaining her fault. You can read it in his scrunched-up face.

“I was brought up on Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss,” I remark, explaining my Northern Hemisphere conditioning as to the ideal female form.

“Stick insects,” Semisi snorts derisively. “With chicken legs.”

I try to change my perspective when the ladies appear for the height of the competition. They are before me in ball gowns, grasping much smaller men for their final dances. My chair shakes a bit as the beauties prance and twirl in unison. After a few minutes they walk off the stage and wait for the scores to be calculated. I turn in my results as inconspicuously as possible.

“The winner,” says the emcee, “Miss Good Samaritan Inn!” The winner is far from being the biggest of the beauties, but she is solid. As I wait to shake her hand, I notice that her feet are bigger than mine. By two shoe sizes. But when the young woman moves closer, I also see that she possesses the eyes and grace of a runway model.

“Thank you for taking part in our festivities,” she says, looking directly into my blushing face. “It’s important that we hold on to our culture, don’t you think?”

I do think. The world needs places where coconut oil is sexy and where award-winning beauty comes in all sizes. The new Miss Heilala puts her hand on mine. Her touch is as gentle as it is engulfing.

This article originally appeared in the October 2011 issue. Read the magazine in the ISLANDS iPad app.

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Find this crown jewel by flying to Auckland. From there, hop on a flight with a Pacific carrier, like Air New Zealand. Or even charter a yacht and make your way northeast. You’ll hit the islands of Tongatapu first. There you’ll find the majority of the nation’s populace, plus the capital city of Nuku’alofa. Pay homage to the ancient monarchs at a Stonehenge- like temple called Ha’amonga’a Maui Trilithon, and then eat a kingly feast of puaka (roast pig). Sovereign obligations and base appetite thus satisfied, continue north to the low-lying atoll of Vava’u, where uninhabited isles like this one (pictured above). A hammock is your throne. But don’t get too comfortable — there’s a whole kingdom to explore. tongaholiday.com

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BVI: Peter Island
It already made the new “Best Private Islands” list, so this beautiful getaway in the British Virgin Islands is on many travelers’ radar. But this summer, a special two-for-one promotion on accommodations, transfers and spa passes make this exclusive resort more in reach. Rates from $340. peterisland.com

Canada: Princess Royal Island
Recently featured in ISLANDS magazine in Jad Davenport’s feature “Secrets of the Forest,” this wild island on Canada’s west coast is home to the amazing King Pacific Lodge. The seasonal 17-room floating hotel has introduced the new “Travel and Be Charitable” promotion, which sends $500 Canadian dollars to the Nature Conservancy with each full- rate booking. Three-night luxury packages start at $4,400 USD. kingpacificlodge.com

Galapagos
Charles Darwin’s favorite islands are marking big anniversaries this year: the 200th birthday of the famous naturalist and the 150th anniversary of his On the Origin of Species. ISLANDS will be visiting the Galapagos soon with Abercrombie and Kent for an upcoming feature article. abercrombiekent.com

Jamaica
In the Caribbean, Jamaica is hot for many reasons. Here’s one more: peppers. According to ISLANDS contributor Lola Akinmade, the red scotch bonnet used in jerk spices is one of the hottest peppers in the world. You can’t miss it as you follow the ISLANDS eating tour. islands.com

Kauai
You’ve probably heard the news that “Dr. Beach” just named Kauai’s Hanalei Bay Beach No. 1 on his 2009 list of best beaches. That’s sure to attract travelers this summer. But while you’re there, check out the many other Hanalei high- lights on the ISLANDS Kauai road trip. islands.com

Maldives: Villingili
Scheduled to open in July, Shangri-La’s Villingili Resort and Spa is the newest addition to the ultimate escapes in the Maldives. Unique tree-house villas and nature trails complement the luxury offerings that travelers love in the Maldives, including gourmet cuisine and gorgeous beaches. Contact for rates. shangri-la.com

Nantucket
One of the most storied U.S. islands inevitably heats up every June. This year is no exception, especially with Arabella offering special summer rates for its multi-day sailing cruises. Imagine a long Fourth of July weekend aboard with cabin rates from $1,300. See ISLANDS picks for what to do on the cruise. islands.com

Roatan: Fort Morgan Cay
The owner of this private island just off Honduras’ Roatan just let us know here at ISLANDS that his personal home is available for rent. The island is intimate at only 30 acres and with up to just eight guests at a time, yet it has a vast history with British buccaneers hiding out here. Contact for rates. fortmorgancay.com

Rhodes
It’s amazing the number of new hotels scheduled to open this year on the Greek island of Rhodes. Among them is the Port Royal Villas and Spa, an expansive resort with an impressive variety of accommodations. Best of all is the easy access to the pebble beach and to the historic highlights of Rhodes. Rates from $200. portroyal.gr

Tonga: New volcanic island
It’s a reminder of just how dynamic islands are when a new one suddenly forms — and it’s not man-made to look like a palm frond. Earlier this year, an underwater volcano spewed forth a new island just off Tonga. Sorry, there’s nowhere to stay on it yet. But it truly is the hottest island of the summer. guardian.co.uk

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Bahrain – Believe: Eden in the Desert
Some scholars posit Bahrain — a persian Gulf island off the east coast of Saudi Arabia — as the location of the biblical Garden of Eden. And indeed, there stands in the desert outside the capital city of Manama an acacia tree known as the Tree of Life . One-time Bahrain resident Amy Vance (who might live to be 110) described the tree as “a big-ass, super-healthy tree in the middle of endless, sandy desert.” In one interpretation, Eve ate from the forbidden tree as a bid for eternal life, and only God’s wrath thwarted her. Alas.

Receiving little rainfall, Bahrain gets much of its water from artesian springs. The tree has no visible surface water source, so its roots may tap into those springs deep underground. Still, the tree’s planting in this arid place and its survival over an estimated 400 years remain a mystery . One tree of life more or less may not help you live longer, but researchers believe that both curiosity (about mysteries) and faith (in life itself ) will. And for whatever reason, people have inhabited this island for 50,000 years.

Liberal by Middle Eastern standards, Bahrain makes a good introduction to Arab culture. It also has the third-lowest death rate among island nations after the Solomon Islands and Brunei. (Low death rate doesn’t guarantee high life expectancy, but it doesn’t hurt.) Summer temperatures here can reach 120 degrees. Visit during January.

Tonga – Relax: Accent on Pacific
There’s island time — slowed, easygoing, better marked by sun phase than by wristwatch — and then there’s Tonga time. The capital, Nuku’alofa on Tongatapu, seems sleepy until you reach the outer island groups of Ha’apai and Vava’u. The stunning natural harbor Port of Refuge, on Vava’u, seems not to mark time at all. Adjustment to stress this low can take days, and the quiet-averse may actually go through a period of anxiety. But even imposed relaxation — nowhere to be but the sandy edge of the island, nothing to do there but study the blue edge of the world — has measurable effects on blood pressure, cholesterol levels and other longevity factors.

Tonga is cooler than other parts of Polynesia, and Pacific breezes replenish the pure air. The healthful traditional Tongan diet of taro, coconuts, fish and occasional festive pork (plus a sea plant called limu moui with antioxidant properties) has modernized with fattier imported meats, white flour and sugar.So far, Tongans have good life- expectancy rates despite increasing body-mass indexes. Low stress may outweigh even low fat for promoting longevity, as long as it doesn’t outweigh it by 300 pounds.

Madeira – Move: Pathways, Streams and Vines
Warmed by gulf stream waters off the coast of Morocco and cooled by ocean breezes, Portugal’s island of Madeira may have the perfect subtropical climate for longevity. Perhaps consistently mild temperatures — averaging 68 degrees year-round here — promote moderation in diet and brisk exercise. An ancient system of aqueducts called levadas crisscrosses the islands. Some of them more than 400 years old, they carry water from the rainier north to the drier south to irrigate Madeira’s signature crops of bananas, flowers and wine grapes. The walkable maintenance trails that follow these stone streambeds range from moderate to vertiginously steep and from several hours’ worth of hiking to several days. Open to the public, the trails lead to views of the island’s dramatic landscapes: waterfalls, including the magical Vinte e Cinco Fontes ; terraced farm fields; and mountainsides that descend straight down into the Atlantic.

As for the wine, it lives a long time too. Heated and oxidized in the barrel — a modern process that emulates tropical voyages in the holds of ships — sweet, fortified Madeira wine ages well in the bottle for 100, 150, even 200 years. Oxidation has the opposite effect on people. Slow that process with a glass of Malmsey on the flower-lined Rua do Aljube. O vinho é coisa santa! (Wine is a holy thing.)

New Zealand – Behold: High-Energy Landscape
The geothermal zone between Lake Taupo and the “Spa City” of Rotorua in the center of the North Island showcases nature’s magnificent power, and the power smells like sulfur. The landscape bubbles with it. Waimangu Cauldron boils day and night. The Waikato River, flowing north from Lake Taupo , narrows from 100 meters wide (people live longer in the metric system) to 20 and forces more than 200,000 liters of white, foaming water through Huka Falls every second . (Kayakers also occasionally shoot through and usually live.) The region also has some of the world’s best trout fishing. Can witnessing the magnificent power of nature extend your life? Yes, if it a) doubles your will to live and b) triples your respect for the magnificent power of nature, which otherwise could kill you dead in a fiery blip of geologic time.

Lake Taupo itself, New Zealand’s largest lake at 616 square kilometers , sits in the caldera of a supervolcano (like a volcano, only bigger), which has erupted roughly once per millennium on average for the last 27,000 years . Its last major eruption, the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history — larger than the eruptions of Krakatau and Mount St. Helens combined — took place almost 2,000 years (two millenniums) ago, long before the Maoris inhabited the island , back when the world was new . The eruption at once destroyed and remade much of the North Island. It altered sunsets in Rome. See above about respect for nature. It could save your life. The Taupo supervolcano will erupt again. Visit Corsica that day.

Martinique – Dream: A Poet’s Caribbean
World-renowned Martiniquean poet Aimé Césaire — whose Notebook of a Return to the Native Land, published in 1947 , became a standard of Caribbean literature — died this year at the age of 94. Also a politician, philosopher and activist, Césaire pushed the limits in his long life of what it means to be Caribbean, to be black, to be a poet — what it means to live.

One man’s death, even if that man lived five lives in one, may seem an odd recommendation for an island to extend life, but consider the vital landscapes, seascapes and culture that inspired him to write this especially deathless verse: conjured by the warmth of triumphant life in compliance with the operculated mouth of your silence and the lofty amnesty of seashells — from “Tomb of Paul Eluard ,” translated by Clayton Eshleman and Annette Smith

A list of islands to extend life must include those that extend life not only upward into the low three figures, but outward into new modes of human interaction, new ways of seeing. Proved by the example of Aimé Césaire, that list must include Martinique. And as it happens, studies suggest this attitude extends life in years as well. An open mind predisposes for longer life than a closed mind. So push the limits. Reckon a better way to live. Find out what operculated means and use it in a poem. Learn French. Go everywhere. Dream in green hills and blue water.

Iceland – Soak: Eccentric Nature
Here atop the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in one of the most active volcanic regions on Earth, steam heat rises through the surface rock and water to form an assortment of pools fuming with goodness. Located close to Keflavík International Airport, the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa attracts well over 100,000 visitors per year. They come for the positive effects on their health and worldview. The algae that give the lagoon its opaque blue-green color benefit the skin. And it’s hard not to smile while bobbing in a hot, milky pond. The lagoon lies in a formation of volcanic rock adjacent to a geothermal plant that helps power Reykjavík. The superheated spring water passes through heat exchangers that cool it to tolerable bathing temperatures. In winter, challenge prune-skinned gentlemen of Viking descent to snowball fights between soaks, and feel like a kid again.

Meanwhile, the NFLI Clinic at Hveragerdi, a town in the middle of a geothermal area 28 miles east of Reykjavík, treats arthritis, obesity, heart problems and a suite of other afflictions, mostly with mud. If one dizzyingly hot mud bath isn’t rejuvenating enough, you can move into the clinic and take the life-extending cures indefinitely.

To buffer the effects of runaway good health in the traditional Icelandic manner, eat shark meat aged for seven months and do shots of brennivin, a caraway-flavored potato liquor known as Black Death. Then to reverse the effects of these delicacies, make the pilgrimage east to Vatnajokull glacier, which Icelanders consider a holy place. The area features the Grand Geysir — namesake of geysers everywhere — which spouts boiling water 60-plus meters high many times per hour. The nearby river Hvíta flows over Gullfoss waterfall, which in winter freezes into breath- taking shapes. Patricia Schultz’s best-selling book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die includes Iceland’s geysers and the Blue Lagoon, as well as sites in New Zealand, Tonga, Madeira and Martinique. Make your own pre-death to-do list, but do not complete it.

Queen Charlotte Islands – Grow: Kingdom of the Ancients
Also known as Haida Gwaii, the Queen Charlotte Islands comprise the larger, more populous Graham Island to the north, wilder Moresby Island to the south and hundreds of smaller islands. Canada’s most active seismic zone, this quaking, misty archipelago across from Prince Rupert, British Columbia, enjoys mild temperatures (mild for 54 degrees north latitude, that is), but it rains a lot.

The mega-giant Sitka spruce trees that thrive in this environment grow to 16 feet across and more than 200 feet high, and they can live 800 years if no one chops them down. (Be like the Sitka spruce.) Old-growth forest, rarer now than supercentenarians, survives in Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve on Moresby Island and surrounding islands. Whatever trade secrets life-loving human beings may learn from them, these towering ancient trees are a hypnotizing inspiration to behold.

So before it is too late, here is the very simple secret of eternal youth: In a beautiful place, do what you love — paint, sail, climb. When you look away from the canvas back at glacial fjords plunging into black water at Masset Inlet, or down from the horizon as a zephyr fills the mainsheet, or up at the still-distant peak of Mount Moresby, how much time has passed? If you cannot judge for the beauty that you find there, you’re on the right path. The world has more than 18,000 islands. Start with one. The longest life will be too brief. Stop wasting time.

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