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Little Beach
Maui, Hawaii
Officially known as Maui's "unofficial clothing-optional beach," Little Beach is an isolated strand surrounded by high shrubs, craggy volcanic rocks and driftwood. Although nude sunbathing is illegal in Hawaii, the law has not been enforced here for years. As a result, Little Beach has become a favorite hangout for naturists as well as artists like Dr. Leisure, who has been painting colorful scenes from nude beaches for more than a decade. Activities at Little Beach are plentiful, including swimming, body surfing and whale watching. What's Cool: Souvenir paintings of the beach by Dr...
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Location: Hawaii
Ile des Pins
New Caledonia
This is an Ile des Pins story: During the world windsurfing championships held in New Caledonia in 1999, board sailors suddenly stopped in the middle of the competition and dropped their sails to take in the sheer beauty of the Isle of Pines…Yes, another contender for the most-beautiful-island-on-the-planet title. Capt. James Cook named it in 1774 for the tree-rich landscape, but it’s the gloriously clear waters offshore, bordered by some of the most stunning beaches (Kuto and Kanumera are the best known) in the entire South Pacific, that enthrall travel-weary visitors. This is an island made..
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Location: South Pacific
Manuel Antonio
Coasta Rica
Manuel Antonio National Park The three sweeping strands of pristine white beach that flow into the Pacific Ocean are only part of what makes this place paradise. Manuel Antonio National Park is where the jungle meets the sea. The beaches are long, wide and covered with beautiful soft sand, bordered by tall evergreen jungle on one side, and blue Pacific Ocean on the other. Cliffs overgrown by dense jungle vegetation surround the beaches and in spots the forest sweeps down to the edge of the water sheltering swimmers from the sun. In order to protect the parks eco-system, entrance to the park..
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Location: Central America
Long Island
Islands of the Bahamas
Long Island is not only long (60 miles), it is also narrow--no more than 4 miles at its widest point. It is indeed a land of eloquent contrasts in geography, architecture and enterprise. One of the most scenic hideaways in The Bahamas, it is divided by the Tropic of Cancer and bordered by two very different coasts, one with soft-white, broad beaches and the other rocky headlands that descend suddenly into the roiling sea. The terrain varies from sloping hills in the northeast to low hillsides in the south fading into stark white flatlands where salt is produced; from swampland to beautiful..
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Jekyll Island
If you adjust the dollars for inflation, John D. Rockefeller was twice as wealthy as Bill Gates (at the height of the tech boom). So, in the late 1800s, when Rockefeller and a few of his wealthy playmates (Astor, Gould, Morgan among them) settled on Jekyll Island as a winter getaway, they formed what has been called the richest, most exclusive club in the world. How rich? It’s been estimated that the membership of Jekyll Island Club once represented one-sixth of the world’s wealth. The clubhouse and many of the mansion-sized “cottages” they built still stand today, but the once-private barrier..
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Location: North America
Hiva Oa
Marquesas Islands
It's never been all that easy to get to Hiva Oa – and that was part of the attraction for the likes of Paul Gauguin (who came here to escape the "Western influences" in the Tahiti of 1901), and Thor Heyerdahl (who, a decade before sailing Kon Tiki across the Pacific, came here with his young bride to live the "simple life. " And some things haven't changed – particularly the drop-dead natural beauty of the Marquesas Islands. The most northern island group in French Polynesia, (nearly a thousand miles from Tahiti), the Marquesas are rugged volcanic islands: There is no barrier reef..
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Location: South Pacific
Guam
Micronesia
The Spanish may have once ruled this Micronesian island for more than three centuries, but the modern world has definitely left its stamp here. Consider this: With nearly a dozen golf courses (some designed by Nicklaus and Palmer), Guam has become a favorite golfing holiday for Japanese unable to find playing time on the exclusive and pricey courses at home. Or this: Islanders boast that the world’s largest K-Mart store is located here near Tumon – and is open 24 hours a day. The Second World War was the turning point for modern Guam, and for a little history primer of this U.S. Territory,..
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Location: Hawaii
Key Largo
Florida Keys
As you drive south into the Florida Keys, you’ll see the signs for the first of the islands…Key Largo. If you’re a fan of old movies, you’ll probably think of Bogart and Bacall, trapped with some gangsters in a hotel during a hurricane. Key Largo was mostly filmed on a Hollywood sound stage, but the script was written in the island’s only hotel at the time, and the 1948 classic helped create the mystique of the keys as the last-chance, tropical end-of-the-road on the Atlantic Seaboard. Today Key Largo, the longest in the island chain, is a popular bedroom community and a favorite stop for..
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Molokai
Hawaii
From the western shore of Molokai, you can gaze across the channel to the island of Oahu – but the world of Waikiki is light years from this quiet “Friendly Island.” Considered the birthplace of the hula, Molokai is where native Hawaiian culture has been woven most thoroughly into daily life. As a result, the place moves at its own languid pace. Lodgings here are limited to a single resort and a handful of small hotels and condominiums. The only town, three-block-long Kaunakakai, would look at home on a Wyoming back road. Recreational activities tend to be low-key: There's hiking (an easy..
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Location: Hawaii
Martha's Vineyard
New England
A favorite summer resort for more than a century, New England's largest island attracts the rich and famous, from movie stars and presidents who arrive by private plane, as well as legions of day-trippers disembarking from the ferry. Chances are they will all find what they’re looking for. Want a postcard-perfect whaling village with immaculate 19th-century homes? Go to Edgartown. Gentle hills leading to the sea? Try Chilmark. Woods and pastoral farms complete with stone walls? Head for West Tisbury. A day at the beach? Plenty to choose from (and if you’re renting a house, you’ll likely..
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Location: North America

Total results: 10