French Polynesia

A volcanic peak rising 727 metres from a lagoon of impossible blue-green clarity, Bora Bora is the archetype of the Pacific island fantasy — overwater villas, coral gardens, and a reef barrier that creates a sheltered lagoon of extraordinary calm. Mount Otemanu, the eroded basalt spire at the island's centre, is French Polynesia's most iconic image, and the lagoon's manta ray and shark feeding grounds are among the finest snorkelling in the Pacific.

Separated from Tahiti by a 17-kilometre channel, Moorea is a dramatically beautiful volcanic island of deep bays, coconut plantations, and a lagoon of crystalline clarity where spinner dolphins and humpback whales come in season. Cook's Bay and Opunohu Bay, cutting deep into the island's interior, are among the most beautiful natural anchorages in the Pacific, and the inland plateaux above the bay offer pineapple farms and marae sacred stone platforms.

The world's second-largest atoll, Rangiroa's lagoon is so large it contains its own weather and its own internal sea, with islands visible on the horizon inside the reef. The Tiputa and Avatoru passes — channels between the lagoon and the open ocean — funnel powerful currents twice daily that carry masses of grey reef sharks, dolphins, hammerheads, and manta rays in one of the great spectacles of Pacific diving.

A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of exceptional ecological importance, Fakarava is famous among divers for the South Pass — a 200-metre wide channel where hundreds of grey reef sharks aggregate during the coral-spawning season in June and July, forming a 'shark wall' that divers drift through in a unique and exhilarating encounter. The atoll's near-perfect rectangular shape, pellucid water, and pearl farming villages make it the most beautiful of the Tuamotu atolls.

The most remote inhabited islands on earth — 1,400 kilometres northeast of Tahiti, with no barrier reef and no protected lagoon, just the open Pacific crashing directly against volcanic cliffs — the Marquesas are a world of extreme natural beauty and profound cultural heritage. The stone tiki sculptures and ceremonial marae platforms of the pre-contact Marquesan civilisation, found in jungle clearings throughout the islands, are among the most evocative ancient sites in the Pacific.

One of the Society Islands' most authentic and least-developed destinations, Huahine's two islands — Huahine Nui and Huahine Iti — are connected by a bridge and contain some of the finest ancient marae complexes in French Polynesia, including the extraordinary Maeva archaeological site where 40 marae within a small area represent the most significant concentration of pre-European religious monuments in the region. Vanilla plantations, eel-filled waterways, and a lagoon of exceptional coral health add to a destination that rewards those who choose it over more famous neighbours.