Many gorgeous places rarely see tourists because they’re too remote, politically risky, expensive, or lack the infrastructure that makes trips doable. Others are simply closed to visitors. Still, nothing can stop us from ogling these beautiful places from the comfort of our homes, including a breathtaking waterfall that reopened to visitors after being closed for three years.
Related: Once Popular Tourist Hotspots That Are Now Abandoned
One of the most stunning waterfalls in the United States is also one of the hardest to visit, and for the last three years, tourists have been prohibited from visiting altogether. Havasu Falls is on the Havasupai Reservation near the Grand Canyon, and the tribe strictly controls access. Permits, which require an overnight visit, sell out quickly, and if you do snag one, you better be in good shape: It’s a 20-mile round-trip hike, with tough terrain and the hot Arizona sun to contend with during warmer months. This year mared the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that visitors were welcomed back to the destination. The falls reopened Feb. 1 to current permit holders, and only travelers whose trips were affected by the pandemic closure were able to make reservations for 2023.
Easter Island’s popularity with tourists belies just how remote it is: a staggering 2,200 miles from the coast of Chile. It’s also the nearest landmass to Point Nemo, the point in the Pacific Ocean farthest from any land. Still, this small dot in the Pacific draws visitors eager to see the hundreds of mysterious moai, statues carved by indigenous people close to 1,000 years ago. But visitors now have another obstacle. A fire caused by an eruption of the nearby Rano Raraku volcano has closed the national park where the carvings are located and caused “irreparable damage” to the moai that is still being assessed, according to officials.
This Arctic island in the Chukchi Sea, off the extreme northeastern coast of Russia, doesn't exactly attract droves of tourists. Polar bears, though, appear to be a different story. During an expedition in September 2021, wildlife photographer Dmitry Kokh found several of the snowy white animals making themselves at home in the remnants of a weather research station that has been abandoned since the 1990s. Nature is "always sending you something when you least expect it," he said. "Never before were they seen in those buildings, so that was a once-in-a-lifetime situation."
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An alternative to overrun Machu Picchu, Colombia’s Ciudad Perdida, or Lost City, predates its larger Peruvian sibling by more than 600 years. Archaeologists didn’t discover the site until the 1970s, and most tourists will still never lay eyes on it, since getting there requires a punishing 27-mile hike through the mountains.
Called “the last godforsaken place” by Outside, this isolated speck of British territory is more than 1,000 miles east of South America’s southern tip. It’s noted as a breeding ground for king penguins, seals, and seabirds, and has no permanent inhabitants.
This mountainous Buddhist kingdom sandwiched between India and China is a peaceful throwback — there are no traffic lights, for instance, but plenty of monasteries. The number of tourists is strictly controlled, and visitors must pay a compulsory $250 a day, no matter the itinerary.
Most sights on the Kamchatka Peninsula, a “volcanic Eden” that stretches for 800 miles in northeastern Russia, are inaccessible except by helicopter. The region boasts at least 300 volcanoes, 10% of them active, and is mostly unspoiled wilderness with abundant eagles, orcas, bears, and salmon.
This Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean has at least as many polar bears as humans and is home to the Global Seed Vault, meant to help restore the world’s crops in case of widespread disaster. The town of Longyearbyen, the world’s northernmost permanently inhabited community, gets 24 hours of sun in the summer — and 24 hours of darkness in the winter.
Though Bora Bora is certainly a popular destination, it’s still off limits for all but a fraction of vacationers due to sheer expense. This Tahitian island known for its over-water bungalows is one of the priciest, most far-flung destinations in the world, and an average hotel room once checked in at $855 a night.
These remote, self-governed Danish islands halfway between Norway and Iceland are certainly off the beaten path. Sheep outnumber people, but there are plenty of craggy mountains, turf-topped houses, puffins, and tumbling waterfalls (including the stunning Mulafossur) to make the trip worthwhile.
Central Asia’s Karakum Desert holds one of remote Turkmenistan’s oddest features: the Darvaza Gas Crater, or Gates of Hell. The 230-foot-wide hole has been burning for more than 50 years, after a Soviet rig hit an underground gas cavern. In an effort to head off poisonous fumes, the Soviets set the hole on fire, thinking it would burn out within a few weeks. It didn’t. Visiting Turkmenistan remains tricky for most tourists, as obtaining a tourist visa requires an official letter of invitation.
Venezuela has become too unstable for most tourists to visit in recent years, but one of its marquee attractions has always been tough to see. To get a glimpse of Angel Falls, the world’s tallest waterfall at 3,212 feet, visitors must pay to hop on a tiny plane to a village in the middle of Canaima National Park — there are no roads. After that, they must join a guided tour that takes them three hours upriver, as long as there is enough water to make the trip possible.
The Acacus Mountains are a dramatic corner of the Sahara carved by desert winds and abrupt floods. The remote area in southwestern Libya, also known for pictographs dating back as far as 12,000 B.C., is reachable only by four-wheel-drive vehicle, and Libya remains largely off limits to most tourists because of terrorism and civil unrest.
Dunes as far as the eye can see make up the Rub‘ al Khali, otherwise known as The Empty Quarter, which stretches over a third of the Arabian Peninsula, including vast swaths of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates. Many of its 250,000 square miles remain unexplored, and it’s the largest area of continuous sand in the world.
Ethiopia’s forbidding answer to Yellowstone, the Danakil Depression is full of technicolor springs, volcanoes, salt plains, geysers, and other alien features. The area has seen temperatures as high as 122 degrees, but extreme heat isn’t the only danger: The area is largely lawless and visitors require military escorts.
Once bustling with tourists, half of the Caribbean island of Montserrat is a strictly controlled exclusion zone after a series of volcanic eruptions buried the region in the late ’90s. The island’s capital, Plymouth, is now a modern-day ghost town covered in ash, and the Soufriere Hills volcano continues to erupt to this day.
A third of the plant life on this “most alien-looking place on earth” in the Indian Ocean is unique to the island, part of Yemen, according to Atlas Obscura. That includes the umbrella-like dragon’s blood tree, probably the most iconic example. Roads are few and far between, and most travel to turbulent Yemen has been a no-go for U.S. citizens for quite awhile.
The Amazon is so large, it could be home to as many as 50 tribes that have never had contact with the outside world. The river itself snakes nearly 4,000 miles from mountainous Peru to the Atlantic, and some of the vegetation surrounding it is so dense that it takes up to 10 minutes for rain to reach the ground.
This Danish territory is the world’s largest island — 860,000 square miles — but most of it is inaccessible to visitors, and there are only about 58,000 residents. Colorful Ittoqqortoormiit is the most isolated town in an already isolated place, and sea ice blocks ships from visiting for all but three months of the year.
It might not be that the Outback is hard to reach, necessarily — after all, the term is often used fairly loosely to describe any remote part of Australia. It’s that its vastness (roughly the size of the continental U.S.) is so hard to fathom, and that conditions are so unforgiving for anyone who really wants more than a glimpse of the continent’s interior. Because of that, visitors are encouraged to plan fuel stops in advance, and always carry an abundance of water.
The world’s second-tallest mountain is nicknamed the savage mountain for good reason: It’s far more difficult than Mount Everest to climb, with mind-boggling steep cliff faces, and a location so remote that just getting there is an expedition in itself. Nearly 30% of climbers die trying to reach the top, compared with 4% who try to summit Everest.
One of the least-visited nations in the world is simply much too far from everything — neighbor Fiji is “only” 1,400 miles away — to be a major tourist draw despite its Pacific scenery. This low-lying chain of atolls is also under direct threat from rising sea levels, which not only threaten the limited land area, but crops and the fresh-water supply.
Seeking solitude? The Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota stretches for more than 1 million acres along the Canadian border, offering 1,175 lakes and some of the largest swaths of uncut forest in the eastern U.S. Visitors must have permits to enter, motor boats are largely prohibited, and there are no homes or roads to spoil the view.
There’s a reason Napoleon was exiled on this volcanic island: It's a staggering 1,200 miles from southwestern Africa, the nearest stretch of continental coastline. Until late 2017, the British territory in the South Atlantic was reachable only by a five-day voyage from Cape Town, but it now has an airport, nicknamed the ”world’s most useless.”
Most tourists will never lay eyes on this continent, let alone one of its most remote portions: Marie Byrd Land. Called the “largest no man’s land on Earth” by Atlas Obscura, this particular chunk of Antarctica is so inhospitable that it has gone unclaimed by any nation, and most of it has been mapped by air only.
Recognized as a Canadian territory in 1999, this vast Arctic land is the size of Western Europe, yet has only about 33,000 permanent residents, or one for every 25 square miles. It’s inaccessible by car — no roads from the rest of Canada or between its own communities — but you may be able to get around by snowmobile or dog sled.
The desolate Altai Mountains in western Mongolia are a far-flung part of an already far-flung nation, and getting there without an experienced guide is unlikely. One of the reasons for this off-the-beaten-path trek: A chance to see the region’s famous hunters, who domesticate and train golden eagles to kill foxes and other animals to feed their nomadic tribes.
Despite its imposing name, Bwindi is one of Uganda’s main tourist draws because of its large population of mountain gorillas. But you have to be willing to put in the work to see these majestic creatures: The terrain is steep, muddy, and unpredictable; trekking permits are expensive and sell out fast; and you’ll need a machete-wielding guide to ensure you don’t get lost.
Though most travelers think of the Australian Outback as the continent’s most remote region, it has some competition in Cape York, or The Tip. This northern peninsula is largely off-limits except for those with a sturdy four-wheel-drive vehicle. Things you won’t find: Roads in good condition, reliable cellphone service, or frequent gas stations. What you will find: A number of stunning national parks, aboriginal culture, crocodiles and other wildlife, and plenty of solitude — the area gets only about 60,000 visitors a year.
The Siberian village of Oymyakon, in the frigid Russian republic of Yakutia, has the dubious distinction of being the coldest permanently inhabited place on Earth, according to Atlas Obscura. Kids reportedly go to school unless it’s -62 degrees Fahrenheit or colder, and record lows have hit -96 degrees. Permafrost means crops are a no-go, so locals eat a lot of reindeer and horse meat.
Following the death of student Otto Warmbier, U.S. citizens were barred from visiting this reclusive communist nation, a ban that remains in effect. Before the ban, it was possible to join relatively inexpensive state-sponsored tours. Of course, such tours always included North Korean minders who were charged with ensuring tourists didn’t stray from tightly controlled itineraries.