12 remote and dangerous islands: why they are risky and which you can visit

Of the 12 islands in this guide, five can be visited legally by ordinary travellers: Tristan da Cunha, Pitcairn, Miyake-jima, Komodo and, from the water only, the Farallon Islands. North Sentinel, Ilha da Queimada Grande, Bouvet, Heard Island, Surtsey and Gruinard are closed or private, and Ramree sits in a conflict zone that most governments advise against. Each island below is explained the same way: why it is dangerous, whether you are allowed to go, and how to get there if you are.

We grouped the islands by the kind of danger they pose, because the risk on a volcano is nothing like the risk near a protected tribe. Access rules were checked in November 2026 against the authority that governs each island. If you want islands with no catch at all, our guides to the Seychelles and honeymoon islands are a better start.

Before you plan anything: landing on North Sentinel, Queimada Grande or Bouvet without permission is illegal, and on North Sentinel it can be fatal. Nothing in this article is a route to an illegal landing.

All 12 islands compared

The table sums up the danger, the legal position and how far each island is from proper medical care. The sections after it explain each row.

"No" in the legal column covers different situations. North Sentinel and Queimada Grande are closed by national law, Bouvet and Heard need science or management permits, Surtsey is a protected reserve and Gruinard is simply private land.

Islands where people are the reason to stay away

North Sentinel Island, Andaman Islands, India

Why it is dangerous: North Sentinel is home to the Sentinelese, one of the last peoples who have no peaceful contact with the outside world. The forested island of about 60 square kilometres lies in the Andaman Sea west of Port Blair. Nobody knows how many Sentinelese there are; official estimates have ranged from a few dozen to a few hundred.

They have made their wishes plain. After the 2004 tsunami a helicopter checking on them was met with arrows. In 2006 they killed two fishermen whose boat drifted ashore, and in 2018 they killed the American missionary John Allen Chau, who had paid fishermen to take him there. In March 2025 an American social media user landed for a few minutes and was arrested by Indian police, according to Survival International.

Can you visit? No. Indian rules ban any approach within about three nautical miles, and the navy and coast guard patrol the zone. The ban protects the Sentinelese as much as outsiders, because they have no immunity to illnesses such as flu or measles. India's policy is to watch from a distance and leave them alone.

What you can do instead: the rest of the Andamans, including Havelock (Swaraj Dweep) and Neil Island, are open with a normal Indian visa. Our India page covers entry.

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Islands where wildlife is the danger

Ilha da Queimada Grande (Snake Island), Brazil

Why it is dangerous: this rocky island of around 43 hectares off the coast of São Paulo state, is the only home of the golden lancehead viper, Bothrops insularis. Rising seas cut it off from the mainland at the end of the last ice age, and with no ground mammals to eat, the snakes learned to hunt migrating birds in the trees.

The old claim of one snake per square metre is now considered far too high; the first systematic study put the population at a few thousand. That is still one of the densest snake populations known. The species is critically endangered, squeezed by its tiny range, inbreeding and smugglers who take snakes for collectors.

Can you visit? No. The island is closed to the public, and only the Brazilian Navy and researchers approved by the federal conservation agency ICMBio may land. Navy crews service the automated lighthouse. Popular stories of lighthouse keepers killed by snakes cannot be verified.

What you can do instead: divers visit the clear water around the island, and São Paulo's coast has open islands such as Ilhabela. See our Brazil page.

Komodo, Indonesia

Why it is dangerous: Komodo is home to the Komodo dragon, the largest living lizard, which also lives on neighbouring Rinca and a few smaller islands nearby. Dragons are fast over short distances and their bite causes serious wounds, and they have been known to attack people, which is why rangers carry a long forked staff on every walk.

Can you visit? Yes. Komodo is part of Komodo National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1991. Independent access is not allowed: every walk on Komodo or Rinca is led by a park ranger.

How to get there: there is no airport or ferry on the park islands, so you fly to Labuan Bajo on Flores, which has direct flights from Bali and Jakarta, then take a boat of around two hours or join a liveaboard trip. There are no hotels inside the park. Our Komodo National Park guide and Indonesia page have the practical details.

Farallon Islands, California, United States

Why it is dangerous: the Farallones sit in open Pacific water west of the Golden Gate. Their elephant seals draw great white sharks, which are unusually large here, and the shoals around the islands wrecked so many ships that sailors called them the Devil's Teeth. Between 1946 and 1970 radioactive waste was dumped in the surrounding sea, and where all the containers lie is still not known, as the islands' history records.

Can you visit? Not on land. The islands are a national wildlife refuge closed to the public, and only research staff live on Southeast Farallon.

How to see them: whale-watching and shark-education boats from the San Francisco Bay area run trips out to the islands, where more than 250,000 seabirds nest in season. Our United States page covers the wider trip.

Ramree Island, Myanmar

Why it is dangerous: Ramree is a large, inhabited island off Rakhine State, separated from the mainland by mangrove swamps. It is famous for a 1945 story. During the Battle of Ramree Island about a thousand Japanese soldiers retreated into the swamps, and a wartime account claimed that saltwater crocodiles killed hundreds of them in one night. Guinness World Records once listed it as the worst crocodile attack on record.

Historians dispute that claim. The story rests largely on one account, and official British and Japanese reports do not describe a mass crocodile attack. Most researchers think the soldiers died mainly from fighting, drowning, disease and thirst, though crocodiles did live in the swamps, as the Warfare History Network sets out.

Can you visit? In principle the island is open, but Rakhine State has seen heavy fighting and most governments advise against all travel there. Read the history from home and check your own government's advice before any Myanmar trip.

Islands where volcanoes and weather rule

Miyake-jima, Izu Islands, Japan

Why it is dangerous: Miyake-jima is an active volcano in the Izu chain south of Tokyo. After eruptions and earthquake swarms in the summer of 2000, Japanese authorities ordered every resident to leave by September that year. About 3,600 people moved to the mainland, mostly to Tokyo.

The evacuation order began to be lifted in February 2005, more than four years later. The volcano still releases large amounts of sulphur dioxide, part of the island remains off limits, and residents and visitors have been told to carry a gas mask, with sirens ready if gas levels rise, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. By 2015 the population had recovered to about 2,775.

Can you visit? Yes. Miyake-jima is part of Tokyo Metropolis and is popular with divers, birdwatchers and people who want to walk across fresh lava fields.

How to get there: according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokai Kisen runs a passenger ferry from Takeshiba Pier, about eight minutes on foot from JR Hamamatsucho Station, taking around six and a half hours, and New Central Airservice flies from Chofu Airport in western Tokyo in about 50 minutes. Both can be cancelled in rough weather. Check the latest gas warnings on arrival and stay out of signed restricted areas. Our Japan page covers visas and transport.

Heard Island, Southern Ocean, Australia

Why it is dangerous: Heard Island lies in the Southern Ocean, far south-west of Australia. It is mostly ice-covered and dominated by the Big Ben massif, which holds Mawson Peak, an active volcano. Gales from the Southern Ocean make even approaching by ship hard, and there is no harbour or medical help of any kind.

Can you visit? Only with a permit. Together with the McDonald Islands it is a World Heritage Site, and anyone who wants to land needs approval from the Australian Antarctic Division. Landings are rare, small expeditions, and the rules aim to keep out introduced species. Our Australia page is a gentler place to start.

Surtsey, Iceland

Why it is dangerous: Surtsey rose out of the sea in a volcanic eruption between 1963 and 1967 off Iceland's south coast. Its danger runs the other way: visitors are a threat to the island. Scientists saw a rare chance to watch plants and animals settle on brand-new land, so it was protected from the start.

Can you visit? No. Only researchers with permits may land, and they must take care not to carry seeds on their clothes. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008. You can see it from boats or sightseeing flights near the Westman Islands. See our Iceland page.

An island poisoned on purpose

Gruinard Island, Scotland

Why it was dangerous: Britain's "anthrax island" sits just off the coast of Wester Ross in the north-west Highlands. In 1942 government scientists from Porton Down exploded anthrax bombs there to test biological weapons, tying sheep to posts downwind. The sheep died within days, and because anthrax spores survive in soil for decades, the island was quarantined.

A clean-up began in 1986. About 280 tonnes of formaldehyde diluted in seawater were sprayed over the island and the worst topsoil was removed. In April 1990, after 48 years of quarantine, a defence minister announced it was safe and the warning signs came down, as the island's record shows. It was sold back to the heirs of its original owners for the £500 the government had paid.

Can you visit? Gruinard is private, with no ferry and no public landing. You can see it from the A832 between Gairloch and Ullapool, one of the finest coastal drives in Wester Ross. Our United Kingdom guide covers the region.

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Islands where distance is the danger

Bouvet Island, Norway

Why it is dangerous: Bouvet is usually called the most remote island on earth. The nearest land is Queen Maud Land in Antarctica. The dormant volcano is almost entirely glacier, with ice cliffs along much of the coast and no natural harbour, so landing takes a helicopter or a small boat in rare calm weather.

The French navigator Jean-Baptiste Bouvet de Lozier sighted it in 1739 but could not land, and recorded its position so badly that later expeditions could not find it. Norway claimed it in 1928. In 1964 visitors found an abandoned lifeboat in a lagoon, and nobody has ever explained how it got there.

Can you visit? No. Bouvet is a Norwegian nature reserve, and permits go to scientific work only. Even research teams have had to turn back. Expedition cruises to South Georgia and the Antarctic Peninsula are the realistic way to see this kind of wilderness; see our Norway page for the country behind the claim.

Tristan da Cunha, South Atlantic

Why it is dangerous: Tristan da Cunha is the most remote inhabited island in the world. About 240 people live in one settlement, Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, below a volcano that rises above 2,000 metres. St Helena, the nearest inhabited neighbour, is about 2,400 km away. In 1961 the volcano erupted beside the village and everyone was evacuated to England; most returned in 1963. The small hospital handles basics only, so a serious illness means waiting for a ship.

Can you visit? Yes, with permission from the Island Council, which you should request months ahead. The UK government's travel advice covers entry and safety.

How to get there: there is no airport. You fly to Cape Town and sail on a fishing vessel or the South African supply ship SA Agulhas II. There are only a handful of sailings a year with few berths, and swell can stop landings at the tiny harbour for days, so plan on several weeks away. Our South Africa page covers the Cape Town leg.

Pitcairn Island, South Pacific

Why it is dangerous: Pitcairn is a volcanic island of about 4.5 square kilometres, home to fewer than 50 people in Adamstown. Most are descendants of the HMS Bounty mutineers, who landed in 1790 with Tahitian men and women and burned their ship. There is no airport and no harbour, only a ramp at Bounty Bay where aluminium longboats meet ships offshore. Swell often stops landings, and medical evacuations take days.

Can you visit? Yes, and the territory welcomes visitors and would-be settlers.

How to get there: fly from Tahiti to Mangareva in French Polynesia, then take the supply ship Silver Supporter. Sailings are timed to the weekly flight from Tahiti, and the ship carries only about a dozen passengers, so book early through Visit Pitcairn. Stays usually last one to two weeks. Visitors walk the steep paths, see the Bounty's anchor and swim at the rock pool at St Paul's Point.

Remote islands you can actually visit

If the end of the world appeals but closed borders do not, start with islands that have regular transport. St Helena has had an airport since 2017, with flights from Johannesburg, and Napoleon's house of exile is open to visitors. Lord Howe Island off New South Wales caps visitor numbers at a few hundred at a time. The Faroe Islands, Svalbard and the Falklands feel remote but are served by scheduled flights.

Expedition cruises call at South Georgia and other sub-Antarctic islands with a ship's doctor and planned landings, which removes much of the risk. In the Indian Ocean, the outer islands of the Maldives offer real isolation with comfort. Use our flight search for the long-haul leg, and if wild places on land interest you, read our list of dangerous camping destinations in the US.

Why people still try to reach forbidden islands

Every few years the same news story appears: someone pays a fisherman, slips past a patrol and tries to land where nobody is allowed. A photo from a closed island earns attention online, which keeps the attempts coming. The fishermen who carried Chau to North Sentinel were arrested, and in several countries anyone who helps a trespasser can be prosecuted with them.

Treat any tour seller who advertises landings on a closed island as a red flag. The responsible way to know these places is through the scientists who are allowed to go and the research and photographs they publish.

Safety tips for remote island travel

Buy travel insurance that names medical evacuation by sea or air from the territory you are visiting, because standard policies often exclude it. Build spare days into both ends of the trip, since ships and small planes run late in bad weather, and never book a tight onward flight.

Island clinics stock the basics only, so carry enough prescription medicine for the trip plus delays. Mobile signal and internet are limited or expensive, so download maps and tell someone your route and return time before any walk. Swimming alone is a bad idea anywhere help is days away. On arrival, ask locals about tides, currents and safe paths, and follow what island officials tell you.