Aitutaki

Aitutaki possesses what many experienced travelers consider the world's most beautiful lagoon — a vast, shallow expanse of water in every conceivable shade of blue and green, enclosed by a necklace of uninhabited motus (islets) that dot the reef with palm-fringed perfection. This Cook Islands atoll, 260 kilometers north of Rarotonga, operates at a level of natural beauty that renders most travel photography inadequate.

The lagoon itself is the destination. Boat excursions cross its shimmering expanse to One Foot Island — a tiny motu whose name derives from a legend about a father and son fleeing their enemies, one footprint at a time. The island hosts the world's most remote post office (stamp your passport here), but its real purpose is to provide a beach of such crystalline perfection that the act of sitting on it constitutes a sufficient life achievement. The water surrounding One Foot Island achieves a clarity and color that photographers call 'unreal' and the rest of us call 'the reason we travel.'

Aitutaki's permanent population of roughly two thousand maintains a Polynesian lifestyle that balances tradition with the modest tourism that the island's distance from everywhere else naturally limits. The Araura Enua cultural centre preserves Cook Islands traditions including the umukai (earth oven feast), traditional dance, and the art of tivaevae — the hand-stitched quilts that are Cook Islands women's supreme artistic achievement.

Paul Gauguin Cruises, Seabourn, Silversea, and Windstar Cruises include Aitutaki on South Pacific itineraries, with the lagoon providing snorkeling over coral gardens and giant clams in water so clear the concept of 'underwater visibility' becomes meaningless — you see everything, everywhere, to the bottom.

May through October provides the driest conditions and most comfortable temperatures. Aitutaki is the destination that silences the most jaded traveler — a lagoon so beautiful it seems digitally enhanced, on an island so remote it has avoided the resort development that would inevitably diminish its magic.