Devil's Island, French Guiana

Devil's Island needs no embellishment — its name alone conjures a vision of suffering that few places on Earth can match. This small, jungle-covered island, the smallest of the three Îles du Salut (Islands of Salvation) off the coast of French Guiana, served as one of the most notorious penal colonies in history from 1852 to 1953. Over a century, France transported approximately 80,000 convicts to these islands and the mainland camps, of whom fewer than half survived their sentences. The most famous prisoner was Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the French artillery officer wrongly convicted of treason in the scandal that tore France apart at the turn of the twentieth century, who spent four years in solitary confinement on Devil's Island itself.

The Îles du Salut are a trio of islands — Île Royale, Île Saint-Joseph, and Île du Diable (Devil's Island) — located roughly fifteen kilometers off the coast of Kourou. Île Royale, the largest, was the administrative center of the penal colony and is where most cruise ship visitors spend their time. The ruined stone buildings of the prison administration, the chapel, the hospital, and the guards' quarters stand in various states of atmospheric decay, their walls overtaken by tropical vegetation in a visual metaphor for nature's indifference to human cruelty. The cemetery, where guards and their families are buried alongside the few prisoners who earned that dignity, overlooks the sea with a tranquility that makes the island's history all the more disturbing.

Île Saint-Joseph housed the most severe punishment: the réclusion cells, where prisoners condemned to solitary confinement lived in silence and near-total darkness for years at a stretch. The roofless cells, open to the tropical rain and sun, remain standing, their stone walls and iron door frames creating one of the most chilling historical sites in the Americas. Henri Charrière, whose memoir Papillon (whether fact or fiction remains debated) brought the horrors of the bagne to worldwide attention, described the island system with a visceral detail that still haunts readers. Devil's Island itself, separated from Saint-Joseph by a shark-filled channel, was reserved for political prisoners and is visible but not always accessible to visitors.

Despite — or perhaps because of — its grim history, the natural setting of the Îles du Salut is extraordinarily beautiful. Coconut palms, mango trees, and bougainvillea have colonized the ruins, and agoutis (large rodents resembling tailless rabbits) and macaws inhabit the forest. The surrounding waters are warm, clear, and rich with marine life. Green sea turtles nest on the beaches, and snorkeling around the rocky shores reveals healthy coral and tropical fish. The contrast between the islands' tropical beauty and their history of human suffering creates an emotional complexity that few destinations can equal.

Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Seabourn include the Îles du Salut on their South American and Caribbean repositioning itineraries. The approach by ship, with the three islands rising green and palm-fringed from the Atlantic, gives no hint of the darkness that once engulfed them. The best time to visit is July through November, the driest months in French Guiana, when the trade winds moderate the equatorial heat and sea conditions are calmest for tender operations to the island.