There are places in this world that you will probably never see.
Sometimes that’s a good thing as they might be controlled by insane dictators who will detain
you just for straying from your tour group. Other places are so remote that you practically have
to swim across an entire ocean to get there. One island is so hard to reach that the native people
who live on it may be one of the last uncontacted cultures in the entire world. Unfortunately,
if you try to visit their island, it’s very unlikely you will make it off alive.
Just as a disclaimer, the passport you hold determines the degree of difficulty you will face
when traveling to different parts of the world. For example, people with a Japanese or
Singaporean passport tend to have a much easier time securing visas than most other countries.
If you are a United States passport holder, you may have a more difficult time entering
some countries like North Korea, Iran, and Turkmenistan than someone with a Chinese or
Russian passport. Sometimes you need to be invited to certain countries,
and other times your own government might not let you travel to a certain region.
Traveling to Russia for a vacation from the U.S. or any European country right now is all but
impossible due to the current conflict. Flights into Russia from around the world have all but
come to a stop because of this war. Surprisingly, Russia is not the most challenging place to travel
to, even in the current political climate. What could be more difficult than entering a country
that is waging war and being boycotted by nations around the world? Let’s find out.
Turkmenistan was formerly a part of the Soviet Union. Yet, if you try to travel there today, it
may seem that the Turkmenistan government missed the memo that the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
The hardest part about traveling to this country is that you require an official government invite.
You can’t just decide to travel to Turkmenistan on a whim. If you get off a plane without an
official invite, you will be immediately sent home, or worse, detained for questioning.
On top of the craziness that is required to secure an official invitation to visit the country,
once you are there, you will need to be accompanied by a State-approved tour guide.
The marble architecture of Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, is supposed to be stunning.
But even if you manage to get into the country, it’s unlikely you’ll
see anything that the government doesn’t want you to. This makes traveling around
Turkmenistan extremely difficult. You get an eerie feeling that you’re always being watched,
which is probably because you are. Although the Soviet Union may have collapsed,
the Turkmenistan government still follows in its footsteps by ruling with an iron fist.
The next country is difficult to travel to, but for all the right reasons.
Bhutan is landlocked between China and India. The country itself lies in the Himalayan mountains,
and the only way travelers can enter is by taking a terrifying flight through
the mountains. In order to land, the pilot has to quickly drop in altitude
as there is not much room to work with. The airport is over 7,000 feet above sea level,
which is nothing compared to the 16,000-foot peaks that surround it.
All pilots who fly the route are specially trained for the flight into Bhutan
as it’s unlike anywhere else in the world. Only a handful of people successfully pass this test
and are allowed to fly passengers into the country. But it’s not the dangerous
flight that makes Bhutan so difficult to travel to; it’s the strict regulations the
government places on tourism to protect the country's pristine environment.
You must purchase a pre-paid tour package that the government has approved to visit the country. The
bad news is these tours are not cheap, and the Bhutan government does not care. Their stance is
that they would rather have less tourism coming in and keep the environment protected than allow more
people to visit just to make extra profit. There is also a fee of around 200 dollars a day to be
in the country. This money is used to help pay for restorations and environmental protections.
If the difficulty of getting into the nation of Bhutan isn’t enough of a challenge,
there is a place within the country that may be one of the hardest places to get
to in the entire world. The Tiger’s Nest, also known as Paro Taktsang,
is a Buddhist temple located 10,000 feet above sea level.
The only way to get to the temple is by hiking up treacherous mountain paths
and carefully shimmying your way along rock walls as you look over the edge at a sheer drop
of thousands of feet. You must then cross a rickety bridge over a sacred pool. Once on the
other side, more dangerous hiking awaits before you reach stone steps carved into the mountain
that ascend all the way to the temple. Traveling to the Tiger’s Nest is not for the faint of heart,
and anyone who attempts it needs to be in extremely good shape and proceed with caution.
Although Bhutan may be an island in the mountains,
there are actual islands so remote that traveling to them is next to impossible.
Tristan da Cunha is the most remote inhabited island in the Atlantic Ocean. It sits 1,750 miles
west of South Africa and 2,000 miles east of South America. The government does not actively impede
people from coming to Tristan da Cunha, but there just aren’t a lot of travel options to get there.
In fact, the country’s official website seems to want to deter people from visiting as they state:
"There are no package tours for independent travelers, no hotels,
no airport, no holiday reps, no night clubs, no restaurants, no jet skis nor safe sea swimming."
And for an island where there is nothing to do,
traveling there can be incredibly expensive and time-consuming. There are no airports,
so the only way to reach Tristan da Cunha is by ship. Unfortunately, there are only around
ten sailings to the island every year. If you are trying to travel to this remote part of the world,
you also need to receive clearance from the Island Council, which can take 40 days or longer.
Between getting permissions, finding a ship going to the island, booking a place on the ship,
and then finding a place to stay, traveling to Tristan da Cunha is next to impossible.
The next island may be tropical with white sand beaches and plenty of ocean activities, but
it’s just as isolated as Tristan da Cunha. On the plus side, there is an airplane that flies to it.
Kiribati sits almost directly in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Interestingly the 30 atolls that
make up this region of Micronesia cover around 1.4 million square miles, an area just over the
size of India. Bonriki International Airport is on the island chain of Tarawa. The only way to get to
the island is by flying from Fiji, so this makes for a very expensive trip. The price tag plus
the difficulty of finding flights make Kiribati one of the hardest tropical islands to reach.
Sadly, Tarawa and the rest of Kiribati might become impossible to visit soon.
These islands are being consumed by the ocean as sea levels rise.
In the not-so-distant future, Kiribati may need to be completely evacuated as
storms wipe out the infrastructure of the country. Eventually, the entire nation will be underwater,
at which point the only way to visit Kiribati will be by booking a scuba diving expedition.
There is another island in the Pacific that is guarded by ancient gods sculpted
from the fabric of the land. However, this does not mean it is easy to get to.
Easter Island is known to the Polynesian cultures as Rapa Nui. There are over 900 statues called
moai on the island that were carved from volcanic ash between 1400 and 1600 C.E.
Getting to the island can be difficult as only two flights go there each week.
Travelers need to plan their entire trip around the plane schedule; otherwise,
they could be stuck there for quite some time. The planes leave from Chile and Tahiti but
aren’t always guaranteed to fly. Weather conditions or lack of passengers can both
ground the aircrafts. Once on the island, there is no way off unless the planes are running.
Technically, Easter Island is part of Chile. However, it’s located around 2,200 miles west
of the Chilean coast in the Pacific Ocean. Many people end up traveling to Easter Island to see
the magnificent statues and get a glimpse of what the ancient Polynesian culture
that once inhabited the island was like. However, this trip is not the easiest to
make unless you plan appropriately and are willing to spend a long time on airplanes.
Oppressive regimes requiring travelers to be a part of a tour group to visit their country
seems to be the norm. Traveling solo is almost
impossible if you plan on visiting this next country.
Iran is currently categorized as a Level 4 risk for travelers from the United States by the
Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs. This means the U.S. government
recommends not traveling there at all. Both the U.S. and Iranian governments will try to make
visiting the other as difficult as possible for you. When Donald Trump was president and
implemented the travel ban on Iranians into the U.S., Iran did the same for Americans.
Iran is still rated as a Level 4 risk because of the likelihood of being kidnapped for ransom or
arbitrary arrest and detention. And this doesn’t just go for the United States;
many European countries and other nations have also implemented the
same type of travel advisories. Therefore, if you are trying to plan a trip to Iran,
you will need to secure special permission and join an Iranian-sponsored tour group.
That is, unless you have business with the oil companies there, then exceptions can be made.
The next nation on our list probably won’t surprise you
too much as it is known as the Hermit Kingdom.
North Korea is not the most welcoming country for many. In fact, citizens of some nations
like South Korea and the United States are not allowed to visit at, except for some
special circumstances. Like, for example, if you are former NBA star Dennis Rodman and have
become best friends with the Supreme Leader. The government controls everything in the country,
including what is seen and not seen by visitors. If you somehow manage to secure passage into the
country, you will not be allowed to explore on your own. All tourists must be accompanied
by a guide provided by the North Korean government. You are not allowed to wander off,
and you most certainly are not allowed to talk to anyone other than the people on the tour.
The only flights into North Korea are from Bejing. So travelers must first secure a flight to China.
Once there, you must secure a visa from the North Korean embassy before getting
on a flight into the country. The embassy will have to conduct a thorough background
check before granting you your visa, which could take weeks or even months. And even
if you secure all necessary documentation, there is no guarantee you will be allowed on
the flight to North Korea. Things can change at a moment's notice.
Getting into North Korea is incredibly difficult, but the scariest part is that getting out
can be even harder. If a traveler is detained for any reason, it’s highly unlikely they will be
released unless strenuous negotiations take place between the North Korean government and their home
country. These can last for years, which means a vacation could quickly turn into a North Korean
prison sentence. So, it’s probably for the best that it’s difficult to enter the Hermit Kingdom.
The only place that might be more dangerous than North Korea for tourists is this next location.
North Sentinel Island sits off the coast of India in the Bay of Bengal.
The only way to get to the island is by chartering a boat,
but most captains will refuse your request. Even though North Sentinel Island is inhabited,
there are no ferries or planes that go to the island. And the reason why will shock you.
The island itself is surrounded by razor-sharp reefs that make approaching
it difficult. But even more dangerous are the Sentinelese people living there.
This may be one of the last uncontacted groups of people on the entire planet.
They have had interactions with the outside world, but none of them were very pleasant.
There are accounts of shipwrecked sailors in the past who were welcomed to the island
but took advantage of the situation. They abused the island’s resources and people, which led to
the Sentinelese running them off their island. However, not everyone made it off alive, and this
would not be the only time that the inhabitants of North Sentinel Island killed visitors.
If you could get to the island, you would be threatened the moment you stepped on shore.
In 2011 it’s believed that somewhere between 80 and 150 people were living on North Sentinel
Island. However, these estimates may be low, and some think there are around 500 inhabitants
on the island. Either way, when an American Evangelical missionary named John Allen Chau
stepped foot on North Sentinel Island to try and convert the population to Christianity,
he was met with hostility. Chau was driven off the island twice by the Sentinelese. He
returned a third time and wasn’t so lucky. It’s believed that the Sentinelese people killed
John Allen Chau as they did with others who visited the island.
North Sentinel Island is the only place in the world that is not only hard to get to,
but the inhabitants will actively threaten and even kill you.
This is why it may be the most difficult place to travel to on the entire planet.
Other parts of the world are just as difficult to get to as North Sentinel Island,
but you don’t have to worry about the people living there trying to murder you.
Take Machu Picchu for instance. This ancient Inca settlement high in the
Andes Mountains of Peru is a bucket list destination for many. However,
most people go their whole lives without ever setting foot within its crumbling walls.
There are a couple of reasons Machu Picchu is so difficult to visit. The main one
is that there is a limit to the number of people who can see the site each day. This
is because every tourist who steps foot on the ancient ruins is inadvertently destroying them.
The Peruvian government and UNESCO restrict the number of visitors to Machu Picchu
to around 2,500 per day, but only 500 people can be on the Inca Trail at any given time
to protect its integrity. The hike to the ruins is around 26 miles, and many people suffer from
altitude sickness as they make their ascent to the ruins. This makes Machu Picchu incredibly
difficult to reach if you are not in decent shape and don’t have a good guide. There is
a train that goes up to the ruins, but this is expensive, and no matter how you get there, you
have to be one of the 2,500 people with special permission to see the ancient site that day.
There is a place in Arizona that makes Machu Picchu’s daily permit count seem immense.
The Wave is a sandstone rock formation that literally looks like a wave. However,
only a select few ever get the opportunity to walk through this natural wonder.
The Bureau of Land Management only gives out 20 permits a day.
Getting to The Wave is a little difficult as the roads to the trailhead are not paved
and bad weather can quickly make them impassable. But it’s not the location or even the 6.2-mile
hike that makes The Wave one of the most difficult places to visit. It is winning
the lottery system to secure a reservation that keeps most tourists from visiting this spot.
The Lost City in Columbia, on the other hand, may be the most difficult trek you can take to reach
a destination. There is no limit to the number of people who can visit this site each year,
but its remoteness and the brutal landscape of the Amazon Jungle keep tourists out.
Ciudad Perdida, or the Lost City, rises out of the jungles of Colombia and takes three
to six days to reach by hiking. This is the only way to reach the site as there are no
roads and it sits too deep in the jungle to allow planes or helicopters to land.
The Lost City was built around 800 C.E. by the Tayrona people.
The hike itself is incredibly difficult as the path that leads to it winds through some
of the densest rainforests in the entire world. At any point throughout the year,
constant downpours can wash out the path and cause it to become impassable.
If all goes according to plan, the weather will hold up, but there are still a plethora
of poisonous snakes, spiders, and other animals that could kill you along the way.
Even after reaching Ciudad Perdida, you need to make the return trip to
civilization. This is just as difficult if not more difficult than the journey
there as you will be exhausted. Very few people make the trip to the Lost City,
and it would be impossible to get there without a guide. The environment and
remoteness of the site make it one of the most difficult places to travel in the world.
If you thought it was hard to get to the previous locations,
you haven’t seen anything yet. The next few places are so difficult to get to that only
a handful of people can say they’ve successfully managed to visit them.
Bear Island sits 400 miles off the northern coast of Europe at the edge of the Arctic.
The only way to get to the island is by hitching a ride aboard a Norwegian Polar Institute vessel
or by chartering a boat. But since the island is in a remote area of the Northern Atlantic,
this can be incredibly hard to do and very expensive.
However, even if you are able to secure passage to the island, you won’t be able to stay very
long. Bear Island is a natural reserve that has almost no precipitation and is surrounded by rocky
cliffs. On top of that many tourists are deterred from visiting the island as there is a nuclear
submarine wreck nearby that is at risk of leaking radioactive materials into the surrounding waters.
Traveling to a barren island in the Arctic is difficult,
but getting to one of the most isolated islands in the Antarctic is even harder.
Bouvet is about 1,000 miles from Antarctica. It’s uninhabited due to its sheer remoteness
and difficulty to get to. The entire island is almost completely covered by a glacier year-round,
and in the winter, the waters around the island are shielded by pack ice. This
makes Bouvet almost impossible to reach, and even if you do make it to the island,
there is no practical way of actually getting on it to explore the landscape.
Bouvet Island is also a natural preserve that is under the watch of the Norwegian government.
If you want to investigate the island, you need to have a good reason which is cleared
by Norwegian officials; otherwise, you could be detained as your boat approaches Bouvet.
If you manage to secure permission, the best way to get on the island would be to
board a research vessel and endure a long, perilous journey. Once within distance,
you would need to fly aboard a helicopter that would drop you off on top of the barren glacier.
There isn’t much to do other than conduct studies of the Antarctic climate and its
geological processes. It would be an expensive and dangerous vacation just to stand on top of a lot
of snow and ice. This is why only a handful of people have ever been on Bouvet Island,
and this doesn’t seem like it will be changing any time soon.
This next place isn’t as remote as other islands, but it’s rarely visited for one particular reason.
Boreray Island is about 60 miles from the mainland of Scotland.
The island itself looks beautiful from afar, but as you approach,
you quickly realize that any ambitions to step foot on the island could cost you your life.
Boreray is a Scottish World Heritage Site meaning that even if you could get to the
island, you would need special permission from the Scottish government to visit it.
These requests are almost always denied to not only preserve the island but peoples’ safety.
It’s the jagged shoreline and intense swell that makes landing on Boreray so difficult.
Even if you are able to secure permission to step foot on the island,
you may be waiting for days or even weeks for the sea and weather to cooperate.
Boats that get too close to Boreray when the conditions aren’t right find themselves smashed
into the side of the sharp rocks that make up the coastline and sink to the bottom of the Atlantic.
It’s estimated that more people have summited Mount Everest than have reached Boreray island
since the 1950s. This just puts into perspective how difficult this remote island is to visit.
Now watch “These Countries Are Impossible to Invade.” Or check
out “What Americans REALLY Think of Other Countries.”