Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, Central Pacific Ocean

© Ian Shive/Tandem Stills + Motio

Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge

Welcome to this eco-traveller's paradise in the middle of the Pacific. Situated halfway between Hawaii and American Samoa, the Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge was established in 2001 to conserve, manage and restore the United States' fish, wildlife, plants and habitats.

Home to a vast reef system, this atoll has three shallow lagoons and numerous sandy and reef-rock islets with vegetation like coconut palms, Scaevola and towering Pisonia trees. But wait, there's more. The lush greenery here is a bustling neighbourhood that's home to more than a million birds from 29 different species, like masked booby, great frigatebird and sooty tern. It's also one of the few places outside the Galápagos Islands where red-footed boobies are found. A huge variety of marine wildlife is in and around the atoll, including green sea turtles, hawksbill turtles and the mighty coconut crab, the world's largest land invertebrate.