Impossible Places

Niihau jumped out at me as I was looking at the map of Hawaii,. It was then that I realized this was the island I had to stay on when I visited.

When I got home from Borders, I headed to the Internet to see what I could find out about this place - none of the travel guides made mention of anything you could do in Niihau. It turns out there's a good reason for that.

It's the Forbidden Isle.

You aren't allowed to stay there unless you're invited by the family that owns the island, or are in the US military. The 300 or so natives are isolated from the outside world (8 years ago there was a 100% unemployment rate among them). There are supervised tours of the beaches. I think I would be okay with that - or at least I would certainly take it if it was all I could get.

I have a backup, though. The Near Islands, the island chain furthest west (so much so it's technically east) in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands. More specifically, Attu Island. It's got snow and ocean, aurora borealis in a sky devoid of light pollution. There's even a travel agency specifically providing trips to the island, because of all the crazy rare birds that show up. Perfect.

Their last trip was in 2006.

They're not planning another.

That makes things a little more difficult.

There's always Unalaska Island, in the Fox Islands group of the Aleutians (I love the name Unalaska). That one is easier to get to, by an order of magnitude. Sure, Southwest won't fly to it, but at least the Alaskan Tourism Board representatives know where it is.