A good friend asked me to recommend a secret island escape. A secret island? She was asking about yet-to-be-discovered islands. "I don't want to meet another American or British tourist whilst there" she added quickly, "I want to discover this place for myself. I want to be off the radar". This got me thinking about some of the gloriously unsung, off-the-beaten-track islands I've visited around the world that just aren't on most people's radar.
Here is a list of Escapism's favourite cast-away islands :
1. Isla Providencia, Colombia
Colombia is stunning, despite the negative image most people have of it, an image that is completely outdated. Get savvy and go there as soon as you can - personal safety is not something you should be overly concerned with (obviously, in major cities, take the usual precautions, as you would anywhere else in the world). I actually felt safer in Colombia than I did in Brighton.
Providencia is a tiny island of swaying palms, turquoise shoals and impossibly laidback locals. I visited here in August 2007 and it's actually closer to Nicaragua than Colombia (Bogota is 1,000 miles away, connected by a daily flight via San Andres). Isla Providencia (or Old Providence) is the archetypal paradise island caught in a timewarp. Tourist heavyweights like Antigua, Barbados and St Lucia all must have been like this 70 years ago. I get there by a small twin-propeller plane from San Andres to Providencia. The island fits neatly into the plane window as it is only 17 square kilometres, surrounded by other islands and cays.
The plane touches down at a tiny airstrip that more resembles a country village hall from the 1950s, known locally as El Embrujo (The Enchantment) and covered in murals of traditional island scenes painted in the most vivid colours. Only two planes land here once a day, bringing a maximum of 19 passengers. Unlike San Andres, Providencia is a volcanic island. The single track road to Hotel Posada del Mar has grass growing in the middle and I get glimpses of the interior: steep, green and wild, and signs to villages with a piquant sound to their names, like Lazy Hill. There are no nightclubs or shops here, no mobile phone signals or Internet, only a wild, South Seas, plumy atmosphere. Here's a shot of the airport:
This is fledgling tourism at its best. The population of 4,700 survive on farming and fishing. Such is the lack of crime, they don't even have a single police officer or station.
The island also has some breathtaking beaches - Manzanillo Beach here is completely deserted - a sliver of white sand, backed by dense jungle, shallow, safe seas and no-one in sight. There are hammocks strung amongst the trees.
I'd recommend a boat trip to see the island. We beach at Morgan Head and walk to the highest point, Fort Warwick, later called Forte de la Libertad, where canons dating from the 16th century point out to sea beside a statue of the Virgin Mary. It was here that English puritans and Spanish pirates landed.
This is the Macbean Lagoon and the Sea of Seven Colours:
At Santa Isabel, the main village, I bump into Wilberson Archibald. Born in 1937, he describes himself as a "maestro of the music", his folkloric music is sold all over Colombia. He sings in Spanish and Creole and plays the mandolin and the jawbone of a horse, to create a reggae-inspired, home-grown music.
2. The Pearl Islands, Panama
To get here, I take a 30 minute flight on a 20-seater plane to Contadora Island from Panama City, to the Pearl Islands, an archipelago of over 200 islands strung out in the shallow, bright green waters of the Pacific. Contadora has the atmosphere of a tiny village that time forgot. The runway is a tarmac strip with weeds growing in the middle and the circular road is more suited to golf buggies than cars. Its coastline is laced with swaying palms, remote white sand coves and the faded glamour of several low-key, 1960s-style 'motels' or the delightfully kitsch 1920s Casa Romantica (with bathrooms completely covered in oyster shells).
A perfect island for rest and relaxation. Lured by the beauty of the island, Christian Dior owns a minimalist, design-led mansion here. In 1969, actor Richard Burton purchased the island as a birthday present to his wife, Elizabeth Taylor, for $37,000. During that time, the jet set were arriving in yachts and private jets. Locals recount tales of men in smoking jackets and ladies wearing ball gowns, demanding caviar and champagne. The island was returned to the public a few years later, and nowadays, wild deer and peacocks roam.
One of the most enjoyable ways to see the archipelago is by boat. Many of the islands are cloaked in dense rainforest and ringed by low cliffs and pure white sand, or tiny lips of sand like Bajo Boyarena, only revealed at low tide, but from where you can see twelve other islands. On one of those islands, Sabuca, locals believe pirate Henry Morgan's treasure lies hidden beneath the church. Finally, we sail to Casayeta, home to pearl fishermen. I meet Aripe Santana, an 81 year old resident who for the past 60 years has been diving for pearls. The only difference is he dives without oxygen tanks for up to 5 minutes in waters as deep as 15 metres, to collect oyster shells from the ocean floor. For every 200 oysters he brings up, one will contain a pearl which he can sell for anything from 700 dollars upwards.
Take a look at this pic
: 
and this is the 81 year old pearl fisherman
: 
The Pearl Islands, really live up to their name. A friend of mine, Teresa, actually dived to hunt for a pearl.
I cannot talk about the mainland of Panama here, but it's beautiful par excellence: the Casco Viejo, or old town of Panama City has the same glorious shades of Old San Juan or Havana, with a wonderful gastronomic scene, and don't miss the Drua Embera Indians who live in an isolated jungle spot on the Rio Chagres.
3. Quirimbas Archipelago, Mozambique
Mozambique is a rising star in Africa for beautiful island retreats. To get to the Quirimbas Islands, you leave Pemba (the mainland) in a vintage Cessna that quite literally transports you back to another time. Just look at an aerial pic of Medjumbe island (owned by Rani Resorts):
Mozambique is a rising star in Africa for beautiful island retreats. To get to the Quirimbas Islands, you leave Pemba (the mainland) in a vintage Cessna that quite literally transports you back to another time. Just look at an aerial pic of Medjumbe island (owned by Rani Resorts):
On Medjumbe, time slows to a few frames per second as this classic island experience gets the better of me: snoozing in the hammock, bathing in isolation, watching glorious sunsets that turn the whole island crimson and snorkeling on the reef among day-glow fish. There is no spa or TV, just a dodgy internet connection and a radio for calling the plane. It suits me down to the ground.
Next morning, we’re sailing to Ibo, past dhows, traditionally constructed with a triangular sail while the fishermen’s songs carry across the ocean. These dhows make me think of tales of Sinbad.
The yellow blur of Ibo appears, a strange and mysterious air lingering about it. We land at a tiny anchorage, overlooked by the ancient stone walls of one of three pentagon-shaped Portuguese forts.
Going ashore is like travelling back to the 1800s, emerging into a ghost town bearing the tatters of an extraordinary beauty. It's said to be one of the most ancient European settlements in Mozambique and certainly one of the most fascinating in all of Africa. There is a ramble of faded, yellow and grey palatial buildings, all derelict, but forming an incongruous museum piece – moss-covered, jungle-stained, and exuding grandeur. The former bank with a splash of pink ironwork and grand stairways is a few steps from the cathedral, the Church of Our Lady of Rosaria built in 1580. This is all that remains of once-elegant Portuguese merchant's houses. Tropical rot seeps through everything. I walk inside these deserted buildings, over colonnaded verandahs choked with ivy and through overgrown gardens, filled with an indescribable sense of discovery and exultation. The place is a carefully preserved ghost town.
There's more to come on Secret Islands.. there are so many other islands out there. If you'd like to read more about some of these destinations in more detail, please check out our latest issue of Escapism Travel Magazine. www.escapism-magazine.com/read.html
