Have you ever traveled to a really remote location?

How about Easter Island?

My parents took a repositioning cruise that went from Chile to Australia and stopped at Easter Island and Pitcairn. They loved it.

OP, lots of times. The Peruvian Andes -- in some tiny towns tourists never visit. Camped out in the Atacama desert in Chile. Really barren but amazing place to stargaze.

I was about 55 before I ever saw the Milky Way.

To those of you in cities or other light-flooded places, it’s a real thing and quite stunning. You can see it in PTown at the very end of the Cape. You can see it on Long Island in some places. You can obviously see it in other places. It’s really cool.

^ I should have added, you can see it in parts of the California desert, when it’s not all on fire, hahah 🔥

I spent two weeks traveling from Beijing to Shanghai.

West Lake near Hongzhou qualifies as remote, but you're always surrounded by people in China. Even on a tea plantation, there's crowds.

When I was 5 or 6 my parents took me on a cruise in some jungle. I do not remember much about it other than we went through a rainforest with a shrine to some monkey and ruins of an ancient city. I recall seeing a tiger, giant spiders, snakes and crocodiles. There were elephants that squirted water at our boat and a hippo that tried to attack us.

As kids my father always took us to underground cave tours. It can be scary, with just a light on your forehead. Yikes.

I've never been to me.

Strange, I was randomly reading about Easter Island and then Pitcairn island earlier today. Pitcairn is basically an inbred sex cult.

Fargo.

By car.w

What’s a repositioning Cruise?

Trans-Siberian Railway

R10 tell us more about the sexcult at Pitcairn

In very remote northeast Canada on an island fishing. Scenic. But don't try it if you don't like camping, no phone, no internet, and no TV. Cabins were provided and a small staff was there to cook. Fly-in situation.

I’d love to do the whole transsibirian railway in a private compartment.. with my partner and some good drugs of course.

The Kyaiktiyo Pagoda in Myanmar. Coming down the steep mountain in a rickety bus was easily top 3 scariest moments of my life.

The Pentapolis of the M'Zab in the Algerian Sahara.

r12- reverse cowgirl, Rose

Probably valleys of Eastern Bhutan, my partner and I were there with our guide and the driver, with only other people within what was probably 150km radius, surrounded by dozens of grazing yaks.

Parts of Faroe Islands, particularly the very north felt extremely remote, as does the Northeastern, barely populated coast of Iceland. *Very* desolate, where the only things that you see are flotsam and jetsam washed up on the shore that traveled from Siberia.

Wouldn't Ascension Island be in the same category as Tristan da Cunha or Pitcairn?

St. Pierre et Miquelon. Like France was in 1971. But I was there last year.

St. Pierre et Miquelon is a short ferry ride away from Newfoundland. Exotic (in a way), yes, but it's not that remote. There are sparsely inhabited parts of Canada (Labrador or Baffin island, for instance) which I would consider far more remote and isolated.

Nothing exotic but I did go to camp at the tip of Northern Minnesota. That was mile after mile of nothing but forest and bunny rabbits. Apparently no predators for the rabbits. Which seems strange.

I went on an eco-tour to the Darien a few years ago. We flew in and landed on a strip of grass. There was a lot of pressure at one time to drive the Trans-America highway through the rain forest but fortunately the plan was stopped. I discovered an article in an old issue of National Geographic which was pure propaganda in favour of this initiative to develop this wild region.

Here's a long article about the trial and the history of Pitcairn, R14.

For a more positive aspect to the sordid story of the mutiny on the Bounty, see Bligh's amazing feat of navigation in bringing his launch to Timor.

Mocha, Yemen. My father was a diplomat and we lived in Yemen in the 1960s. We went to Mocha a few times, and it was just a small desolate place because the harbor had filled with silt centuries before, and the town had been overtaken by sand.

Yemen in the Sixties was great place to see the Milky Way. We lived high in the mountains, and there was no light pollution because there was almost no electricity at all.

Have you been to Socotra, R26? I've always wanted to go there but the political situation in Yemen has been a determent factor for a number of years now.

r12 It's when ships are moving to a different part of the world to start a new series of cruises in a different location. Common example: The ships that do Alaska cruises (starting from Seattle, Vancouver, or Anchorage) in the summer often reposition to southern California in the winter, to do cruises along the California coast or to the Mexican Riviera. The process is reversed in the spring. Usually there are few ports--the main point of the cruise is to move the ship, not visit ports. So it's often much less expensive than a regular cruise.

In 1980 I had to travel from Tel Aviv to the Sinai Field Mission in the middle of the desert (several hours over perceptible "roads"--fortunately I wasn't driving). This was during the gradual process of Israel transferring the Sinai peninsula back to Egypt as a result of the peace agreement between those two countries.

R27 No, I never went to Socotra. It was very inaccessible because there was no airport and only small ships went there.

Has anyone here been to the Solomon Islands or Papua New Guinea?

I went to Staten Island.

Shaybah, out in the middle of Saudi Arabia's aptly named Empty Quarter. Rusty red dunes a few hundred feet high, in every direction for as far as you can see. It is otherworldly.

"Have you ever traveled to a really remote location?"

Not nearly remote enough!

I went above 14th St once.

Speaking of Myanmar; Mount Popa. The number one Nat Temple

Mother took away my cot in the basement and demanded I sleep in my old bedroom.

New Jersey

The Falkland Islands a couple of years ago. Several remote Indonesian islands, including Komodo.

Speaking of remote, I really want to visit the Faroe Islands.

I have been to CANARSIE!

My boyfriend and I got lost in the Amazon many years ago. Out of nowhere a man appeared on a motorcycle and managed to fit both of us on a precarious long ride to the outskirts of Leticia (Colombia).

Were you walking? On horse? Boat?

R42, in that area of the country (jungle outside Leticia), you were probably lucky not to run into FARC.

My boyfriend was from the area and claimed to know everything about how to navigate (we hiked after a bus ride), but that turned out to be an overstatement. Fortunately we never got bothered by FARC.

An island on the middle of a lake in northwest Ontario, with the nearest habitation hundreds of miles away. It was glorious.

Patagonia and Chile Sul.

A huge fireworks factory complex in Hepu, Guangxi, China, near the city of Beihai on China's southern coast. To get there we passed through small towns and villages which had no signs in English. Vendors on both sides of the road had tables of beautiful things to sell. Nobody spoke English except my hosts, and even them not very well. For most of the people in that area I was probably the only person with blond hair and blue eyes they will ever see in person. They stared at me in wonder. The food was good but not like our Chinese food; you had to crack open your own shellfish etc. Lots more work to eat.

Darrough Hot Springs in central Nevada. Now closed to the public. I only got to go because I met the lady who owns it now. An old18-room hotel that was glamorous back in its day. A geyser on the property supplies boiling hot water, which is mixed with cold and fed to a swimming pool. I was lucky to get to swim here one evening with friends. Even the water in the toilets and sinks is warm. A beautiful place but sadly a geothermal company is trying to buy it from her and build a power plant.

I went to a MENSA gathering on Staten Island.

Payne City , Macon - Bibb , GA .

R24 The Darien Gap is one of the most dangerous areas in the world. I'm surprised there are tours there.

To R18

I too spent a week in Ghardiai back in the eighties. Remarkable place. In that trip, though, I ended up in Djado, even more remote. Too dangerous to visit now.

I would love to see the Mongolian Gobi.

Has anyone here been to St Helena?

I spent a summer working on an oceanographic research vessel in the Bering Sea so I've been to the Pribilofs and Nunivak Island. Not much there but seal rookeries.

R56, that sounds awesome!

My driver in Aswan, Egypt took me on a three hour drive into the Sahara and down to Lake Nasser. Saw only one other car during our drive.

[quote]Has anyone here been to St Helena?

Only the one in California.

R58 When I visited Egypt we took a tour bus on the desert highway from Cairo to Luxor. I was told at the time that you needed permission from the Egyptian military before you were permitted to use the highway which likely explains the few vehicles on the road. I should mention that there was a government official on the bus keeping an eye on us.

R52 While visiting a rain forest lodge in the Darien we were told that the coast could be dangerous with the danger of kidnapping. However the forest is so dense and hilly that it would take a lot of effort for bad guys to infiltrate the region inland. At the time of my visit the main concern was the terrorist activity in Colombia so the Darien was perceived as a barrier.

Yeah I guess. I live in a very remote location.

R61, when did you visit the Darien? As a kid, I was always fascinated with the place. But having spent time in jungle/rainforest, I know the conditions would be too oppressive for me to want to visit.

Why is everyone so fascinated with suburban Connecticut? Are the Stepford Wives that dangerous?

R60 My driver told me that he had to apply for permission to make the journey and to have a backup driver as well. This was also the case when I've been driven from Luxor to Hurghada there had to be two licensed drivers on board. The driver had to show his paperwork at checkpoints along the way.

i went to the Mall of America once. I qualify.

I was in the Falkland Islands for an afternoon. I was supposed to cruise around the island for a couple of days and see the king penguin colony before heading across the Great Southern Ocean for the Antarctic cruise I was on, but a storm was coming in so the ship hauled off into the ocean as the sun set. So I only had a lovely drive from the airport to Staney, the largest town in the islands, and an hour of poking around the town before taking ship. The island landscapes were lovely and the stores full of homey British imported goods.

I'd always wanted to see a storm on the Great Southern Ocean, BTW, I'd read about waves that became huge walls of water a mile apart, and that ships would climb up one wave and down to the next like a car going over a range of hills. But we only skirted the edges of the storm, because the captain of our ship wasn't a fucking idiot.

R53 do you think Ghardaia is deadly dangerous right now? It's quite a big town. I am interested to do a faculty exchange but my European university is completely uninterested and dumbfounded and the state departments all have DANGER warnings. Yet the people are so nice!

PS . Djado? Is this in Algeria or NIGER?

Koh Samui in Thailand back in 1990 when it was still undiscovered. Just an airstrip carved out t of the island's jungle . Typhoon for four days in my hut (alone) and just drank Mekong whiskey and pined for the hunk next door.

Yes. Jonestown, Guyana! And I'm never going anywhere like that again!

Friend of mine worked in the Darien, doing field work, in the 70s/80s. Really enjoyed it despite the main danger having been dysentery, et al.

I've been to Spiti/Kannur circuit in Indian Himalaya--basically a one lane road on the edge of mountains. Beautiful area--people see snow leopard in winter.

Have been to Everest region and Brazilian Amazon--traveling hammock class through unpopulated areas.

It's not really a remote location but I've been to North Korea. I doubt many people can say that.

I travelled once to me. It was a cold place and a truly traumatic experience. I left immediately and never went back.

R63 I visited the Darien in 2007. I"m 99% sure that we stayed at the Cana Field Station (not 100% positive as I no longer have documentation) and then hiked up the Pirre Mountain Trail and stayed in tents over night. The trail was steep and muddy - I fell several times. And of course very humid. The most exciting experience was the invasion of the field station by a herd of peccaries. They looked huge - I'd always imaged them to be much smaller. I also saw a cougar on the landing strip.

The true middle of the nowhere in Sahara, at the Tunisian/Algerian border, in 2008. I went to a conference in Tunisia that year and, as an excursion, the organizers decided to take us to the most remote part of the country at the Algerian border after first doing the usual touristy things (Star Wars filming locale, Tozeur) We slept in the tents where only other creatures were scorpions, after we had been told how to proof the tent against the desert critters. Standing under the star speckled sky in the middle of the desert with no sounds anywhere was truly magical. The only people for a hundred miles around us were 20 or so conference participants, as many camels, and the two guides.

A few years ago i stayed a couple of nights at a lodge in the middle of the Namib desert. While technically not *that* remote (a few hours’ drive from the nearest towns) it really felt like you were in the middle of nowhere and the only person on earth. Spectacularly beautiful too.

Took a bus from Venezuela to Brazil that passed through Yanomami territory. The landscapes (tepuis) were shown in thr Pixar movie UP.

Tepuis

I once spent a few hours in Gander, Newfoundland while our plane refueled.

[quote]The only people for a hundred miles around us were 20 or so conference participants, as many camels, and the two guides.

But I'll be there was a Starbucks.

I've been to Rakiura/Stewart Island at the bottom of New Zealand and the little outlying islands (the ones you are allowed to go to). You can see the Southern Lights there - it's really beautiful.

I've also been to the Penguin Post Office in Antarctica.

r82, that sounds really cool

It was! Luckily I live in New Zealand so it wasn't too far away but I really recommend Rakiura to anyone who is coming here on holiday. It's beautiful but often overlooked because of it's location and the expense of getting there. Ulva Island is my favourite place.

^^^despite the fact it rhymes with vulva....

Far North Kimberley Region of Northwestern Australia.

Spent 1 year hiking all around the remote region of Cape Levesque.

There with a WWF photographer and guide to discover rock art. I recall camping one night on a riverbank (that lead to the sea) and remaining awake terrified the huge saltie (saltwater croc) we spotted from a bluff earlier in the day would snatch me. Several months later, while hiking I stumbled across a sunning brown snake (2nd most poisonous in Oz), and fortunately, it seemed as startled as I. (Backed away from it vvvveeerrryyyy slowly).

Stunningly beautiful and rugged place. And upon returning to "civilisation" along the far Northwestern coast of Western Australia (far north of Broome), it took some time to reacclimate.

[quote]I once spent a few hours in Gander, Newfoundland while our plane refueled.

Did you write a Tony Award-winning musical about the experience?

To R68

Re: Ghardiai. It wasn't particularly dangerous then, but given the wave of tourist kidnappings in Algeria, the Toureg insurrection that's been going on now for 30 years, I don't think it's wise. Because were you kidnapped, I can't see it ending well. You are right, though: the incredible hospitality of the people makes the current situation sad. Perhaps one day you will be able to drive up to the great rift valley and see the seven cities below.

Re: Djado, one of the great old cities on the salt route: It's in North Eastern Niger near the border with Libya. Very beautiful. Slowly returning to the mud from which it was formed.

Bluff, South Island, New Zealand

Hokitika, South Island, New Zealand (Wildfoods Festival. Huhu grubs washed down with Monteith's Dark. Yum!)

Reykjavic, Iceland, 1975. The entire airport consisted of one runway and quonset hut.

30 years ago, when I moved to Las Vegas, I was conned into go on a trip to a place called Elko Nevada.

I was surprised that the natives walked upright.

Has anyone been to Mayotte or Reunion Island?

Is Colchester, England considered a remote location?

Thirty years ago next month, I arrived in Tashkent by airplane at around 2AM and boarded a rickety bus for a six hour drive to Samarkand on a barren, two-lane road. It was magical. A full moon lit the landscape. We stopped a few times for passengers to get off and stretch our legs (and pee on the roadside). I have never seen so many stars in the sky despite the full moon.

I'll give a great blowjob to anyone here who can demonstrate that they've been to Diego Garcia and tell us what's really going on there.

Diego has gay face.

How wonderful that someone got to visit Djado - what a beautiful surreal place in the middle of a vast desert and lost in time

I was in Cabo Verde for a plane refueling

I went to a remote area of Japan where those monkeys hang around hot baths. It was a long hike there and fucking freezing but worth it because you got to mingle with the monkeys but they just ignored everyone hanging around.

Fetlar feels remote, to the north there is nothing until the Arctic circle. Including me, population 67. Funny seeing mention of Tristan da Cunha, I set up early internet connectivity with a sat phone many years ago, two boats a year visited unless you chartered one.

What do you do for a living, r99?

I worked many years for a large, international nonprofit organization, and through them, I traveled to many exotic places:

Kathmandu, Nepal

Ulan Bator, Mongolia

Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Puno, Peru

La Paz, Bolivia

Lahore, Pakistan

Yangon, Myanmar

Sana'a, Yemen

Juba, South Sudan

Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

And lots of other places, especially in Asia and Africa. Exotic travel was one of the perks of working for an organization that does really good work.

I just left Kathmandu, Nepal yesterday where I stayed for five days. While it isn't really remote, you don't see many western tourists.

No, I didn't rough it. I stayed in the Hyatt there. I booked a flight that flew us over to the Himalayan mountains and also hired a driver to take me see the many ancient temples and old parts of the city. Very interesting and unique place to visit. I'm a fairly experienced traveler and I can say that it was challenging, but the local people were very nice.

And in case anyone is interested in the men, I doubt if many of you would find the Nepalese men attractive, but there were a few that caught my eye, but I wasn't looking.

I live in Kansas City Missouri and I drove all the way to Harrisonville once. But only once.

R102 I’m having trouble processing Kathmandu, the Hyatt and “you don’t see many western tourists”.

There are queues of people waiting to make the final ascent on Everest, FFS!

I took i20 straight through Atlanta alone in a motor car.

Ouarzazate, Morocco it's on the edge of the Sahara desert. We drove over the Atlas Mountains it felt like I had time travelled 2000 years into the past.

well about the best I can do is feeble Kauai.....................we rented a private house on the beach almost at the end of the road by tunnells beach in the far north shore and next to that is nothing but rugged hills/mountains and state park and nothing.........the most beautiful scenery Ive ever had the priv of seeing. Big sur is a close second in my opinion.

R97 Cabo Verde ( Cape Verde) isn't really remote, I bought a house there for £15K 10 years ago. The weather is great in winter.

They get about 800,000 tourists a year now,

[quote]I live in Kansas City Missouri and I drove all the way to Harrisonville once. But only once.

Why would you ever leave Kansas City? Isn't everything up-to-date there?

R100 A network engineer.

Kathmandu has grown tremendously in the last 20-30 years. The number of people who go to Everest (or even the nearby region) are a trickle in relation to all that and the size of the tourist quarter, even when I was there in 1989, is a tiny part of the greater area of Kathmandu.

Butler, Illinois

I did archaeological field work on King Christian Island and on Cornwallis Island in the Canadian Arctic in the 1980s.

R113, that sounds really cool. You're like the Indiana Jones of the datalounge!

R107 could you tell me how to find that house on Kauai? I have some friends who want to set up a trip to that part of the island, just like you describe. Thanks.

R115 Not R107 but the north shore is a lot of rain, like daily. South side at Poiku has a lot nicer weather. Is Postcards Cafe still on the north shore?

I've never been. but 2 people I know say it's one of the most beautiful places in the world. -R115