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A pristine coral-fringed beach on a tiny uninhabited islet, Mystery Island (Inyeug) sits just off the southern coast of Aneityum in Vanuatu’s remote Tafea Province. Ringed by powder-white sand and impossibly clear turquoise water, this coconut-palm-studded speck of land has no permanent residents, no roads, and no buildings beyond a few open-air market stalls set up by villagers from nearby Anelghowhat.

The lagoon’s shallow reef teems with parrotfish, clams and coral gardens, making it one of the South Pacific’s most rewarding snorkelling spots, while a grass airstrip bisecting the island recalls its wartime past as a WWII refuelling stop. Local Aneityumese families paddle across the channel to sell handwoven baskets, shell jewellery and grilled seafood, offering a rare, unhurried glimpse of Melanesian island life. Free of resorts and crowds outside cruise-call days, Mystery Island remains a quietly spectacular natural sanctuary — a place to walk barefoot circuits of sand, drift over coral in silence, and feel entirely removed from the modern world.