Hawaii, USA

Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island is one of the most extraordinary national parks in the world — a 1,347-square-kilometer park encompassing two of the most active volcanoes on earth, Kīlauea and Mauna Loa, where visitors can walk across solidified lava fields, descend into ancient lava tubes, view steam vents and sulfur banks, and during active eruption events, witness lava glowing red at close range. The park's Chain of Craters Road descends from the highland caldera to the coast through a landscape of extraordinary alien beauty — hardened lava flows that destroyed entire neighborhoods and created new coastal land. The summit caldera of Kīlauea, Halemaʻumaʻu, has been in near-continuous eruption since 2008 and provides the most accessible active volcano experience in the world.

The Road to Hana on Maui is the most celebrated scenic drive in Hawaii — 64 miles of Maui's northeastern coastline along a narrow highway with 620 curves, 59 bridges, and a waterfall, pool, garden, or black sand beach accessible at virtually every turn. The road passes through the Hāna rainforest, bamboo groves, twin falls, the Seven Sacred Pools of ʻOheʻo Gulch within Haleakalā National Park, and the black sand beach at Waiʻānapanapa State Park. The drive requires a full day each way — many visitors drive to Hana and fly back. Staying overnight in Hana at the Hana-Maui Resort (formerly Hotel Hana-Maui) provides the most complete experience.

The Nā Pali Coast on Kauaʻi is the most dramatic coastal landscape in Hawaii — 17 miles of sea cliffs rising up to 4,000 feet from the Pacific, carved by centuries of rain into fluted valleys of impossible green, accessible only by foot (the Kalalau Trail, an 11-mile backcountry hike), kayak, or boat tour. The Na Pali boat tours departing from Port Allen on the south shore or Hanalei Bay on the north shore provide the most spectacular views. The Kauaʻi helicopter tour — flying above and along the Nā Pali cliffs, over Waimea Canyon (the Grand Canyon of the Pacific), and through the interior valleys — is one of the finest aerial experiences available anywhere in the United States.

Waikiki Beach on Oahu is the world's most famous beach — a 2-mile crescent of sand backed by the towers of Honolulu, with Diamond Head crater as its backdrop and the gentle breaks that made surfing famous in Western culture lapping at its shore. It was here that Duke Kahanamoku, the father of modern surfing and one of Hawaii's most celebrated figures, first demonstrated the sport to mainland American audiences. Waikiki is commercial, crowded, and touristy in ways that the other Hawaiian islands are not — but it is also genuinely iconic, and the experience of watching a professional surfer ride a perfectly formed wave at sunset with Diamond Head behind is one that belongs specifically to this place.

Haleakalā volcano on Maui offers two entirely different experiences depending on the time of day. Sunrise at the 3,055-meter summit — where visitors wake at 3am, drive through darkness, and arrive at the rim before dawn — produces one of the most extraordinary natural spectacles in Hawaii: the sun rising above a sea of clouds below, the landscape of the summit crater lit in red and gold, and the curvature of the earth visible at the horizon. Reservations are mandatory for sunrise — the National Park Service limits the number of vehicles and they sell out weeks ahead. Sunset, though less dramatic, requires no reservation and is equally beautiful. The summit is so high that it frequently sits above the clouds, creating a Martian landscape of volcanic cinder cones and barren slopes.