Six of the world's best places to sea kayak

Ads by Google Daftar Akun Facebook®facebook.com Terhubung Dengan Temanmu Di Daring. Gabung Komunitas Facebook - Gratis! The Kuna Yala (formerly San Blas Islands), Panama

This trip offers the best of both Caribbean worlds: idyllic castaway islands just large enough for a dozen palm trees, and village islands inhabited to their very edges by the Kuna people, who fled the Darien forests of eastern Panama in the 16th century. Kuna women are particularly photogenic, their forearms and legs covered in colourfully beaded sleeves and leggings. They also wear embroidered tops called molas, featuring marine life such as turtles, fish and dugongs. Trips run from January to March and cost US$2495 (NZ$3195) (nine days). See southernseaventures.com

Palawan, the Philippines

Picture Ha Long Bay in Vietnam or Guilin in China, then relocate their karst islands to tropical Palawan, the third largest and least populated of the Philippines' 7000 islands. As exhilarating as it is to paddle alongside 600-metre fins of limestone jutting out of the South China Sea, it's trumped by Palawan's underwater world. The days go like this: kayak, snorkel, kayak, snorkel. With more than 1700 species of corals and fish in these waters, it's like swimming in an aquarium. The icing on the cake is camping on small beaches surrounded by gargoyles of rock with no one else around. Trips run in March (prices and itineraries vary from year to year). See wildernesstravel.com

The Na Pali Coast, Hawaii

The 27-kilometre paddle along the rugged and roadless Na Pali coast on the island of Kauai may be just a day trip, but it's a big day. Not only are you on the water from dawn to dusk, but it's billed as the "Everest of kayaking" for its challenging conditions. The reward is a chance to experience one of the world's most spectacular coastlines as few others do, up close and from sea level, nosing your sit-on-top kayak into sea caves inaccessible from land, stopping at remote beaches that see more turtles than tourists and, if you're lucky, paddling with an escort of dolphins. Trips run from April to September and cost US$240 (NZ$307). See kayakkauai.com

New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, is like the last frontier.

New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, is like the last frontier. Photo: Louise Southerden

New Ireland, Papua New Guinea

The term "last frontier" is used too often, but island hopping in the Bismarck Archipelago of far north-eastern Papua New Guinea (Kavieng, where the trip begins, is a 45-minute flight from Port Moresby) is the real deal. You're more likely to meet missionaries than other tourists and the people you do see, in villages where you camp each night and in dugout outrigger canoes on the royal-blue sea, will be as curious about you as you are about them. Trips run from April to September and cost NZ$3509 (nine days). See noroads.com.au