You haven’t seen color until you’ve seen French Polynesia. The chain of 118 islands that scatter from Manuae to Mangareva offers a kaleidoscope not found anywhere else on Earth.

The archipelagos that make up the region span a width of the geographic equivalent of Europe, but two standouts among the islands are the 2,169 -foot-high Pahia and the 2,385-foot-high Otemanu in Bora Bora. These verdant, velvet-green conjoined twin peaks are more than just a honeymooners’ backdrop. They are weathered and worn-down extinct volcanoes lording over the lagoon’s sapphire waters like a pair of spectral Polynesian gods, and they remain a mesmerizing and primordial sight to behold.

When to go

High season in Bora Bora lasts May through October, when conditions are sunniest and visibility is at its clearest.