Islands_090

Cocos Keeling Island

Out in the beautiful middle of almost nowhere is Cocos Keeling, a place most people don't even realize is probably the island of their dreams.

Belonging to Australia, these Indian Ocean isles lying roughly halfway between the Aussies and Sri Lanka have just 600 residents loving life on the two atolls and 27 coral islands that make up Cocos. Only two of these isles are inhabited, which means there's an embarrassment of empty islands and accompanying unoccupied beaches. Canoeing out to explore them is encouraged.

Those after more than just sun-basking and sea baths can do an atoll walk through the shallow lagoon Cocos encloses and wind up on Prison Island, where real prisoners were once stranded.