Five islands where you can leave the car behind
· 1 min read · Hardo
Places where the transport is a bicycle, a boat or your own legs — and the holiday is better for it.
There is a particular quiet that arrives on the second morning somewhere with no traffic. These are the five we send people to most often.
The Gili Islands, Indonesia. No motor vehicles at all on any of the three. Bicycles and pony carts. Gili Meno is the slowest of them and the best for turtles.
Hydra, Greece. An hour and a half from Piraeus, and cars have been banned since the 1950s. Donkeys still carry luggage up from the port.
Sark, Channel Islands. Tractors only. A dark-sky island, so the stars on a clear night are extraordinary.
Ilha de Mozambique. The old stone town is walkable end to end in twenty minutes and largely unchanged since the Portuguese left.
Lamu, Kenya. One vehicle on the whole island, belonging to the district commissioner. Everything else is dhow or donkey.
None of these are difficult to reach. All of them take about a day to reset your sense of hurry.
