No-go: the world’s amazing places you can’t visit any more
loveEXPLORING staff
12 April 2019
Almost impossible destinations
Some of the world’s most fascinating places can be impossible – or nearly impossible – to get to. War, natural disasters and overtourism can turn a previously popular destination into a no-go area. But sometimes the reasons can be quite bizarre, as you’ll see from our selection of locations unlikely be on your bucket list any time soon...
Komodo Island, Indonesia
Komodo Island, famed for its Komodo dragon population, is closing its doors to tourists from January 2020. The Indonesian island’s resident dragons are under threat of abduction. A dragon smuggling ring was recently arrested for trying to sell 41 dragons for $35,000 (£26,600) each.
Komodo Island, Indonesia
The World Animal Foundation estimated that there were only 6,000 wild Komodos left in 2019. After closure, the government will attempt to grow the endangered Komodo dragon population. There’s no news about when tourists will be allowed to return.
Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Norway
Svalbard Global Seed Vault could be a lifesaver for anyone who survives the apocalypse... if they can find it that is. It’s hidden inside a mountain on the remote island of Spitsbergen in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago (pictured here). The mysterious vault stores duplicates of almost all the world’s crop collections.
Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Norway
The temperature and thick rock around the vault ensure the seeds stay frozen without the need for power. Although you can see its door, the actual vault is over 328 feet (100m) inside the mountain. Only the team working on it can visit.
Varosha, Cyprus
Pre 1974, Varosha was the place to be if you were in Cyprus. The beachside resort was popular with celebrities including Elizabeth Taylor and Brigitte Bardot. But in 1974, Turkish troops invaded the island after tension with Greece reached breaking point.
Varosha, Cyprus
The inhabitants fled and although tensions have calmed down, the Turkish military fenced off the resort and no one’s been allowed in since. Visiting Varosha is strictly forbidden and anyone crossing the wire risks being shot. People who have sneaked in report seeing a ghost town of abandoned hotels and homes.
North Sentinel Island, India
North Sentinel Island, a small island in the Indian Ocean is officially off-limits to all visitors. Its inhabitants, the Sentinelese, live their life completely untouched by the outside world. The Indian government forbids contact with the tribe to protect them from contracting diseases they have no immunity against.
North Sentinel Island, India
The island's tribespeople do not welcome visitors. American missionary, John Allen Chau was killed when he illegally landed on the island in 2018. Attempts to retrieve his body have now been called off due to fears of further attacks and the risks it could post to the Sentinelese too. But if you're looking for places you can travel too, check out our slideshow of 40 of India's most beautiful places.
Maya Bay, Thailand
You’ve probably seen The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio, but if not you might have seen a photo of one of your friends posing at the hot spot. Maya Bay, the beautiful Thai setting of the popular film, has been overrun with tourists in the past few years.
Maya Bay, Thailand
More than 80% of the bay’s coral has now been destroyed due to pollution from tourism. Things have got so bad Thai authorities are closing the beach until further notice. The government hopes that by shutting the tourist trap they’ll be able to recover the stunning beach’s ecosystem.
Poveglia, Italy
The curious island of Poveglia, in the Venetian Lagoon, has long been off limits to tourists. When the bubonic plague hit Italy in the 17th century, thousands of patients were quarantined on the island – no surprise, then, that it’s purportedly one of the most haunted places on Earth. It’s also rumored that an asylum opened here in the 1920s, and that a doctor performed macabre experiments on his patients. This remains no more than a local legend.
Poveglia, Italy
In 2014, the island made the headlines when it was sold to businessman Luigi Brugnaro. Brugnaro suggested he would renovate the island’s buildings, including its derelict, crumbling hospital, and put Poveglia to some sort of public use. His plans are yet to be realized.
Heard Island, Australia
This remote, volcanic island in the Subantarctic belongs to Australia. Stark and inhospitable, it’s dominated by Big Ben – a 9,000-foot-high active volcano that is linked to the famous London landmark by name only. The last recorded eruption here was in 2016. Needless to say, the island remains uninhabited by humans.
Heard Island, Australia
In order to protect the island’s rare and delicate ecology (including the resident penguins), visits are strictly regulated – you’re highly unlikely to be able to go unless you’re part of a scientific expedition. Should you be granted access, you face a two-week voyage from Australia across some of the planet’s roughest seas.
Ilha da Queimada Grande, Brazil
This Brazilian island almost makes for the perfect escape: it’s warm, unspoiled and its rocky expanse is carpeted with lush, green vegetation. But there’s a good reason it's off limits. Aptly nicknamed “Snake Island”, it’s home to around 4,000 venomous vipers – that amounts to approximately one snake per square meter. They’re called golden lanceheads (or Bothrops insularis) and their bite is deadly.
Ilha da Queimada Grande, Brazil
It’s illegal to visit the island without the express permission of the Brazilian army or government – and given the sheer perilousness, it’s probably best left off the bucket list anyway.
Surtsey, Iceland
If you’re looking at an old map of Iceland, you won’t find Surtsey. This island was created after a series of earthquakes in the late 1960s, and scientists have kept it as a pristine laboratory ever since. If you’re not part of a very select scientific community, you can’t visit.
Surtsey, Iceland
You certainly wouldn’t want to allow humans to trample this untouched environment anyway. It’s far too valuable to scientists studying the wonderful flora and fauna that have made their home here.
Area 51, Nevada, USA
The darling of conspiracy theorists, Area 51 is a highly-classified US Air Force base in southern Nevada. The Americans are very secretive about what’s done on the base and plenty of people are convinced that aliens are somehow involved.
Area 51, Nevada, USA
You can’t go on the base, naturally, but that hasn’t stopped a small tourism industry from springing up nearby along the self-proclaimed Extraterrestrial Highway.
Area 51, Nevada, USA
Eyes are glued to the skies for sightings of anything usual – preferably something from another planet.
Sana'a, Yemen
Yemen’s capital is one of the oldest and highest cities in the world. Sana’a is also one of the most enchanting, its Old City is full of Islamic and Ottoman architecture. But internal unrest and then Saudi-led air strikes have put the city in danger.
Sana'a, Yemen
People have been living in Sana’a for more than 2,500 years, and its exquisite architecture has earned it a place on UNESCO's World Heritage List.
Sana'a, Yemen
Many of the houses here are built of rammed earth known as pisé, and most of its Old City was built before the 11th century.
Lascaux Caves, France
Back in the 1940s, some teenage boys stumbled upon a cave of more than 2,000 prehistoric paintings in the Dordogne. When France opened the caves to the public in 1948, it wasn’t long before the effects of all those visitors started to destroy the paintings. The caves were closed and the French built an exact copy nearby.
Lascaux Caves, France
Now on the UNESCO World Heritage List, the caves are a compelling record of mainly animal paintings from the Upper Palaeolithic period – about 17,000 BC.
Chapel of the Ark of the Covenant, Ethiopia
Sometime before Christ, the Ark of the Covenant disappeared from Jerusalem and ended up in Ethiopia. Containing the tablets of the Ten Commandments, the Ark is now kept in a special chapel in Axum. A monk guards the entry, and he’s not letting anyone in.
Chapel of the Ark of the Covenant, Ethiopia
And even if you did manage to get in, the Ark is kept covered from view. But that shouldn't stop you from exploring the streets of this historic city.
Timbuktu, Mali
There’s always been a mythical air about this ancient Saharan town, which was one of the most important seats of Islamic learning for four centuries. But this UNESCO World Heritage Site has since come under attack by Islamist rebels, and tourist numbers to Timbuktu have plunged.
Timbuktu, Mali
Its significant place along Africa’s major trade routes gave Timbuktu its wealth, and salt traders still travel this route in spite of the dangers.
Timbuktu, Mali
Before the Islamist insurgents appeared, the town was the focus of fighting from its Tuareg population.
Ni’hau, Hawaii, USA
Are you a member of the Robinson family of Ni’hau? If not, you’ll find it immensely tough trying to visit this western outpost of Hawaii. It’s been a private island for more than a century, and visitors can come only by special permission. And it’s useful if you speak the local Hawaiian dialect, as that’s what the residents use.
Ni’hau, Hawaii, USA
If you do manage to make it to the island, don’t expect anything as modern as plumbing or paved roads. Solar energy keeps things going. But the local wildlife – which includes frolicking seals – is sure to keep you entertained.
Mount Athos, Greece
For more than a thousand years, Eastern Orthodox monks have been living in the monasteries in Mount Athos. They continue to do so, and welcome a limited number of visitors to this Greek peninsula, providing they're men. They’ve never allowed women to visit the mountain, and they have no intention of doing so in the future.
Mount Athos, Greece
Even female animals aren’t allowed to be kept. That means eggs and dairy products have to be brought in from outside the peninsula.
Mount Athos, Greece
However, they’ve made an exception for cats. After all, someone’s got to deal with the mouse problem.
Plymouth, Montserrat
This Caribbean island was hit by a double disaster within the past few decades – first Hurricane Hugo in 1989 then, seven years later, a catastrophic volcanic eruption. The Soufrière Hills volcano had been thought to be extinct, but it destroyed Montserrat’s historic capital, Plymouth.
Plymouth, Montserrat
There’s an exclusion zone around Plymouth, which remains covered in ash and is rather like a modern version of Pompeii. They generally don’t allow visitors in, but you can take a helicopter ride over the devastated area. The rest of the island, however, is perfectly safe to visit.
Plymouth, Montserrat
Understandably, scientists are now keeping a close eye on the volcano in case of another eruption.
Leptis Magna, Libya
Even before Libya was swept along the tide of turmoil in Africa and the Middle East, its ancient Roman city was well off the tourist radar. Leptis Magna was founded by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC, and its ruins overlooking the Mediterranean Sea are really quite extraordinary.
Leptis Magna, Libya
It will be some time before tourists can visit the ruins safely, as official advice in both the USA and the UK is against all travel to Libya.
Leptis Magna, Libya
The Roman theater has one of the most spectacular natural settings, with the blue of the Mediterranean peeping between the stone columns.
Find out more about the world's lesser known Roman ruins with our feature here.
Albatross Island, Tasmania
Tasmania is a popular tourist destination, but its Albatross Island is strictly off limits. The clue’s in the name, this island is out of bounds to protect its endangered albatross population. Over 5,000 pairs of birds call the island their home.
Albatross Island, Tasmania
Albatross are threatened by climate change and overfishing. The ban on visitors aims to preserve the birds’ habitat and protect their nests from trampling tourists’ feet.
Navassa Island, Caribbean
Navassa, an uninhabited island in the Caribbean, has been the subject of a territorial dispute between Haiti and the USA for centuries. While the US claimed the land in 1857, Haitians maintain that it has been in their control since 1697. The conflict shows no sign of abating. In any case, due to the endemic wildlife here, access to the island is heavily restricted. Navassa’s waters teem with rare marine life and boast a rich bed of coral, currently protected by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Navassa Island, Caribbean
The USA’s National Wildlife Refuge, meanwhile, cares for the native wildlife on land, including birds and several rare species of lizard. The isle is also home to a deactivated lighthouse – it now emits little light and is worn and tattered, but it still looks out proud across the water. You’re unable to visit the island without a special permit, and these are rarely granted to the public.
Uluru (Ayers Rock), Australia
While you’ll still be able to observe the rock from afar, after October 2019 tourists will no longer be able to climb the famous landmark. The Aboriginal Anangu tribe are the owners of the rock and they’ve always asked visitors to respect their culture and law by not climbing Uluru.
Uluru (Ayers Rock), Australia
However, the plea has been ignored by many tourists over the years. But in November 2017, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Board and the rock’s Anangu owners decided to ban climbing. While tourists will still welcome at Uluru, you'll no longer be able to climb to the top.
Take a look at the incredible images of tourist attractions that no longer exist
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