There are remote beaches. There are quiet towns. And then there are isolated places. The real ones. The kind where the post takes months, the people all have the same last name, and your phone becomes a useless brick.
If you’re the type who hears “no signal” and gets excited, this list of isolated places will take you where Wi-Fi fears to tread.
Tristan da Cunha – Atlantic Ocean
We start with the undisputed heavyweight of isolated places. Tristan da Cunha is six days by boat from Cape Town and has no airport. It’s technically British but more potato patch than empire. Everyone lives in one village. It’s called Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, which sounds like a pub but is just a handful of houses and sheep. No pubs, no shops, just potatoes and people who’ve never met strangers.
Supai Village – Arizona, USA
Deep in the Grand Canyon, this place takes isolation seriously. No roads, no cars, and no way in except an eight-mile hike or a helicopter. It’s the only place in America where the mail still arrives by mule. This is one of the last true isolated places in the lower 48. Expect frybread tacos, waterfalls, and the kind of silence that makes your thoughts louder.
Ittoqqortoormiit – Greenland
If you can’t pronounce it, you probably shouldn’t go. This Greenland outpost has around 300 people, surrounded by polar bears and ice that traps ships for most of the year. Flights are rare and usually come from Iceland, if the weather agrees. It’s one of those isolated places where people still hunt musk ox and dry their meat outdoors like it’s the 10th century.
Pitcairn Island – Pacific Ocean
Famous for being the final stop of the HMS Bounty mutineers. Pitcairn is now a semi-inbred soap opera with fewer than 50 residents, most of them named Marsters. There’s no airport, one boat a month, and no restaurants. Among isolated places, this one wins the prize for family reunions that never end.
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La Rinconada – Peru
The highest city on Earth, and easily one of the most lawless. Located over 5,000 metres above sea level, it’s a gold mining town with no plumbing and barely any oxygen. It’s the kind of place you go to either make your fortune or lose your sanity. If you’re hunting extreme isolated places, this is high-altitude madness at its best.
Barrow (Utqiaġvik) – Alaska
The northernmost town in the US. No roads in or out, and for two months every year, the sun doesn’t rise. People live off whale meat and snowmobiles. This is one of the few isolated places in America where your social life depends on a dog sled and your mood swings depend on vitamin D.
McMurdo Station – Antarctica
Not a town, but it might as well be. During summer, over 1,000 people live at McMurdo, a research station with its own bar, gym, and airport that only works when the ice isn’t in the mood to kill you. You fly in on military cargo planes and stay busy studying penguins, ice, and the meaning of existence. It’s one of the coldest, weirdest isolated places on any map.
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Longyearbyen – Svalbard, Norway
One of the northernmost settlements on Earth. It has a supermarket, a few bars, and more polar bears than people. You need a gun to leave town. You’re not allowed to die because bodies don’t decompose in the permafrost. As far as isolated places go, this one is both creepy and comfortable. Bring a coat and a coffin just in case.
Motuo – Tibet
For years this was China’s last county with no road access. Even today, it’s hit or miss depending on landslides and mud. Surrounded by jungle and Buddhist temples, Motuo is peaceful, green, and absolutely disconnected from the outside world. Most people have never heard of it. That’s why it earns a rightful place among the world’s forgotten isolated places.
Palmerston Island – Cook Islands
This is the weirdest entry on the list. One British guy showed up in the 1800s with three Polynesian wives and founded a dynasty. Now, everyone on the island is his descendant. There are about 50 people and all of them are related. No shops, no airport, and the only way in is a cargo ship a few times a year. When you arrive, they assign you a host family. Who will probably be your cousin.
Palmerston Island is the final boss of isolated places. A time capsule of incest, coconuts, and colonial hangovers.
Final Thoughts on Isolated Places
If you’re tired of life, or have perhaps committed a dastardly crime then these are some places that no one is likely to find you, although you will need to find how to get to them first.
Bring your own food, bring your own patience, and maybe bring a family tree if you’re heading to Palmerston.
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