Kiribati

Micronesia

A vast, low-lying nation of 33 coral atolls and reef islands scattered across the central Pacific on both sides of the equator and the dateline, from the Gilbert Islands around the capital Tarawa to remote Kiritimati in the Line Islands. Its draws are the WWII battlefield of Tarawa, world-class bonefishing flats, and one of the last living outrigger-canoe cultures.

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What you can do in Kiribati

Witness / Attend

TarawaMay Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct NovFor three days in November 1943 the islet of Betio, at the western end of Tarawa Atoll, was one of the bloodiest square miles of the Pacific War. In Operation Galvanic the US Marines landed against a dug-in Japanese garrison across an exposed reef, and more than six thousand men died taking a strip of coral smaller than New York's Central Park. Eighty years on, Betio is a living battlefield. Massive Japanese coastal guns still point out to sea, concrete bunkers and command posts stand where they fell, and at low tide the reef gives up landing craft, tanks and ship wrecks. This is not a museum with railings, it is a working island town built around the relics, and you walk it with a local guide who carries the stories. Few travellers reach Kiribati, so you often have the sites to yourself, in the heat and quiet of an equatorial atoll far from any tour crowd.

Best months at a glance

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Witness / Attend