Kanawa Island

Kanawa's tiny — you can walk the whole thing in under an hour. It's part of the Komodo National Park area, a short boat ride from Labuan Bajo, and honestly it's the kind of place you stumble across and then can't stop thinking about.

The thing that gets people is the snorkelling. You don't need a boat, you don't need a guide, you just wade in from the beach and the reef is right there. Turtles, reef sharks, the whole lot — in water shallow enough that you can see the bottom clearly. Most of Komodo isn't like that.

It gets busy midday when the day-trip boats pile in, but arrive early or stay late and it's a completely different experience. Quiet, a bit otherworldly, just you and the water.

There's a hill in the middle with views across the whole archipelago — worth the climb if you go in the morning before it gets hot. And the island itself has been looked after properly since a group bought it in 2010. Turtle sanctuary, no fishing on the reef. It shows.

It's not a resort. A few bungalows, a restaurant, nothing more. But that's exactly why it works.