Baker Island

A Place That Asks Nothing of You

Baker Island sits almost exactly on the equator in the central Pacific, roughly halfway between Hawaii and Australia, which sounds convenient until you learn there is nobody there. No hotels, no roads, no port, no runway and no permanent residents. The island has been uninhabited since World War II, when its small wartime population was evacuated and never returned. Today it is a National Wildlife Refuge administered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and access requires a special-use permit that is rarely granted.

Wildlife Is the Point

For those who do obtain a permit, Baker Island rewards patience. The island is a significant nesting site for seabirds including frigatebirds, boobies and shearwaters, and the surrounding reef supports abundant marine life. The interior is covered in low scrub and bunchgrass, and the ruins of a few structures from the guano mining era and the wartime settlement still stand. Nobody is there to explain them, which adds a certain atmosphere.

No Tourism Infrastructure Whatsoever

This is not a destination in any conventional sense. There is no accommodation, no fresh water supply, no medical facility and no communications infrastructure. Visitors must be entirely self-sufficient and arrive by private vessel. The nearest inhabited land is Howland Island, another uninhabited wildlife refuge, so the concept of a nearby fallback option does not apply. The US maintains a light beacon on Baker Island, which is perhaps the most useful service it provides to anyone in the vicinity.

A Curiosity on the Map

Baker Island is part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands, a collection of remote Pacific and Caribbean territories that appear on maps but rarely in travel plans. The island observes UTC-12, making it one of the last places on earth to experience each calendar day. If you are the kind of person who finds meaning in that, Baker Island is technically on your itinerary. For everyone else, it is a fascinating dot on the Pacific that is best appreciated from a considerable distance.