French Guiana

French Guiana is a slice of the Amazon on the edge of South America, mostly covered in dense, largely untouched rainforest that visitors explore by boat along rivers like the Maroni. Its most famous sight is the Guiana Space Centre near Kourou, from which European rockets launch, a strange contrast to the surrounding jungle. Just offshore lie the Salvation Islands, including Devil's Island, once a penal colony made infamous in Papillon. Tourism is modest here, but the mix of rainforest, space program, and colonial history is genuinely unusual.