Christmas Island

Christmas Island is best known for one extraordinary event: each wet season, tens of millions of red crabs pour out of the rainforest and march to the sea to spawn, turning roads and forest floor into a moving red carpet. Outside migration season, it's a quiet, densely forested outpost in the Indian Ocean, its cliffs and blue holes popular with a small, dedicated community of divers and birdwatchers. Whale sharks pass offshore in season, drawing snorkelers for a brief window each year.