Kiribati is among the most remote and unusual nations on earth — a Pacific island republic spread across 3.5 million square kilometers of ocean yet with a total land area of just 811 square kilometers. Its 33 atolls straddle both sides of the International Date Line, making it the first country to greet each new day.
South Tarawa, the capital atoll, is home to most of the country's population. The lagoon side is a strip of land where traditional Kiribati life — the maneaba (meeting house), the weaving of pandanus mats, the fishing by traditional canoe — coexists with the modern world. The WWII battle of Tarawa in 1943 was among the bloodiest in the Pacific campaign, and rusting Japanese fortifications and war memorials are scattered across Betio island.
Christmas Island (Kiritimati), the largest atoll in the world by land area, is one of the world's premier bonefishing destinations. The atoll also hosts extraordinary seabird colonies including frigate birds, boobies, and the endemic Christmas frigatebird.
The outer Gilbert Islands — Abemama, where Robert Louis Stevenson spent several months in 1889; Butaritari with its freshwater lakes; and Beru — offer the kind of slow, coconut-shaded travel that has largely vanished from the Pacific.
Kiribati food is simple: fresh fish, coconut in every form, taro, breadfruit, and the fermented coconut toddy called kamaimai. The climate is hot and equatorial year-round. Kiribati demands patience to reach and rewards it with an authenticity that is vanishingly rare.
