Aptly nicknamed the “Desolation Islands,” the Kerguelen Islands are an overseas territory of France, but the closest landmass is Antarctica. The next closest civilization is over 2,000 miles away in the southern Indian Ocean. Grande Terre (French for “large land”) is the main island in this remote destination. It is where most of Kerguelen's residents (mainly scientists) reside at a settlement called Port-aux-Français.

Kaffeklubben Island is famous thanks to its longstanding title of being the northernmost point of explored land on Earth (though there are many higher points hidden under ice). The island is located on the tip of Greenland and received its first visitor in 1912, a Danish explorer who named it “Kaffeklubben” after the “coffee club” in Copenhagen’s geological museum. The island is also home to the northernmost flowers in the world, the arctic poppy and purple saxifrage.

Deep in the southeastern corner of Yellowstone National Park (in northwestern Wyoming) is the furthest point from any roads in the contiguous United States. Here, there are no streets, cars, or towns for 20 miles in every direction, a rare feat in the lower 48. Aside from campsites, the only establishment here is the Thorofare Ranger Station, the most remote cabin in all the national parks (outside of Alaska).

Comprising one of the most remote archipelagos in the world, the island country of Kiribati is located in all four hemispheres at once because of its location in the central Pacific Ocean. Only 21 of Kiribati’s 32 atolls are inhabited, most of which are within the four main island groups: Line Islands, Gilbert Islands, Banaba Island, and Phoenix Islands.

Located about 60 miles from Anchorage, Whittier was founded during the Cold War as a military outpost, and today, nearly all of its 300 residents live in the same building, called Begich Towers. A visit to Whittier also requires a drive through North America’s longest tunnel, the 13,000-foot-long Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. The tunnel closes every night, leaving Whittier cut off from the rest of civilization until the morning.

Pitcairn Island is located in the Pacific Ocean, about 1,300 miles from Tahiti and more than 3,000 miles from New Zealand. In 1789, sailors on the British transport ship the HMS Bounty mounted a mutiny against their captain. They settled on this remote island and lived there for decades before whaling ships found them in 1808. Descendants of the mutineers still live on Pitcairn Island today.

The town of La Rinconada is located more than 16,000 feet above sea level in the Peruvian Andes. About 30,000 people live here, although the thin air and frigid temperatures make life difficult. Founded as a gold-mining camp, La Rinconada continues to grow as more people move there in hopes of finding gold.

Less than 300 people live in Tristan da Cunha, the world’s most remote inhabited archipelago. To access this British Overseas Territory, you can’t even fly — it has no airstrip. Instead, the journey takes at least six days by boat from South Africa.

Nunavut is Canada’s northernmost territory and its largest in area, and it includes most of the Arctic Archipelago. Alert is one of the northernmost permanently inhabited places in the world, located less than 600 miles from the North Pole. The Canadian military outpost sits at the northern tip of Ellesmere Island, just across the Nares Strait from Greenland.

Also known as the Western Isles, the 130-mile-long Outer Hebrides archipelago is one of the most scenic places in Scotland. Of the 119 islands found here, there are five main inhabited islands: Lewis and Harris, North Uist, Benbecula, South Uist, and Barra. Despite their remoteness, they’re popular with visitors because of their prehistoric sites, beautiful beaches, castle ruins, and mysterious standing stones.

Surrounded by jungle, Iquitos is a key port city in the Amazon Basin, where the Nanay and Itaya rivers meet. No road can be built through the dense Amazonian rainforest, so people can only reach Iquitos by plane or a weeklong boat journey on the Amazon. Despite the remote location, Iquitos is home to more than 400,000 people and has become a bustling center for business and tourism.

The remote island of Socotra, off the southern coast of Yemen, has been separated from the mainland for 34 million years. As a result, it’s home to hundreds of species found nowhere else on Earth. One of those is the dragon’s blood tree, or Dracaena cinnabari, which earned its distinctive name for the crimson resin it produces. It was once a popular item for trade, with a range of medicinal uses.

You’re more likely to come across a penguin than a human on the Falkland Islands, a remote group of islands located off the southern tip of Argentina in the South Atlantic Ocean. With a penguin population of around 1 million (comprising five species) and a human population of 3,500, these flightless birds truly rule the roost. Of the 778 islands that make up this archipelago, only 15 are inhabited by humans.

The rugged Svalbard archipelago — about halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole — is one of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas. That setting, plus its frigid climate, made it the perfect place to deposit the seeds of Earth’s most important food crops — such as maize, rice, and wheat — and ensure they would be safe and cold in the event of global catastrophe.

Supai, Arizona, is one of the most isolated settlements in the United States. Located just south of the Grand Canyon, Supai is the capital of the Havasupai Indian Reservation. The town is home to around 500 tribe members and can only be accessed via an eight-mile hike through the canyon. Mules are a common sight here: They do everything from transporting visitors’ luggage to carrying the mail, which features a special “Mule Train Mail” stamp.

Established in 1995, the McMurdo U.S. research station is Antarctica’s most populated community, supporting 1,200 residents every summer (and 300 during the winter). It is situated on Ross Island, thousands of miles south of New Zealand. The base is also located 20 miles south of Mount Erebus, the tallest active volcano in Antarctica. Here, scientists from around the world work in all disciplines including astronomy, biology, geology, glaciology, climate studies, and geophysics.

Mount Everest is the highest mountain peak in the world, but its peak is easier to reach than many others in the Himalayas. The world’s highest known unclimbed peak is located in Bhutan, and it remains unclimbed because Bhutan outlawed mountaineering of peaks higher than 20,000 feet. Another mountain, Muchu Chhish, is the highest unclimbed peak available to hikers, but its location in remote Pakistan has made it difficult to attempt.

More than 80% of Australians live near the continent’s east coast in or near the cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide. Located on the other side of the Outback is Perth, home to about 2 million people, who live closer to Jakarta than to Sydney. The nearest town to Perth with more than 100,000 people is 1,300 miles away.

Using data to measure access to cities, researchers determined the most isolated town in the continental U.S. is Glasgow, located near the Canadian border in northeastern Montana. The nearest metropolitan area of more than 75,000 people is more than 4.5 hours away in any direction.

Dutch explorers named this 63-square-mile island 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile when they found it on Easter in 1722, but its original name, Rapa Nui, refers to the island’s Indigenous population, which settled here in the 1200s. The island is famous for nearly 1,000 moai — giant stone statues, some as tall as 37 feet, with massive heads.