Komodo Island, Indonesia

One of the 17,58 islands that make up the country of Indonesia, this island is particularly notable as being the home of the komodo dragon (they can also be found on a couple of small islands nearby). Covering an area of 291 square kilometres, there are less than 2,000 people on the island.

As well as the roughly 1400 adult komodo dragons on the island, there are also javan deer (non-native) water buffalo, banded pigs, civets, cockatoos and crab-eating macaques.

There is a famous beach on Komodo as it is naturally pink, with the sand made up of a mixture of white sand and red sand formed from pieces of Foraminifera.

The price of visiting has greatly increased in recent years going from £11 to more than £206. The local government’s stated aims were to reduce visitor numbers and protect the endangered lizards from overexposure to humans. However local workers say it will scare off tourists, and make it hard for them to make a living. Indeed at one point authorities were intending to ban Taurus from the park completely before changing their plans to limit entry to those who’d signed up for costly membership schemes.