9 Quiet Travel Destinations That Are Anything But Boring

Get on the way, way back machine on the Galapagos Islands 

Only small cruise ships ply the Galapagos Islands, and tour groups are limited to 20 people at a time, so the only crowds you’ll encounter here will be blue-footed boobies, cormorants, iguanas, seals, and the finches that inspired Darwin’s theory of natural selection. The fearlessness of these protected creatures, which have never been hunted, adds to the sensation of entering a land untouched by time. These volcanic islands are stark and scrubby but dense with biology, geology, and history. Tourism is threatening this sensitive ecosystem, so do visit, but do the world a favor, and choose a ship that has earned Smart Voyager certification.