These are the places that sit in your "someday" folder for decades, demanding so much planning, money, and sheer determination that 99% of people who dream about them will die having never booked the flight.
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You know that feeling when someone mentions Bhutan and their eyes glaze over with that "someday" look? I get it.
I used to be that person, collecting dream destinations like baseball cards, always finding reasons why next year would be better.
Then I found myself on a rickety bus winding through the Himalayas, wondering if my travel insurance covered "death by mountain road," and realized something profound: The places that transform us are the ones that demand we actually commit.
After years of navigating the beautiful chaos of Saigon's streets on my bike and splitting my life between Vietnam and Singapore, I've learned that real travel is about choosing inconvenience on purpose.
Here are 12 places that separate the dreamers from the doers.
If you've been to any of these, you made a pilgrimage:
1) Bhutan
Let's start with the kingdom that literally charges you $200+ per day just to exist within its borders.
Bhutan wants travelers willing to pay a premium for preservation.
Getting there requires multiple flights through Delhi or Bangkok, pre-arranged tours, and acceptance that you can't just wing it.
Most people balk at the daily fee, others spend years saying they'll go "when the timing's right."
But those who make it? They find a country that measures Gross National Happiness over GDP, where forests are constitutionally protected, and where Buddhism isn't just practiced but lived.
The inconvenience is the filter, and the filter works!
2) Easter Island (Rapa Nui)
Five hours by plane from the nearest continent, Easter Island sits in the middle of nowhere, literally one of the most isolated inhabited places on Earth.
There's no hopping over for a long weekend.
You commit to the journey or you don't go.
The flights are expensive, infrequent, and often delayed but standing before those moai statues at sunrise, you understand why the Rapa Nui people carved them.
Sometimes isolation creates magic.
In my book, Hidden Secrets of Buddhism: How To Live With Maximum Impact and Minimum Ego, I write about the power of intentional solitude.
Easter Island embodies this principle on a geographic scale.
3) Antarctica
Two days across the Drake Passage, known as the roughest water on the planet.
Seasickness is basically guaranteed.
The cost? Don't even ask unless you're serious.
Yet, every year, a select few make the journey to the white continent.
Not for Instagram (though the photos are incredible), but for the humbling experience of standing somewhere that doesn't belong to any nation, where penguins outnumber people, and where silence has weight.
The planning alone takes months, and the journey takes weeks.
Most people will never go, and that's exactly the point!
4) Trans-Siberian Railway (full route)
Moscow to Vladivostok, seven days on a train, 9,289 kilometers of track, and no quick flights home if you get bored.
I met a couple who'd been planning their Trans-Siberian journey for fifteen years.
Fifteen! Life kept getting in the way until one day they realized life was the thing getting in the way.
They booked it, dealt with the visa nightmares, and spent a week watching Russia unfold through a train window.
The couple said it was like meditation in motion.
Hours of birch forests, occasional cities, and the kind of deep conversation that only happens when you're trapped in a moving metal box with nowhere else to be.
5) Faroe Islands
Eighteen islands in the North Atlantic where sheep outnumber people and weather changes every five minutes.
No direct flights from most places, expensive once you're there, and absolutely magical if you make the effort.
The Faroes require planning, flexibility, and acceptance that your helicopter ride might get cancelled three times due to fog.
However, when you're standing on those dramatic cliffs, watching puffins dive into emerald waters, you understand why easy destinations feel empty.
6) Madagascar
Not the movie version, but the real Madagascar, where 90% of species exist nowhere else on Earth and roads are more suggestion than reality.
Internal flights are unreliable, overland travel takes days for distances that look short on maps, and tourist infrastructure? Barely exists outside the capital.
But the reward? Lemurs that exist nowhere else, baobab forests that look like something from another planet, and the kind of authentic cultural experiences that disappeared from easier destinations decades ago.
The principles I explore in my book about embracing difficulty as a path to growth? Madagascar is that philosophy in destination form.
7) Socotra Island, Yemen
Dragon's blood trees that look like umbrellas turned inside out; a third of the plant species found nowhere else on Earth.
And location? Off the coast of Yemen during ongoing conflict.
Getting there requires flights through Cairo or Dubai, special permits, and acceptance of real risk.
The window for safe travel opens and closes unpredictably.
Most travel insurance won't cover you.
Your family will think you're crazy, but Socotra represents something pure: A place so difficult to reach that mass tourism literally cannot exist there.
8) Svalbard, Norway
The northernmost inhabited place on Earth, where polar bears outnumber people and four months of the year are completely dark.
You can't just show up, even leaving the main settlement requires a rifle and guide.
Winter temperatures hit -30°C, while summer doesn't really exist.
Everything costs three times what it should, yet people who make it to Svalbard talk about it differently than other destinations.
There's reverence in their voice as they've been to the edge of the world and looked over.
9) Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia (rainy season)
Everyone knows about Bolivia's salt flats, but experiencing them during rainy season, when they become the world's largest mirror?
That requires timing, luck, and willingness to travel during the "wrong" season.
Most tourists come during dry season for easier access.
However, those who time their visit for January through March, dealing with reduced accessibility and potentially cancelled tours, witness something otherworldly: Heaven and earth becoming one endless reflection.
10) North Korea
Controversial? Absolutely.
Easy? Never.
North Korea requires joining a government-approved tour, surrendering your phone at the border, and accepting that every moment will be controlled and monitored.
Why go? Because nowhere else on Earth offers such a window into an alternate reality.
It's uncomfortable, challenging, and forces you to confront your assumptions about freedom, truth, and human resilience.
You don't go to North Korea for fun; you go for perspective.
11) Pitcairn Islands
Population: 50.
Supply ship: Every three months.
Internet: Barely.
The descendants of the Bounty mutineers live on one of the most remote inhabited islands on Earth.
Getting there requires flying to Tahiti, then catching a weekly flight to Mangareva, then boarding a supply ship for a 32-hour journey.
You can't just leave when you're ready because you wait for the next ship.
Most people who dream of Pitcairn never make it past the logistics page, and those who do join an exclusive club of travelers who prioritize experience over convenience.
12) Tristan da Cunha
The most remote inhabited archipelago on Earth.
1,750 miles from South Africa, 1,350 miles from Saint Helena.
Ships from South Africa take five to six days, weather permitting.
Sometimes weather doesn't permit for weeks.
The journey costs thousands and requires flexibility most people don't have, but imagine being one of only 100 outsiders to visit a community in an entire year.
Imagine that level of genuine cultural exchange.
That's time travel!
Final words
Here's what I've learned from chasing difficult destinations and eventually catching a few: the places that require the most effort give the most in return.
When my wife and I were planning our move from Australia to Southeast Asia, everyone had opinions about why it was too complicated, too risky, too much.
Now, navigating Saigon's streets with our baby daughter, I realize that the best things in life usually are.
These 12 places are filters that separate intention from wishful thinking.
If you've been to any of them, you've proven something to yourself: that when something truly matters, you'll find a way through the inconvenience.
The rest? They'll keep saying "someday" until someday never comes.
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Lachlan Brown
Lachlan Brown is a psychology graduate, mindfulness enthusiast, and the bestselling author of Hidden Secrets of Buddhism: How to Live with Maximum Impact and Minimum Ego. Based between Vietnam and Singapore, Lachlan is passionate about blending Eastern wisdom with modern well-being practices.
As the founder of several digital publications, Lachlan has reached millions with his clear, compassionate writing on self-development, relationships, and conscious living. He believes that conscious choices in how we live and connect with others can create powerful ripple effects.
When he’s not writing or running his media business, you’ll find him riding his bike through the streets of Saigon, practicing Vietnamese with his wife, or enjoying a strong black coffee during his time in Singapore.
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