Thousand Islands

A string of 130 palm-fringed islands in the Jakarta Bay, the Thousand Islands (Pulau Seribu) offer white-sand beaches and calm, clear seas (aside from the islands closest to the mainland, which are plagued by trash). Although they're hardly a match for many of Indonesia's other dream isles, they're certainly a welcome break from the polluted air of Jakarta. Most visitors to the archipelago are concrete-jungle-fleeing Jakartans and expats, and because of this, the Thousand Islands are expensive by Indonesian standards.