Island Time - The slow down experts - Travel experience for you

Island Log - Dr. Michael’s 10 favorite slow-down islands:

10: Öland, Sweden This little piece of Baltic Sea paradise is where it all started for me. Its wild dunes, unspoiled beaches, pastures full of wildflowers, and red and white windmills got me addicted to the island spirit.

9: Bald Head Island, NC, USA A jewel of an island near my home, with narrow bicycle and golf-cart paths winding through woods of maritime oaks and palmettos. The island’s motto says it all: ‘Prepare to slow down – Considerably!’

8: Borkum, Germany The combination of the rough North Sea climate and an awesome dunescape make up for a heavenly island experience when you can find a protected, sunny spot and leave you starved for a hearty crab and fried-egg sandwich.

7: Ilha de Santa Catarina, Brazil Besides great beaches and a wonderful lagoon, its people make this island so special: They ideally combine European, American, and African ways of life - A magnet for philosophers, life-artists and revolutionaries.

6: Maui, Hawaii This island has it all: Elegant resorts, remote beaches, some of them with surreal colors of sand, the volcano Haleakala with its awe-inspiring sunrises, cowboys in upcountry, a tropical rainforest, pineapple-orchards, gentle people and a wonderfully relaxed pace of life.

5: St. John, US Virgin Islands A nature-lover’s dream. Most of the island is set aside as a national park and the 5,000 islanders live in harmony with each other and their gorgeous tropical surroundings, which include some of the arguably most beautiful beaches in the world.

4: Elbow Cay, Abaco, The Bahamas The little town of Hopetown with its pastel colored houses, colorful flowers, and its peppermint-striped pink lighthouse is (fortunately) still a relatively undiscovered piece of heaven-on-earth.

3: Moorea, Tahiti What a breath-takingly beautiful island – Gauguin knew why he stayed there, as did the crew of Cap. Cook’s Bounty. This is the only place where I ever experienced drivers stopping their cars to greet me as I was walking along the road.

2: Cuba I don’t know where to start summarizing the draw of this stunning island and its beautiful people – the sheer beauty of its countryside, the remote cays, the ubiquitous music, its people’s passion for life and seemingly unshakable patience.

1: Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Isla. An obvious choice for anybody who has ever set foot on this isle; truly, the place to get away from it all, reclining in a hammock at White Bay, or listening to Foxy’s philosophy. It doesn’t get better than that!