It is a niche destination and that is worth saying up front. There is no tourism industry, there are two hotels and a handful of restaurants, and the interest lies in the landscape and the scale, not in the offer.
01 Nineteen kilometres of circumference
The coastal ring links every district and gathers the houses, the shops and the schools, because the fertile coastal strip is between 150 and 300 metres wide and there is no room for more. In total the island holds around thirty kilometres of road.
The loop without stops takes about twenty-five minutes. With stops it is a full day, and that is the right way to plan it: one loop in the morning to place yourself, another at dusk for the light, and the stops spread in between.
The natural starting point is Yaren, in the south, where the airport and the country's offices are. From there the east coast leads to Anibare and the west coast to the cantilever arms from which phosphate was loaded.
02 What there is to see is on the edge
Anibare Bay, on the east coast, is the country's main stretch of sand and the best place to swim, although the reef generates frequent rip currents: ask at the hotel before going in. Beside the bay is the fishing harbour, cut into the reef in 2000.
The Anibare escarpment, a line of wooded cliffs above the bay, holds the best preserved native vegetation on the island and is an important bird area: this is where the Nauru reed warbler, a bird that lives nowhere else in the world, reaches its highest density.
The rest of the ring is done by stopping wherever you feel like it: emerged coral columns at the shoreline, stretches of sand, the rusted structures of the phosphate industry on the west coast, and the road running against the runway in Yaren.
03 Above, the plateau
Tracks climb from the ring up to the central plateau, Topside. That is where the landscape that makes this destination singular sits: a field of limestone pinnacles up to fifteen metres tall, the ground hollowed out between them, the result of a century of phosphate extraction that affected around 80 per cent of the country.
It is not a comfortable or pretty landscape in the usual sense, and that is exactly why it works: you see few people, there are no tourist signs, and the scale registers at once. Closed shoes with a hard sole, water and a hat; the rock cuts and there is no shade.
In the same interior, Buada Lagoon breaks the sequence with three and a half hectares of water, vegetable plots and coconut palms. It is the only part of the plateau that was never mined, and it deserves the long stop of the day.
04 Where you sleep and what you eat
Accommodation comes down to two options: the Menen hotel beside Anibare Bay, with over a hundred rooms, and a small apartment lodge in the north-west of the island. Book ahead, because capacity is limited and much of it is taken by work travel.
For food there are fish restaurants, Chinese cooking and fast food at the main stores. The variety is short and opening hours irregular; it works better if you arrive without a specific expectation.
Three practical details that change the trip: payment is in Australian dollars and cards are rarely accepted, the tourist visa is normally arranged in advance, and there are loose dogs all over the island, worth keeping in mind if you plan to walk or cycle.
05 How to build two days
Day one: arrival and a full loop of the ring in the morning to build your map. In the afternoon, Yaren — the cluster of offices, the national museum, the road beside the runway — and a swim at Anibare if the sea allows.
Day two: up to the plateau first thing, before the sun bites, for the pinnacle field and the country's highest point, which stops at about 65 metres. Then down to Buada Lagoon, an unhurried lunch and a second loop of the ring at dusk.
With one extra night, repeat whatever interested you most and add the west coast, with the phosphate loading structures. And fit your dates to the air schedule: the airline flies one to three times a week depending on the route, and that decides how many nights you sleep here.
