Nauru Travel Guide 2026: Pleasant Island, Phosphate Heritage, Buada Lagoon and the World's 3rd-Smallest Republic
Browse more guides: Nauru travel | Oceania destinations Nauru Travel Guide 2026: Pleasant Island, Phosphate Heritage, Buada Lagoon and the World's 3rd-Smallest Republic I have spent the last several years chasing the small republics of the Pacific, and Nauru kept showing up at the top of every list I was building. It is the third-smallest country in the world after Vatican City and Monaco, only 21 square kilometres of raised coral and phosphate rock, with about 12,500 people and a single 24 km ring road. There is no official capital. The seat of government sits in Yaren District. What I found was an island that wears its history on its skin in the form of an 80 percent mined-out interior called Topside, a quiet freshwater lagoon called Buada, a 2 km strip of beach at Anibare Bay, and a community that knows every visitor by face within 48 hours of arrival. This guide walks through Tier-1 anchors, Tier-2 stops, costs in AUD, USD and INR, the visa-on-arrival route from India, eig...