Beran Island is a private island in Ailinglaplap Atoll, in the remote and untouched Marshall Islands, built by Captain Martin Daly of Indies Trader as a forward operating base for people who live for the ocean. This is one of the most pristine and consistent environments on Earth for ocean-based adventure: uncrowded reef breaks, shark-filled passes, and trade winds that blow for months at a time. In February 2025 the island hosted the first-ever Natural Selection Surf event, with the world's best surfers contesting a wave that had never been surfed in competition. Guests come for a week at a time, arriving Monday and leaving Monday, and many stay for two.
Accommodations & Design
The resort is a single lodge of eight rooms, four upstairs and four downstairs, set just behind the palm tree line on the island's windward side where the trade winds keep it cool. Beds are Casper kings dressed in organic Coyuchi linens, every room has an ensuite private bathroom, and ductless air conditioning and large Haiku ceiling fans handle the tropical heat. Upstairs, the kitchen and living area form the heart of the resort. Decks wrap the building with views across the lagoon on one side and the open ocean on the other, and the island's iconic house wave breaks in view through the treetops.
Dining
Chef Mango runs a kitchen built around the day's catch and the island garden: freshly caught fish, garden-grown vegetables, and three meals a day with a minimum of two courses, served family-style around the big square table, with sunset canapés before dinner. Snacks and coffee are available around the clock, specialty diets are welcomed, and the fridges stay stocked with cold beer and sodas. House wine, house spirits, and beer are all included in the weekly rate.
Surf
Surfing is why Beran exists. A fleet of tenders runs guests out to the breaks daily, with transfers included within five miles of the island: Amnesia, an uncrowded reef break that lives up to its name in reverse (nobody forgets it), The Bowl, and three breaks on Beran Island itself, including Lucky Larry's, the house wave you can check from your deck. Further afield sit Maybes and Nirvana, heavier reef waves for experienced surfers. The swell season runs from mid-October to mid-April, and the waves are fast, hollow right-handers over shallow coral, best suited to intermediate and advanced surfers.
Diving & Fishing
The diving here is world-class and starts a short walk from your room: guided dives within recreational limits, with sharks, turtles, and rays as standard company, and pass dives the resort compares favourably to Fakarava. Dock dives are included for certified divers, with dives further afield at US$50 per person; the resort carries BCDs, tanks, and weights. From April to October, dedicated fishing expeditions take a maximum of eight anglers, casting the reef flats for permit and triggerfish or heading bluewater for wahoo, mahi-mahi, yellowfin and dogtooth tuna, sailfish, and marlin, with big-game day charters aboard the 54-foot Hatteras, MV Indies Trader Too.
Kite, Foil & Wind
From November to April the trade winds arrive and Beran becomes a foiling mecca: winging across reef passes, prone foiling downwind to The Bowl, and tow foiling into open-ocean swells. Kiteboarders ride the same steady trades, and jetskis with drivers are on hand for tow sessions and exploration.
Amenities & Inclusions
The weekly rate is genuinely all-inclusive: seven nights in air-conditioned comfort, every meal, snacks, house wine, spirits and beer, Starlink internet, laundry, snorkelling gear, dock diving for certified divers, daily surf transfers with tender support, and the transfer from the Ailinglaplap airstrip to the island. Extras are simple and transparent: dives beyond the house reef at US$50 per person, a photographer or masseuse on weekly bookings, jetski hire with a driver, and charter days aboard the liveaboards MV Windward and MV Indies Surveyor or the Hatteras game fisher.
Sustainability
Beran runs almost entirely off-grid, powered by sun and wind with a large battery bank and a backup generator the island calls its least-used piece of equipment, and cooled in part by an expansive rain catchment system beneath the resort. The island was a proud early supporter of the Marshall Islands shark sanctuary, the largest on Earth, and sharks are fully protected throughout the atoll. It is a working model of serious adventure tourism coexisting with serious conservation.
How Private Is This Island?
Completely, on an Exclusive Private Island Booking: up to 12 guests take the whole island for the week, and you decide how many others you want to surf with. Outside buyout weeks, the island hosts small weekly groups and specialist weeks (surf, kite and foil, fishing, diving), never more than the lodge's eight rooms.
Getting There
Fly internationally to Majuro (United from Honolulu, or Nauru Airlines from Brisbane), then take the Air Marshall Islands domestic flight to Woja (WJA), the Ailinglaplap Atoll airstrip, where the Beran team meets you for the boat transfer to the island, included in your rate. Travel and medivac insurance are required; this is true remote-Pacific travel, and it is worth every mile.
