Suva

Imagine yourself plunging beneath the astonishingly blue waters of Fiji's Beqa Lagoon, eye-to-eye-through a mask suddenly feeling dangerously thin-with sharks whose toothy grins suggest they've just remembered they missed breakfast. This isn't your average serene snorkel-it's an adrenaline-laced aquatic ballet choreographed hundreds of millions of years ago, starring sleek bull sharks circling gracefully, their dark eyes sizing you up like sushi on a conveyor belt. Historically revered by islanders who believed sharks housed ancestral spirits, today Beqa offers the world's wildest underwater handshake. Book at least a month ahead, pack nerves of steel along with your swimsuit, and schedule a morning dive for optimum visibility-the sharks prefer brunch, apparently. Diving here isn't cheap-expect to shell out around $180-$200 USD-but seriously, bargain-hunt for shark encounters at your peril. Most operators supply gear, but a waterproof camera and a dash of reckless confidence never hurt. In the end, swimming alongside these misunderstood predators is the sort of once-in-a-lifetime insanity that transforms vacations into legends-because there's no dinner-table tale quite like, "Did I mention I once went swimming with sharks and lived to brag about it?"