Nanumea is not a sightseeing destination in any usual sense. What it offers is a quiet, traditional Polynesian community, a lagoon that almost no outsider has snorkelled, and one of the country's most significant clusters of Second World War remains — wrecks, gun emplacements, and the coral airstrip the Marines laid down in 1943. Treat any visit as a chance to spend time with the village rather than to tick off sights.