Seven of the best river islands to visit, from Manhattan in New York to Paris’ Île de la Cité and Guangzhou’s Shamian Island
- River islands, especially in cities, can be centres of arts culture and commerce; others are man-made, or temporary sandbars ruled by the tide
- From the rocking history of Eel Pie Island in the River Thames to Paris’ birthplace, Île de la Cité, and Koh Kret on the Chao Phraya in Thailand, we visit seven
Surrounded on all sides by one or more rivers, rather than a sea or lagoon, river islands come in many shapes and sizes. Some are celebrated centres of finance, culture and the arts while others disappear at high tide.
A few go by a different name entirely: an eyot or ait is a British English term that refers to a small island, often barely more than a sandbank in a river. There are more than 100 of them in the River Thames alone.
Here are seven river islands with little in common except that to reach them, you’ll need to cross a bridge, travel through a tunnel or hop on a ferry.
1. Manhattan
Manhattan may not be the biggest river island in the world, we’ll come to that later, but it is the most densely populated of the five boroughs that make up New York. More than 1.6 million people squeeze into an area marginally larger than Kowloon and slightly smaller than Hong Kong Island.
The skyscraper-studded district is surrounded by three rivers, the Harlem River to the northeast, the Hudson River to the west and the East River to, you’ve guessed it, the east.
“Iconic” is an overused word in tourism literature but Manhattan’s Empire State Building, Central Park, Times Square and Broadway Theatre district, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Wall Street are among the most recognised and visited places on the planet.
2. Shamian Island
