ACNH: Desert islands, travelling Animal Crossing guide, tips

Last update: 12 November 2021

Traveling to desert islands is an important aspect of Animal Crossing New Horizons. Our guide explains where you can go and what awaits you there.

Animal Crossing New Horizons isn't just about catching butterflies or planting flowers - the game also offers the opportunity to visit other islands. Read the text below to learn whether this is worth doing, check what can we find there, and are there any other locations than deserted islands. In short, we can travel to three different types of locations:

1. desert islands (source of various resources);
2. Harvey island (photo center);
3. other players' islands.

All you need to know:

• How to travel to desert islands?
• Types of deserted islands
• What to do on desert islands?
• Are desert islands worth visiting?
• Where else can I go?

How to travel to desert islands?

To fly to a deserted island, you must first buy Nook Miles Ticket - you can get them from the ABD Services ATM. A ticket costs 2,000 Nook Miles, which means you have to use the currency received by performing various tasks.

Once you have bought your ticket, go to the airport and talk to Orville. Remember to empty your equipment in advance and leave only the tools (two pieces of the most important ones won't hurt; you can also make the tools on-site or buy them from Wilbur the pilot). Otherwise, you may run out of space for the things you will find on a deserted island.

Types of deserted islands

The game offers various types of desert islands. You will most often reach a simple version of them - they won't give you anything particularly interesting or valuable. However, from time to time, you can come across interesting places with a lot of money or new fruits. Here's a list of the islands you can find:

1. Standard island
2. Tarantula island - ruled by spiders. If you get there, catch as many spiders as you can - each one of them is worth 8,000 Bells.
3. Scorpion island - just like the previous one: catch as many scorpions as you can.
4. Trash island - looks like an ordinary island, but you only catch garbage in rivers or the sea.
5. Foreign Fruit island - a fairly rare island where you will find new species of fruit.
6. Bamboo island - an island with only bamboos (they are worth planting at home).
7. Money Rock island - there is a small island in the middle of the lake, with stones on it. Each of them can drop up to 16k Bells, so if you do a good job of hitting them with a shovel, you will get a lot of money.
8. Hybrid Flower island - this island has rare varieties of different flowers.

What to do on desert islands?

A lot depends on which island you are. The most important goal, however, is to make the most of the trip - remember that you paid for it. So hit stones, collect fruit, dig up flowers and catch insects.

Unfortunately, standard islands don't have anything especially valuable - they are just smaller versions of your island, the only feature distinguishing them are coconuts growing on the beaches.

Are desert islands worth visiting?

This is a pretty lucrative activity at the beginning of the game. You can suddenly make a lot of money, or discover an unfamiliar fruit. Over time, however, things will change.

In the later of the game, traveling to new islands slowly becomes less rewarding. There are many things you can do in your house, and the islands you reach are most often the standard ones. You can spend your time on more useful activities.

Where else can I go?

DAL - Dodo Airlines offers more than just flights to desert islands. You can go to two additional places - either visit your friends (more about this here) or fly to Harvey. This hippie dog has his own island (Harv's Island) with a photography studio. It's a special place where you can create all sorts of sets using all your unlocked furniture - use all the available options to take perfect photos.