The idea of owning a tropical island may seem unachievable but this group of travelers made it happen by purchasing Coffee Caye, making it the world’s first crowdfunded island.
“Who wouldn’t want to buy an island?” said Marshall Mayer, per CNN Travel,
“And I don’t know about you but I certainly can’t afford to buy an island on my own!”
How it happened: Mayer is the co-founder of Let’s Buy an Island, a project started in 2018 with the goal of purchasing an island. In 2019, this group of 80 investors raised over $250,000, enough to buy the Coffee Caye island.
Details: A short boat ride from Belize City, the uninhabited 1.2-acre island is almost shaped like a coffee bean, with a small beach on one side and scrub and mangroves on the other.
- Officially named the Principality of Islandia, with a national flag, this country has hundreds of online citizens, while novelty passports are incoming.
- If you’re interested in purchasing a share of this micronation, a territory that claims to be an independent nation-state, the price is $3,250, capped at 150 investors.
What they’re saying: Marshall Mayer, co-founder and co-chairman of the Let’s Buy an Island board, told Travel + Leisure, “Many of the initial investors were really into traveling off the beaten track, including to places where there were micronations, and they were interested in (creating) an island where you can make your own rules and laws.”
“But we are a tongue-in-cheek micronation falling squarely within the laws of Belize,” stressed Mayer.