THANKS to Google Maps, Uber and EasyJet, we can pretty much go anywhere we like these days.

But no matter how much time or money you may have, there remain places which are strictly off limits.

Whether the powers that be say you just can’t go there, local residents tell you you’re not welcome, or you are simply barred for your own safety, these sites are as intriguing as they are forbidden.

So let SwiftHalf, who has admittedly been barred from far less interesting places than those below, take you, sort of, inside five places you’ll never get the chance to visit.

Snake Island, Brazil

Officially known as Ilha da Queimada Grande, this vipers’ nest is located about 90 miles off the coast of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and is home to one of the deadliest reptiles on Earth, the Golden Lancehead snake.

The incredible density of the serpents – one for every metre of land – led to the Brazilian government banning visitors for their own safety. The species, whose deadly venom eats away at flesh and causes organ failure,  is also protected so it’s best if everyone just backs off.

Amazingly, people do still try to dodge the navy to get to the island to steal the snakes for the black market, Culture Trip revealed. With the nearest anti-venom 90 miles away in Sao Paulo, good luck to them.

Doomsday Vault, Norway

The Global Seed Vault as it is properly titled is located 390ft down in the bowels of a mountain on the vast icy wilderness of Spitsbergen, an island above the Arctic Circle between Norway and the North Pole.

It houses more than 930,000 varieties of food crops from places ranging from North Korea to Russia, according to Time,  and is designed to protect them from threats including war, disease and climate change.

No one person has all the codes required to enter the structure, and it has no permanent staff. If there is ever a need to open it quickly, chances are we’re all doomed anyway.

Fort Knox, USA

Opened to the public just twice in its 162-year history, you ain’t going there. The site in Kentucky, known officially as the United States Bullion Depository, is mainly used for stashing around two per cent of the world’s refined gold, but also housed major historical artefacts such as the Magna Carta and the US Declaration of Independence during World War Two.

Conspiracy theorists also claim it contains evidence of alien life. Which means you have to be from Mars to get in there. Easy then…

Ise Grand Shrine, Japan

The goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami has over 100 separate shrines dedicated to her in this sacred space in Japan, which she is said to have chosen for herself in a message to an emperor’s daughter due to its splendid isolation.

Built around 4BC, the site, know officially as Jingu, is off limits to everyone but priests and priestesses of the royal family. So you’ll just have to pay your respect elsewhere.

North Sentinel Island, Bay Of Bengal

You know when you get that feeling when you’re just not wanted? No? Head here then and you’ll see what we mean.

On this 28-mile square island, part of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, live the hunter-gatherer Sentinelese people. They remain one of the last groups of humans completely cut off from the rest of the world.

That is partly due to the Indian government banning outside visitors in 1996 to protect the inhabitants from contracting diseases.

It is also because attempts by humans to make contact have largely been badly advised. Those who have made it past the dangerous coral reefs to reach the islanders over the last 50 years include a National Geographic film director, two illegal fishermen and a Christian missionary.

The film director was shot in the leg with an arrow while the other three didn’t make it back. Maybe only worth booking a one-way ticket if you do insist on going there…