Pacific Islands Travel Advice

Looking to go to the islands in June/July for a couple of weeks, and interested in any thoughts/experiences people may have had. Early favourites are Samoa & Tahiti, but interested in other options as well.

Ta.

 Push it on and do the beach football world cup in Tahiti.

Tempting...

Phanta-Si

Brilliant place - you are greeted by a foreign accented chap and little guy.  Can only get there by a boat plane.

Used to be really popular in the 70s and 80s but not heard much about it since then.

Was there in 86 before going on to the world cup in Mexico

Meet this nice couple !!

Samoa is fantastic!

Definately need around 2 weeks and hire a car to get yourself around!

I spent two weeks in Tonga....Hearty! Traditional and proper Island experience if you are brave. 

DId the tourist thing in Fiji too, much easier! 

 Vanuatu was awesome- Great food (french influenced), really friendly people, and they love their football.

 All the others mentioned are great, but so is Hawaii which would be my choice.

I've been to Fiji, Samoa and Tahiti. Depends what you're after but in summary:

Fiji is the most touristy of the three but still a decent spot. 

Samoa is great, much less developed compared to other islands and also cheaper.

I rate Tahiti for the French influences (cafe culture in Papeete for example) but it is by far the most expensive. 

Awesome. Thanks for that. Good info!

Where did you decide on?

Haven't booked quite yet, but looks like it will be Vanuatu. Tahiti too expensive, Fiji didn't really appeal, have been to Tonga, so we limited it to Samoa, Vanuatu & Rarotonga. Raro was a bit more expensive than the other two, and the Mrs was more drawn to Vanuatu than Samoa, but they were very close.

Oh, and we had to push back to a September date, otherwise I'd be panicking a bit more about not booking yet.

I've been to all of about 15 PI nations except Tahiti. Rarotonga wins hands down every time. The cost factor is a myth. The big things, it's clean, the sea is clean, no pollution, drinking water is safe and extremely safe to walk anywhere by yourself at any time of day or night. It's warm but not unbearable like a PNG or Honiara. They speak English and everyone is friendly.

Just to clarify, this was based on actual cost of flights available. Not any perceptions of cost.

You made a good choice (although i have to also agree that Raro is a might fine destination too)

The food in vanuatu is amazing, and cheap-local fruit and veg is abundant-

Cold tusker beer to wash it down- me wantem!

Beaches around Port Vila are pretty good-especially Mele Bay and Hideaway island

we had a blast there (think it was October) Football season had just started; 7,000 people watching the VPL, it was a great atmosphere.

Back from Vanuatu (actually a week back but had work stuff last week) and loved it. If I was to briefly summarise:

• Really friendly people, and seemed very safe - no hassles walking around at night etc
• Not the most developed place - e.g. potholed roads (especially in Vila), rubbish around, plenty of people doing not much
• Price of food depended on where you went - western style cafes / restaurants etc were about the same price as NZ, but you could find some cheap local options (e.g. at markets) if you wanted to look and give them a go
• Having said that, there are some very nice restaurants to choose from, with great food. Particularly the French infuenced ones
• Weather was magic, cold for the locals but perfect for us, and very little rain. Pretty good time of the year to go I think
• Plenty of Aussies around... apparently Vanuatu is for Aussies and Raro is for Kiwis. You also want to avoid town when cruise ships are in
• It's worth spending a bit more and getting somewhere decent to stay, prices are no cheaper than NZ though
• Getting around is easy when you learn the bus system. Just stop any van with a B on the number plate (there are hundreds) and tell them where you want to go for equivalent of a few $NZ

I'd go back to Vanuatu in a heart beat-also worth mentioning the good flight times in and out, Raro suffers from the late night in, early morning out which effectively kills a day at either end.

Good feedback, I work in the travel industry and I would say the general feedback on Vanuatu is not so glowing (not bad by any means), but tends to rank below Raro and Fiji for sure. Samoa is the new 'in' place to go to now in terms of Pacific Islands.

Hawaii has gone through the roof this year as Hawaiian Airlines now fly direct out of AKL and Air NZ have increased their services too.

Personally I love Hawaii, which is of course considerably further away (8 1/2 hours from AKL), but it is the best of all worlds.

1. Top beaches if you want to laze around
2. Excellent shopping. Waikele Outlet Mall is awesome, the Adidas Store there has any two pairs of shoes for $80USD.
3. Good sightseeing too - Pearl Harbour, North Beach, outer Island etc

I was there in April for a Conference and had a great time.

I went to Samoa in September for a week and had a great time. Was slightly rushed as we ended up driving around both islands to see as much as we could.

Was a bit wary as I'd not been to the islands before either but it was really good and I would have no hesitation about going back.

Main negative is probably the price of decent accommodation but that seems to apply to all islands.

The beer however was around $2 NZD so that went some way to making up for it!