People: The locals in the Solomon Islands are were friendly and helpful. We just had to get used to the slower (much slower) rhythm of life. Everything just takes a liiiittle bit longer than at home. We barely met any other tourists, and no other backpackers. The tourists we met were mostly (Australian) divers, staying in upmarket dive resorts.

Food: We had some really good food in the Solomons – mainly at Lasa’s place in the Marovo Lagoon – but most of the food was rather average. We ate lots of fish, often fish and chips, and local veggies and rice. Many places offered self-catering facilities, so we frequently cooked for ourselves too – which was mostly simple dishes given the lack of variety in most supermarkets. We had to be flexible about what to eat…

Weather: Challenging. It rained almost every day for a bit, often over longer periods of time, sometimes even days in a row. And it was dry season! I must admit, at times we were just sick of not being able to count on sunny weather…

Costs: Including all the diving, transportation etc we spent just a little over 60€/day (per person). Nothing was really cheap, but the biggest parts of our spendings went to activities (diving, snorkelling, boat tours etc) and accommodation – even though we always stayed in the cheapest available places. I don’t think we could have saved more, since we already took the ferry all the time instead of flights as most other tourists do.

Accommodation: As mentioned, accommodation was expensive, usually around 30€ for the double room, sometimes even with shared bathroom. Although we were usually the only ones in every guesthouse, so only had to share with ourselves 😉 Still, expect only very basic rooms for that kind of price…

Infrastructure: Pretty much non-existent and gave us a headache sometimes. Luckily we could align our itinerary with the weekly ferry schedule which saved us a lot of money. Almost everything goes by boat or ferry in the Solomon Islands, unless you have the budget to fly around!

Illnesses: Besides some smaller stomach issues here and there, all was fine. Only Mathijs got a small wound which unfortunately kept bothering us for quite a while afterwards still…

Safety: I never really felt unsafe, although I would not choose to walk around Honiara by myself during the night. No reason to do so anyways! Also, once I got rather scared during a boat ride. We got stuck in a storm and the waves were quite high for the little boat. I did not feel like our boat driver had it under control… As I am here to tell the story today, you see it ended well though 😉

Itinerary: If there is a typical itinerary for such a remote, untouristy place, then I guess we followed it. We took the ferry from Honiara to Gizo, then backtracked step by step to Noro/Munda, Seghe/Marovo Lagoon and back to Honiara. I do think Malaita would have been interesting but I’m not too sad we missed out on it. I don’t think I will go back to the Solomon Islands, since it was all in all quite expensive and a big effort to organize – and we have seen the main things now.

Highlight: Marovo Lagoon, above and below the surface.

Lowlight: The bad infrastructure, MV Anjeanette and as in places – Honiara.

Click on the photo below to see my full photo album of the Solomon Islands: