People: I read somewhere before that the ni-Van are super friendly, so maybe my expectations were just too high. While we did meet some friendly people, we also met many moody ones. You couldn’t really rely on how they would react to something in one situation or the other. Also, most struck us as rather lazy, especially thinking about those Air Vanuatu employees. Compared to the Solomon Islands, we finally met some other backpackers – for some reason mainly Frenchies. Some islands like Santo seem to be popular for Aussie families too.
Food: Not great at all. The only good food we ate was burgers at a Western-run place in Luganville and the best Chinese noodles ever at Kung Fu Noodles in Port Vila. The typical Vanuatu food was often bland, and in Ambrym we were served dry rice with canned tuna as dinner. Uuuagghh. With a price tag! Often we had to just suck (or in that case: eat) it up since there were rarely shared kitchens to cook for ourselves.
Weather: A bit better than in the Solomon Islands but still challenging! In Tanna we had almost 2 days of constant rain, almost spoiling our Mt Yasur experience. Overall we did have a lot of heat and sunshine though!
Costs: Including all flights we spent about 57€/day/person which is pretty much on our 60€ target. We’ve decided to include all inland flights in our country budget to make the countries better comparable (e.g. in the Solomon Islands we only took ferries but our overall spendings are still higher than in Vanuatu). With more time at our hands we could have maybe managed to take a ferry / cargo ship here and there to save some costs.
Accommodation: We finally got to use our tent! Still getting used to it, but camping directly on the beach does have some appeal. Some places like Port Vila didn’t have camping, so we took a cheap double room. Often, facilities were very very basic, for example showering with brackish water out of a bucket in Ambrym or not having running water at all for 2 days (also Ambrym). There were also lots of bugs, and sometimes this all got a bit too much for me!
Infrastructure: Ferries are less reliable and frequent than in the Solomons, so we had to take many flights. Air Vanuatu is by far the worst airline we’ve ever flown with, but there is no alternative. In some places there are shared minivans, but in Tanna you have to charter (as a tourist, you pay a crazy high price and there’s no way around). So overall…not very good.
Illnesses: Mathijs had to deal with a wound infection which was annoying and difficult at times when we were lacking basic things like fresh water to wash your hands or somewhat clean surroundings (Ambrym, I’m talking about you again!).
Safety: We felt save, only camping directly in town in Luganville felt a bit odd with our valuables just behind the thin tent walls…
Itinerary: The most common islands to visit are Tanna and Santo, but we also went to Ambrym which felt very remote, and did a short detour to Malekula. If we would do it again, we’d plan at least a month, definitely include Malekula and maybe Pentecost as well, maybe Epi. Also, we didn’t really get to see Efate – so if I can forget about the Air Vanuatu drama at one point, we might return to visit these islands.
Highlight: Tanna, respectively Mt Yasur, despite the high prices.
Lowlight: The food!
Click on the photo below to see our full photo album of Vanuatu:
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