Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 |

# Pacific Islands Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea
dmprcl 14:35 UTC 23 May 2014 | Hi, My boyfriend and I are travelling to Philippines and Indonesia in August and September. For October and maybe some of November we were looking into visiting Fiji and some of the French Polynesia Islands. We're travelling on a budget and so we're a little worried that this might be a little expensive for us. Can you really travel these islands on a budget? Are there some islands in the Pacific that are cheaper (but also worth visiting) that we could visit instead? Our max budget is around £20 each a day, hopefully less if we can. We're happy to stay in shared rooms, eat street food etc. My boyfriend is also a keen surfer and would love to know if any of these islands are good for intermediate surfers. Thank you for any advice :) D & R |
anillos_de_saturno 16:33 UTC 23 May 2014 | I think you should start looking for flight fares to see if they are within your budget. There aren't direct fights from Fiji to French Polynesia, you would need to backtrack to either New Zealand, New Caledonia or Australia... | 1
Laszlo 19:24 UTC 23 May 2014 | In any case, French Polynesia is just about the most expensive corner of the region to visit, even airfares apart. The cheapest countries in the Pacific Islands are Fiji, Tonga and Samoa (probably in that order) and these are also linked to each other by relatively (!) cheap flights via Fiji. Your budget could be just about OK if it is per person - if it is for the 2 of you, forget it. | 2
tch7 01:48 UTC 25 May 2014 | £20 a day per person could possibly be adequate for basic living expenses (dorm bed, food, public bus) on the main island of Fiji. Forget actually doing anything though. Even when you're in Indonesia & the Philippines you'll probably have some difficulty with that budget, and they're a good bit cheaper than anywhere in the South Pacific. | 3
farflung 05:32 UTC 25 May 2014 | Bear that in mind August and September is the height of the rainy season in the Philippines but the height of the dry season in Indonesia. That said Siargao, in the southern Philippines, will be good for surfing then. Your budget will be quite tight even in those countries. When you reach the south Pacific islands, quite apart from living expenses you will have to spend a lot just on the standard tourist day sightseeing excursions. | 4
dmprcl 21:21 UTC 30 Jun 2014 | Hi All, Thank you for all the advice. We've decided against going to Fiji and the Pacific Islands as the flights to get out of those Countries were just too expensive at £450 +. We're now travelling to Sri Lanka instead :) Thanks again and happy travelling! :) | 5