Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 |

# Need Help with South Pacific Itin!!!!!!! please!!!! Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea
drritarae 04:15 UTC 21 Apr 2012 | Hi, I wish to go to Bora Bora, Fiji, Vava'u, and Papau New Guinea. I live in Houston. So, what would be the best way to get there? Then, how do I fly wasting the least amount of time traveling? I want to go at the beginning of September, take the month but be in Vava'u in time to swim with the whales. Can I do this all in one trip, or should I split it in two? Thanks to anyone who can answer this. |
ozziegiraffe 09:12 UTC 21 Apr 2012 | If you have enough time and money to do two trips, then leave Papua New Guinea (which is considerably bigger than the others) for your next trip. | 1
Laszlo 14:24 UTC 21 Apr 2012 | Is one month all you have for the whole trip? Then indeed it would be better to leave PNG for later. If you still want to do it all, you could fly from LA to Tahiti (for Bora Bora), then from there via New Zealand to Tonga. Then on to Fiji, and from Fiji to PNG. From PNG you could fly home to the US either via Fiji or Australia. Note that while this is a logical routing to minimize traveling time, it won't be cheap! If you are ready to drop Bora Bora (rather than PNG), you could probably save quite a bit by flying from LA to Fiji RT, then making 2 RT flights from there to Tonga and PNG respectively. | 2
kahua 16:11 UTC 21 Apr 2012 | Is Bora Bora the only place you want to visit in Tahiti? It is so outrageously expensive even compared to the rest of FP , which isn't cheap at all. Take a look at the costs and routing. Traveling between islands in the same country or between countries is time-consuming and expensive. I'd cut down on the number of countries. The least expensive would probably be a month split between Fiji and Tonga. There's plenty to do/see and there isn't the language problem that you have in French Polynesia. The Lonely Planet South Pacific Guide has lots of practical information in it. It's worth the investment to start your research. | 3
ozziegiraffe 09:48 UTC 22 Apr 2012 | Air New Guinea flights from Fiji to PNG stop in Honiara, Solomon Islands on the way. It might be worth considering breaking the journey there for a few days, but if you do, try to get out of Honiara, preferably off the island of Guadalcanal altogether, to get the real feel for the country. | 4
woodnoggin 12:29 UTC 27 Apr 2012 | You could definitely squash it into one month, but it would be a rush. I think you'd feel like you missed out a lot of PNG, which is a big place. Any time in September should be OK for seeing whales in Vava'u. They're still there until late October, although they're less interested in humans by then. | 5