Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 |

# which island to visit? Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea
yjt 01:21 UTC 29 Sep 2007 | Hi guys. With my brother I'm going to vist my dad for all of March. While I'm there I thought I'll use the chance to visit one of the pacific Islands. I'm just not sure which. The ones which sprung to mind were Fiji, tonga, samoa and the cook Islands. I'd be looking for paradise like beaches, which I think all of the countries have. A question is should I be worried about going towards the end of the rainy season? As I'm planning to be doing a lot of relaxing could the rain be a problem to my sun bathing plans? If it rains through the night and early morning thats not a problem but if it rains for like a week non stop thats a bummer. The other question I have is the nightlife. As I'm going with my brother we'd like to have a few places to go at night. So basically I'm looking for beautiful beaches little rain a city with a few night clubs to go to Which country/city do you recommend? Thanks for the help! |
raro 02:08 UTC 29 Sep 2007 | In the Cooks it may rain for a coule of hours a day, and then be sunny the rest of the day, this happens a few times a week in March. Occasionally it may rain for a couple of days in a row, but that is not usual. No "cities" in the Cooks, but a bunch of bars, mainly in town. Beaches of course are very nice. Check the main website www.ck for more info. | 1
islandboi321 06:05 UTC 29 Sep 2007 | Unfortunately, Samoa's beaches are far away from the bars/city (Apia). Some of the beach resorts have their own bars, but most of them are about as hopping as cocktail lounges. Pretty subdued. | 2
mandja 09:08 UTC 29 Sep 2007 | Few cities in the Pacific. One to conside , that fits the bill is Noumea in New Caledonia. | 3
yjt 10:18 UTC 29 Sep 2007 | hey guys thanks for the help. Yeah I wrote that wrong about the cities I realize that the total population of a lot of the islands wouldn't even count as a city. what I meant is that what I'd like is a few bars/discos to go out to. so basically Tonga isn't recommended. How far are the beaches from apia? It surprises me that no one has mentioned fiji yet. I've been checking up about the islands, and Fiji seemed to be the best bet. Is that not the case? Thanks mandja. I'll check out new caledonia. | 4
bhain01 04:15 UTC 30 Sep 2007 | You could also try Honiara in Solomon Islands, good swimming and sun bathing within easy and cheap taxi ride of town and more night clubs per head of population than just about anywhere. All the major hotels have karaoke and/or dance nights then there are the night clubs- Bula Bar, Top Ten, Moonlight, G Club, Paradise, Herons,............. Hotels are licensed to 12:00 midnight, clubs to about 2:00am then you can go on to Kavare at White River which because it is considered to be outside the town limits has a 6:00pm to 6:00am license, but is only 10 minutes by taxi. Currency exchange rates at the moment are excellent which makes it all very affordable. | 5
raro 06:33 UTC 30 Sep 2007 | The main city of Fiji, Suva, does not have good beaches nearby. It has a lot of clubs and bars, some can get a bit dangerous as the night turns to morning. Nadi is kind of a depressing city, people hawking things, beggars sitting on curbs, etc. There are some OK beaches a bit to the north, but it's not a great place to center one's vacation, n my opinion. I'd suggest heading out to one of the islands instead for beaches. But, not even large villages on most of those islands. Nightlife is low key, except maybe for the backpacker "resorts" like Beachcomber Island. | 6
yjt 02:42 UTC 01 Oct 2007 | Guys you have been really helpful. Without you I probably would have landed in Fiji which really doesn't sound as good as it's less famous neighbors. I've been looking on the internet and I have to say New Caledonia, the Cook Islands and the Solomon Islands all look very attractive. I've been checking these 3 countries on the internet and it seems to me that New Caledonia may have more of a nightlife but it seems cooler there with less guarantee of good weather. The Solomon and Cook Islands do seem to have places to go out to at night so I think it's pretty much a choice between these 2 Islands. Are there any big differences between them? | 7
raro 04:34 UTC 01 Oct 2007 | Well, you haven't said where you are actually going to visit your dad, nor where you are coming from. You can hit some of the islands between the US and NZ/Austr. for example, and New Caledonia might be cheaper to reach from Australia, than Aust. to the Cooks. Also, I haven't been to New Cal., but it seems it will still be quite warm there in March. Maybe Mandja and Laszlo and others can add to this?? | 8
mandja 06:28 UTC 01 Oct 2007 | Noumea is in fact at it's warmest in March - expect 27C daily. March is also one of the wetter months, but rain is usually short lived. | 9
yjt 14:13 UTC 01 Oct 2007 | Raro sorry that's true. I'll be flying out from Auckland, N.Z. I hope to pay NZ$ 600 at the most. I've been looking a bit on the internet and Solomon Airways seem to be the only ones flying directly from Auckland to Honaira, but they cost over NZ$ 1000 which means the Solomons are ruled out unless anyone knows a cheaper alternative to get there. The Cook Islands I can get to for NZ$ 484 and Noumea for NZ$ 733. So I think the Cook Islands seem to be the best option unless there's some big reasons why I should visit Noumea instead of The Cook Islands. Another country I came across is Vanuatu. What do you guys think of it? The pictures of the islands certainly were breathtaking. | 10
raro 15:50 UTC 01 Oct 2007 | NZ$424 RT is a good airfare for AKL/RAR/AKL. Haven't been to Vanuatu, but some of the others above have. | 11