Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 |

# kiriwana (trobriand islands) Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Papua New Guinea
majordom 19:20 UTC 29 Mar 2013 | my partner and i just got back from a month in PNG - i will make a longer post but for the moment want to provide some contacts for anyone visiting the trobriands as all published contacts seem to be out of date the Kiriwana Lodge is now the Loquia Lodge and under new management with the owner taking a more active role telephone numbers are Toku (manager) 7356 9052 and Rebecca (owner) 7028 1267 we drove by the other lodge Butia which looks very nice but it is in the middle of the island whilst the Loquia is by the ocean with fantastic sunsets ! anyway both lodges seem to meet every plane when it lands and its a small place where everybody knows everyones business ! at Loquia we paid 340 K per night for their best double with ensuite, electricity and a/c - they have smaller rooms and you may be able to get better if they are not busy - but they didnt charge for the night we stayed elsewhere whilst leaving all our stuff in the room. Rate included dinner and breakfast which were good. Loquia arranged a stay at Manuels guesthouse in Kaibola, 200 K per night including dinner, breakfast and lunch (delicious if you like fresh fish and seafood), their van was 150 K each way but included a tour to visit various sights like yam houses and to see the Paramount Chief. Note that PMVs are not really an option on the island. Kiriwana was one of our highlights and Toku at the Loquia made it easy for us to see and experience a lot in a short time Highly reccomended, wish we could have stayed at Kaibola a few more days. Edited by: majordom |
majordom 19:34 UTC 07 Apr 2013 | oops should be KIRIWINA ! | 1
fish323 10:36 UTC 27 Apr 2013 | When you say 340K are we talking about £100 $150US a night for accommodation?? | 2
majordom 21:44 UTC 03 May 2013 | yes - papua is expensive and in many places there is little choice - its not like indo where you can stay in places for 20usd ! you could certainly find cheaper homestay accomodation but it would take time which we did not have most of the visitors are government officials, aid workers, scientists etc - we were the only tourists on the whole island Edited by: majordom | 3
majordom 21:44 UTC 06 May 2013 | you need to remember that doing anything in PNG isnt easy and on the islands can be very hard to run a business - examples at the lodge the first night they charged 9K for a cold beer - which i thought was a lot but the next night there was none to be had at any price - no supply the island has digicel phone coverage including 3G but the service went down for 2 days as there was no diesel for the generator | 4
majordom 22:58 UTC 06 Aug 2013 | just been looking through our photos and would really urge any visitor to kiriwina to visit the paramount chief - take some gifts for him and his family and ask to see any kula objects that are currently in his posession - the kula ring is facinating and the objects themselves strange and beautiful | 5
majordom 07:47 UTC 04 Sep 2013 | if you found this helpful and visit kiriwina then please say hi to toku and manuel and say that you were recommended by dominic and shiva from london thanks and have a great trip | 6