Small practical guide to Kiribati, after having been there recently

I made this statistic about reactions of people when I mention Kiribati:

95% - have never heard about it and they don't want to know about it
4% - have never heard about it but they are curious to find out more
1% - know the country but they haven't been there

A consequence of this fact is that it's nearly impossible to find up-to-date information in the web. It's a pity because Kiribati is a difficult country to visit, but having some basic knowledge would really help organizing the trip: even though it's complicated, a trip to Kiribati is definitely feasible, with a reasonable budget of money and time (this two factors having the same importance for travellers).

I have been in Kiribati for two weeks in August, 2014. As for other non-touristic destinations, my life would have been much easier, had I found on the internet a review like the one I am writing.

If you belong to the 95% in the statistic above, please before going away read at least the first point below.

-1- Why going to Kiribati?

-1.1- Kiribati is the most original and unspoiled country of the Pacific

The Pacific is still the most remote area in the world. Robert Louis Stevenson, in the introduction to his notes about the Pacific, wrote:

<< No part of the world exerts the same attractive power upon the visitor, and the task before me is to communicate to fireside travellers some sense of its seduction, and to describe the life, at sea and ashore, of many hundred thousand persons, some of our own blood and language, all our contemporaries, and yet as remote in thought and habit as Rob Roy or Barbarossa, the Apostles or the Caesars. >>

This was written more than a century ago: in this time the world has changed, but only a small portion of the Pacific (Hawaii, Guam, New Zealand, some parts of Fiji) has changed with the rest of the world. By far the greatest part has either naturally rejected influences from the white man, or assimilated them into the local culture. The reasons of this are geographical, because the islands are often too remote to be provided of (depending on the case): a diffused internet connection; an airport; a harbour that can contain ships big enough to travel around; electricity; etc..

Of course the white man has tried to reshape the uses of islanders, but he fully succeded only in those cases in which there was enough land available to completely repopulate the place and wipe away the local culture (New Zealand, Hawaii). In all the other cases, either he failed (I spoke with a person in Banaba who thought that Jesus and Riiki the Eel were the same person), or created a strange hybrid of cultures that has no less charm than what Stevenson would have found in his time.

After having visited many countries and colonies of the Pacific, I can divide them into three level of wildness and “genuinity”.

• Society Islands, southern Cook Islands, Marshall Islands ... => colonies or countries with a strong western influence, which don't look at all like the past but still feel very remote and charming.

• Samoa, Tonga, Federate States of Micronesia ... => independent countries governed by locals, with almost no influence of the white man, but which somehow lay on the way of air routes and are not infrequently visited by foreigners.

• Kiribati (and maybe Tuvalu, I haven't been there) => there are no foreigners at all, and the only visible influences from the white man are t-shirts, corned beef and engine boats.

Of course this is a gross division for a wide and composite area such as the Pacific (there are other special places like Nauru and Pitcairn, and even in Society Islands and Marshall Islands you can find genuine traditions if you go out of the beaten track), but it gives an idea of the situation: Kiribati is completely out of the air routes and forgotten by everybody.

-1.2- The unspoiled culture of Kiribati is one of the most important and less known of the Pacific

In the past there were important kingdoms (for instance, in Butaritari, Marakei and Abaiang), you can still find descendants of the royal families and other remains of the past. Moreover, Kiribati has been for long time one of the cores of Polynesian migrations, and it's strictly linked to Samoa, which royal families moved to Kiribati some 24 generations ago.

-2- How to reach Kiribati?

Tarawa airport is linked only to:

• Fiji, with Fiji Airlines (price around 250 EUR one way, which is a reasonable price for such a distance in the Pacific)
• Majuro, with Our Airlines (price around 120 EUR one way)
• Nauru, with Our Airlines (price around 170 EUR onw way)

In this review I consider only the Gilbert Islands (there is another airport in Christmas Island, in the Line Islands, which is linked only to Fiji and Honolulu once a week, but Christmas Island can be considered a case apart, because apparently it's quite touristic and there are almost no other populated islands in its area).

From the “civilized world” you have four ways to reach Tarawa.

-2.1- From Nadi, Fiji

This is the easiest way, since there are regular flights (I think three times a week, check on the site of Fiji Airlines). Of course, you still have to reach Fiji which has a cost.

-2.2- From Honolulu, through Majuro (Marshall Islands)

There is a daily flight connection between Honolulu and Majuro with United. I don't know about the price. To go from Majuro to Tarawa I suggest booking in advance the flight of Our Airlines, and be aware that the flight is likely to be re-scheduled in a radius of two – three days around the expected date. Take a safe time of at least three days in Majuro, in which I strongly suggest to go to the office of Our Airlines and reconfirm your flight, ask them to print your tickets, etc (even though in the site of Our Airlines it's not stated that you should reconfirm). The office of Our Airlines is inside the travel company called “Pacific Unique Travel”.

-2.3- From Brisbane, through Nauru

You can book it as a single ticket on the site of Our Airlines; it's less likely to be re-scheduled, even though it's possible that they will change the stopovers. I suggest you this option only if you live in Australia, because it's quite expensive. Be aware that sometimes if you stop in Nauru you have to pay a transit tax, even if you don't leave the airport (but who knows, they change laws so frequently over there).

-2.4- From Manila or Taipei, through Micronesian islands

This is the most charming way to reach Kiribati. There is a chain of flights starting from Manila or Taipei, leading to Majuro from where you can take a flight of Our Airlines.

Manila / Taipei => Palau => Yap (F.S.M.) => Guam (U.S.) => Chuuk (F.S.M.) => Pohnpei (F.S.M.) => Kosrae (F.S.M.) => Kwajalein (Marshall) => Majuro (Marshall).

This is the complete list of the steps of this trip, of course you don't have to stop in all of them, you can choose which place you are most interested in and skip the others.

Almost all the routes are served by United, which aim is to connect the U.S. colony of Guam to Honolulu, and makes stops on the way. United has the advantage that has fixed prices, and the disadvantage that they are quite expensive.

The routes that you can do with other airlines are:

• Manila => Guam (Philipine Airlines)
• Taipei => Guam (China Airlines)
• Taipei => Palau (China Airlines)

Unfortunately, it seems to be quite expensive to make a stopover in Palau (and thus in Yap, which is connected only with Palau and Guam): it's a pity because both Palau and Yap are quite interesting. A variant that I heard of is flying to Palau from Japan, and then following to Guam, directly or through Yap: I met in Manila a group of Mexican travellers who were going to Palau with a stopover in Tokio, because this was cheaper than flying directly from Manila.

Be aware that you are not able to stop in Kwajalein (Marshall) because there is a super secret U.S. military base. You need to be a relative of a military, or to ask for a special permission that they won't give you.

Advantages of the Micronesian route:

• in comparison of the amount of places you'll visit, it's the cheapest way to reach Kiribati. I did it starting from Manila and stopping in Guam, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae, Majuro, then for the way back I flew to Fiji and then to Hong Kong: all these flights (8 flights, starting in Manila and finishing in Hong Kong) costed in total 2041 EUR; if you want to visit separately all those countries in different trips you'll end paying at least three times that price.
• you'll visit many remote and interesting places, which are only reachable by flight from Guam or Majuro; moreover, all those places are culturally related to Kiribati, you'll make yourself a culture of Micronesia and you'll be "spiritually" ready to visit legendary Kiribati

Disadvantages of the Micronesian route:

• you need some free time, I would say no less than three weeks to be added to the time you spend in Kiribati, otherwise it would be meaningless.

-3- Which accommodation is to be found in Kiribati?

In North Tarawa there are the only touristic resorts of the Gilbert Islands. Actually it would be interesting to see them, since they don't seem to be populated by more than 4 – 5 tourists at a time, but of course they are expensive.

In South Tarawa (the populated part of the islands, one of the most densely populated and poorest areas in the world: imagine a Gaza Strip in the middle of the ocean) you'll be the very only foreigner. There are two or three motels that are mainly used for people who come there for work (almost never westerners), but they don't cost less than 100 AUD a night; among them there is Mary's Motel, the only accommodation in the capital Bairiki.

Finally, the only option for the cheap traveller is an unnamed homestay with only two rooms, situated in Tebunia, which is a part of the village of Tiborio (cool, both these words cannot be found on Google). It costs 40 AUD a night, including breakfast (milk powder and weetabix). To find it, ask to one of the minivans (the only way of transportation in South Tarawa) to drop you off in Tebunia, and when you arrive ask some of the locals for “the motel”.

On the internet there are many out-of-date sites with a list of accommodations in Tarawa. The motel in Tebunia is sometimes referred to as “Sweet Coconut Motel”.

Then, if you can accept to live without western comforts, you are free to ask hospitality to any local family, everybody is really nice, people will even stop you to offer accommodation. Of course don't be offensive, if somebody invites you don't offer money but rather offer food, or other goods, as if a friend was inviting you in Europe. Be aware that most of locals don't live in houses but in huts, sometimes without walls, and they sleep on hard and thin mattresses made of coconut fibre on the floor.

Finally, if you have a tend, you can try going in the park at the entrance of the islet of Betio and putting your tend there. I believe that nobody will ever notice you, but if you want to be sure go and ask permission to the police office in Bairiki.

In the outer islands, including Banaba, it's very easy: in every island there is a council which is used as general accommodation for any traveller (mostly government functionaries). It costs in average 40 AUD a night including all meals. You don't have to book in advance, I am sure you'll always find a place, and in any case you can always ask for hospitality somewhere. Be aware that in the outer islands all the normal houses are without walls.

-4- Life in Kiribati

In Tarawa, you can eat really cheap if you buy fish and rice and cook it in the motel in Tebunia (you have a kitchen available). Fish is sold on the roads by the women, it's abundant and delicious, and the price is 1.20 AUD for kilo regardless of the kind of fish. This is almost only reef fish, which, unlike in most of the other countries of the Pacific, is perfectly safe to eat (for instance, in Tahiti the water is really polluted).

In Bairiki there is a nice and cheap restaurant, in front of the sport field: almost the whole menu is composed of albacore tuna and rice, the price is around 7 AUD for meal. Finally, sometimes locals cook chicken or fish on the grill and sell them in plastic box for 1-2 AUD the portion.

Transportation: the only transportation are minivans. They don't have timetables. They are run by private people who decide randomly the start and the end of the trip. Often they are full and for this reason they won't stop to pick you up. Sometimes the engine breaks and you have to find another one. But in spite of all these problems they are ok. The only uncomfortable situation is when you have to reach the airport because you might not find any minivan picking you up for long time, and some of them don't stop if you have a big luggage, because there is no space. So, if you have an important fixed appointment, get the minivan with a safe advance. The price of a ride ranges from 90 cents to 1.5 AUD.

There are no taxis in the Gilbert Islands.

There is only one place with public internet in the whole Gilbert group, in Bairiki, open 7 days a week (but be careful about the opening hours, it might close very early). You can find internet also in the expensive motels if you are a customer (not in the one in Tebunia).

In the outer islands, you don't have to worry about anything, the locals will take care of you; if you have any request, like transportation or going fishing, ask them.

There is internet available in the school in Abemama, if you really need it you can ask them to use it. But generally, don't count on the possibility to use internet in the outer islands, some of them don't even have land telephones.

Your telephone won't work in Kiribati. You can ask for a local plan, I guess, but be aware that it's going to be REALLY expensive to call or be called from abroad (the fare of Skype, for instance is 1.75 EUR per minute to call Kiribati! And we are talking about Skype!).

-5- How to go to the outer islands – by plane

The local transportation is carried out by Air Kiribati. There are regular flights to every island in the Gilbert group except for Banaba, price around 50 AUD one way three times a week for the near islands (until Kuria and Aranuka), and price around 100 - 150 AUD one way once a week for the further ones (for instance, Nonouti, Nikunau, Beru).

It's not possible to make reservations online, of course. You have to go to the Air Kiribati office in Bairiki, which is open Monday to Saturday at random times (you have to understand that in Kiribati people don't have our same concept of time). Just go in the morning to Bairiki and check the office from time to time, at some point you'll find it open.

The ladies in the office will show you the timetable, and you can buy the ticket paying in cash. Be aware that:
- you need to consider at least three days between your arrival in Tarawa and the date of your flight to the outer islands, because flights are used by the locals and you'll never find a place without a reservation.
- before giving up on a fully-booked flight, ask twice; it happened to me that a flight was fully booked, then I asked “are you sure you don't find a place for me?”, and the lady said “oh, ok, since you ask it nicely I'll find it”
- ask explicitly to have the ticket, sometimes the ladies just write your name on a book without giving you anything
- as for the return ticket from outer islands to Tarawa, you have to understand that on those flights the tickets that you hold are not going to reserve you a place! A return ticket from an outer island, whatever time and date is written on it, means “you have right to a place on a return flight AT SOME POINT”: when you are in the outer island, be insisting, go back to the airport and insist that unfortunately you are bound to timetables and you have to come back on that specific date; of course when you do this the officer will help you and you'll get on that flight (as I said, people are very nice), but if you don't do anything and just go to the airport on the date written on your ticket, you seriously risk to be delayed of days.
- on any written timetable, there is a fixed delay of at least an hour.
- if you are looking for a flight to a specific island and they are fully booked, keep going to the office in Bairiki, because in busy periods they organize non scheduled flights in the same day.

-6- How to go to the outer islands – by boat

First of all, good luck.

It's very simple, go to Betio (the harbour of Tarawa, after Bairiki), ready with your backpack, around lunch time, and hang around until night talking to any captain of a boat. If you do this every day for around a week, at some point 100% you'll be embarked to a local boat to some random outer island (including, if you are very lucky, Banaba, and even the Phoenix and Line islands).

Important! Don't go without your backpack, because you can never be sure that a boat is going to leave or not. If you go without your luggage, it may happen that a captain tells you that he is leaving soon, you take all the effort to come back to the motel and back to Betio (which may take up to 2 hours), and then you find out that the boat is not leaving anymore.

This said, travelling for a long distance on a local double canoe is a lifetime experience. I was lucky enough to reach the remote Banaba this way.

Finally, I am proud to be the first in the web to mention a new public ferry service between Tuvalu and Kiribati. It's far from being a regular one, but if you are in Betio try asking around, if by chance you find out that the Tuvaluan boat is there I strongly advice you to take it: travelling between Kiribati and Tuvalu by public ferry is something that nobody ever does.

Cheers.very interesting report on a place I knew almost nothing about.....

Thanks for the great report - a very enjoyable read! I'm glad to see that I am in the 1% group but I doubt that I'll get to visit there.

Hmm... so where do those of us who have both heard about it and been there fit then? ;-)

I am proud to be the first in the web to mention a new public ferry service between Tuvalu and Kiribati.

Sorry to have to reduce your pride a bit, but that ship had been running and described in guidebooks and occasionally online for many years.
I mentioned it on this forum myself years ago:
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forums/australasia-pacific-pacific-islands-papua-new-guinea/tuvalu/a-few-notes-on-tuvalu

Also, Kiribati has actually had an amazingly detailed and useful tourism website for years:
http://www.kiribatitourism.gov.ki/

Margaret and I spent 5 or 6 days in Tarawa South over Easter 2011.
We had little choice re the date and imagined that it might be very quiet over that period.
As it turned out, there are many traditional community dancing and singing competitions during Easter and we had a most wonderful time at some of those.
We stayed at Marys.

Cheers,
Peter

Hmm... so where do those of us who have both heard about it and been there fit then? ;-)

I have never met, outside Kiribati, any non-pacific-islander who has been in Kiribati. And except for a handful of people who write in travel forums, I haven't even heard of anyone who has been there.

Wow, Laszlo, you have been in Tuvalu! I saw your pictures, very interesting! I mentioned the Tuvaluan boat because a friend of mine who works for the transportation ministry in Kiribati said that Chinese government (or Taiwanese, I don't remember) donated recently a new ferry to Tuvalu, and they are using it to connect to Tarawa. I looked on the web for more information, but unfortunately I didn't find your post.

And, I digged into Kiribati's website so much before my trip but it wasn't of any help neither for finding cheap accommodation in Tarawa, nor for making a reservation of flights. Nobody ever answered to my emails, I could only speak once by phone to a lady that kept repeating "mauri", and I had to pay Skype 5 EUR for the call :-)

Their website covers the outer islands in amazing detail and a personal visit to their office in Tarawa lead me to the cheapest ($25) accommodation in town, located super-centrally near the entrance to the port. Of course making flight reservations is none of their business, they are a tourist office, not a travel agency!

The boat I wrote of connecting Kiribati with Tuvalu and Fiji was Kiribati-owned.
If Tuvalu now has one running to Kiribati as well, that makes two.

Kiribati is NOT a difficult country to visit at all. Quite easy actually. There are hotels, guesthouses, a helpful tourist office running a website and a constant, small stream of tourists.
Not everybody going there puts such a pretentious post about having been there on the TT though.

@mvc68

• hotels and guesthouses start from 100 AUD a night
• in months of researches before my trip (filling in contact forms, trying hopeless calls to agencies through skype, etc) I couldn't find any updated information at all; the only updated sites I found were to book resorts in North Tarawa.
• I didn't see any of the "small, constant stream of tourists" in South Tarawa, nor in Banaba, nor in the harbour of Betio looking for boat-hitchhiking

My post doesn't want to be pretentious, it's just a collection of information that I would have REALLY liked to find on the web before my trip. If you say it's pretentious because of the introduction, I wrote it because I got a bit pissed off by so many people in the world who don't want to know about Kiribati.

Unless there has been a huge rise in prices since my visit, hotels and guesthouses in Kiribati start from $30, not $100/night.
Given that Kiribati is not exactly a place seeing rapid and drastic changes (much of the info from a decade or two earlier was still valid when I visited), I am pretty sure that there has been no such enormous rise in rates.

Sorry Laszlo, I wasn't clear: I mean that hotels and guest houses that you can find on the internet start from 100 AUD a night.

The one I found was 40 AUD a night, but when I reached Tarawa I actually didn't hope that I would find it: I thought that I would have to ask for hospitality around (in many islands, if you don't find any information about reasonably priced accommodation, it means that there is none: think for instance about Chuuk, or Mangareva). This is exactly why I wrote the post, because if I had known about that motel my preparation for Tarawa would have been a bit less stressful.

Of course this applies only to Tarawa, as far as I know in all the outer island you have accommodation and food for a fixed price of 40 AUD

Anyone who is even slightly conversant with the islands of the Pacific Ocean would know of the existence of The Republic of Kirabati which encompasses the Gilbert, Pheonix and Line islands. It's unfortunate that adrdilauro chose to post fictitious 'statistics' at the commencement of this thread to make a point about the region. Much of his information is very useful but there was no need to depict it as some unknown destination known only to a handful of intrepid travellers.
My copy of Lonely Planets "South Pacific & Micronesia" (October 2006 edition) guidebook has 24 pages of excellent information on Kirabati. I hope to get there myself in the near future.

This is a question for those who have worked/lived (a few weeks) on Tarawa.

Do's and Do Not's.

To start, I know there is a huge sanitation issue on the atoll, given that 80-90% of the population has no running water...

Some pics of our short stay.
http://s246.photobucket.com/user/Peter_n_Margaret/slideshow/11%20Kiribati

Cheers,
Peter

Thanks for sharing, Peter.

Did you have a problem with the local (cooked) food, i.e., stomach issues?
And, was the ocean condition much better to the north, that is, is it swimmable? Corals?

We walked north to "broken bridge" for a swim where the sea is much cleaner (don't swim at Tarawa). There was a little coral there.
No stomach issues (and I am quite sensitive, but try all foods).

Cheers,
Peter

Cheers, mate!

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Guys, it's been some time now I have been using Thorn Tree, I've had a chance to read again this old post and realised it does sound a bit awkward: I apologise, when I wrote it I was a newbie and I didn't really know what Thorn Tree was about.

I realise I mixed travel information with a lot of personal opinions and impressions that were not relevant; in my eyes Kiribati is like a magic place and being there felt like being on the moon, but that's my personal point of view, stressing it so much in a travel forum sounds out of place.

I grew up in Kiribati. I am English and my father took our family out there in 1967 when it was still known as the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. I was there until 1980, so some 13 years in all. I only know how the islands are now from what I’ve read and heard over the years but I do know how remote, primitive and special the place is. I wish I could go back.

Kiribati is definitely not for tourists expecting western comforts that they see as basic necessities. Those don’t exist in Kiribati. I know many expats who left after a short stay as their families really couldn’t handle living so basically.

If anyone would like to ask me anything as they are considering going, then feel free.

Wow, @dianasharp428049 , you must have had an interesting childhood - the kind many of us used to dream about as kids!
My impression is that very little has changed in Kiribati, especially in the outer islands, in the past decades. I found much of the info from a 20 years old guidebook still pretty accurate.

Hi Lazlo.
Yes I had an amazing childhood and you are right in that little has changed. Sadly a lot of the changes have not been for the better there it seems but fundamentally it is much as it has always been in many ways. The local people are a delight and their inherent nature is to laugh and smile.

Clothing is a easy one. Apart from my Rurubao School uniform, I wore summer tops, flip flops and a lavalava the majority of the time. The lavalava is simply a piece of cloth the locals, both male and females wear. I guess we would call it a sarong. You can get by with very little else although good walking sandals are advisable as the islands are littered with rubbish, broken glass etc and cuts are easily infected on tropical islands. The rule we had was to always walk in the sea (ocean side only) to sterilise any cuts, especially ones from coral. That’s an old fashioned piece of advice though lol.

Out of curiosity: As a child growing up there, did you learn the language fluently?
And if so, still can speak it?
I found that of all the officially English-speaking South Pacific countries, Kiribati had the least English spoken.

Yes I did but I’m afraid it’s all gone through lack of use. I still remember the rude words though. Typical! I only recall random words. It was very simple to pick up as they only use 13 consonants and a lot of their language is derived from foreign settlers who used words they had no meaning for and adapted.

For example Kamea means dog. It’s derived from the phrase “come here” which is clearly what they heard foreigners say to their pet dogs.

I didn’t need to use it much. Rurubao School had New Zealand teachers at the time and taught only in English so my local classmates all spoke English. I still have an old school report from the head, Bill Twiss.

Packs of dogs roamed the islands as a result of dogs left behind by departing expatriots. I believe the problem still exists. Local police would cull them occasionally. The locals were fascinated with our pedigree Yorkshire terrier as he was so tiny. Unfortunately he mistook their curiosity and catcalling as aggression and was not keen. He bit the President one day when he visited our house.

Chickens, pigs and dogs were and still apparently are the norm to see running around. It never caused me any problem. In fact we would join the locals in laughing at our dog’s attempts to scare off the poor soul who was desparately trying to avoid being bitten as he crept through our garden to access our toddy tree.

To get back to your question....only some of the local children attended the primary school. Why that was I don’t know but English was not spoken much outside school so only the minority sent their kids to Rurubao. However the Kiribati people are so approachable and providing you can set aside your western attitudes and just go with the flow they are more than happy to try and communicate and laugh at the confusing result.

Do you know why it is pronounced"kiribas"?

Yes, ‘ti’ is pronounced as an ‘s’ so Kiribati is pronounced Kiribass. The Otintaai Hotel is therefore pronounced ‘O-sin-tai’ and Nonouti, one of the outer islands is pronounced ‘ Non -ooos’

Their alphabet doesn’t have the letter s.

Strangely while I have forgotten the language, if I see a Gilbertese word written down, I know how to pronounce it usually.

If you want to say Hello then the phrase to use to a single individual is Ko na mauri, not just ‘mauri’ which is what often happens. That’s the shortened version like we shorten Goodbye to just Bye. One is more familiar than the other so unless you know the person, then I suggest using Ko na mauri.

Thanks for the explanation.

I hope to make it there one day.Apparently its one of the 10 least touristed countries in the world....

Unsurprisingly so as it is so remote and extremely primitive. I would say it is worth it as it is an experience you would never forget. So if you can, please do. It’s a world away from anything we know in the western world and will stay with you for life. In a good way :)

If you are interested in Kiribati a very good read are the two books by Arthur Grimble, "A pattern of islands", and "Migrations, myth and magic from the Gilbert Islands" (this one edited by his daughter based on Grimble's notes of years living in Kiribati).

Besides Robert Louis Stevenson's book of course.

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