Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

Travelling Through Micronesia by Boat

Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Micronesia, Federated States of

Hello, does anybody have any experience of, or know if it is possible to travel between the islands of Micronesia and even as far as Phillipines, Indonesia or Papua New Guinea by boat? I'm trying to arrange a sensible itinerary that enables me to visit all these regions but doesn't involve too much backtracking and criss-crossing but so far it seems trickier than I hoped! Continental Micronesia may be my only hope I guess, but any advice appreciated.

The only boat-trips are within individual states, such as from Yap Proper to the outer islands of Yap and back.

Combined with the fact that you will need to show onward tickets to be allowed in in the first place, this really means you are at the mercy of Continental.

1

Am off there soon. Absolutely not possible to get there by boat, but there is apparently a once monthly boat that goes round every inhabited island in Yap. However, going by boat and land from Philippines - Indonesia - Papua New Guinea should be possible if you were willing to mis out Micronesia!

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You'd have to go from the Philippines to Indonesia via Malaysian Borneo though.
Or else be very lucky.

3

There is a boat which goes from Chuuk to Yap Proper, through the outer islands of both states. Probably the same one the EddyV is talking about. I'm sure it runs irregularly- about once a month but if you have any kind of schedule it would be hard. But a wonderful trip I'm sure. Although the ship will be really basic, probably dirty, and overcrowded. And I'll take it in a second when I can get out there again.

4

Just got back from 10 days in Yap, Ulithi and Fais. No boats are currently running at all as they are broken down. It has been several months since the last one, but there is talk of sending one later this month. Anyway, assuming the boats are in full working order (which they almost never are) the current schedule is as follows: once a month to all inhabited Outer Islands of Yap State, and roughly once every 3-6 months it goes on to Chuuk. Anyway, it's so utterly irregular that it's absolutely not even worth considering unless a) you're going to be in Yap for a VERY long time or b) you have advance knwledge through a contact in Yap of when the boat's going to leave and are able to get to Yap in the time between finding out about the boat and the boat actually leaving

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