Alotau Tour Operators

My wife and I will be paying a fleeting visit to Milne Bay (one day in Alotau in a cruise ship) in June and are anxious to maximise the experience. Are there any individuals or companies offering tours in this area that you could recommend? If so I would greatly appreciate contact information

Our interest is largely in people, lifestyle and landscape rather that in recreational activities such as diving or swimming..

some threads here on this but also more on the tripadvisor forum regarding day tours from cruises and the merits
of taking the organised tour vs going it alone - the cruisecritic website also has useful stuff i am told

have a great trip !

FWIW here's how it went.

We were looking for something a little more personal than the packages offered by the shipping company and our preference was to deal with Papua New Guinean people as far as possible. We therefore poured over Trip Advisor and Lonely Planet to find details of a suitable local service provider and found that Napatana Lodge was very highly recommended.

They were easy to contact, replied promptly to emails, offered to meet us at the wharf, take us on a tour of the immediate area, take us to a local village and provide a buffet lunch of local foods.

The service that we received exceeded all expectations. Before setting out we had coffee in the pleasant upstairs dining area, Tina, an employee of the lodge, took us to her village where we met members of her family who made us feel most welcome and who explained many details of their lifestyle as they walked us through gardens, around a WWII landing strip and down to the bay, where canoes were drawn up along the shore. Our tour of the surrounding area was comprehensive - we even met the local member of parliament.

Back at the Lodge we dined well on local produce in very pleasant surroundings before being driven back to our ship.

Staff at Napatana went out of their way to make us feel welcome and we had a day that was both pleasant and informative.

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