February/March 2016

Hi there,

my girlfriend and I would love to visit PNG 10th of February 2016 until 10th of March 2016.
We are currently on a World Trip and it is kind of hard to get valuable good information as Internet is very slow. Therefore, I hope some of you guys could give us some recommendations:

We would like to be in PNG for one month entering PNG from Australia and most likely go back to Australia or if possible leave directly to East Timor. Here are the following questions and I hope you could give us some feedback and first ideas and information. This would be highly apprecaited!

1) PNG seems to be quite expensive refering to first research (which might and hopefully is wrong). We were thinking of doing some voluntary work for one to two weeks so we can stay in PNG longer and experience some first sight life

2) if PNG is not too expensive we would love to see a lot, still travelling on a budget. Could you recommend a good one-month-round-trip?

3) Are there alternative good tracks for Kokoda treck. We love hiking and are hiking most of the times in South America so we are used to travel with heavy loads for up to 10 days but PNG might be a lot harder as it is hot and humid. Any suggestions here?

4) Safety: you here/read a lot of reasons not to go to PNG. Is it that unsafe or with common sense doable without worrying too much

5) thank you! thank you! thank you!

any advise is highly recommended as most of the times internet is almost non existent or really slow.

Best wishes,

Stephan

1 yes it is expensive - sometimes laughably so if you are coming from indonesia - it can be done on a budget but you need a lot of time and to be flexible

2 i suggest you read lots of posts here and on the tripadvisor forum and see what really interests you - nature, people, mountains, forests, culture, beaches, diving - my post 'a month in PNG' is a good place to start

3 maybe around mt wilhelm - it is cooler in the highlands

4 take the usual precautions - take advice form locals - no reason not to visit

to get to east timor from PNG you really need to go back to oz - only flight to indo is weekly to bali

have a great trip !

Hi Majordom,

thanks a lot!
We will use the Christmas Days to do the necessary research and we will start with reading your post!

Merry Christmas!

Stephan

Hi!

Quick answers:

1) It is expensive. It has been our most expensive trip… Except being able to meet easily people, you cannot avoid it. The hotels are grossly expensive and you cannot avoid taking the plane to visit more than the capital (which doesn’t really worth staying there for more than 2 days…)

2) We went to Port Moresby (2-3 days), Rabaul (5 days) and Sepik River (5-8 days). Rabaul would probably be one of the places you can live without ruined yourself. There is a “cheap” hotel in Rabaul (“cheap” in PNG means below 100$US…) and there are things to do for several days. Sepik River is gorgeous but so expensive.

3) I don’t know.

4) Join the club! We had read so many things about safety in PNG and everyone told us not to go. I do not want to say that you shouldn’t care about safety, but in 3 weeks, we haven’t seen anything noticeable. We were a bit overcautious after all we have read (we were not going out after dawn), but honestly, I don’t think safety should be a reason not to go in PNG. We often took the public transportation by ourselves. I think Papuans are making a case of safety after what they have experienced in the ’90s. Lots of Papuan think their country is unsafe because they have pickpockets... Be cautious as you would be everywhere else in the world.

Have a wonderful trip!

Vincent

Hi, my name is Cass. I am a Papua New Guinean and I would say that yes, travelling in the country is expensive but there are budget accomodations available through out the country. I would recommend church run facilities such as The Lutheran Guest House. There are other options such as Village homestays. There is a website called villagehuts.com that offers information on this.

For a good round trip, I would recommend Kokopo Town located on the island of New Britain, it's located north east from the Capital (Port Moresby) and its a good 2 hours flight on the local airline Air Nuigini. From there, you could visit Madang, then travel up to Goroka in the Highlands and end your trip at Port Moresby.

In terms of safety wise, I would say that travelling to other rural locations within the country is not really safe as there are pick pockets and drug addicts on the streets. I strongly recommend taking safety measures such as using a local guide when walking around.

You mentioned that both of you are interested in doing voluntary work, you didnt specify what type but I assume to do with charity? I would recommend you contact the local churches such as Catholic church as they do run orphanages for the street kids so Im sure that would be quite fulfilling. You can contact such organisations using Papua New Guinea's telephone directory.

You mentioned plans to walk the Kokoda track? I would suggest you contact The Kokoda Tracking Authority, their address is Level 2, Brian Bell Building, located in the suburb of Boroko in Port Moresby. The phone number is 675 323 6165 or you can find them on facebook.

Good luck

Hi Cass!
Thanks so much for getting back to us!
Plans are getting more and more concrete, although of course reading the warnings on the websites of the foreign ministries is still a bit intimidating.

On the German foreign ministry page they mention that the highlands are dangerous due to tribal fights these days and should be avoided. Also Lae and Bougainville are mentioned to be unsafe. Would you agree? Or you think it is fine to visit?

When it comes to beautiful diving spots or simply pristine nature, would you also recommend new Britain or new Hanover or would we be able to see the same on the big island too?

As you said, we were thinking about doing the kokoda trek but actually we changed our mind. We have done soooo much hiking the past 7 months plus it is very expansive due to the need for a guide. When you were mentioning taking a guide...but that was only referring to trekking right? When simply visiting a place and the different villages we don't need a guide do we?

Well you see, we still got lots of questions and are even considering to go to Solomon Islands before so that maybe we can ask people there about PNG and feel more safe. But maybe your feedback will help again to make a final decision. By ten way, the villagehut page does not seem to work when it comes to accommodation search...you maybe know a different source of information?

Thanks again for your help.
Cathy & Stephan

the australian website probably has better and more up to date travel advice

http://smartraveller.gov.au/countries/papua_new_guinea

the diving around kavieng is spectacular but so is around rabaul and there is much more to do around rabaul
on the main island madang and milne bay (alotau) have great diving

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