Guide and acommodation in PNG

Hello everyone,
I am planning a trip to PNG for 10 days at the end of november. I am traveling solo on a low Budget. I have heard that the best way is to find guesthouses in each destination and hire a local guide to show you around. I am looking to visit:
Sepik River
Tari
Simbai highlands
Do any of you have any recommentions and posible share some contacts that I could get in touch with?

Thanks a lot,
Andrey

In Tari, you can stay at the Womens Guesthouse opposite of the airport (they also take male travellers). In front of it is a school office. Last year I met a teacher there Mr Mabiria Timba (phone 7196 4450 and 7007 4515) who was willing to show me surrounding villages. Note he is not a professional guide by any means, so be sure to discuss with him upfront what you want & how much it may cost.

In Simbai, pretty much the only guesthouse is run by Dickson (7318 9202), but easier to contact is Esron (7135 7801 or kalamguesthouse.simbai@gmail.com). They are experienced in guiding treks in/around/out of Simbai, at reasonable cost.

For Sepik, others will be able to give a better answer

Two things are important however
- 10 days is way too little time for covering those three destinations. You need to have a few days buffer to account for travel delays. If you use a lot of domestic flights (serious $$$) you may be able to cover two of these in 10 days.
- If you limit yourself to one destination, you can travel "PNG low budget" which means ~300 USD for flights from Port Moresby and back plus ~60 USD a day for food, guide, transport and accommodation. Some people do it for less but they have much more time

Anyway all three destinations you list are very much worth it, so if possible extend your time & budget.

Hope this helps

10 days is too short a time for your planned trip

the only way to visit the sepik on a tight budget on your own is to have lots of time and a flexible schedule

the only way around the sepik is by motorised canoe - to hire one and crew and fuel is hundreds of dollars per day
otherwise you are dependent on other people and they have their own schedule

you would need to get to maprik market and engage with a group and return to their village with them

see various posts here by me and others and the tripadvisor forum

also check the security situation in tari - it can get pretty sketchy up there

Thank you Mknoke! much appreciated!

Thanks Majordom, your comment is really appreciated!

For the Sepik you could ask around the PMV guys in Wewak; they usually know or run the boats to the Sepik so they can hook you up with some other passengers, that way you spend way less money. The problem is you have to wait for passengers for the PMV and boat, so you could end up spending almost 2 whole days just with transport (just to get there). Once in the Sepik, it might be rare to find transport like this to travel around the river so you will need to hire someone.
There is at least 2 budget guesthouses in Angoram that you can ask anyone in the town to point them to you, and though I don't know about the rest of the Sepik I'm sure the guys at the boat can guide you with someone wherever you end up going to.

if you really want to see some of the Sepik in a short time, you should head to Angoram by PMV from Wewak. It is easy to organise a canoe for one or two days, and this really does not cost much, even if it's just you. It gives you a good idea of the river. For a great adventure, you could then head down the Sepik on a betel nut boat - basic, but fantastic. I thought it was one of the highlights of my visit to PNG. Please see my post from July about the practicalities.

This topic has been automatically locked due to inactivity. Email community@lonelyplanet.com if you would like to add to this topic and we'll unlock it for you.