Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

Reliable accommodation websites?

Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Papua New Guinea

Hello,

I'm interested to find reliable accommodation for PNG (Mt Hagen, Goroka, Madang) on a low/mid-range budget to the country's standards. The option on booking.com are limited to one per area and it is mostly a business hotel with prices higher than expected.
Any reccommendations? I have bumped into http://www.villagehuts.com/ but there are no reviews and I'm not sure how reliable the website is.

welcome to PNG land of the unexpected - there are few tourists and thus few places or resources for them

outside moresby the larger cities may have 1 or 2 international standard hotels which have web site, internet booking and take credit cards - after this there are smaller 'hotels' and guesthouses and then after that homestays - most people have bookings made for them by agents or guides and these are not easy to contact directly by phone or email - usually you can just turn up and if they are full (unlikely unless it is festival time when everywhere is full) they will find you somewhere else to stay

lonely planet website and guidebook has a good list of places by city but contact details are scant and often out of date

i have seen villagehuts and also would be interested to hear if anyone has used it successfully

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Hi there
I tried to use villagehuts with no success; no replies.
Besides what you can find in booking.com for example, try phoning ahead as you land in PNG to guesthouses or missions. Most of them will be happy to help you :)

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In Mt Hagen I can strongly recommend Magic Mountain Lodge. It's about a half hour out of Mt Hagen. I have stayed there twice, last time with my family. Pym Memendi is a true professional and he has a great bunch of helpers. It's not the cheapest accommodation, but you will be picked up, have all meals and you will be safe. The rooms are comfortable. You will also have an amazing village experience - including trekking up Mt Hagen itself if you are up to it. The city of Mt Hagen is a mess (although the markets are good fun). You are much better off in a village, where people look after things and they will look after you. In Goroka I can recommend the Lutheran Guest House if you want to save some money. Its basic, but really clean and welcoming. Goroka is much more user friendly than Hagen.

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