Lau Lagoon Trip Report

Just arrived back from Lay Lagoon today and wanted to post this while it is still fresh in my head! Sorry this is a bit long and rambling.

Lau Lagoon Trip Report

The Guest Stay

The guest house is owned by Mark Allardise, his wife, mother, and three children (who all live on the island next door with a few other random people). The guest stay is built on one of Lau Lagoon's artificial islands, which are hand made by lumps of coral over many years. The family stay on the island next door which is connected by a footbridge.

As far as informal/community guest houses in the Pacific go, it is basic but very nice. It has two rooms, and a nice verandah overlooking the Lagoon, washing is by bucket outside and the toilet is a long drop over the ocean on the family's island (which is connected by a foot bridge). The important thing is that you know what to expect, this is not a professionally run business, but a family village stay. The accommodation is very basic, washing is by bucket and not very private, there are two single beds in seperate rooms (so no capacity for couples to sleep in the same bed or groups of more than two).

The location is very isolated and it is important to understand the the house is on an island in the middle of the lagoon (e.g. the house is the only thing on the island, it is very small). There is limited ability to actually get off the island (see comments at the end of the report) which means that if you are after an activity filled holiday then this place is probably not for you. Make sure you take a lot of things to amuse yourself, especially when the weather is bad!

Mark and his family are very welcoming and lovely. They will serve you three meals a day, however they are fairly basic (rice, fish, sometimes chicken) and breakfast is usually hard biscuits and tea. Good news is you will not put on weight on this holiday! The family will not eat with you, this is just the custom, they are quite private and dont feel comfortable sharing meals with tourists, so dont be offended! Solomon Islanders, like others in the Pacific, are quite shy at first and take a while to warm up, but it wont be long before you are all best friends!

Getting there (and back!)

Lau Lagoon is located at the northern tip of Malaita Province, East(ish) of Guadalcanal and Honiara. We took the Pelican Express from Honiara to Auki on Friday morning which was a easy 2.5 hour trip ($250 SBD business class, but economy class is just as good as long as you get a seat). From Auki you need to find the North Road truck (not hard, just ask). You need to catch this truck to the end of the road, which is about 5 hours (on a good day, as we were to find out), the road is terrible and filled with potholes. Generally if there are 2 or less of you they will let you sit in the front with the driver which is marginally more comfortable. Truck costs $80SBD. When the truck reaches the end of the road it will turn around and go back, you get out and there will usually be someone waiting with an outboard (small boat) who will take you to the guest stay on Lismore island, its about a 30 min trip and costs about $80SBD for the gas.

Getting back is slightly more difficult, be very careful if you are trying to make a flight back out of Honiara and be prepared to be highly flexible with your dates. We had to leave 2 days early because the truck back to Auki doesnt leave every day. We also couldnt get the outboard back from the guesthouse so we had to paddle the dugout canoe which was a lot of fun (3 people paddling, one person bailing, one person looking out for shallow spots and one person holding the sail made from a sarong tied to two poles!). That is where the fun ended for the trip back! The truck was 2 hours late (no suprise there) and didnt leave until 6pm. Then a busted tired shortly after took another two hours to fix....9 hours later at 1am in the morning we arrived in Auki (with no accommodation, but luckily the people at Auki lodge woke up for us). Welcome to the Solomon Islands! Similarly, the express boat only returns to Honiara 2-3 times a week, so we got the slow boat, which actually took 12 hours because of a broken engine (no seats but got a space on the floor with another 10 people). I would really avoid taking the slow boat unless you absolutely have to as it is very overcrowded with limited seating, toilets not worth using and lots of cockroaches!

Things to Do

This is one of the biggest issues with village stays in the Solomon Islands. The 'tourist industry' is still very new there, and the people still dont really understand what foreigners want from their holiday. We stayed in the island for 4 days/3 nights and only left the island twice, which was at our insistence!

Once we went to a church service on Solufou (the big island) which was great and we were lucky to catch a special gathering of all the local mothers unions in the area. Mark's sister lives directly opposite the church and has a nice house (with a western toilet!) and the locals on Sulufou are absolutely lovely and welcoming of tourists. There is also a small store on Sulufou where you can stock up on some things. Sulufou is about a 45min/1 hour paddle from the guest house in a dugout canoe depending on the tide/wind but you can get a outboard on the way back if you are willing to pay (we did!).

Another time we went to the mainland (about 20/30mins in a canoe) to visit the school and take a walk up the hill to take some photos of the lagoon, this was also a good activity.

Overall Impressions

There were good and bad parts of our experience in Lau Lagoon, and I wouldnt necessarily recommend this village stay to everyone, but I would recommend it to the right sort of person. Here is my feedback and criticisms, some of which is beyond the control of the hosts and some of which can be improved on. I also gave this feedback directly to Mark who is very keen on how he can improve the gueststay.

Firstly there is really only enough to do on the island for 2-3 days, unless you enjoy total isolation and are happy amusing yourself for hours on end! For 2-3 days the village stay is a long way to go, but someone who believes that the journey is part of the experience might enjoy this. Our experience was some fantastic moments, interspersed with many hours of boredom and sitting around looking at the water. Bring some books, puzzles etc to avoid cabin fever! You need to be flexible planning your trip and be prepared the leave whenever there is a truck going back, remember, getting there is easier than getting back!

There is little to improve on the actual accommodation, which is very good for an informal gueststay. They can not build a toilet on the same island as the guesthouse because obviously you only want people doing number 2's in one place so you need to walk over the footbridge to the family's island. The could benefit from building a more private place for washing, but there is limited space so this might not be possible. Overall though, the accommodation was very impressive given the isolated location.

The biggest improvement needs to be in how Mark organises the trips. He needs to get a bit more professional about this if he is to attract more mainstream tourists. Negotiating money is a awkward issue for Mark and there is really no set price as far we knew! We paid about $200SBD each per night PLUS we bought some food which costs $250SBD. Remember you have to factor in your transport costs, and, mostly importantly transport costs of your guides who will come from the Lagoon to meet you in Honiara or Auki.

Our advice to Mark was that he needs to be costing out the trips and asking people to pay at least half of the total trip cost up front when he meets them, this will allow him to buy supplies in Honiara or Auki which is much cheaper (he didnt do this with us, probably because he didnt feel comfortable asking). It would also be better if Mark could cost out the transport for the guests and the guides etc. and ask YOU for that money and then pay for the transport, just because it is far easier. In our trip we had to pay boat/truck fares for Mark, his daughter and one other guide (which was very expensive) and then just one guide on the way back. Having someone meet you can be useful but they need to be a bit clearer on exactly how many people you are going to be paying for!

Finally Mark needs to learn that tourists want to experience the culture of the area, which means getting off the island, visiting other areas, going for walks, fishing etc etc etc. Mark has lived on the tiny island most of his life so he might not fully understand that tourists are not used to sitting around all day doing nothing! If he gets better about organising activities for his guests he could probably charge people a bit more.

Having said all this, the guest stay is relatively new and hopefully Mark will make these changes over time. They might sound a bit demanding but if the family want to use tourism as a reliable source of income they need to learn more about being in this business.

Overall, a very awesome holiday with some great experiences and a very lovely family! If you are prepared to get out into a very remote part of the islands and you are willing to go with little/no expectations then you will have a great time!

Feel free to PM me for more information.

Thanks for the report, Kiri. I have sent you a PM

thanks much for this little story.We did a similar trip to central eastern Malaita a month or so go (not to the Lau Lagoon like you) and had some very similar experiences.Definately a worthwhile,enjoyable trip,straight through the middle of the island on the road to Atori and then a trip to an outer island,for the weekend.

This report is helpful to the family who are trying to make their place welcoming to visitors. They certainly appreciate the constructive advice, and it will be acted on. However, there are cultural and financial realities, which are partof the experience of staying in a village.
There are, of course easier transport options (eg hiring your own vehicle) but they come at a heflty price.

i should have added, for others considering a village stay, that a week turn-around between flights in and out of the country, is very tight for travelling any distance in Solomon Islands. I usually suggest allowing at least 2 weeks, to allow for transport problems.