| alexandre1718:44 UTC25 Aug 2009 | Hello everyone,
we have just spent a week or so in Tonga. Here is our trip review. Hopefully, it will help some of you. If you have more questions, feel free to ask with a reply.
Aug 5th: We arrived in Tongatapu at night and went straight to Toni's Guesthouse. Cost: 40 Ton It was clean.
Aug 6th: We flew early morning to Vava'u. We stayed at Portwine Guesthouse. Lucia, the owner, and her son are vey welcoming and very nice. It was lovely to stay there. Negative was only that it's expensive for a double room (80 ton) and if you get the small room, it is very tiny. Ask for the bigger one if possible, they are all the same price.
During this day, we climbed Mount Talau(nice view, but not a highlight) and we visit the small market, the church etc...
Aug 7th: We went sea kayaking. We booked with Portwine, ou guesthouse. It was only 80 Ton per person, lunch include. We had a private tour, my wife and I with 2 guides. We kayaked to Mariner's Cave mwich is nice. We had nive views and we stopped for some snorkelling. Only down side, 7 hours of kayak is too much. Just ask for less if you don't feel kayaking for 7 hours, as we didn't it was going to be that long.
Aug 8th: We went to dive with whales with Dive Vava'u. Very good company, Paul was very nice to us, I highly recommend them for their combo (half whale watching- and one tank diving) We were lucky enough to get a kiss from a baby whale. In the water with humpback whales, it's a life experience everyone should live.
As for the diving, awsome visibiity and corals, not too much fishes tough.
Aug 9th: Again, we went on a whale watching trip with Dive Vava'u. We got lucky again and had the chance to follow a couple who were flirting. We saw breaches, flukes and fins all over the water, etc.. Then, we got in the water with them. Phenomenal. Those huge animals 1 or 2 meters away from us, wow. In the water, they turned around to show us their white belly. AWSOME.
Aug 10th: We went deep sea fishing with Target one. The boat was ok and Hank, the guide, was really nice and was trying everything for us to catch something nice. Unfortunatelly, we only caught a 20 pounds Mahi-Mahi. Tough, it was really good to eat directly on the boat, and for Dinner, and for lunch the next day...
Aug 11th: We decided to leave Tonga since we have done everything we wanted to do, and specially because the weather was not as good as we expected. During we were there, weather was more around the 20celcius with wind and partial rain. Also, they were announcing worst weather for the next week. So we changed our flight and left for tongatapu the same day. We slept again at Toni's Guesthouse. We had a kava night with Toni, wich was a great experience.
Aug 12th: We made the Toni's tour of Tongatapu since we were leaving at night only. Toni's a weird guy, not really my type, it doesn't seem like he likes people or his job, but overall, we saw nice stuff during the tour, and it was a lot better than doing nothing, so I recommend it anyway. Or rent a car.
Finally, we loved our trip to Tonga but we wouldn't have stayed longer. Vava'u doesn't have nice beaches, it's mostly brown sand with corals and rocks and really few spot to swim from the beach. They say Hapa'i has nice beach, but since the weather was cold, windy and rainy, even with a nice beach, we wouldn't have enjoy it. So, we left for Hawaii, where the weather was perfect.
Our favorite restaurant in Vava'u, the aquarium cafe, also, if you eat there, they give you free internet.
Lots of people here said that the people were not friendly. Well, from our experience, people were really friendly with us and we had a good time talking to local people. The negative point with the people tough, is that it's hard to find a deep culture. They dress like us, except for the mormons when they go to church, and Vava'u is really own by foreigners.
We had a good time overall.
Enjoy your trip to Tonga
Alex and Kathy
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| harry_mudd01:08 UTC26 Aug 2009 | great report
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| pago14:07 UTC26 Aug 2009 | Very sad to read that foreigners (probably whites or orientals) own Vava'u!
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| harrychorpita20:16 UTC26 Aug 2009 | "Vava'u is really own by foreigners...."
Foreigners run much of the tourism business on Vava'u but if you spent all your time being a tourist you probably didn't meet many native Tongans, find out how long they/their families had occupied/still occupy and own land on Vava'u.
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| harry_mudd03:37 UTC10 Sep 2009 | #3 has an excellent point that people should listen to.
Admittedly I "lived" in Tonga rather than visited, but I enjoy that sort of travel. There is more to a place than just the "blowhole" or the "bridge" or the "beach" or whatever tourist "attraction".
It was the same when I lived in China. I got to see a very different China from that portrayed in the press, and purported by itinerant travellers.
On Tongatapu as well, #3, the foreigners run things, but the locals are such a warm friendly bunch.
I think one short changes oneself, when only tourists things are done.
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