briefly live in vanuatu, fiji or samoa?

Hi All,

A few of us students are working on medical exchange in the Pacific Islands and we can choose either of Samoa, Fiji and Vanuatu.

Could someone please help us on such crucial matters as:

English Fluency
Cost of living (accomodation, food and beer)
Backpacking around travel costs
Nightlife (tourists or western spots)

Does anyone have any stories or know of such website blogs etc?

Thanks for your help

M D & J

I would definitely choose Vanuatu, but if low costs and lively nightlife are a priority, Fiji must be the best bet for you.

Not Samoa.

thans for the input guys, are you able to say why you might mae those recommendations?

I thought my reason was pretty clear: Fiji is cheap and has the livliest nightlife scene.
English is also widely spoken, and it has lots of islands to backpack around - as opposed to only 3-4 in Samoa.
Vanuatu is lovely, but tourism is low-key there (meaning less nightlife), it's more expensive, and about a third of the population speaks French, not English, as their "foreign" language.

Hey,

I have never been to Vanuatu so can't comment on that.

We spent a month in Samoa and a month in Fiji earlier this year.

We absolutely loved Samoa. We met quite a few medical students who were out there last summer and they also loved it - it is quite a small place so you get to know people quickly even in the capital (most of them were staying at the outrigger hotel).

Reasons we loved Samoa:
-The people were REALLY friendly
-Crime is pretty much non-existent
-Although there may not be the same quanitity of nightlife, the nights out we had there were awesome (bars filled with locals and tourists...and a mix of Samoan and Western music) and were a lot cheaper.
-It is really cheap in all aspects when compared to Fiji
-The place was really clean and the beaches you were likely to come across were pristine and had no-one on them.

The only drawbacks to Samoa were the dogs, but we only ever got barked at when we walked too close to certain houses! They soon left us alone when we crossed the street.

We enjoyed Fiji, but the problem was that tourism is so widely spread, so even 'homestays' have more of a touristy edge. People didn't seem as genuine over there because they had so much interaction with tourists. We had to go out of our way to find remote places not inhabited hundreds of tourists.

We found there was a better transport infrastructure in Fiji, but that it was also more expensive to get around. Fiji was certainly more than Samoa for accomodation (almost double in some instances) and food.

We didn't speak a word of Samoan and we got by fine. Most people speak English there as a result of contact with New Zealand (most have spent time living in NZ). If you learn a few words of Samoan it goes a long way!

This is just my opinion, but I hope it helps!

Jenni

Two years ago it might have helped them! ;-)