Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

Cheap islands in Pacific

Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea

Hi everyone,

My boyfriend and I are planning a round-the-world trip of about 8 months. After about 4 months backpacking and being on the road, we are looking for a beautiful island with luxury to relax for about a week. This will be during christmas time. Do you recommend an island somehwere in the Pacific? There are so many like Fiji and French-Polonesia but these are very expensive during christmas and spending 2000 euros in a week is just way over our budget.
Somebody who had a nice not too expensive experience on a nice island? Please tell me! :)

x Tessa

Where will you be around Christmas? Any Pacific island isn't exactly easy to get to, via via with connecting flights and so on. Will it even be worth the cost of getting to an island from where you will be?

For example, if you would be in SE Asia, I'd say stay there and find a less expensive but 'luxury' level place to stay. SE Asia is cheaper than any Pacific island you could get to.

By the way, you look for luxury but not expensive? It will help communication if you give your budget with a number, not words that almost contradict each other. You will have to compromise on either your budget and what you mean by 'luxury'. What about mid-range resorts? etc etc there's a low-budget level for even backpackers in an island group such as Fiji.

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Christmas is very busy in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. I agree with the poster above that South East Asia may be better for you at that time of year.

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Fiji is probably the least expensive of all the Pacific Islands, but probably not over the Christmas period. I also say that SE Asia would be much cheaper.

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I hate the word cheap so much that I needed to create an account, the word you search for and would like to use is "inexpensive". Cheap refers to something of a lower quality.

But to answer your question, anyhow, Palau. But it would be expensive, especially during the holidays. I would avoid anything with direct flights from Japan and S. Korea during Christmas/New Year holidays Dec 20 to Jan 6/7 - Guam, Saipan, Palau, New Caledonia, French Polynesia even PNG, because there will be many tourists originating from those countries and the local operators would offer anything at double prices.

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Cheap refers to something of a lower quality.

Perhaps English isn't your native language. The term "cheap" can mean either inexpensive or of low quality. Check a dictionary/thesaurus.

Context is usually sufficient to disambiguate. In this case it is clear the OP seeks inexpensive, which is what the rest of us replied to.

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I agree that Fiji is by far the cheapest destination in the South Pacific, followed by Tonga, then probably Samoa and the Solomons.
Of course none of them will be as cheap as SE Asia, but they do have much cheaper options than the heavily-promoted luxury resorts.

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You didn't tell us which airline alliance your RTW ticket is with. Star Alliance and OneWorld stop in different countries...

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Saipan is very cheap and relaxing! I live here and enjoy it immensely. Tickets out here are expensive, but once you get here, things are quite cheap. Message me if you have any specific questions, we can help you out! We love showing people around our little island!

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