Help with planning a trip for October

Hi everyone,

My parents and I (I'll be 17) are planning a trip to one of the South Pacific islands in early October of this year. We're having a lot of difficulty narrowing down our choices!

We live in Sydney and we would prefer an island which is cheaper to fly to. We're not really limiting our choices to that at the moment but I would say we're mostly considering: Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, New Caledonia, Vanuatu.

Price is a fairly important factor. My dad is tempted by those 'holiday packs' where its a predetermined price per person, like $981 for a week in Nadi. I'm not really interested in busy tourist packed resorts and I think (or hope) that alternative accomodation is cheaper.

Here is some of the criteria we're looking for. These are all preferable, not necessary and are roughly in order of preferance.

Beautiful beaches
Great Snorkelling
Quiet, not a busy tourist location
"Untouched" and "unspoilt"
Fairly cheap and easy to get to. We don't want to waste too much time getting their from the main airport.
Beach-front accomodation
Comfortable accomodation (not budget, not big resort)
Surfing
Horse Riding
French Speaking (the least important- only an added bonus)

My parents are mostly looking for a week of total relaxation in a beautiful place. I'd love to get to know a bit about the local culture and maybe watch some traditional entertainment (not resort style though).

Thanks for taking the time to read. I hope I'm not annoying anyone by posting this; I have gone and read a lot of other posts etc. which follow a similar thread to this one and I will continue to read them but I'd just love to hear some specific advice!

Thanks!

Virelai

A week in Nadi would be my idea of Hell in Paradise.
The kind of budget you say you'd be ready to pay for that one (if it is without the flights) will easily get you accommodation in any of these countries.
Otherwise, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa are certainly cheaper than New Caledonia or Vanuatu.

About your other concerns:

Beautiful beaches

You'd find some in any of the countries, but the beaches on the Isle of Pines in New Caledonia and Champaigne Beach on Santo in Vanuatu are the very best I've found.

Great Snorkelling

Vanuatu wins hands down - and it gets better further North, eg in Santo.

Quiet, not a busy tourist location

With the exception of Samoa, all countries have remote outer islands that are quieter and less touristy. If talking of the main gateways on the island you land on, I found Vanuatu's capital the smallest and friendliest.

"Untouched" and "unspoilt"

Overall, Vanuatu certainly gets my vote, though some (hard to reach) outer islands of Fiji or Tonga must be as unspoilt as any.
Of the main islands, New Caledonia's huge Grande Terre is largely unspoilt and very scenic.

Beach-front accomodation

Obviously available in all countries.
The closest good ones to the main airport would be in Vanuatu, where even the (tiny) capital has great island resorts!

Fairly cheap and easy to get to. We don't want to waste too much time getting their from the main airport.

New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoa have their gateway cities located on large islands with plenty of places to go even just by land. As already noted, in Vanuatu you could find nice islands and beaches right in the capital area! New Caledonia's capital also has some fine beaches, but in a busy city setting.

Comfortable accomodation (not budget, not big resort)

Fiji has the greatest range, but you can find someting in all countries.

Surfing

I think Fiji and Samoa.

Horse Riding

New Caledonia is probably your best bet!

French Speaking (the least important- only an added bonus)

French-ruled New Caledonia is the obvious choice, followed by Vanuatu where French is official language alongside English, and is spoken by some 40% of the population.

I'd love to get to know a bit about the local culture and maybe watch some traditional entertainment (not resort style though).

Apart from the shows at resorts, I really think Vanuatu has the most traditional culture.
In both Vanuatu and New Caledonia, Melanesian women wear big, colorful "island-clothes" that you wouldn't see further east.
Traditional-style houses are very common in Samoa and Vanuatu, but could be found in parts of the other 3, too.
Getting to know the real culture means talking to the locals - your preference for a French-speaking place indicates you could do this in any of the 5 countries. I personally found Vanuatu the very friendliest of all 100+ countries I've been to, and as such would pick it as the easiest place to connect with the locals.

Thank you so much for your response! I wasn't expecting something so detailed :-) I'll definitely be considering all those things when we make our decision.