Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

Island Hopping

Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea

Hi All,

Has any one found a cost effective way of traveling inter-island through the South Pacific? There are several places that we would love to see but the cost seems prohibitive. We have been to the Cook Islands and had a great time and we want to see more of the region. Any Ideas? We have more time that money. Thanks.

Live Aloha

It's flying, flying & flying...
The way to reduce costs is simply to compare air-fares carefully, including investigating free or cheap stopovers, regional passes, RTW tickets etc, depending on where you want to go.

There very few international ferry connections in the region, though passenger and even cargo ships are a practical way to cut costs travelling WITHIN each country.

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As far as I know, the only 'regular' international ferries between South Pacific nations are:-

Samoa-American Samoa

Samoa-Tokelau

Fiji-Tuvalu

Fiji-Kiribati

Even with these, you'll need a lot of time and luck - to be in the right place at the right time - when a ferry actually departs.

Given that you are cash poor, try offering your services as crew on yacht in the forthcoming dry season...

2

Fiji to Tuvalu and Kiribati connections are actually far from regular (can be once in 3 months!) but there are also monthly connections between Vanuau and NC, and twice-weekly ones between the Solomons and PNG. The latter is semi-illegal though.

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