Islands in PNG

I have 3 weeks in PNG. I'm thinking about going to the Solomons, New Britain, and New Ireland, then taking in as much of the main island as possible. Does anyone have thoughts on where and how much time to allocate to each and the boats that travel between the islands? Thank you.

Regular boats are only weekly or so, meaning that you would have to be lucky to manage to get to all 3 islands. I suggest that you stick to East New Britain and New Ireland - these could be covered quite comfortably in 3 weeks.

And then you still want to "do" the mainland, too???

You will really need to fly a few times, and even so it will be a rush!

I agree with Lazlo. Stick to the New Ireland/New Britian area. Remember that just getting someplace will take a couple days.

the boats that go between New Britian and New Ireland go daily except Sunday. They go between Kokopo and one of the villages in the middle of New Ireland. It will take a full day to get from kokopo to kavieng. There is also a bi-weekly ship that goes between Rabaul and Kavieng, but the schedule changes all the time and the ship may not sail for whatever reason for a few weeks/months.

Thank you both.

Firstly, Solomon Islands is a completely different country to PNG. Bougainville, sometimes called North Solomons, is politically part of PNG, but ethnically and geographically closer to the actual country of Solomon Islands. There is one flight a week between Port Moresby and Solomon Islands, but travel by boat between the two would not be recommended with only a 3-week time frame.