Less-Touristy South Pacific Islands

Hi,
I am looking for a good, secluded, island in the south pacific to travel to with my family of five in April 2013. We have never been to a Pacific Island, with the exception of Australia. Because of the multitude of options, I have no idea where to start. I would like to be able to get there for a reasonable budget and not stay in a large touristy resort. I would also like an island that does not have many people on it, but does have a forested interior and amazing beaches. Does anyone have any ideas??
Thanks
Jack

Edited by: jacosanchez

Check out The Cook Islands - Rarotonga would work quite well or you could also include Aitutaki or one of the other islands in the group.

Thanks for the idea. I just looked into them and they are very populous, especially the two individual islands you mentioned. We'd prefer something that has one or two local villages and maybe one resort.

In that case the only other place I can suggest would be somewhere like Octopus Resort on Waya Island in Fiji. There is a local village where the resort workers live, the island is forested and there is a lovely beach with great snorkeling. You can check out the reviews of the resort on trip advisor. There may also be other similar islands in Fiji. Good luck with your search.

I am looking for a good, secluded, island in the south pacific to travel to with my family of five in April 2013. We have never been to a Pacific Island, with the exception of Australia. Because of the multitude of options, I have no idea where to start. I would like to be able to get there for a reasonable budget and not stay in a large touristy resort. I would also like an island that does not have many people on it, but does have a forested interior and amazing beaches. Does anyone have any ideas??

jacosanchez... "Good, secluded island in the South Pacific" can mean many things.

My wife and I have been to the Cook Islands six times. On our last trip in 2012 we spent six weeks on the island of Mauke. Mauke has a population of 280 people, all but a few are native Cook Islanders. There are two places to stay. The people are among the friendliest I have ever met. You can walk all the way around Mauke's 10.2-mile coastal road in three hours.

By my standards Mauke is a secluded South Pacific island. I also think that the islands of Atiu, Mangaia, Mitiaro meet that criteria. We have visited all of the Southern Group including Rarotonga and Aitutaki. Raro and Aitutaki are, in my opinion, not secluded.

I have some videos up on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/akwoods and

http://www.youtube.com/user/SouthPacificTravels

I'd be happy to share what I know about the Cook Islands.

Thank you for the suggestion!!! Mauke and the other Cook Islands are ideal for what we were looking for. My only question is how you get food on Mauke. From the articles I read, it seems there is no supermarket or grocery store. Are we supposed to bring our own food? Or do we buy it from people there?

Food isn't a problem. There are three grocery stores and lots of food. Fresh Tuna or wahoo is $6 Kg. The local produce is not expensive, but eggs and bread are expensive.

Air transportation is the real cost. It's about $300-400USD each for a RT ticket from Raro. Lodging is cheap and food is moderate. You can get an excellent burger at a little cafe in the village for $5NZD. Scooters are available for $20/day NZD.

Tavanipupu in Solomon Islands might meet your needs. Much less tourist-oriented than many other Pacific countries (eg Fiji, Cooks and Vanuatu)
If this is too far above your budget, Maravagi might also suit you.
Both are relatively close to the International airport in Honiara, and offer transport from there.
Both these resorts are relatively small, so not full of people, and close to villages you can visit.

Moorea

#8 fancies themself a joker.

Kadavu in southern Fiji would meet your needs but I don't have time to google for you.

So far Mauke looks amazing. One of my family's main concerns is if there will be enough to do there for a week or two. We have a family with three children. Would it be better to stay there for two weeks? Or maybe spend a week there and then a week on another island?

Also I looked into Tavanipupu, Maravagi, and Kadavu. Tavanipupu seemed too expenseive and resortish. Maravagi definitly looked better than Tavanipupu because it was less luxury resortish. Kadavu looks very good because it is underdeveloped and has a good amount of eco-tourism. It also looks like it gives an opportunity to dive because I'd like to do that sometime in our trip.

Does anyone know anything about Niue, Tonga, Wallis and Futuna, Samoa, Tokelau, Tuvalu, or Vanuatu?

Why not Micronesia?
Kosrae should suit all your needs. One of my all time favorites...

eflatjan
http://www.pbase.com/bolla49
http://my.flightmemory.com/eflatjan

I like Micronesia, but because I'm already set on Mauke, I'd prefer to go somewhere close to the Cook Islands in order to spend less money. I would need a truly extraordinary island to consider going farther away from the Cook Islands than i need to.

jacosanchez.... Did you mean 2013 or 2014 in your original post?

So far Mauke looks amazing. One of my family's main concerns is if there will be enough to do there for a week or two. We have a family with three children. Would it be better to stay there for two weeks? Or maybe spend a week there and then a week on another island?

That depends... if you get involved with the people, the culture, the sea, and like mingling with people that are very different than you, then two weeks will be gone before you know it. If you miss the evening news on TV, run out of music on your iPod, hunger for a Big mac and the company of people just like yourself then two days is enough.

Our first trip to the Cooks consisted of 4 days on Raro and 5 days on Aitutaki on a 6-week trip to New Zealand. That's pretty typical for folks visiting the Cooks for the first time.

After the first trip we decided to make a dedicated trip to the Cooks. We had really enjoyed the first one, especially Aitutaki. On our second trip we spent just two days on Raro, 10 days on Aitutaki and 10 on Atiu.

After that we wanted to see and experience more of the outer islands that were less traveled. Subsequent trips usually included the islands we had visited before plus a new one. We thoroughly enjoyed every one of them.

The culture and environment of any small island SP tropical destination is quite different than Australia which is almost identical to the US. Your kids will probably assimilate much more quickly than you. Just take them down to Mauke harbor when the local kids are there after school. They'll have a ball. The local kids swim like fish so it would be good if your's are comfortable in the water.

My recommendation would be to spend several days on Rarotonga and then go on to Mauke. That would allow you to slip into Island Time gradually.

Thanks for the advice. In my original post I definitely meant 2014. I probably should have said this but I'm not the parent, I'm 14 so i'll be 15 when we go. Also I would consider my family the first type you mentioned. We would be able to spend time with the locals and not get bored. But if we were to go to different islands on our visit, should we go to another in the Cook group, or one in another. I was especially looking at Tokelau because of the small size and apparent seclusion.

Ooh.... OK

Go ahead hardnose.... I'm waiting and I deserve it...

heeheehee.........

The only way to reach Tokelau unless you have a private boat/charter is via Samoa. There's no airport in Tokelau so you'd have to take a boat from Samoa which takes anywhere from 24 to 30 hours - possibly longer depending on conditions.

Time has to be considered as well because I believe the boat only goes twice a week and you have to also factor in for delays due to boat issues, weather, etc. If your dates are very flexible then this isn't a huge issue.

Also there is no "true interior". The islands are all very narrow coral atolls, lagoon on one side and ocean on the other. You can probably see both sides from many places.

It's definitely not touristy one bit, and would have some spectacular coastline.

Edit:
Just to add I've never been there. I did research it a couple months back as I was considering going.

Edited by: JStrongArm

I'm already set on Mauke, I'd prefer to go somewhere close to the Cook Islands in order to spend less money.

You seem to underestimate the cost and time to get to another country anyway. For example, to get to Tokelau, you would need about a week. Going through Auckland/New Zealand and Apia/Samoa, traveling about 3800 miles. And flights are not cheap in this region, nor would be the boat trip to Tokelau.

So when you are set on Mauke, stay with Mauke. Or spend a few days in Rarotonga first, just to get a bit into island time and mood. Enough to do - well, that totally depends on you. Its one of the lasting parts of the small and remote island experience. So if you want to have it small and remote you would have to take that challenge too.

there are 20,000 + islands in the south pacific. take your choice. unless you have your own boat, taking a flight to a popular island will be the easiest way to travel. and from there take a local flight (or boat if you can fine one) to a smaller island.

Jaco, leave the vacation planning to the adults. You have to realize the distance between islands is huge, even though they may look close to each other.

Not to mention Rarotonga is not as well connected to other islands and say Fiji.

Seclusion and isolation is not as romantic as it seems.

Yes, the islands look only close together on the map ;-) But why would being on an island with 300 friendly islanders mean seclusion and isolation? It can be very active, absolutely thrilling and even pretty romantic as well, especially when only for two weeks or so. This is not about moving there.

And why should the vacation planning be left to the adults only? As a parent I would very much encourage my 14 year old to do as much research, preparation and planning as possible. And ask people in a forum about it. The decisions still stay with the parents of course, but what is wrong with exploring?

#24 seems to be a troll considering the username.

Nothing wrong with kids having an interest in travel. Growing up I would have rather traveled with somebody like the thread starter than my cousins on family trips - those kids had no interest in anything and would only go wherever the parents would drag them. Boring. I on the other hand would look things up that I felt were worth seeing on the road and wherever our destination was.

I agree with wksamoa regarding isolation as well. I don't think the thread starter is looking for an deserted island, with nobody around, where his family would have to hunt for fish and climb trees for coconuts. Just a place where there are more locals than tourists and you aren't swarmed by people looking to sell something to you. If anything, such destinations provide a better interaction with local people than you would at a oft-visited/over-crowded places.

Your choice of Mauke in the Cook Islands is a good one. If you want to add another place without spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars (Per person) then I would stick to somewhere in the Cook Islands. No two islands will be the same, even within the same country.

By the way OP, this may interest you whether it's on this trip or a future one -

"Least visited country" a couple of Pacific islands are on there.
http://www.thestar.com/life/travel/2013/04/04/travel_editors_blog_the_least_visited_countries_on_earth.html