need advice on south pacific trip

hi there

during my rtw trip this year, I want to spend some time in the south pacific islands around july/august. my rtw ticket gives me the option to go to the cooks, samoa and tonga and for an add. fee to fiji. therefore my question is how much time should i spend on each island? is it worth to pay extra for fiji? how much is approx the budget per day? i'm travelling by myself and usually stay in hostels, I like meeting people and having drinks but not continuously 24/7 partying, and i love snorkelling but never done diving, unfortunately.

thanks
katinka

Don't know the other islands but Fiji is wonderful. I have just been to the Yasawas for the first time.

I hope you realize that your questions are impossible to answer, even for those trying to help out..

For example, whether or not a place is worth visiting depends very much on what you want to do. If you want some beach time with snorkelling etc., then I'd imagine one place is as good as the next. No reason to pay extra to go to a Fijian beach if a Tongan beach fits the need.

Is Fiji worth the extra cost? How much extra? I spent two months there. And I would probably spend a month or more at any one of the other destinations.

How much time to spend on an island? The answer fitting the spirit of the south pacific is: as much as you want. There's no deadline here, no obligations. Personally, to get a good feel for island life, I'd spend as much time in one place as my overall itinerary permits. Meaning: if I had a month for that sector of my RTW trip, I'd most likely pick one island group (choice made by reading a book such as David Stanley's South Pacific guide) and spend the entire month there.

If you want a token visit, hit a few highlights then move on to the next destination .. well, there are people who do that as well. I assume that this style of travel suits their personal interests.

Costs for Fiji: staying in guesthouses outside of the high profile resorts, I averaged about US$35 a day, or around 28 EUROs a day. But with conversions, inflation, not sure what the costs would be today.

If nothing else, try an intro dive if you have the opportunity.

Thanks a lot for your very helpful answers and advice!!!
I guess will check out all mentioned islands and then later on come back to my favourite to spend more time ;-).
Katinka

You can EITHER Samoa and Tonga, OR the Cooks, but not both sets on an RTW ticket. The Cooks are a nice place, everything is pretty compact. Tonga is a bit less prepared for tourists, things don;t often work too well, etc. But, either wil be a good spot to stop.

thanks for your advice raro! but regarding the rtw your info is not correct. I can do this route as follow lax-cooks-akl-fiji-(surface)-samoa-tonga-akl (transfer) with the great escapade ticket. I'm planning on a budget $US100 a day (absolute max), prefer. staying in cheap accommodation and so on, is this realistic? and what do you think about fiji?

Just curious - what do you mean with '(surface)' between Fiji and Samoa? Or does this indicate that the flight between both countries cannot be included in your RTW-Ticket?

yes that's correct. since the great escapade is an alliance between singapore airlines, virgin atlanctic and air nz there is no possibilty to fly direct fiji -samoa, I have to go via akl but this will cost me to many miles (and i'm already at my limit) therefore i prefer to pay for an extra ticket.

uebrings du hast eine klasse website, vielen dank fuer die vielen info's. ich freu mich schon sehr auf samoa!

;-)
katinka

Well, you can't do it all on one RTW ticket bought from one carrier/alliance at their regular RTW piece. You are buying extra tickets to those places, so it's a RTW trip, but not one RTW ticket at a standard RTW price. If one defines an RTW ticket to include separately-paid tickets to side countries, well then one can include the whole world on one "RTW" ticket.

In any event, you are doing RT's from Auckland, that's not too bad, maybe three to four hours in each direction.

OK, back to your Q--yes, US$100 is plenty per day for the Cooks, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa. Just watch what you spend on accommodation, that is you biggest cost. I'm assuming the US$100 doesn't include those extra flights you mentioned above between countries.

But you'll want to budget an RT airfare from RAR to Aitutaki for sure in the Cooks, that's maybe US$220 or so. Don't miss Aitutaki! And, unfortunatley, no ferries, etc. you have to fly on Air Rarotonga. If you leav eon the late afternoon flight, and return on the first morning flight to RAR (on whatever days you come and go), you may get a 10% discount or so. Check the Air Rarotonga website.

Check www.ck for more info on the Cooks.

Thanks again for your good advice Raro! Definitely I will go to Aitutaki, I've already read so many great things about it. And yes the $US100 budget exclude additional flights. I'm so looking forward!!