Pacific Island hopping...without double backing

Hi all,

I've been investigating going from one island to another across the Pacific, and flight information seems sporadic (I'm aware departures can be quite infrequent). Countries included that I have looked at include:

Fiji
Tuvalu
Samoa
Tonga
Solomon Islands
Micronesia
Marshall Islands
Papua New Guinea
Australia
New Zealand
Kiribati
Nauru
Palau
Vanuatu

I'm not so interested in visiting the territories of other countries like French or NZ territories.

The first bit I had in mind would have been Singapore - Dili - Bali - Port Moresby, but this of course is optional.

Has anyone ever attempted a trip like this before? I'd also be interested to hear from anyone FROM these islands! :)

It is possible to connect all those places by flights, but connections between the South Pacific and Micronesia are limited. It will also cost a LOT to fly to all those places.
Are you collecting countries? Because you've simply listed all independent countries. Otherwise many teritories (especially New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Easter Island and maybe even the Cook Islands) are actually much more interesting than some independent countries in the region (like Nauru).

Hi Laszlo,

Sure, I've seen the prices are pretty damn high...I mean, low competition, long distances, small demand. Of course they'll be high :)

Actually, I forgot about Easter Island, I wouldn't mind going there that's for sure!

Yes, I did list the independent countries, and for some of them (like Tuvalu, Nauru etc), it IS just a case of 'collecting' them so to speak!

Trouble is, I've used Wikipedia as a guide for airlines/routes etc, and Skyscanner, and both don't always show what is needed :/

I have found the best way to confirm which airlines fly in and out of countries is to go to the airport websites and check their arrivals/departures. With the SP you may have to check every day of the week as some flights only go once a week(maybe even less). Some of the smaller airports may not even have this information available but you should be able to get most of the routes you are looking at - you will definitely have to back track though - just not much to choose from these days.

I use Wikipedia as a main source for such information, but some of can be a bit conflicting. And flight search engines seem to have a habit of being terrible for finding flights in not so popular islands!

Samoa for example seems to have conflicting information on airlines that actually fly there. But, we'll see...I'm sure I'll come up with something :)

Samoa has a couple of airlines that are starting or stopping at various times. Samoa Air I think isn't at the moment but Talofa Air has just started up. They are talking about flying to Tonga but I think currently just American Samoa.
Polynesian Air is operating to American Samoa atm.
The main ones in and out of Samoa are Air New Zealand, Virgin Samoa ( Australian origin) and Fiji Air.
Fiji can be a good hub for the Pacific, Also Hawaii and Tahiti plus Rarotonga in the Cook Islands
Flying with the Fiji Air, Hawaiian Airlines and Air Tahiti ( or whatever it's name is) you will be able to cover a bit of the Pacific.

Fiji will be your best hub for travel around the Pacific Islands. Look into using frequent flyer miles for your trips if possible - flights on Fiji Airways can be redeemed using American, Alaska, Qantas points.

Of the countries you have listed, only Palau and PNG can't be accessible directly from Fiji. All the other countries have regular, scheduled flights from Nadi/Suva.

Use Wikipedia to search up airports, and it should show the airline and airport serviced from the destination. Following that, you can use google to see what flights are available on a weekly basis by entering the IATA code of the two airports you want to fly between;

eg try searching up: "NAN CXI flights" on google, and flights should pop up in your results.

Once you know what flight you want, search up the price direct from the airline website, or skyscanner/kayak/expedia etc.

Oh, interesting about the Google thing, that's really good to know about. I just used SkyScanner and Wikipedia to check everything! Thanks danly :)

I did exactly what you're looking at doing last year. Since I just replied to a similar post on this same forum, I'll just copy and paste the answer I gave there:

I did a trip like this last year and wanted to visit each Pacific country. Laszlo is right, it costs a fortune and waiting around will also cost a lot. My itinerary went like this:

Taiwan
Palau
Micronesia
Marshall Islands
Fiji
Samoa
Fiji
Tonga
Fiji
Tuvalu
Fiji (this is the hub for the South Pacific)
Vanuatu
Solomon Islands
Papua New Guinea
Brisbane

I wasn't able to make it to Nauru because the local airline changed the flight schedule, leaving me to spend four days longer than planned in Kiribati. So this summer I actually flew back to Brisbane and got another flight from there to Nauru for a few days. The South Pacific is possible -- but expensive, and there's no other way around it. I did Couchsurfing where I could, but that was only possible in 2 or 3 places. And even homestays are not necessarily cheaper than budget accommodation.

At the end, I flew from Brisbane to East Timor, then onwards to Singapore, form where I flew back to Europe.

Let me know if I can help with any more info.

That's amazing! I was aware it'd be expensive anyway, but it was more of a practicality question.

I think I figured out the answer to my own question here:

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=BNE-INU-TRW-MAJ-KWA-PNI-POM-HIR-VLI-SUV-FUN-NAN-APW-AKL-TBU-SYD-MNL-ROR-TPE

albeit the stop in KWA is not to alight, but just in transit. And given your advice about Nauru, it seems getting there from Brisbane sounds like the best idea!

Wow, that's a fabulous itinerary. I hadn't thought at all about doing it that way. Can you let me know how much it works out to in airfare? I'm really curious if that ends up being a cheaper option than my original routing. Thanks for sharing!

I did a price check earlier, albeit with some routing changes, and it came to about 4000GBP...albeit over Xmas and New Year!

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