Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

Pacific Islands to relax

Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea

Hey everyone

so sorry bout writing this question again, but it seems everyone has a different idea of perfect to me

I want to stop somewhere in the pacific around Tonga/Samoa/Cook Islands/French polynesia at the end of my RTW (flying from LA to Perth via Auckland) and am trying to work out which of the groups would be better for my situation. It would have to be one of these or nearby as i would likely be on a mileage limit (havent fully decided yet). I will have been travelling for a year so i pretty much want to relax away from all the tourists. Also im assuming that at this point i will be lacking a significant amount of funds. Im pretty much interested in beaches/scenery/culture/archaeology. From what ive seen French polynesia is expensive (?) and Samoa is potentially dangerous, so at the moment i am leaning towards Tonga or Cook Islands. Any suggestions?

I guess you are flying Air New Zealand, so Fiji should be another possiblity.
And not a bad one, either - fairly cheap and diverse.

Samoa is not really dangerous (unless you mean dogs), you just have to watch your valuables.
And it's certainly cheap.

That said, I believe that French Polynesia would offer the most outstanding scenery and archeological remains.
I think there are ways to travel there relatively cheaply if you don't mind roughing it, meaning staying at campsites and self-catering, but as I haven't made it that far east, I leave that for others to comment on.

The culture would probably be more "traditional" in Fiji, Tonga or Samoa though.

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Samoa dangerous ???? Havent seen anything dangerous or experienced anything dangerous while I was in Samoa. I loved it there.

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you can relax in aitutaki

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