RTW trip South Pacific leg

We're planning an RTW trip end of this year / next year. Our international flights go to French Polynesia, then New Caledonia, Vanuatu and on to Australia.

So we have about 5-6 weeks for French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. We're going in May.

I am wondering how to split up this time among the countries.

While pictures of French Polynesia look awesome, best of all, it also looks really expensive, so I have to wonder if its worth it to spend a lot of time there given that we're going to New Caledonia and Vanuatu right afterwards.

So how would you split up this time?

I'd give a week or 2 for French Polynesia to see different islands, at least a week for New Caledonia where both the Isle of Pines and the NE of Grande Terre are musts, and would spend longest in Vanuatu, which is much the most diverse culturally and home to the friendliest people I've met anyehere.

Thanks! Your choices basically mirror what I was initially thinking.

However, I have been counting up the cost of airfare to do all the hopping between islands and countries, and its turning into one colossal number. Santiago - Papeete - cheapest air pass in FP - Noumea - Port Vila - Tanna - Santo - Brisbane is totaling around $3400. That's $6800 for two people. Whoa!

Given that these are pretty expensive countries and we're likely to do a bunch of tours and activities as well, I'm guessing a budget of $200/day for 2 people, which makes the cost of 40 days in the region with all the airfare about $15,000, but may be as much as $17,000.

At that price point I have to start wondering if South Pacific is even worth it :/ A flight from Chile to Hong Kong is only

Another option would be to cut the trip short somewhere. One way to do that would be to fly straight from Santiago to Sydney, and then go on a trip to Vanuatu from there. But seeing how our South America trip ends in Santiago, and seeing how there is a Santiago - Papeete flight (via Easter Island no less), we could just as well also cut the trip short flying Santiago - Papeete - Auckland or Santiago - Papeete - Noumea - Sydney.

If you are already in either Noumea or Sydney, Vanuatu is just a short and relatively cheap hop away - certainly compared to what it would cost you to get there from home another time! ;-)

If it is to be a RTW trip, have you looked into Oneworld's RTW tickets?
It could be worth it.

I know Vanuatu is just a short hop if you've made it all there, and its also the cheapest of the bunch. My heart would break if I can't include it :(

I have taken a 3-month RTW with Oneworld before. Unfortunately, they don't really fly South Pacific. There are no flights to Vanuatu, and most importantly, the Papeete - Noumea flight is flown by Aircalin and Papeete - Auckland by Air NZ, so you can't do that with OneWorld at all.

Also on this trip I'm using cheap airlines (most likely Condor) to fly Europe - Brazil (only about $500) and then last leg I am going overland from Vietnam back to Europe. If leave out South Pacific I can fly direct Chile - Hong Kong (via Atlanta or NY) for $1250. Or if I include it can fly Santiago - Sydney - HKG for $1800 which allows me to tack on South Pacific islands either on the way or from Sydney.

South Pacific islands are the only part of the world I haven't actually been to, so I really want to include it, but not at any cost.

Oneworld's Global Explorer's includes Fiji Airways, giving you numerous options in the South Pacific.
http://www.oneworld.com/flights/round-the-world-fares/global-explorer/

That's interesting, I have never considered Global Explorer due to its non-transparent pricing. But I could use it to fly Santiago - Tahiti - Auckland - Fiji - Port Vila - Fiji - Hong Kong. If I stop in Auckland and one of the Fiji stops for less than 24 hours I will be within the 4 stopover limit as well.

Any idea if that would work or how much it would cost (connecting to Europe)?

Looking at some sample fares around the web it just seems to me that these RTW fares are cost effective only if you fly not just SCL - AKL/SYD or SCL - PPT, but also SYD - JNB, or some other exotic flight. Its just that for flights to/from Europe there are sooo many good deals.

Even if I go all out and fly SCL - Easter island - Tahiti - Noumea - Port Vila - Sydney - Hong Kong, that will be $3000 out of pocket. Add Europe - South America and Asia - Europe flights and you're at $4000. Same trip with Oneworld is $4500+.

Seems like these RTW tickets are only really worthwhile if you want to spend $5000 on airfare and fly all 16 segments. For me that would mean I would have to pack on flights just because. But I find this useless. Last 4 month RTW trip I took I did 7 flights for $1850.

I have done a little bit of research. If you fly

LON - GIG - SCL - IPC - PPT - AKL - NAN - VLI - NAN - HKG - LON

It comes out at juuust under 29,000 miles. So you can book a LGLOB29 fare from UK, which is apparently USD3260 + tax, for a total of about $4100. I did not call any airlines, I just found this price on the internet, so it may be old, but it probably hasn't gone up that much.

For somebody who is looking to do a RTW trip taking in South America and those South Pacific countries, plus possibly paying for some discount airlines (i.e. AirAsia) from Hong Kong, this is not a bad deal at all.

However, this fare also doesn't get you any savings :/ if you're just trying to visit South Pacific on the way from South America to Asia or vice versa, the price of flights is still high.

I actually think that one of the cases where a RTW ticket is actually worth its price is if packing in several South Pacific islands into it.
Unlike in Europe or Asia, many SP destinations are expensive to reach, often only served by a single airline or two.

Yep, I agree. If you're looking to visit several South Pacific islands (including the less popular ones) or you want to do the JNB - SYD flight (especially that flight), then a RTW ticket will save money. But you're still looking at realistically spending about $5000 on flights.

I was really hoping to do it for a lot less, but with the SCL - PPT or SCL - SYD flight already costing $1500 I am guessing there aren't really a whole lot of savings to be had either way you do this

We spent 2 weeks in Polynesia around NY. It was awesome.
Here's our split, flying from one island to the next (using Borabora+Tuamotus pass):
- Moorea : 3 nights
- Raitaea: 1 night (*I'd recommend 2 nights, assuming that a tour around Taha'a is secured)
- Bora-Bora: 4 nights
- Rangiroa: 3 nights
- Fakarava: 2 nights
- Tahiti: 2 nights

Here you can see more details about different islands a.s.o. http://www.dontplayahate.com/search/label/Tahiti

Any idea of total costs?