top 3 islands in south pacific for diving, meeting people and discover new cultures

Hi Guys,

I'm taking 3 months-off starting from December and I'll start my trip in LA then Australia (I actually live in Paris) during 3 weeks, so I have 2 months left. I was, first, thinking to go to west papua (mainly to dive), but it appears to be not that simple to reach from Sydney.. I think I'll go for 3 or 4 islands in the South Pacific but I cannot make up my mind they all seem great!! My main travel purposes are : nice dives (i'll get my advanced padi in Australia but i'm more than 20 dives), crazy beaches (Better than Maiu Hawaii for instance)and meeting people and discover cultures (for instance Maiu is too american for me...)

I'm travelling alone so i'm somehow on a budget (no honeymoon places :)) but not too budget neither:)

What are your top 3 islands regarding all this?

Many thanks in advance!

My choices would be:

New Ireland (Papua New Guinea)

Espiritu Santo (Vanuatu)

Isle of Pines (New Caledonia)

And I don't think the Raja Ampat Islands are too hard to reach.
Perhaps a bit pricey, involving 2-3 flights and 1-2 boat rides, but reaching most Pacific islands is expensive anyway.
So add those for a start.

Thank you again Laszlo! (you already helped with Raja ampat :)). The thing about RA is that even if I'll make it to there, It would take a lot of time, so maybe it's better to focus on the south pacific island this time and try to optimize my trip.. but well, not easy to choose, I want to go everywhere :)

Lot of time?
You could teach RA in 2 days from Australia.
It's not a lot of time by Pacific island standards.
A bigger concern could be that it is quite far from other islands in the region, and poorly connected to them.
However the Pacific is just vast, so this can be a problem with other islands, too.
If you want to cut down on travel times and expenses, you should forget about 3 best islands in the whole Pacific and focus on a single country.

Solomon Islands offers some of the best diving and cultural experiences in the Pacific. It is very diverse, including Polynesian and Micronesian people as well as the majority Melanesians.

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