inter-island flights and Tanna

1.We plan to fly from Port Vila to Tanna and back with Air Vanuatu.Are there any luggage limits?
2.Also I am trying to make hotel arrangements in Tanna , via email , and the response to my first enquiry took 2 weeks.I sent a follow up 9 days ago and still waiting for a reply.Is this normal for Vanuatu?
3. Would it be better to phone hotel?
4. We are going to stay on the Port Resolution side - would it just as easy to fly in , get a taxi across the island and go to the hotel without booking? We are going in March.

Thanks for your advice.

Jim

Hi,
I was in Tanna two weeks ago when Cyclone Vania arrived. It did a considerable amount of damage especially to communication which may be the reason for the delay in answering you. Also the road from one side of the island to the other was almost. impassable. I guess you know that the trip from one side to the other can take up to 21/2 hours depending on weather and the "taxis" are 4WD utes.Once there the "hotels" are mainly small woven bungalows with no electricity. Depending on what you want to do I would probably recommend a longer stay on the Lenakel side - we stayed 3 days on Port R. side and it was a bit too long. We loved our holiday and it was a real adventure, we stayed at a lovely spot on the coast with amazing snorkelling right at our door. Send me a PM if you want any more details or a chat. Personally I would go for a confirmed booking as it is hard travelling to get anywhere and then find you don't have a room.

Wheeliecase.

yes there are baggage limits but as I recall only the normal 20 kgs.

If it is the Port Resolutioin Yatch club that you are planning to stay at then I would hardly call it a hotel. It is a very simple place. I loved staying there a few months ago. They have generator electricty in the evening and internet is not regular. I suspect that they might rely on the occasional trips to Lenekal to have internet access.

I found people in Vanuatu to be very straight forward and honest to deal with. Tanna does not have developed infrastructure and this was part of the pleasure for me and my family. It also means that communication can be a slow business. As my teenages daughter would say chill-lax . You have time. It will work out. Tanna was the best part of Vanuatu for us.

Tanna is more primitive than your post suggests you are thinking. The taxi is a bashed up old pickup truck and the hotel is a gaggle of simple huts with limited electricity. Only Efate and Santo are developed.

We used Melanesian Tours(google them) in Port Villa to make our bookings for Tanna flights and accommodation(Evergreen Village). They did an excellent job for us, especially when we discovered Air Vanuatu had canceled our reservation - we were reinstated and got our flights. The Tanna flights are quite often sold out so pre booking is advised. Tanna was also the highlight of our trip to Vanuatu.