Pentecost land diving (Naghol) - don't book through Air Vanuatu web site

Just came back from Vanuatu, which is a great place.

Before I left for Vanuatu, I decided to book a tour to the land diving on Pentecost, to ensure I had a place. Because Unity Airlines didn't respond to my emails for pricing and availability information, I wound up booking via the airvanuatu.com web site (in the Accommodation section).

Interestingly, the number listed there didn't belong to Air Vanuatu, but to a company called "Specialist Holidays". I paid A$633 for the tour.

Specialist Holidays then told me to reconfirm the tour in Vanuatu with another company, "Adventures in Paradise", which is based in Port Vila in Vanuatu. When I did this, they initially didn't have my booking (!) Took half a dozen calls to have this sorted out.

More annoying however was that when I hit Port Vila towards the end of my trip and one day before the tour, I visited the Vanuatu Tourist Office in Port Vila and found that Air Vanuatu actually sells the tour for only 36000 Vatu. Ouch! Especially seeing that I was booked on that very same tour. That is, Specialist Holidays used Adventures in Paradise to put me on the Air Vanuatu tour. Weirdly, the local tour company Bakro Tours has a brochure listing the very same land diving tour for 43500 Vatu.

At Port Vila airport I later picked up a flyer from the Unity Airlines booth that finally revealed the price of their land diving tour. This was about 44900 Vatu, but included a short visit to Epi after seeing the land diving on Pentecost.

The flight to Pentecost wasn't full, so with hindsight there was no need to book in Australia.

Moral of this story: Don't book the land diving tour via the Air Vanuatu web site. Instead, save yourself quite a bit of money by either going with Unity Airlines, or by booking direct with the Port Vila office of Air Vanuatu. Their number: (678) 26985.

Matt

Ps.: Whatever you do, do go see the land diving. Totally amazing, a once in a lifetime experience.

Hello
I did the tour of the land diving by the help of some operator whose name I can't recall. However, the story begins when I applied to another company by the name of ADVENTURES IN PARADISE.
I booked the tour of the land diving in Pentecost as well as an overnight stay in Malekula to see the Big Nambas. I paid them a lot of money and when I came back the following day to take the air tickets as was agreed between us, I was totally surprised to hear the answer that it was "IMPOSSIBLE". That means that both tours were cancelled by them.
No explanation ! Nothing !
I got annoyed and demanded some clarification. They were only ready to refund my money .
After some conversation I came to realize that someone forgot to go on time to the airport to buy my tickets. Or to be more exact, they were too late when applying to book me a place through the Air Vanuatu office.
It was a luck that I came to their office late in the afternoon so I had some little time to arrange the Pentecost tour by another more responsible tour operator.
I did expect them to leave me some message at the hotel desk where I was staying in. Just as a matter of responsibility and some care. But they did not do so ! I was to find by myself that both of my tours were cancelled by them !
I would suggest not to go to this company and not use their service. I went to another tour operator managed by Ni-Vans whose owner is a really nice person.