Volcanic adventures in Vanuatu (a trip report)

I wrote up a trip report for the Solomon Islands and figured I should follow up with this one! I covered much more ground on this leg of the trip, so hopefully I can provide some helpful information! If you'd like me to provide more details, feel free to ask. (-:

I spent roughly three weeks in Vanuatu in early August, and I had a fantastic time. Coming straight from Honiara, landing in Port Vila and heading to my budget accommodation felt particularly luxurious. I could even drink the water!

I stayed at the Traveller's Budget Motel, which is way cuter than it sounds. It's run by a very sweet Australian couple who treat every guest like family. They also make an amazing fruit salad for breakfast, which I've been making for myself daily since I returned almost six months ago (along with coconut water, which I seem to be addicted to).

Port Vila itself isn't anything to write home about, but it's got everything you need and is very walkable. I actually had one of the best meals of my trip at the local market, where all of the fishermen sit down for lunch. I think they got a kick out of having a tourist join them at their table. The meals are generous and tasty; I got a whole fish with a giant pile of rice, with lots of relish and pickled vegetables on the side. And you can bet it's cheap as hell! While you're there, I recommend buying the biggest bag of raspberries you can carry and snacking on them throughout the day.

The second best meal in the area was from Bayanihan, the local Filipino restaurant. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever had a bad Filipino meal in my life (I'm not even sure it's possible). It's a bit of a hike from the main drag, but worth it.

I arrived late at night, but first thing in the morning I headed out to Hideaway Island Resort. I'd expected the worst from this place, and the boat full of elderly tourists didn't help to quell my fears. But as it turns out, the rumours are true, and I had a very enjoyable day snorkeling around the island. I could barely step into the water without a school of colourful fish surrounding my feet (and occasionally, nipping at my toes), and things only get more interesting as I explored the coral gardens. I got in at nine in the morning and didn't leave until dinner time. You have to take a little boat over there but they run back and forth all day. You should probably bring some kind of footwear for the water though, I didn't have anything and really had to watch my step.

Another good snorkeling spot is just off the shores of Lalepa Island. You'll have to take a boat tour out to reach it. One of the places they took us had what is probably the highest concentration of fish I've ever seen in one place. They were swarming. I was the only one brave enough to go in, and so I did, armed with a fistful of fish food. The swarm descended upon me and I nearly lost a finger to a particularly brazen parrot fish. It was glorious!

Two days later I headed out to Tanna Island. After a scenic flight, and a very bumpy and very long truck ride (with what looked like half the island's residents sitting in the back) we finally made it to to Tanna Island Dream Bungalows. Half a dozen thatched bungalows perched on top of a hill between the volcano and the sea. I could just barely make out the tip of Mount Yasur from my window, but apparently if you take the tree house room you get a full view. Overall, the place really lives up to it's name, and I would have gladly stayed for months!

Mount Yasur is the main attraction here and many people come just to climb it. My plan wasn't much different, except I planned to climb it as many times as my body is willing. It's a two hour walk down the island's single road to the entrance of the volcano, and a half hour "hike" to the top, though calling it a hike is being generous. In the end I went up there three times (which sadly meant I missed out on going up a fourth time, which is free), but if you have the chance to go up even once in your lifetime I wouldn't miss it for the world! It's a breathtaking experience that you're likely to carry with you forever. It's essentially a continuous natural fireworks show, but with a bit more of a kick to it. I saw similar activity on Stromboli in Italy (from which the "stombolian" type eruptions are named), but they let you get much closer to the action on Mount Yasur... perhaps a little too close. Hell, on my first night we had to wait around for an hour before they let us go up to the crater due to increased activity. At one point, the volcano let out a thundering roar and sent a few lava bombs flying over the side. When we were finally allowed up, we found a still glowing heap of lava in the middle of the path we were supposed to walk on. Yikes!

Aside from the volcano, there's some decent snorkelling around the area, too. The black sand beach just a 15 minute walk away through some scrub. The whole island is obviously very volcanic, but you can feel it in action here. Digging into the sand even just a little reveals some intense heat, and you can find pockets of warm water as you swim around. Depending on the time of year there might be turtles around, but I mostly just saw tonnes of brightly coloured sea slugs.

On the other side of the hill is the white sand beach, which you get to by walking through the village (you can also have lunch here if you ask in advance). It's very picturesque. Technically you can snorkel here, and I did catch a glimpse of a colourful fish or two, but the current is very strong and I simply didn't trust my swimming abilities enough. But if you're a strong swimmer it's worth checking out!

If you poke around a bit you might stumble upon a third, hidden beach, which you can only access by crawling through a little cave and climbing over a bunch of rocks. It's a little crescent shaped thing with it's own walled off lagoon with surprisingly abundant marine life. It's out of the way enough that even the locals barely go out there, and the only other person I saw the entire time was a single fisherwoman.

Regretfully, I had to leave the island and head back to Port Vila so I could move on to Ambrym Island. I didn't think I could find anywhere more perfect than the island I'd just visited; I was wrong.

I stayed at Sandy Terter's Hot Springs Guest House, which boasts three cosy grass bungalows nestled by the sea within a friendly local village. You can soak in the hot springs right outside your door, go snorkeling, and if the tide is right, go snorkeling in the hot springs! Helen, the cook, makes some tasty grub, and she even chased down a local chicken for me to have for dinner (a sight I sadly missed).

Ambrym is a volcanic island, not unlike Tanna. Tucked within it's jungle-clad interior is the Ambrym volcano complex, made up of several craters, some of which are quite active. I visited Mount Marum (I think... it might have been Mount Benbow), and was able to peer right down into it's crater filled with bubbling lava. It's a strenuous trek and involves a cold night of camping at the edge of the ash plain, but allows for some amazing views of the red glow from the volcanoes, visible only at night.

Freddy (Sandy's brother) can take you there, but not for free, so bring lots of cash. There aren't any ATMs on Ambrym Island! In fact, I'd bring as much as you can feasibly carry, because if you're anything like me you won't want to leave. I even did a little fishing “local style”, with a string and a hook tied to an empty water bottle, and amused the village children with my lackluster skills to the point where a six year old boy offered his fish to me (he caught dozens) out of pity.

All in all, I loved my time in Vanuatu. It's a charming country with some of the friendliest folks I've met on my travels so far (and some of the most active volcanoes to boot). I can't wait to go back to explore things further afield and give Mount Yasur another whirl!

Glad to hear you've found Vanuatu more welcoming than the Solomons - so did I, but it's nice to read that a solo woman can feel the same way.

I would just like to add that it is also possible to climb Marum on Ambrym in 1 day, without having to camp up, but views may be less clear by midday.

I also had good meals at Port Vila's market - I think they cost 200 Vt back then.

Yeah, I'd actually planned to do the whole thing in one day, but Freddy took one look at me and insisted I wouldn't make it and we had to camp. My whole body looks like it's made of limp noodles so I don't exactly blame him, but in the end we made great time (it only took two and a half hours to get to the campsite from the drop off point, and two to come back). Camping was kind of fun, though, if way colder than I'd anticipated! If I'd come more prepared I would have liked to climb both volcanoes.

In regards to the solo woman thing, I found the people of Vanuatu to be pretty relaxed and friendly overall, especially on the outer islands. Everywhere I turned people were smiling and laughing among themselves. They just seemed really happy and it was kinda infectious! I felt absolutely safe there and would be hard pressed to think of a better country for women traveling alone.

I felt exactly the same way as a solo man, too.
I guess it's just the way the country IS.

Thanks for posting this - I really enjoyed reading it - it brought back warm memories of our trip there in 06.

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I was afraid I got a little long winded there.

Oh, excellent, cheers for posting. I was going to post my own question about Vanuatu but you've answered much of what i was going to ask! I do just have one thought tho - when it comes to volcanic islands, if you could only do one, would you recommend Ambrym or Tanna?

I'm plotting to be in Vanuatu for only about a week and a half, and I figured I'd either do Tanna, or I'd do both Ambryn and Malakula - I'm very much more into hiking, culture, and history, rather than any water-based activities; these two areas seem to be the best suited for my interests, but since they're in opposite directions from Port Vila, I'm unlikely to be able to venture into both ...

It really depends what you're after. Ambrym definitely offers the better hiking, as climbing Yasur is more of a brisk walk than anything (though if you're keen you can come around the back, but it still only takes an hour or two). Ambrym, on the other hand, is a much longer hike, and boasts multiple craters to explore. Benbow and Marum are the main ones, but there are plenty of others to check out along the way; it's an amazing landscape. If you want to scale both craters you could spend days up there.

Yasur is obviously more active, and it's pretty wild to stand on top of a volcano as it's erupting, but at the same time peering down into a lava lake on Ambrym is good too. You're also likely to be the only tourist at the Ambrym volcano (or the only one on the island), whereas you'll be sharing Yasur with up to a dozen others depending on the time of day (around sunset is busiest).

In the end I don't think I could choose! Ambrym is probably the more adventurous option, but you can't deny Yasur's grandeur.

EDIT: Cost might also be a factor for you. The entrance to Yasur is 2250VT the first time, and is halved for each consecutive visit. As I mentioned, you can also easily go without a guide. However, expect a hefty 5000VT fee for getting from the airport to your accommodation, and at least a 1000VT fee to get back from the volcano after dark, depending on where you're staying, though you might get lucky and hitch a free ride. For Ambrym a guide is absolutely necessary, and comes at a high price. I paid something like 20,000VT for my 2D 1N hike, but that includes everything from transport (I think like half of it was for the transport, haha) to food, and Freddy even has a tent. No sleeping bag though!

Cheers for the response, very helpful! Cost will be a little bit of a factor, actually; I know Vanuatu's going to be one of the more expensive countries on my world tour so wherever possible I'd look to mitigate for this by keeping costs down, but obviously not without sacrificing experiences (that said, cost is relative and both would be far more expensive back home, if such things existed). I'd assume also Ambrym is cheaper to fly to than Tanna, though if I went to Ambrym I'd also probably go to Malakula so in that respect it's probably much of a muchness.

That said, I think for me it sounds like Ambrym might be the better option - part of the joy for me is the 'getting there' as well as the arrival, and I just have this feeling that Yasur might 'underwhelm' because it's "relatively" much easier to climb, whereas by the sound of it the journey to the Ambrym volcanoes is in itself worth the trek.
By 'underwhelm' I guess what I mean is - last year I went to Niagara Falls; amazingly impressive series of waterfalls, can't be denied, absolutely spectacular. But the fact that I could see them quite easily simply by walking out of the hostel and down the hill slightly to the promenade meant that, in a way, they weren't as "special" any more. I think if the falls only consisted of the Horseshoe Falls, but I'd have had to trek down the river to see them, it would have been a more memorable experience; others may disagree!

I think it being less touristy also appeals to my sense of adventure, but not necessarily to my comfort zone ... :)

Whichever one I end up choosing though I know won't be a "wrong" choice though! Thank you again for your thoughts.

Vanuatu can be shockingly expensive in some ways (anything involving petrol being one of them), but there are still bargains to be had. There's the aforementioned 300VT market meal, and most guest house meals won't run you more than 750VT. My accommodation on both islands was only 2200VT a night, breakfast included. It's also really easy to self-cater in Port Vila.

Also, about getting to Malekula; I'm not sure if you can actually fly between island's like that; everything is usually routed through Port Vila. It might be something to look into!

On the Air Vanuatu website, the routing exists in the schedule, but I don't seem to be able to choose it in the planner. It's something I'll need to clarify with them ...

2200VT/night sounds cheaper than than I was anticipating, actually; I was expecting to have to spend almost double that.

I must say you've been thoroughly overcharged for the Ambrym hike.
Granted I was there years ago, but accommodation and meals cost pretty much the same as you write, but for that climb (in 1 day) I paid only about 2000Vt. 20.000 is really way too much.
I started from Ranvetlan village closest to the volcano though, so no transport other than walking was involved.
Oh, and my guide actually put me up for free in his home there!

Most of that money went to transport (5000VT each way from the Craig Cove area), which admittedly is crazy steep but that just seems to be the way things are outside of Efate. Supply and demand! The guide was 2500VT per day, for two full days, and there was an extra charge for food and a camping permit/overnight charge. I've since lost the budget I kept for this trip so it might have been a bit less than 20,000VT, but it was still at least 15,000VT all up. I did a lot of searching around before I left and this was pretty much exactly the amount I expected to pay based on other travellers through the area, and it matched the price quoted on the board at the guest house itself. Oddly, now all I can find are quotes around the 2000VT to 2500VT mark, but they seem to be for guides only (and only for one day).

Oh well, I still enjoyed myself! Though staying closer and walking there is probably a good idea if you want to save money.