Has anyone been to Vanuatu before? We're going in May this year, staying at Warwick Le Lagon (gets decent reviews on TripAdvisor.com).
If anyone has been before, any tips you could share about any decent restaurants in Port Vila town? Buffet breakfast is included with our room, but we don't want to eat there morning, noon and night.
Also, if anyone has any tips on some good activities to do, would be appreciated!
Thanks for that Richo. My sister took a cruise to Vanuatu a few years ago and was there for the day only, and she said the town was pretty average. So, is your advice to just forget it and eat at the resort? (if the prices are similar anyway)
You need to have one trip into the town during the day just to see the huge village market with all of the amazing fresh produce you are likely to never see in Australia. There is a tourist market along the water with souvenirs, appeals mainly to the cruise boats and priced accordingly. If you were to eat in the town, lunch is best and you can eat looking out across the port, otherwise it gets dark early so there are no views to be had at the restaurants at night.
You can catch the local mini-vans into town which are a fixed price equal to $1.50 one way. You basically flag them down outside Le Lagon and pay the driver, tell them where you want to get off (eg marketplace). And yes, it is way too far to walk into town from Le Lagon! There aren't any "shops" near Le Lagon either. A 10 minute ferry trip across to Erakor Island from Le Lagon is worthwhile, you can eat at Erakor Island for a change of scene. The ferry runs 24 hours.
I just got back from there yesterday - it's not as cheap as you would think and port vila town is just set up for the cruise boats so everything is basically Australian prices.
The town itself is small, it wouldn't take you more than a few hours to walk around it completely.
There's lots of activities to do like snorkeling the reefs, kayaking through lagoons, standup paddle boarding, reef fishing, hiking etc and if you are willing to pay for it, a volcano tour (about $400 each!)
Unfortunately for us it was pouring with rain and really windy so we didn't get to do too much - so maybe bring some video games for the kids.
We stayed at a place called eratap - which was about 30 mins outside of town - the food was great, but Australian prices.
There was a family of dugongs living in the lagoon/reef around the resort, but we never got to see them because of the rain!
The locals are lovely people and the villages are nice to visit - I would recommend donating some school supplies (so bring some things from Australia) since they aren't funded that well.
Let me know if you want any more info :)
Thanks Philly!
Wow, $400 each for a volcano tour, we'll pass, as it would cost us $1,600 for our family. We actually really wanted to see the volcano, but not if it's going to cost so much. Do you know of any cheaper options, or is that it?
When we went to Fiji we donated some school stationary type items to the local Mana Island school. The Principal actually told us that whilst they really appreciate school supplies, they really need clothing… he then showed us a room that was full of stationary (almost bursting at the seams) from people like us who have donated.
Anyway, how do you know where the villages are, and are they welcoming?
Not sure - it was just the one that my wife found - it's so expensive because of flights.. There might be cheaper options :)
Oh really? Maybe do that instead then! I'm sure they will be happy with anything. There were plenty of villages close to the resort that we were staying at. In fact at lot of the staff were from the different villages so they were more than happy to show us around and they were very welcoming… So much so we got to see a local wedding..
It costs about $8 each way for a taxi into town. You'll pay similar prices to Australia for a main meal in town, around $25-30. There really aren't that many restaurants in town as the locals don't eat out, so they exist just for tourists. Stock up on drinks in town from the supermarkets as the resorts are quite expensive. Stay out of town on a cruise ship day as prices go up.