Day trip hints for Pacific Islands Cruises

[rogerf00]

I hope people find the details below useful.

Cruising tips, Royal Caribbean, January 2013, ex Sydney.

From a family of four (aged 12 and 14 yrs.) from Queensland.

Day trip tips.

 

The main issue when getting off the cruise ship is knowing where the ship anchors or docks, only having 9 hours or so to look around and determining a fair cost of transport etc. offered by the locals. The islands are difficult to get to and thus there is not a lot of information about.

We cruised to the Isle of Pines (New Caledonia), Suva & Denarau of Fiji, Port Vila (Vanuatu) and Lifou (New Caledonia), in that order, on a 12 night trip.

Organised tours through the cruise company tend to be expensive so we tended to organise our own activities, although we had very little information on what to expect at each port/island. We took a lonely planet book which was very helpful and our own snorkelling gear (cheaper than buying on the ship or hiring on the beach).

Remember that the language in New Caledonia and Vanuatu is French so most locals speak only a little English. Australian dollars are pretty much taken everywhere particularly on the street/markets but not so much in towns/shops.

It was well worth getting off the ship early to have a quiet wander around before the rest of the cruisers arrive.

 

Some tips on what to see are below:

 

Isle of Pines. (New Caledonia)

We disembarked early (before 8 am) from the ship by tender boat. The cruise ship was anchored offshore at the beautiful Bay of Kuto. There is no town. Initially there was simply a small private taxi service/bus( $15 per person ) near a small tourist shop available offering a tour of the local town of Vao ( about 7 kms to the East ), it’s church, and the Bay of St Joseph to watch the fisherman. Many people did this tour (we didn’t) and apparently it was reasonably interesting. There was no simple service into Vao for a quick look. The locals are happy to take Australian currency.

We waited 20 mins or so after disembarking and a four wheel drive/taxi/tour operator turned offering trips to La Piscine Naturelle (the natural pool) for great snorkelling. I can highly recommend this. The cost of this is $25 dollars per person (I did have some success with negotiating $80 for a family of four, but this was tough) for a 30 min return trip by private vehicle. We were allowed 2 hours to snorkel and then brought back. The other advantage is a chance to look over the high elevation of the island and drive past a few villages.

When we arrived back it was time for lunch and there was food both free and at a cost available along the beach and shady esplanade. For example there was steamed food wrapped in leaves, cheap coconuts, ice cream and small to medium sized crayfish freshly broiled on the BBQ for $25. There were lots of people by this stage but plenty of beach. It is easy but a little time consuming to go back to the boat for lunch.

Across the road from the beach where the ship is anchored is the pretty Bay of Kanumera in which the taboo rock is situated. Apparently there are wooden stairs which are not allowed to be climbed however you can swim or walk around it. There is a resort at the end of the beach here which is off limits to day trippers. I could not find any bike, scooter or car hire close by to the ship.

There is a shop close to the jetty inside the old crumbling convict prison run by a very nice Swiss and New Zealand couple. They sell their own patterned sarongs and make their own jewellery and are worth a visit. They speak good English, are helpful and would answer any questions particularly if you purchase their pretty book on the Isle of Pines.

It would be easy to just spend the day on the beach however for older kids it is a good idea to do a trip, sadly all a little expensive. You can get your hair braided but shop around (Aus. $15 to $20 for a whole head, or $1 or so per braid).

 

Suva (Fiji)

Suva is a port with a pretty harbour. Leaving the ship is easy with a quick walk into the city. It is a typical third world city and looks run down but is interesting because of the previous English heritage. You can purchase relatively expensive but well organised tours on the ship. You can also organise cheaper tours (perhaps not as quite well organised and with less guarantee) as you walk off the ship through a local tourist operator. There are plenty of offers of transport and taxis are relatively cheap so take your time. There are also plenty of offers for cheap souvenirs as you walk along the foreshore, again there is no hurry. A little trick by the locals to catch your kids is to mark the wood work with their names, thus making it difficult to say no. For example, for two pieces of black tribal painted light wood I paid Aus. $10, and for three I paid Aus. $15 knowing I was over paying (the kids were very excited). In the markets these pieces were a lot cheaper. All part of the fun and games.

If you don’t want to spend much money then I suggest the walking tour as suggested in the Lonely Planet book. This gives one a good grasp of the small city. Part of the walk is to the Fijian museum which gives quite a good history of Fiji’s cultural heritage. The walk only takes a couple of hours with a stop at the museum etc. There are a few local eateries, duty free shops and auto tellers as you get into the city centre. Little India has quite a number of gold jewellery shops.

Our family of four then flagged a taxi, (with meter) and asked to be taken out of town to the local waterfalls and swimming pools of Colo-i-Suva Forest Park. The taxi cost was about $40 Fijian (roughly $20 Australian) for the return trip including waiting time of about one hour. The entrance cost to the park is small. There is quite a distance from the road to the swimming pools/waterfall so I would not suggest getting a bus out or a taxi to the entrance of the park.

Is it worth it? It was lovely and cool, not expensive, a nice countryside tour and a quick trip. The forest is pretty dense rainforest. Overall the forest is no nicer than our own swimming pools/waterfalls on the sunshine coast.

Subsequently there is then a little time to wander around and shop at the duty free shops, have a coffee, have a haircut ($10 Fijian) or go to the markets looking for trinkets, woodcraft and souvenirs. The treated wood is allowed back into Australia if treated as most of it seems to be. The ship then leaves about 5 pm with a brass band and Fijian singing sending us off.

 

Danarau Island (Fiji)

Danarau is an artificial island reclaimed from mangroves and populated by resorts. Docking is by tender boat.

There is a small modern tourist Western looking shopping centre with quite a number of nice looking restaurants, quality wood souvenirs etc. at the marina. There are tours offered by local Fijian tour operators which are cheaper than the cruise ship but with less guarantee of quality. Our local Fijian tour went to a local village which was not at all traditional. However we were taken around the village by a pleasant local young lad and met the locals (including laughing young children) and got a glimpse into the poverty they lived in. We paid Aus. $100 (and gave a small tip) for the return trip of 15 mins to the village, 30 min walk around (although we probably could have asked more questions and stayed longer but it was very hot). On leaving the village the taxi took us into the local town of Nadi (which is third world, not touristy, probably worth a wander and is like a down market Suva), to the Hindu temple for a small donation (well worth a look) and then to the Nadi handicraft market. The market is low key but you can buy some reasonably priced wood souvenirs and your daughter can get her hair braided for about Aus. $1/braid ( about $15 to $ 20 for a whole head) and have her hand given a Henna painting for about $10 depending on the design. We were then dropped back to the marina. All this for 3-4 hrs.

I think the taxi driver would have taken us as long as we liked but at the time we didn’t quite realise this. Interestingly we have friends ( family of 5 ) who did the same tour a couple of months earlier and they managed to find a local taxi driver who took them around the area and took them to his village etc. for the whole day for Aus. $100.

Once back there are a number of groovy eating places which are quite good value. There is also a bus that takes all tourists (about $5 fee each for the day) to each of the resorts for a free wander and swim in the impressive pools (with great pool bars). We swam for the afternoon in one of the resorts and it was great. I should warn you, the beach is poor (the next great beach stop was the Lifou, New Caledonia).

 

Port Vila (Efate Island, Vanuatu)

Port Vila has a port where you walk directly off the ship into a very excited area of young men with taxi’s, stalls and tour offers. The town of Port Vela is 7 to 8 kiss from where the cruise ship docks so a little far too walk but you would not get lost if you did. You will be able to bargain for most things particularly transport if you are patient. The cost of a taxi into town shared between 6 of us was about $10.

The small town is third world with a couple of duty free shops and with a nice but disorganised foreshore including dive shops, markets, Boules courts and coffee shops etc.

The four of us eventually hailed a taxi to the Mele Cascades (beautiful local waterfall and apparently a highlight of Vanuatu). This was after a drop off in town, quick walk around and booking a scuba dive for our two children in the afternoon.

Don’t go to the Mele Cascades in the morning. Most of the cruise ship was there with a massive crowd attempting to climb up to the top (quite dangerous). It is pretty with turquoise waters with nice swimming holes but not worth the chaos. Either go in the afternoon when it is much quieter or do something else. It is perhaps a little prettier than the waterfalls around Maleny/Montville of the Sunshine coast hinterland in QLD. Also the cost to get in was just raised to Aus$25 each person (including kids), which means $100 for a family of four. Really far too expensive and definitely the poorest value for money on the whole trip. Far better to ask a taxi driver to take you around the local area for the day, meet his family etc. like friends of ours did on a previous cruise.

What did work very well was to book the children into an introductory dive (12 and 14 yrs.) which took two hours or so and cost about $80 each (much cheaper than the cruise organised dive and far less crowded). We simply turned up at Big Blue Vanuatu ( on the foreshore in town ) in the morning, booked the dive, went to the cascades, arrived back to the next door café, had lunch, got fitted out and went diving. The chosen dive had lots of big fish, easy, close, fun and what’s more the parents did not have to go diving (as opposed to the cruise ship booking), so we were free for 2 hours or more. Very nice and responsible expats who ran it also.

 

Lifou (New Caledonia)

Our last cruise stop. Very beautiful beach stop similar to Isle of Pines. Less interaction and welcoming compared to Isle of Pines but this didn’t matter. The locals set up a small number of food stalls, small market and a bar. People are taken in by tender boat while the cruise ship anchors in the Bay de Santal. There is a wonderful looking chapel (Chapelle Notre Dame de Lourdes) on a cliff as the cruise ship sails in.

There is good easy snorkelling from the beach. To snorkel we walked to the left (South end) off the jetty towards the chapel on the cliff. The further you go out into the deeper water, the better the reef is. There is a reef drop off which is well worth seeing.

The chapel is well worth a visit and is a short walk to the left (South) once you get to the bitumen road. The view is wonderful but the church is closed. On the way to the church, you walk past a small piggery on the left and can buy a coconut from a family on the right. Behind the coconut stand there is a traditional hut to be viewed for a small donation. For more good snorkelling, just before getting to the steep church steps there is track to the right which leads to the Baie de Jinek, where there are wooden steps leading to more wonderful coral.

Toward the right (North) as you get to the bitumen, it is a short walk to another church (which is open). Behind the church there is a cave apparently worth exploring which you can see for a small donation.

There are tours which like Isle of Pines are not particularly cheap. They take you for example to the little chiefs hut, the local town (We’ I think) and the Baie de Jinek etc. for snorkelling. This trip cost about Aus. $25 /person for a couple of hours. There is an Aus. $15 dollar trip to the town of We' and its local beach from memory. There is a vanilla farm close by as well which you can go to.

 

I hope this helps all enjoy their cruising.

 

Roger

[CRUSINGFAMILY]

I hope people find the details below useful.

Cruising tips, Royal Caribbean, January 2013, ex Sydney.

From a family of four (aged 12 and 14 yrs.) from Queensland.

Day trip tips.

 

The main issue when getting off the cruise ship is knowing where the ship anchors or docks, only having 9 hours or so to look around and determining a fair cost of transport etc. offered by the locals. The islands are difficult to get to and thus there is not a lot of information about.

We cruised to the Isle of Pines (New Caledonia), Suva & Denarau of Fiji, Port Vila (Vanuatu) and Lifou (New Caledonia), in that order, on a 12 night trip.

Organised tours through the cruise company tend to be expensive so we tended to organise our own activities, although we had very little information on what to expect at each port/island. We took a lonely planet book which was very helpful and our own snorkelling gear (cheaper than buying on the ship or hiring on the beach).

Remember that the language in New Caledonia and Vanuatu is French so most locals speak only a little English. Australian dollars are pretty much taken everywhere particularly on the street/markets but not so much in towns/shops.

It was well worth getting off the ship early to have a quiet wander around before the rest of the cruisers arrive.

 

Some tips on what to see are below:

 

Isle of Pines. (New Caledonia)

We disembarked early (before 8 am) from the ship by tender boat. The cruise ship was anchored offshore at the beautiful Bay of Kuto. There is no town. Initially there was simply a small private taxi service/bus( $15 per person ) near a small tourist shop available offering a tour of the local town of Vao ( about 7 kms to the East ), it’s church, and the Bay of St Joseph to watch the fisherman. Many people did this tour (we didn’t) and apparently it was reasonably interesting. There was no simple service into Vao for a quick look. The locals are happy to take Australian currency.

We waited 20 mins or so after disembarking and a four wheel drive/taxi/tour operator turned offering trips to La Piscine Naturelle (the natural pool) for great snorkelling. I can highly recommend this. The cost of this is $25 dollars per person (I did have some success with negotiating $80 for a family of four, but this was tough) for a 30 min return trip by private vehicle. We were allowed 2 hours to snorkel and then brought back. The other advantage is a chance to look over the high elevation of the island and drive past a few villages.

When we arrived back it was time for lunch and there was food both free and at a cost available along the beach and shady esplanade. For example there was steamed food wrapped in leaves, cheap coconuts, ice cream and small to medium sized crayfish freshly broiled on the BBQ for $25. There were lots of people by this stage but plenty of beach. It is easy but a little time consuming to go back to the boat for lunch.

Across the road from the beach where the ship is anchored is the pretty Bay of Kanumera in which the taboo rock is situated. Apparently there are wooden stairs which are not allowed to be climbed however you can swim or walk around it. There is a resort at the end of the beach here which is off limits to day trippers. I could not find any bike, scooter or car hire close by to the ship.

There is a shop close to the jetty inside the old crumbling convict prison run by a very nice Swiss and New Zealand couple. They sell their own patterned sarongs and make their own jewellery and are worth a visit. They speak good English, are helpful and would answer any questions particularly if you purchase their pretty book on the Isle of Pines.

It would be easy to just spend the day on the beach however for older kids it is a good idea to do a trip, sadly all a little expensive. You can get your hair braided but shop around (Aus. $15 to $20 for a whole head, or $1 or so per braid).

 

Suva (Fiji)

Suva is a port with a pretty harbour. Leaving the ship is easy with a quick walk into the city. It is a typical third world city and looks run down but is interesting because of the previous English heritage. You can purchase relatively expensive but well organised tours on the ship. You can also organise cheaper tours (perhaps not as quite well organised and with less guarantee) as you walk off the ship through a local tourist operator. There are plenty of offers of transport and taxis are relatively cheap so take your time. There are also plenty of offers for cheap souvenirs as you walk along the foreshore, again there is no hurry. A little trick by the locals to catch your kids is to mark the wood work with their names, thus making it difficult to say no. For example, for two pieces of black tribal painted light wood I paid Aus. $10, and for three I paid Aus. $15 knowing I was over paying (the kids were very excited). In the markets these pieces were a lot cheaper. All part of the fun and games.

If you don’t want to spend much money then I suggest the walking tour as suggested in the Lonely Planet book. This gives one a good grasp of the small city. Part of the walk is to the Fijian museum which gives quite a good history of Fiji’s cultural heritage. The walk only takes a couple of hours with a stop at the museum etc. There are a few local eateries, duty free shops and auto tellers as you get into the city centre. Little India has quite a number of gold jewellery shops.

Our family of four then flagged a taxi, (with meter) and asked to be taken out of town to the local waterfalls and swimming pools of Colo-i-Suva Forest Park. The taxi cost was about $40 Fijian (roughly $20 Australian) for the return trip including waiting time of about one hour. The entrance cost to the park is small. There is quite a distance from the road to the swimming pools/waterfall so I would not suggest getting a bus out or a taxi to the entrance of the park.

Is it worth it? It was lovely and cool, not expensive, a nice countryside tour and a quick trip. The forest is pretty dense rainforest. Overall the forest is no nicer than our own swimming pools/waterfalls on the sunshine coast.

Subsequently there is then a little time to wander around and shop at the duty free shops, have a coffee, have a haircut ($10 Fijian) or go to the markets looking for trinkets, woodcraft and souvenirs. The treated wood is allowed back into Australia if treated as most of it seems to be. The ship then leaves about 5 pm with a brass band and Fijian singing sending us off.

 

Danarau Island (Fiji)

Danarau is an artificial island reclaimed from mangroves and populated by resorts. Docking is by tender boat.

There is a small modern tourist Western looking shopping centre with quite a number of nice looking restaurants, quality wood souvenirs etc. at the marina. There are tours offered by local Fijian tour operators which are cheaper than the cruise ship but with less guarantee of quality. Our local Fijian tour went to a local village which was not at all traditional. However we were taken around the village by a pleasant local young lad and met the locals (including laughing young children) and got a glimpse into the poverty they lived in. We paid Aus. $100 (and gave a small tip) for the return trip of 15 mins to the village, 30 min walk around (although we probably could have asked more questions and stayed longer but it was very hot). On leaving the village the taxi took us into the local town of Nadi (which is third world, not touristy, probably worth a wander and is like a down market Suva), to the Hindu temple for a small donation (well worth a look) and then to the Nadi handicraft market. The market is low key but you can buy some reasonably priced wood souvenirs and your daughter can get her hair braided for about Aus. $1/braid ( about $15 to $ 20 for a whole head) and have her hand given a Henna painting for about $10 depending on the design. We were then dropped back to the marina. All this for 3-4 hrs.

I think the taxi driver would have taken us as long as we liked but at the time we didn’t quite realise this. Interestingly we have friends ( family of 5 ) who did the same tour a couple of months earlier and they managed to find a local taxi driver who took them around the area and took them to his village etc. for the whole day for Aus. $100.

Once back there are a number of groovy eating places which are quite good value. There is also a bus that takes all tourists (about $5 fee each for the day) to each of the resorts for a free wander and swim in the impressive pools (with great pool bars). We swam for the afternoon in one of the resorts and it was great. I should warn you, the beach is poor (the next great beach stop was the Lifou, New Caledonia).

 

Port Vila (Efate Island, Vanuatu)

Port Vila has a port where you walk directly off the ship into a very excited area of young men with taxi’s, stalls and tour offers. The town of Port Vela is 7 to 8 kiss from where the cruise ship docks so a little far too walk but you would not get lost if you did. You will be able to bargain for most things particularly transport if you are patient. The cost of a taxi into town shared between 6 of us was about $10.

The small town is third world with a couple of duty free shops and with a nice but disorganised foreshore including dive shops, markets, Boules courts and coffee shops etc.

The four of us eventually hailed a taxi to the Mele Cascades (beautiful local waterfall and apparently a highlight of Vanuatu). This was after a drop off in town, quick walk around and booking a scuba dive for our two children in the afternoon.

Don’t go to the Mele Cascades in the morning. Most of the cruise ship was there with a massive crowd attempting to climb up to the top (quite dangerous). It is pretty with turquoise waters with nice swimming holes but not worth the chaos. Either go in the afternoon when it is much quieter or do something else. It is perhaps a little prettier than the waterfalls around Maleny/Montville of the Sunshine coast hinterland in QLD. Also the cost to get in was just raised to Aus$25 each person (including kids), which means $100 for a family of four. Really far too expensive and definitely the poorest value for money on the whole trip. Far better to ask a taxi driver to take you around the local area for the day, meet his family etc. like friends of ours did on a previous cruise.

What did work very well was to book the children into an introductory dive (12 and 14 yrs.) which took two hours or so and cost about $80 each (much cheaper than the cruise organised dive and far less crowded). We simply turned up at Big Blue Vanuatu ( on the foreshore in town ) in the morning, booked the dive, went to the cascades, arrived back to the next door café, had lunch, got fitted out and went diving. The chosen dive had lots of big fish, easy, close, fun and what’s more the parents did not have to go diving (as opposed to the cruise ship booking), so we were free for 2 hours or more. Very nice and responsible expats who ran it also.

 

Lifou (New Caledonia)

Our last cruise stop. Very beautiful beach stop similar to Isle of Pines. Less interaction and welcoming compared to Isle of Pines but this didn’t matter. The locals set up a small number of food stalls, small market and a bar. People are taken in by tender boat while the cruise ship anchors in the Bay de Santal. There is a wonderful looking chapel (Chapelle Notre Dame de Lourdes) on a cliff as the cruise ship sails in.

There is good easy snorkelling from the beach. To snorkel we walked to the left (South end) off the jetty towards the chapel on the cliff. The further you go out into the deeper water, the better the reef is. There is a reef drop off which is well worth seeing.

The chapel is well worth a visit and is a short walk to the left (South) once you get to the bitumen road. The view is wonderful but the church is closed. On the way to the church, you walk past a small piggery on the left and can buy a coconut from a family on the right. Behind the coconut stand there is a traditional hut to be viewed for a small donation. For more good snorkelling, just before getting to the steep church steps there is track to the right which leads to the Baie de Jinek, where there are wooden steps leading to more wonderful coral.

Toward the right (North) as you get to the bitumen, it is a short walk to another church (which is open). Behind the church there is a cave apparently worth exploring which you can see for a small donation.

There are tours which like Isle of Pines are not particularly cheap. They take you for example to the little chiefs hut, the local town (We’ I think) and the Baie de Jinek etc. for snorkelling. This trip cost about Aus. $25 /person for a couple of hours. There is an Aus. $15 dollar trip to the town of We' and its local beach from memory. There is a vanilla farm close by as well which you can go to.

 

I hope this helps all enjoy their cruising.

 

Roger

 

Wow Roger

 

We were considering this same itinerary for 2013 spring and even though I don't think we are going to be able to make it, I really appreciate all the time you took to write this review. I am a researcher and there is little written on these boards or elsewhere about these places as well as others in the South Pacific. You took alot of time to write this review and I just wanted to say that I appreciate it very much.

[Beejay4016]

Hi Roger,

 

I second the previous comments: a really well thought out and informative review. We are doing a cruise in July which takes in Isle of Pines and Lifou, and so your comments there were really helpful - we will be sure to look out for the old prison ruins and the Swiss/NZ couple on IoP.

 

Cheers ..

[Oreollie]

Thank you, this is fantastic. We are going to some of the islands you mentioned in December and will be following your recommendations. Thanks again.

[LostFan#1]

I have to echo the previous posters. Thank you so much for posting your review. Our Sept. 28 cruise takes in these islands, and I have made notes from your suggestions.

 

Thanks!!

[Bellamariya]

Remember that the language in New Caledonia and Vanuatu is French so most locals speak only a little English. Australian dollars are pretty much taken everywhere particularly on the street/markets but not so much in towns/shops.

 

Roger

 

I think the information above is correct for New Caledonia. I live in Vanuatu and the official languages here are Bislama, English and French. If a local here has poor English it is more likely to be because they speak their native Bislama rather than because they speak French.

Also, all the shops in town that I know of accept AUD and USD as do the restaurants and cafes.

Please remember though that coins are worth much less than notes. Current exchange rate is about 85vt/$AU1 for notes and 60vt/$AU1 for gold coins. Silver coins are worthless as they cannot be exchanged anywhere. For this reason you may find locals approaching you to exchange their coins for notes.

[comcox]

I think the information above is correct for New Caledonia. I live in Vanuatu and the official languages here are Bislama, English and French. If a local here has poor English it is more likely to be because they speak their native Bislama rather than because they speak French.

Also, all the shops in town that I know of accept AUD and USD as do the restaurants and cafes.

Please remember though that coins are worth much less than notes. Current exchange rate is about 85vt/$AU1 for notes and 60vt/$AU1 for gold coins. Silver coins are worthless as they cannot be exchanged anywhere. For this reason you may find locals approaching you to exchange their coins for notes.

 

Thank you for that insider's tip. We are sailing there in November.

[Henbk]

Thanks for this information when we cruise there we have always helped out with the coin exchange and try to take enough currency so we can.