Aussie dollars in Vila and Nouméa...

[radiancecruiser]

Can we pay taxi drivers and food places in Nouméa and Vila with Aussie $, or do we need to use Francs?

 

Also, can we visit the Cascades in Vila without being part of an organized shore excursion?

 

Thank you:)

 

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[By The Bay]

Can we pay taxi drivers and food places in Nouméa and Vila with Aussie $, or do we need to use Francs?

 

Also, can we visit the Cascades in Vila without being part of an organized shore excursion?

 

Thank you:)

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Forums mobile app

Vila willingly accepts AUD$'s. A taxi or bus will take you to Cascades. Nearby is the Tanna coffee factory and Hideaway Island.

[Fletch1]

I would recommend hideaway island. One if those beautiful places in the world and great snorkelling and an underwater post box.

[cruisingsis]

Aus money fine in Vila but we alway convert to local francs in Noumea as they are not so happy to take Aus money.

And yes you can get any of the buses (vans with a B on number plate) to take you to Cascades. Ask them how much to take you and wait while you go in Pay them afterwards.

And I agree aboutHideaway if you are interested in snorkelling. Fee to get on island (as there is to visit Cascades) and you can hire snorkel gear.

 

 

Jenny - Cruising out of sunny Tauranga, NZ

[Bellamariya]

Can we pay taxi drivers and food places in Nouméa and Vila with Aussie $, or do we need to use Francs?

 

Also, can we visit the Cascades in Vila without being part of an organized shore excursion?

 

Thank you:)

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Forums mobile app

 

You can use $AU in Port Vila but might be happier converting to Vatu.

Most places will accept $AU but give change in Vatu and exchange rates vary greatly.

The current rate is around 85vt/$AU1 for notes and 60vt/$AU1 for gold coins. Silver coins are worthless here as no one will exchange them.

Goodies do the best rate in town and don't charge fees.

If you go to Cascades the entry fee is 2000vt or $AU25 so there is a small saving to be made if you exchange first :)

[ravie80]

Aus money fine in Vila but we alway convert to local francs in Noumea as they are not so happy to take Aus money.

And yes you can get any of the buses (vans with a B on number plate) to take you to Cascades. Ask them how much to take you and wait while you go in Pay them afterwards.

And I agree aboutHideaway if you are interested in snorkelling. Fee to get on island (as there is to visit Cascades) and you can hire snorkel gear.

 

 

Jenny - Cruising out of sunny Tauranga, NZ

 

What does the B on the number plate mean

[rkmw]

What does the B on the number plate mean

 

B is for bus and T is for taxi

[bazzaw]

It also very much largely depends on how much you anticipate spending in each place -- and what you expect to spend it on.

 

I know that is difficult to answer -- but there are things that the locals will accept AUD for and things that they won't ( these latter things would probably be small things -- like a coca cola from a local store.) In general however, I think that you can get away with small denomination AUD in those 3 ports. Also, in general, I prefer to take XPF to New Caledonian ports - especially if we are going to a number of them.

 

 

Barry

[radiancecruiser]

You can use $AU in Port Vila but might be happier converting to Vatu.

Most places will accept $AU but give change in Vatu and exchange rates vary greatly.

The current rate is around 85vt/$AU1 for notes and 60vt/$AU1 for gold coins. Silver coins are worthless here as no one will exchange them.

Goodies do the best rate in town and don't charge fees.

If you go to Cascades the entry fee is 2000vt or $AU25 so there is a small saving to be made if you exchange first :)

 

Please excuse my ignorance, but is the currency in Nouméa different to Vila?

Also, who or what is Goodies?

 

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[By The Bay]

Please excuse my ignorance, but is the currency in Nouméa different to Vila?

Also, who or what is Goodies?

 

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In Nouméa which is in New Caledonia, the currency is French Pacific Francs, code XPF.

 

In Vila, which is in Vanuatu, the currency is the Vanuatu vatu, code VUV.

 

Goodies is a shop that exchanges AUD$ to Vatu$.

[Bellamariya]

Please excuse my ignorance, but is the currency in Nouméa different to Vila?

Also, who or what is Goodies?

 

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By The Bay's answer was spot on :)

[Chelseapop]

In Noumea it is very advisable to have the Pacific Franc because a lot of stores refuse to accept anything else. In Vanuatu if you don't have Vatu you are virtually at the mercy of how each individual shop/outlet calculates the 'current' exchange rate. We went into a chemist to purchase some strepsil cough lollies and paid what seemed an awful lot only to realise we had been totally ripped off by the shop assistants magic calculator when doing the currency conversion. We ended up paying something like $34 for two packets. If we had had Vatu we would have just paid the correct amount.

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

Heaps of ATMs at port villa area. We negotiated with our cab in local dollars, then gad him take us to ANZ ATM to get our dollars for cascades, museum, village tour. Then we had another stop at ATM to pay cab fare for the day! We didn't do hideaway as snorkelling wasn't on our list if things to do.

 

Did tan a coffee, virtually 2x other tourists there and us, lovely feel to it!

 

Went to a village behind the airport. They put on a private show & tour for us. Lived that, highlight of our day.

[radiancecruiser]

So would it work out cheaper to go on our own to Cascades, or book a tour through RCI?

 

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[Cruise_me_Crazy]

If Radiance charge like princess, then totes go on your own. We hired our taxi driver, went to the museum (saw the sand drawing with the large princess tour) cascades, tanna coffee house, & a private village tour, for a lot less than what the princess tour's equivalent was. We had our own time lines & no groups. We thought villa was a very safe feeling place & would go again!

[ravie80]

If Radiance charge like princess, then totes go on your own. We hired our taxi driver, went to the museum (saw the sand drawing with the large princess tour) cascades, tanna coffee house, & a private village tour, for a lot less than what the princess tour's equivalent was. We had our own time lines & no groups. We thought villa was a very safe feeling place & would go again!

 

Thank you feeling a little more comfortable about doing our own thing now never been to port villa before but want to do the cascades and duty free shopping should a family of 4 look at a taxi or bus ???? How much do you think we should pay the driver to do these 2 things Aussie dollar ???

 

 

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[Cruise_me_Crazy]

Thank you feeling a little more comfortable about doing our own thing now never been to port villa before but want to do the cascades and duty free shopping should a family of 4 look at a taxi or bus ???? How much do you think we should pay the driver to do these 2 things Aussie dollar ???

 

 

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Happy to admit I think we got "ripped off" a little. But..... It was days before Christmas, and a 3rd world country. We agreed to $120 for the day (local dollars) and tipped another 50 local with a "Merry Christmas" :) as we thought our driver was lovely. We bought him lunch, he ordered the cheapest thing off the menu :( so I got him extra chips (which he shared with a mate at the same place!) he shouted hubs a local beer from his pocket.

When we were negotiating, he "shook hands" on the deal. Villa felt very safe for us, different feel from 2x Fiji ports.

 

Cars are standard 1 seat front, bench seat back, so maybe a van would me more comfortable. If you have read any of my posts here u may notice that we tend to fly by the seat of our pants a lot holidays wise! :D we listened to the recorded ports of call info, read over the princess offered cruises (that arrive the night before in an attempt to have u book them) (sure other lines will be the same) & decided where we wanted to go over breakky that day.

 

Tender ports we normally slept in, took a long breakky messed about and wandered down to tender about 10.30ish. Walked onto the next tender! No ques!!

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

Oh & my other advice for this port. Toddle off the ship, walk past the throng of pax lined for cruise tours & taxis, walk the gauntlet past the market stalls, & wait until 1/2 way along or so until u see a decent looking taxi bus/ van u like the look of. Negotiate before jumping in the car ;) & walk away if they are too high. Cruise prices are a reality! We just dealt with it!

[ravie80]

Oh & my other advice for this port. Toddle off the ship, walk past the throng of pax lined for cruise tours & taxis, walk the gauntlet past the market stalls, & wait until 1/2 way along or so until u see a decent looking taxi bus/ van u like the look of. Negotiate before jumping in the car ;) & walk away if they are too high. Cruise prices are a reality! We just dealt with it!

 

Thank you so that's $120 au that's good and cascade is $25 au each sounds good

[Cruise_me_Crazy]

Thank you so that's $120 au that's good and cascade is $25 au each sounds good

 

Yes :)

From memory conversion wise, it was cheaper to pay for the cascades in local dollars than Aus dollars.

[cassamanda]

You will find in Vila that the taxis at the start of the line as you walk off the ship near the markets charge heaps more than the ones further down or in town.

Walk half way down the markets and take a water taxi into town for just $5. Look for the signs. We negotiated in town for $90 all day including Cascades.

Just make absolutely sure that you agree to the price and where he is taking you before you leave and don't pay until you return. This is very important.

 

Also prices at the shops and markets are fixed so please do not embarrass yourself and insult them by bargaining for a better deal. They will just stare are you.

 

Aussie dollars are readily accepted in Vila.

 

We used Francs in Noumea as although they do accept AU at the terminal markets and tour offices, you got a much better price using local currency.

 

Hugh

[keagle]

Oh & my other advice for this port. Toddle off the ship, walk past the throng of pax lined for cruise tours & taxis, walk the gauntlet past the market stalls, & wait until 1/2 way along or so until u see a decent looking taxi bus/ van u like the look of. Negotiate before jumping in the car ;) & walk away if they are too high. Cruise prices are a reality! We just dealt with it!

 

If you were on a RC cruise, then you are wrong.

 

All RC tours leave from the back of the port, away from the markets. There are no masses of people waiting to offer anything at the stern of the ship. Also, when we were there in November, security had made it very easy to go past the gates and the drivers were much easier to avoid.

[Bellamariya]

 

Also prices at the shops and markets are fixed so please do not embarrass yourself and insult them by bargaining for a better deal. They will just stare are you.

 

Hugh

 

This is great advice :)

[ravie80]

You will find in Vila that the taxis at the start of the line as you walk off the ship near the markets charge heaps more than the ones further down or in town.

Walk half way down the markets and take a water taxi into town for just $5. Look for the signs. We negotiated in town for $90 all day including Cascades.

Just make absolutely sure that you agree to the price and where he is taking you before you leave and don't pay until you return. This is very important.

 

Also prices at the shops and markets are fixed so please do not embarrass yourself and insult them by bargaining for a better deal. They will just stare are you.

 

Aussie dollars are readily accepted in Vila.

 

We used Francs in Noumea as although they do accept AU at the terminal markets and tour offices, you got a much better price using local currency.

 

Hugh

 

Thank you great info :)

 

 

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[Cruise_me_Crazy]

Keagle, we were on princess :)

 

Cassamandra, our port lecturer said around $100 for the day, so your $90 is a good deal.

 

A lot of cruisers loved the water taxi and said it was much easier (& pleasant) way to get into town.