Things to do in Efate
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Flaming Bull Steakhouse
Among so many great places to eat, one expects to choose some fab French cuisine. But Flaming Bull's eye fillet on mash is impossible to beat. Add the big hug from the waiter and the outrageous atmosphere and you too will keep coming back. Vanuatu beef is good - organic from contented cows that graze around coconut plantations - but then the seafood is straight from the water to you, so the coconut-crumbed prawns are tempting. There's live music later, with local bands playing mellow love songs.
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Coongoola Day Cruise
Coongoola Day Cruise takes you on Lady of the Sea, a 23m ketch built in Burmese Teak with Bermuda ketch rigging. The Lady was once the mother ship for the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. Two dives at Tranquillity Island, snorkel gear, a wander around the turtle sanctuary and beach barbecue are included.
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Club Hippique
Club Hippique offers rides through rainforest and coconut plantations above Emden Lagoon. Offers everything from bareback swimming treks to rainforest rides, gentle beach walks or sunset trails, on acres of forest and beach for you to explore. It's a 10-minute bus ride from town.
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L'Hippocampus the Sea Horse Ranch
L'Hippocampus the Sea Horse Ranch has fun trail rides and major adventures. Offers everything from bareback swimming treks to rainforest rides, gentle beach walks or sunset trails, on acres of forest and beach for you to explore. It's a 10-minute bus ride from town.
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Le Café du Village
Housed in pretty French colonial buildings against a sea wall. Be tempted by Mediterranean and French meals, just kick back with a drink, or come for the champagne and lobster breakfast and watch the activity on the bay as the day gets underway.
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Tilly's
Built around Chantilly's sunny foyer. Drink in superb bay views, or take your meal, maybe baked poulet on crispy potato roast with papaya and lime dressing, out onto the private jetty. There's also a great tapas menu.
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Anchor Inn
A great beer garden that buzzes, especially when international sports are on. Look out for meal specials, like queue-up barbecues. It's home to the Vanuatu Cruising Yacht Club, so you'll hear all the yachtie goss.
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La Pizzeria
This simple little place has great comfort food like the best osso buco or fish curry you've ever had. It's a popular spot with expats who chat away to you, and for pizza (eat-in or takeaway).
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Wild Pig Restaurant
The chef here is famous for his beef Wellington - quite the best you'll ever have. But then there's his lobster bisque and steamed fish in champagne. Yumm.
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Jill's Café
Try one of Jill's famous American-style breakfasts at a table out the back and watch the boats, because you may be here a while - service is slow.
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Sacré Coeur Cathedral
Standing proud on the main street of the French Quarter is modernistic Roman Catholic Sacré Coeur Cathedral.
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Nambawan Market & Café
Wholesome snacks, wireless internet access, ice creams, fresh-squeezed juices and a large range of handicrafts.
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Café Deli
A spacious casual lunch venue with salads, sushi, baguettes, pies, and imported chocolates and cheeses. Watch out for the curry nights.
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Vila Market
Colourful and busy, Vila Market is open round-the-clock from early Monday through to noon on Saturday. Fruit and vegetables, flowers, firewood, jewellery, woodcarvings and souvenirs are in the care of ni-Van women wearing colourful Mother Hubbard dresses.
Prices are rock bottom: coconuts, pawpaws and huge grapefruit can start at around VT20; a generous slab of laplap is around VT150. Produce is seasonal - look for wild raspberries in September, mangoes in November and passionfruit from March to May. Benches at the back are for diners. The ladies cook interesting meals like herb-coated fish with rice, as you watch.
There's no bargaining. Prices are clearly marked and no on…
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Edge Abseiling Adventure Tour
Let us take you over the edge, say the signs advertising Edge Abseiling Adventure Tour. So go, it's totally fantastic. Look at the views as you walk up - you won't be looking on the way down. Practise descending into a little secret pool, then it's 35m down the Mele-Maat cascades to the rock pools. And yes, you get wet. Age is no barrier and you get a photo for proof (around VT1000).
The Edge team also has a 55m abseil into a canyon with an exit through a tunnel, a Tyrolean Traverse on Ifira, and a kayak and abseil adventure at Siviri.
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National Museum of Vanuatu
The excellent National Museum of Vanuatu, in a glorious building, has a large and well-displayed selection of traditional artefacts such as tamtam (slit-gongs or slit-drums), a massive outrigger canoe, ceremonial headdresses and examples of Lapita and Wusi pottery. There are photographic displays and videos on traditional ceremonies and legends.
Temporary exhibitions have included the Silver Jubilee collection, and sculptures by Emmanuel Watt, the first local artist to have an international touring exhibition.
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Wild Blue
Vanuatu's waters, state-of-the-art boats and tackle, and the choices of game, reef and remote-island fishing, half or full-day, and live-aboard means your time on the deep blue will be memorable. Warm currents attract marlin, sailfish, wahoo and dogtooth tuna; operators tag and release their catch, unless they give it to a village. Wild Blue has a 28ft Bertram and a 9m Reef Master which allow you to go serious, or to add some swimming and a beach barbecue.
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Ocean Blue
Vanuatu's waters, state-of-the-art boats and tackle, and the choices of game, reef and remote-island fishing, half or full-day, and live-aboard means your time on the deep blue will be memorable. Warm currents attract marlin, sailfish, wahoo and dogtooth tuna; operators tag and release their catch, unless they give it to a village. Ocean Blue has a fleet of fishing vessels that include its Black Watch 40s, with first-class seagoing capabilities.
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Trader Vics
Touted as the premier bar/nightclub, it's one grand beer garden, with a steaming disco room off the sports-bar area. Live bands, massive T-bones and Wednesday prawn night. Foxtel shows all sports, and there's a pool table, darts, and wait for it - karaoke. The army jazz band plays once a week. Age at the R&D disco is mainly late teens to 30s. Females, take a friend. Fights tend to start after 02:00.
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Tour Shop
Ownership of the land is the structure of Vanuatu society. Everything you touch, cycle over or swim in is owned by somebody. The Tour Shop has camping gear for hire, and Reza will give you a map of places you can camp - pay the owner when you arrive. The equipment can be taken to the outer islands, where many bungalow owners allow camping, and Tanna has Boita's Camping Ground.
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Destination Pacific Islands
You'll probably have a swim at beautiful Eton beach, cruise up Epule River, stop off to see fire walking, check out the mysterious Valeva cave at Undine Bay, or be entertained by villagers. You will be picked up/delivered to your hotel and prices range from around VT4000 to around VT7000 (lunch included). Tour operators include Destination Pacific Islands.
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Sailaway Cruises
Kick back with Sailaway Cruises, which offers a fabulous day trip on the Golden Wing, a trimaran, to the beaches where Survivor Vanuatu was filmed, then magnificent snorkelling or diving at Hat Island (Eretoka) and Paul's Reef. Includes lunch, transfers and snorkel gear. Diving is extra.
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Michoutouchkine & Pilioko Foundation Art Gallery
This Oceanic art gallery and artists' studio is on the way to Pango. Named after its two resident artists, Nicolai Michoutouchkine and Aloi Pilioko, it's amazingly, wildly exotic, with Pacific bric-a-brac and artefacts, including ornate carvings and masks by the master craftsmen of southern Malekula.
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Island Gateway
Once a week, Island Gateway takes Diepsea, a powered luxury catamaran, on a day trip around Efate taking in the seven offshore islands. Visit the marine research station and crater lagoon on Emau, snorkel in the marine park at Nguna, stopover on other islands and meet the islanders.
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Independence Park
This large playing field with a lovely old grandstand is where the Condominium was proclaimed in 1906, with the ceremonial raising of the British and French flags. For years, daily checks ensured that the Union Jack was flying at the same height as the Tricolour - so neither was upstaged!
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