Cheapest Pacific island for backpacking

Difficult question, and fundamentally it depends what you would like to do as your major cost will be the hopping between islands. Most islands you can find a place to live cheaply in the beach, as the locals do in all PICs. However, to hop around and see a bunch of the islands, Fiji is probably your best bet. It is the easiest place to find other travelers to share costs, and the infrastructure is developed enough that it is not incredibly expensive to do simple things. Also there is a public ferry system to outlying islands like Koro, Vauna Levu, and Taveuni.

Best,

Mike

It does depend on what you want to do and what suits you.
As Nomadic travels said getting around the islands is the biggest expense and so when I head to the Pacific for a couple of months in the winter my favourite Islands are Fiji & Samoa because you get a couple of large ( ish) islands with a cheapish ferry service in both places.
Fiji has two big islands with about 450 kms of road around each and a good cheap bus service.the downside is you can still spend a bit going to islands especially as most of the good budget places on islands you have a meal plan.
Upside if you are travelling alone is thereare a lot of other backpackers in Fiji all year round , so you can normally find company.
It really depends if you want to find a few spots to hang out somewhere or if you expect to be busy travelling and see everything. I spent a few months based in Savusavu and enjoyed cheap food and accommodation, also spent a while at Nananu i Ra Island and that was affordable, next time I will check out Vatia Eco resort as that looks good value but if you get bored easily you will want to keep moving and then you will probably go out to islands and its actually not that cheap.
This is the reason I like Samoa, it has two islands, about 250 kms around, so smaller than Fiji but the cheap Fales are dotted around more often than cheap places on mainland Fiji. The fales ( and all budget accommodation ) on Samoa is not of the same standard as Fiji, - more like camping with the tent ( fale) a fixed feature but breakfast & dinner are included in the daily rate so you spend about 20£ a day for your own wee fale on the beach.- whereas in Fiji it would be a dorm bed and it would cost you a little more for food if at a place where you had a meal plan.
There are less travellers in Samoa so unfortunately you are often the only one in some of the places, but there are more places on the main islands so it can keep you occupied ' fale hopping' , I tend to stay 3- 5 days in each place and so can use up a month to 6 weeks moving around and exporing each area quite easily whereas I only found about 5 or 6 cheap places ( quite spread out ) on the main island in Fiji
The water is warmer for swimming in Samoa but the snorkelling isn't as pretty as Fiji.
They would be you two cheapest places that would be big enough to occupy your self for a month or two on a budget and it depends what are the most important factors which would suit you. - I sometimes do both, a month on each, it costs about 200£ to fly return between them.
For a month on Fiji it cost me about £800 and 6 weeks on Samoa the same then £150 flight return between and the same for a return flight to Auckland NZ. I travelled mid May to end of July this year and booked my flights in advance but just booked accommodation as I went - or just arrived, most places have a walk up price.
That included all ( local) food and travel ( local bus and ferry) with a ( local) drink ( or two or three) each day, but my main activities were walking, biking, snorkelling ( own gear) swimming and kayaking. Any touristy activities would add to the price.

I agree that Fiji is the cheapest country, followed by Samoa and Tonga.
The fact that Fji and Tonga have many more islands than Samoa means you can spend more money on island hopping, but this is optional - you could stay on 1 or 2 islands in Fiji or Tonga like in Samoa, however in Samoa you don't have an option to visit more remote islands as there aren't any.
I also found people in both Fiji and Tonga much friendlier than in Samoa.

Though not generally thought of as a cheap destination, New Caledonia can be cheap if you are prepared to camp and self-cater, as cheap camping grounds are numerious, unlike in the rest of the Pacific.

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