Pacific Islands

Thorn Tree forumCountry forumsPacific Islands & Papua New Guinea
Enter custom title (optional)
This topic is locked
Last reply was
204
…
Send as an e-mail
Send as an e-mail
dmprcl
dmprcl

Hi,

My boyfriend and I are travelling to Philippines and Indonesia in August and September. For October and maybe some of November we were looking into visiting Fiji and some of the French Polynesia Islands. We're travelling on a budget and so we're a little worried that this might be a little expensive for us. Can you really travel these islands on a budget? Are there some islands in the Pacific that are cheaper (but also worth visiting) that we could visit instead? Our max budget is around £20 each a day, hopefully less if we can. We're happy to stay in shared rooms, eat street food etc. My boyfriend is also a keen surfer and would love to know if any of these islands are good for intermediate surfers.

Thank you for any advice :)

D & R

View last reply
Report
1
anonymous
anonymous

I think you should start looking for flight fares to see if they are within your budget. There aren't direct fights from Fiji to French Polynesia, you would need to backtrack to either New Zealand, New Caledonia or Australia...

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report
2
Laszlo
Laszlo

In any case, French Polynesia is just about the most expensive corner of the region to visit, even airfares apart.
The cheapest countries in the Pacific Islands are Fiji, Tonga and Samoa (probably in that order) and these are also linked to each other by relatively (!) cheap flights via Fiji.

Your budget could be just about OK if it is per person - if it is for the 2 of you, forget it.

My info & thoughts:
on East-Indonesia.info: Indonesia, Maluku, West Papua, Raja Ampat & Indonesian Visas
on Thorn Tree: Seeing Orangutans, Kalimantan, Kiribati & Tuvalu
Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report
3
tch7
tch7

£20 a day per person could possibly be adequate for basic living expenses (dorm bed, food, public bus) on the main island of Fiji. Forget actually doing anything though.

Even when you're in Indonesia & the Philippines you'll probably have some difficulty with that budget, and they're a good bit cheaper than anywhere in the South Pacific.

Donuts? I told you I don't like ethnic food!
My Photography & Instagram
Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report
4
farflung
farflung

Bear that in mind August and September is the height of the rainy season in the Philippines but the height of the dry season in Indonesia. That said Siargao, in the southern Philippines, will be good for surfing then.
Your budget will be quite tight even in those countries. When you reach the south Pacific islands, quite apart from living expenses you will have to spend a lot just on the standard tourist day sightseeing excursions.

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report
5
dmprcl
dmprcl

Hi All,

Thank you for all the advice. We've decided against going to Fiji and the Pacific Islands as the flights to get out of those Countries were just too expensive at £450 +. We're now travelling to Sri Lanka instead :)

Thanks again and happy travelling! :)

Copy and paste the url below to share the link.
Permalink to this post
Report

This topic has been locked by a moderator.

Pro tip
Lonely Planet
trusted partner