Papua, New Guinea

I just got off the Amsterdam after doing half the world cruise from Fort Lauderdale to Hong Kong. We visited two ports in Papua, New Guinea ...Madang and Alotau .. We met some very nice helpful local people in both ports but I do think that these are two ports that you have to be especially careful in. In Madang, one of the ship's officers was off the ship riding his bike in port and was robbed at knifepoint by three men. He suffered superficial knife wounds and was able to get back to the ship.

I'm also just back from PNG as well as Indonesia New Guinea. I agree with Ferry Beach about Madang - five years ago you could wander around quite safely but now it's regarded as a security risk. In fact, it's a total dump nowadays. The same applies to Wewak where we also went.

In my view, PNG is only good for two kinds of trips: Highland lodges to admire the scenery, culture and wildlife or the myriad offshore islands such as the Trobriands and these can only be accessed from expedition cruise ships, such as the one I was one, the Caledonian Sky with about 100 (that's one hundred) passengers. Big ships are pretty useless out here.

Hi I can see you are on line at the moment & I'm interested if you know of others that have been to ppng. We are going on 1st Sept & are visiting Alotua, Trobriand islands, Milne Bay,& Doini island on the P & O Pacific Pearl. Any info would be good thanks Kathy

Hi, Table of Eight / Kathy,

I'm on a similar cruise (Princess, Sept 2015). I'd love to hear your experience. THX in advance for any info!

Linda