Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia - excursion tips?

I am going on a cruise this October with RCI with the following ports:

LIFOU, LOYALTY ISLAND 10-26-2012 10:00 AM 06:00 PM

VILA, VANUATU 10-27-2012 08:00 AM 06:00 PM

DENARAU, FIJI 10-29-2012 08:00 AM 06:00 PM

SUVA, FIJI 10-30-2012 08:00 AM 06:00 PM

ISLE OF PINES, NEW CALEDONIA 11-01-2012 07:00 AM 05:00 PM

Does anyone have any tips for excursions or advice on how to see these places without excursions through the cruise line? I have never been to any of these places before, so I am pretty excited. :)

Your question is kind of like asking “what kind of car I should buy?” Without giving more details about what kind of activities you are looking for we have NO CLUE what you will like. If you like snorkeling, you should be REALLY happy.

FWIW, Holland America had NO excursions to sell on the islands Lifou and Isle De Pines.

Isle De Pines is the easiest to answer. You only have a few options:

1. Get off tender and walk to swimming beach
   
2. and/or walk to snorkeling beach
   
3. or hike to the top of the mountain.
   
4. Take a MINI-excursion to one of the neighboring villages.
   

That's about all you can do there without advanced planning.

Lifou is ALMOST exactly the same answer.

Your best bet is to go buy a book covering the South Pacific islands and do some reading.

Dennis

Suva is a lousy port with a small industrial city. There is nothing at the port that is worthwhile so I would look at an excursion of some type to get out of the city. Unfortunately the neares snorkeling is about 40 minutes away.

Port Denarau is a very upscale port with shopping. I would take a tour to one of the Yasawa islands which are beautiful white sand with great snorkeling.

Port Vila is a dump, no disrespect intended. Our PG ship stopped there in early February and we walked around the couple of streets that make up the town and saw the market but there was nothing there. Again, a tour getting outside of the city is a must.

On Lifou there may be a tour over to the east coast...stunning beaches and scenery .

Isle of Pines has a lovely beach and good snorkelling

Port Vila is usually our duty-free stop or you could do a tour to the Ekasup Traditonal Village (it was the highlight for us)

Haven't been to Suva or Port Denaru, but have heard sad reports about the towns, so best find a tour and get out a bit.

I'll add some photos so you can explore further.

Thanks guys! I should do more research. I have never snorkeled before, but wouldn't be against it. I guess I was curious what people have done at these places in the past.

I'm wondering if I made a mistake in booking RCI instead of P&O Australia.

P&O had like 35 excursions for Vila alone. They didn't go to Fjii or Isle of Pines - instead went to Wala, Santo, and Champagne Bay - but it seemed like Lifou and Vila had the best excursions from what they listed. I also read good things about Isle of Pines on the internet.

The P&O was a shorter cruise, more expensive, harder to book, and of course, all these islands are new to me. I figured Fiji would be something worth seeing - but it sounds as if these ports weren't very impressive...hopefully there will be some good Fijian excursions through RCI. :)

We will be staying in Port Denarau and taking a day trip with either Stork Cruises or Oolala cruises look on Trip Advisor that is how I found these companies and their ratings for day tours out to the islands.

teeeej,

Unless you are terrified of water, buy some snorkeling gear and get in some practice before you go. Some of the stops have REALLY good snorkeling... the Caribbean is bland (and dead) in comparison.

Your RCI cruise is a respectable choice. Unless you are an Aussie or Kiwi, you might not appreciate P&O. ;-) If you are having second thoughts consider the HAL Dec 5th cruise. Two extra days with two extra (excellent) stops.

Port Villa is basically the Antigua or Grenada of the South Pacific. The “city” is nothing special, but there are really nice parts to the island if you get away from the port. There are also SWARMS of taxi drivers who will fight to get your business. You could also see the Cascade Falls, or spend the day on a tiny little private island. The Ekasup Traditonal Village (aka Cannibal) tour gets high marks (and I actually enjoyed it), but you will need to book that through the ship and it sells out QUICKLY.

Fiji IS worth seeing: you just need to get out of Denarau (and Suva) as quickly as possible. Take a trip to one of the outlying islands, or an organized tour to the interior of the island.

Try searching through the Aussie board for relevant info.

e.g.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1610994

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1610987

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1592415

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1609160

Dennis

Thanks Dennis,

I live in Southern California, so I can certainly get some snorkel practice in - but the water is sooooo cold here. :)

is the snorkel in these areas better than the Great Barrier Reef? I am planning to do an intro scuba @ the great barrier reef while i am in australia.

Your RCI cruise is a respectable choice. Unless you are an Aussie or Kiwi, you might not appreciate P&O. ;-) If you are having second thoughts consider the HAL Dec 5th cruise. Two extra days with two extra (excellent) stops.

Honestly, the cruise was booked as an afterthought- I mostly picked this cruise because of timing. I am doing extensive coach tours of all of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia (quad shares) with lots of outdoor adventures - more than anytihng - the cruise is time to relax and my own personal sleeping space, but i doubt I will ever have a chance to see these islands again so I want to make the most of these ports....but not at the expense of optinoals in Australia and New Zealand. :)

I prefer Hawaii to the Caribbean myself.

In general, the Great Barrier Reef is probably better, but it all depends where they take you and how lucky you get. For an intro scuba class they aren't going to take you to the best places since they need to keep both you and the reef safe, but I'm sure it will be more than enough to wow you. Chances are the snorkeling at the cruise stops will seem just as good too.

You can do a lot of your practice in a nice heated swimming pool if you prefer, but try to go out at least once in salt water. The idea is to just get comfortable with your gear, make sure your mask fits properly and doesn't leak, and for you to get the hang of breathing through the snorkel.

IMHO, you have 6 days at sea to relax, so try to make the most of your days ashore. Lifou and Isle de Pines will be your tropical beach/snorkeling days, so grab a book and see what kind of outdoor adventures appeal to you somewhat near Suva and Denarau.

Dennis

I'm going on the same cruise in October too! I've been doing some research and I also see that there's not much to see in Suva or Denarau and that we should try to get to the Yasawa Islands in Denarau. There's no excursion offered by RCI. I'm wondering how easy it is to get over there once we've docked? I want to try to get to Bega Lagoon while in Suva...or just lay on a beach and let the kids play. I hope there's a nice one within walking distance.

I'm going on the same cruise in October too! I've been doing some research and I also see that there's not much to see in Suva or Denarau and that we should try to get to the Yasawa Islands in Denarau. There's no excursion offered by RCI. I'm wondering how easy it is to get over there once we've docked? I want to try to get to Bega Lagoon while in Suva...or just lay on a beach and let the kids play. I hope there's a nice one within walking distance.

Odd that RCL are not offering any island trips from Denarau. You can book independently as it is a marina used by boats that provide tours for land based tourists. Bear in mind that it is a tender port and RCL will give priority for early tendering to anyone who has booked a ship's tour so full day tours could be a little tight. We did an inland tour to a village and enjoyed it - ship's tour I confess - so we got priority tendering.

There is no convenient beach to Suva - about the best bet within taxi/van distance would be Uprising Beach Resort (and also the Pearl Resort) about 35 mins van/taxi drive from Suva. This is possibly where your Beqa tour would leave from. You will find axi and van drivers awaiting business as you get off the ship. Be sure to verify whether the price quoted is in US, AUD or Fijian dollars before you settle, be prepared to bargain and do not pay until the end of the trip. The advantage of finding a beach at a resort is access to taxis to get back to the ship.

Colleen

In Suva there is no beach anywhere nearby. I was told it was a 30-40 minute drive to a beach. Beqa Lagoon is about 45 minutes away.

If you stop in Noumea in New Caledonia we tried to do the trip to Amadee Island but due to weather it was cancelled. Supposedly Amadee Island is great for a beach day. Instead we went to Duck Island. You don't need to reserve this in advance. When you get off the ship there is a covered area with some companies selling tours. For $20 US they take you on a bus about 15 minutes to a water taxi for a 5 minute ride to Amadee Island. About $20 on the island to rent chairs and an umbrella. Decent snorkeling but reef shoes to get in and out of the water are a must.

re Vila,

we got off our RCI ship and hired a large taxi to take a group of us (met these people on board the ship) to/from the Cascades waterfall. bargained for the fare per person and then arranged for the driver to come back and pick us up after 3 hours. we paid the driver when he dropped us back at the ship.

entry to the Falls was A$20/person (which I thought was a bit steep!). that said, sitting in the pool at the base of the waterfall was an incredible experience.

the two of us got off at the town area and wandered through a few duty free stores. we ended up buying our alcohol from the ship as it was cheaper to purchase it on board. (tip...be aware of the prices before you get off the ship).

it cost us A$3/person to get back from the town to the ship. note that those drivers do not give you any change!! bring small notes/coins. if we had given the driver A$10, he would not have given us the $4 back in change.

re Isle of Pines,

what a beautiful place!!

we enjoyed our time there near the big rock at Kanumera beach...swimming and snorkelling. to get to this beach, walk past the stalls, go up the hill and where the road divides, take the right fork to Kanu beach.

very glad that we had purchased reef shoes to protect our feet from the rough rocks/shells at both these places.

Hi

I cant answer about the ports you mention as I am doing a cruise to most of these ports myself for the first time in December, however I can aswer about Fiji.

I visited Fiji last year for 10 days for a holiday. It is an AMAZING place. The people are so friendly and happy. I love it there and will definately be going back. HOWEVER, what has been said about the ports is true. Suva is not a port you want to explore, so find an excusrion from there.

Denarau is a nice little tourist port, but there are no good beaches etc. Denarau Island is a man made island built on mud flats and the beaches are not good. There are some great hotels with fantastic pools, but I would take a trip out to the islands.

I would HIGHLY recommen a trip to Castaway Island in the Mamanucas. You can do this by ferry which is about 1hr 15mins, or take a helicopter or sea plane which is ten minutes awesome flight (But obviously more expensive). Castaway is my favourite place. I stayed there for a while and WILL be going back. They only accept a small number of day visitors each day so best to book in advance.

As for the Scuba, there is some superb snorkelling in Fiji, right off the beach at Castaway island and they have a dive boat that goes out 3 times a day to 21 dive sites all within 10 minutes boat ride from the island.

The barrier reef is awesome, but as has been mentioned, it depends where they take you, and is also a lengthy boat ride away from the mainland.

We will be staying in Fiji for 3 days before departing on a cruise to FP the day ferry to Castaway Island that you mentioned is it better than paying for a tour company to take my husband and I out to snorkel. We have done the G&B FP and many Caribbean islands as well as Thailand.

We did a similar cruise last year (minus the Isle of Pines). I can share with you what we did (I highly recommend both tours):

Port Vila: took a taxi out to Mele Cascades and walked up the top

Port Denarau: did the Discover Nadi tour with Tourist Transport Fiji

Suva: Jewel of Fiji Day Tour with Discover Fiji Tours

Lifou: Walk to Our Lady of Lourdes & snorkel @ Baie de Jinek

If you would like to read a more detailed explaination of each day, check out our blogs at

Lifou: http://www.thenextjourney.com/2011/10/lifou-island-life-away-from-the-hustle-bustle/

Savu: http://www.thenextjourney.com/2011/10/suva-jewel-of-fijis-awesome-foursome/

Port Denarau : http://www.thenextjourney.com/2011/10/port-denarau-our-first-taste-of-fiji/

Port Vila: http://www.thenextjourney.com/2011/10/vanuatu-climbing-the-falls-of-this-new-island-nation/

If you would like to view

I haven't read all of the replies but you have definitely made the right choice in going with RCI. I have done 2 cruises out of the US with RCI and then did a cruise from Australia to the Pacific Islands with P&O and was very disappointed!! We are doing a cruise to Fiji in November with Princess so I am hoping it will be better than P&O. We are taking our 16 month old daughter on this cruise so it will be an entirely different experience for us!!

I have been to Fiji before and recommend taking a tour to the outer islands. Have a look at South Sea Cruises who do day trips from Port Denarau. I haven't been to Suva before so I am hoping to get some tips for our cruise as well.

Enjoy :)

Welcome to Cruise Critic Goosejam and ReneeAO3

Hi there

We were in Port Denarau at Easter. The port is basically a shopping centre, departure point for a number of cruises, a golf course and home to about 5 or 6 resorts. The shopping centre you can do in about 10 minutes. You can wander around the various resorts for free.

We did a day trip to Tivua Island with Captain Cook Cruises. It left at 10am and was back at 5pm. Small private island, great snorkelling, the crew were very helpful. I'd easily do it again. We also stayed a week on Malololailai Island at Musket Cove. They have a $20 week long pass you can buy which gives you two free snorkelling trips every day.

My husband and I are also on the RCL cruise in Oct. We are in New Zealand on a guided tour for 3 weeks and then in Australia touring for 31/2 weeks before going on the cruise so are looking forward to the time to just unpack and have the ship move each night. A chance to rest before the long trip back to eastern Canada. I will try and research some of the tours that have been mentioned but if someone has a private tour and they need more people please let us know. We have usually done private tours rather then the ship ones in the past.

Looking forward to seeing down under.

Hi

We are doing Radiance in Feb 2013 but had first thought of the 9 Jan trip which stopped at Suva and Denarau.

RCI did show excursions to the outer islands for Denarua for this cruise so would no doubt be the same for your cruise.

When in Suva best to take a cultural village tour, some include boat trips up the river. Something different and a break from the beaches.

Having done these ports before, you will have fun. RCI is a better choice than P&O.

I didn't lmpw about the Amadee Island tours, I've heard about it and glad to hear it's not very far