Weather and transport in Port Vila

[romanpolitics*]

Hi,

 

I will be cruising to Port Vila, Vanuatu, in early January. I'm planning to visit the Cascade Waterfalls first up and then perhaps a bit of a tour around the city, shopping, etc. What I'm thinking is a good idea is to maybe hire a taxi for the day (9am-5pm).

 

Can anyone give any tips as to how to organise this? E.g. should we only pay at the end of the day, and how much should we expect to pay so as not to be ripped off? I will be travelling with one other person :)

 

One more thing - I've heard that the weather in Vanuatu/New Caledonia is horrendous and wet during December to January, rather than sunny and clear (which is what we all want I'm sure! :( ). Could anyone confirm this? Should we take umbrellas/rain ponchos and leave the summer gear at home?

 

Thanks all!

[Bellamariya]

Hi,

 

I will be cruising to Port Vila, Vanuatu, in early January. I'm planning to visit the Cascade Waterfalls first up and then perhaps a bit of a tour around the city, shopping, etc. What I'm thinking is a good idea is to maybe hire a taxi for the day (9am-5pm).

 

Can anyone give any tips as to how to organise this? E.g. should we only pay at the end of the day, and how much should we expect to pay so as not to be ripped off? I will be travelling with one other person :)

 

One more thing - I've heard that the weather in Vanuatu/New Caledonia is horrendous and wet during December to January, rather than sunny and clear (which is what we all want I'm sure! :( ). Could anyone confirm this? Should we take umbrellas/rain ponchos and leave the summer gear at home?

 

Thanks all!

 

There are a few different options for visiting Cascades and general sightseeing/shopping.

 

There are some local tour companies that offer this if you would like a scheduled tour.

If you would prefer to do your own thing there is no need to prearrange a driver as there will be plenty waiting at the wharf when the ship docks.

 

I have always chosen to negotiate a fare with a driver based on them dropping me off and picking me back up at a prearranged time. This makes it cheaper as they can head off and pick up casual fares rather than charging you for the wait time.

 

Taxis (t plate) will normally charge per vehicle and buses (b plate) will charge per person. A recent cruiser posted on another forum this morning that they had a large group (22 people) and paid $30pp for a whole days driving with the drivers taking them everywhere they wanted to go. He has listed the name and number of the driver if people would like to book in advance.

Yes I would pay at the end when they deliver you back to the ship.

 

As to the weather, I love Summer here in Vila. It should be hot and humid and you can expect it to rain at any time but we quite often just have hot sunny days and the rain falls at night. Even if it does rain the temperature will not drop so bring your swimmers and enjoy getting wet one way or the other ;)

[DT1304]

When I was there last year with my family (5 of us in total) we arranged a taxi for the day when we arrived at the port.

 

You will see literally hundreds of them and the drivers will swarm on you like bees. What I did was negotiate a $100 rate for the taxi for the day for all 5 of us, and I did this through the fence before getting out the gate and swarmed by the drivers, so when I got to the gate, I just told all the drivers I had a can arranged and they left me alone.

 

I got the driver to take me to Cascade Waterfalls as our first stop, of many. We had such fun there that we actually spent a few hours there.

 

From here the driver took us to Hideaway island nearby, where we spent the rest of the afternoon snorkelling and posting some postcards at the underwater post office. By the time we were done there, we just got dropped back at the ship, walked the market stalls set up outside the ship, and the day was done.

 

Pay the driver at the END of the day, so you are sure he will wait for you at each place.