shore tours Pacific Islands

[subaru94]

We are shortly visiting Suva, Pt. Denarau, Savu Savu, Tonga and Noumea, getting confused what shore tours to do, has anyone done the Amedee Island Tour and suggested islands from Pt. Denarau and other island please.

[Ruby62]

Hi. In regards to your question about day trips to islands from Denarau. Are you wanting to do an island tour offered by P&O, or do you want to book it yourself. What trips are offered from P&O and at what price? I have been to most of the Mamanuca Islands, but not with P&O. If you want to book your own trip, the South Sea Cruises boat leaves from Denarau at 9am and you can go to any island you want in the Mamanuca group - Treasure, Beachcomber, Bounty, Mana, Castaway etc etc... What do you want to do at the island - snorkel, swim? Just let me know what you want out of the day and I can advise. Here is the link to the timetable on the South Sea Cruises site, you can book directly with them. This is how we have done it each time. Obviously you need to be careful you get back in time to the ship before it leaves.

 
http://www.ssc.com.fj/island_resort_connections.aspx

[Ela 2]

We are shortly visiting Suva, Pt. Denarau, Savu Savu, Tonga and Noumea, getting confused what shore tours to do, has anyone done the Amedee Island Tour and suggested islands from Pt. Denarau and other island please.

Hi,

My recommendations are:

Suva - Book independently the full tour at the Arts Village at Pacific Harbour. They will pick you up and bring you back to the ship. If you want the info to to the Roll Call section, Sun Princess, Pearls of Tahiti cruise 21/10/08.

 

Port Denaru - You can get on the free Bula bus and go to the various resorts.

 

Savusavu - You can walk to the hot springs (only a few hundred metres). You can also walk to the black pearl farm and pay for a tour (A$25). There are plenty of taxis and you can go to the beach on the other side of the peninsula. The scenery is lovely and you see some of the countryside. This would cost A$30 return. Details on the Sun Princess Roll Call section.

 

Tonga - Presumably you are going to Nuku'alofa and Vava'u. In Nuku'alofa we are going on a full day tour costing US$30pp. It does not include lunch. In Vava'u we will either get a taxi or hire a car. Still working on that one.

 

Noumea - Amedee Is gets great reports, but if you haven't been to Noumea before you wont see anything of the city. We are going to walk to the nearby markets then get the Noumea explorer Bus and travel past the beaches. We will get off at the Aquarium and the Tjibaou Cultural Centre. Depending on time we will also go to the Zoo/Botanical gardens. Total cost each is around A$35, but we have to get francs.

 

Others will have their suggestions. :):)

[aussie57]

The Petit Train is good in Noumea for a general look around the highlights. Similarly we did a general tour of Nuka'alofa in Tonga but we booked it through the ship shore tours. It was worthwhile to get an overview of the town & culture. Tonga's tourist industry is not well developed.

[subaru94]

HI we love snorkelling so are looking for good spots to snorkel and we are only in each port a day, just weighing up whether to go through P& O or organise our own depends on the cost?

[Ela 2]

If you want to go on the Petite Train, book the one in the terminal. It is A$20 pp, or you can go on the same trip by bus for A$15.:):)

[Ela 2]

I have been to most of the Mamanuca Islands, but not with P&O. If you want to book your own trip, the South Sea Cruises boat leaves from Denarau at 9am and you can go to any island you want in the Mamanuca group - Treasure, Beachcomber, Bounty, Mana, Castaway etc etc... What do you want to do at the island - snorkel, swim? Just let me know what you want out of the day and I can advise.

Hi Ruby 62,

This sounds interesting. From the timetable, one of the boats returns to Denaru at 3pm. On our cruise we leave Denaru at 6pm, so there is plenty of lee-way. We will only be there for one day. Which island or islands would you recommend? Roughly how much is the ferry fare?

Thank you in advance.:):):)

Evon.

[subaru94]

Hi. In regards to your question about day trips to islands from Denarau. Are you wanting to do an island tour offered by P&O, or do you want to book it yourself. What trips are offered from P&O and at what price? I have been to most of the Mamanuca Islands, but not with P&O. If you want to book your own trip, the South Sea Cruises boat leaves from Denarau at 9am and you can go to any island you want in the Mamanuca group - Treasure, Beachcomber, Bounty, Mana, Castaway etc etc... What do you want to do at the island - snorkel, swim? Just let me know what you want out of the day and I can advise. Here is the link to the timetable on the South Sea Cruises site, you can book directly with them. This is how we have done it each time. Obviously you need to be careful you get back in time to the ship before it leaves.

 
http://www.ssc.com.fj/island_resort_connections.aspx

Hi, thanks for that I am new to this site and made a couple of mistakes trying to reply, thanks for your help we will have day trips arrive in Pt. Denarau 8 and ship departs 6pm, will look into that site, also have you heard about Nateway Bay in Savu Savu being good for snorkelling, my husband and I love snorkelling.

[Skyrules]

We are shortly visiting Suva, Pt. Denarau, Savu Savu, Tonga and Noumea, getting confused what shore tours to do, has anyone done the Amedee Island Tour and suggested islands from Pt. Denarau and other island please.

 

We are going to all of those ports on our cruise in September.

 

So far we've booked;

 

Noumea - Amedee Island

 

Savu Savu - Nukubalavu Village (am) & Black Pearl Farm (pm)

 

Nuku'alofa - HIstoric Nuku'alofa (am) & Old Tongan Cultural Village (pm)

 

We haven't decided what to do in Suva, Port Denarau or Vava'u yet.

 

Our tour booking form didn't tell us what tours would be available in Port Denarau, but we're hoping to do the Scenic Helicopter flight.

 

We are thinking of doing the Kart Safari in Vava'u but we need to find out how strict they are on the height restriction first - as my other half is around 6ft2in which they say is the height restriction.

 

We probably won't do anything in Suva this time - might just walk to Suva Central to get a coffee made with real milk, and have a quick look at the markets, then come back to the ship and "enjoy" the bussle of Suva from there.

 

Kym

[subaru94]

We are going to all of those ports on our cruise in September.

 

So far we've booked;

 

Noumea - Amedee Island

 

Savu Savu - Nukubalavu Village (am) & Black Pearl Farm (pm)

 

Nuku'alofa - HIstoric Nuku'alofa (am) & Old Tongan Cultural Village (pm)

 

We haven't decided what to do in Suva, Port Denarau or Vava'u yet.

 

Our tour booking form didn't tell us what tours would be available in Port Denarau, but we're hoping to do the Scenic Helicopter flight.

 

We are thinking of doing the Kart Safari in Vava'u but we need to find out how strict they are on the height restriction first - as my other half is around 6ft2in which they say is the height restriction.

 

We probably won't do anything in Suva this time - might just walk to Suva Central to get a coffee made with real milk, and have a quick look at the markets, then come back to the ship and "enjoy" the bussle of Suva from there.

 

Kym

Hi thanks for that you must be going on the same cruise as us Pacific Dawn 16 nights, we enjoy snorkelling so was trying to work out whether to do the shore tours with p&o or organise our own thing, think we will definitely book the Amedee Island as I don't think much of Noumea and will be something to look forward to being our last island.

[Ruby62]

Hi subaru94 & Ela 2

There are so many lovely islands in the Mamanuca group but my favourite is Mana Island. It’s a shame you can’t go for a full day and take the last boat back to Denarau – getting in at 6pm, but that doesn’t work in with your departure time. If you were to go to Mana you could get out there on the 9am boat, arrive at 10.25am, and leave on the 1.30pm boat, to arrive at Denarau at 3.00pm. This would give you 3 hours on the island – enough time to have a good look around and snorkel and swim.

The North beach is lovely – with fab views of other islands. Beautiful white sand, gorgeous water and great snorkelling right off the beach. There is a reef that drops off about 50 – 70 metres from the beach with lots of fish to be seen. The resort spans from one side of the island to the other. On the other side is the South beach, the "watersports" side. We have also snorkelled out from this beach – not as good as the other side. You have to swim across some deeper sandy areas to get out to the shallower coral for snorkelling.

There is one problem with only going out to Mana for only a few hours and wanting to snorkel - the north beach is tidal. At low tide it is impossible to get out to snorkel due to the exposed coral. I was sitting on the beach one day and watched 2 girls walking in from snorkelling, over the shallow coral. They were holding onto each other for dear life, trying not to fall. Luckily they had reef shoes on. They took 30 minutes to walk about 30 metres. However, when the tide is half in, or if it is full tide, there is plenty of depth to swim out.

There is a nice restaurant called the South Beach Restaurant, where you can sit and look out onto the gorgeous ringed reef, with Castaway island in the distance. Meals here last year were about F$16 - $18 for lunch.

There is a toilet and shower building next to the watersports bure (where you hire gear) on the South Beach, for you to use to have a shower etc before you get on the boat.

http://www.manafiji.com/

Another option is to go to Beachcomber Island on the Beachcomber cat. We did a day trip a few years ago and loved it. They pick you up at Denarau Marina, take you out to the island and bring you back early evening. They put on a great lunch for us, and it was the first time we had been to a Fijian island and snorkelled. There were lots of fish but by memory the coral wasn’t anything special. I have tried looking on their website but it seems to be down at the moment.

http://www.beachcomberfiji.com/

You would obviously need to check what time they arrive back at Denarau. I have in the meantime found the Sun Vacations site, which gives a rundown on the Beachcomber day trip, and says it gets back at 6pm – so too late!!! They are quoting F$99 for a full day trip including lunch.

http://www.sunvacationsfiji.com/06offer_det.asp?off=25

Treasure Island is another option but having looked at the timetable, there is an issue with the return journey. You’d have to get on the boat at 1pm and stay on there 2 hours going around the other islands, before getting back to Denarau.

Here is a map (with SSC's timetable) of the islands in the Mamanuca group - gives you an idea of where everything is.

http://www.ssc.com.fj/documents/Mamanuca_Timetable07_000.pdf

Here is the SSC's page where you can put in your destination and work out costs for transfers to the islands.

https://www.mth.co.nz/ssc/booking_choose_connection.aspx

I'd be interested in knowing where the P&O day trips go to and how much they are.

Castaway Island is another option - a really lovely resort with a nice pool, we went over from Mana for an hour or so and found it to be quite exposed on the beach (windy) and it was too unpleasant to snorkel that day, so can't tell you what the snorkelling's like. But if I had to choose I would still choose Mana.

Ideally you would choose to go to one of the closer islands to Denarau rather than go all the way out to Mana, but the issue is that return transfer! Pity you couldn't get picked up at Beachcomber or Treasure at 4ish.

I hope I haven't confused you too much! Maybe P&O have organised a boat to bring passengers back from the islands at another time in the afternoon? Or they may just be booking passengers on the SSC's boat?

Let me know if you need any more info, good luck in making a decision!

 

[Ela 2]

Hi Ruby62,

Thanks for the information.

 

Tours on the Pacific Dawn cruise a couple of months ago have the following excursions -

Beachcomber Full Day (7 hours) $129

Malamala Island (&.5 hours) $149

Tivua Island uunder sail (6 hrs) $119

 

I would not be surprised if the prices for the Sun Princess cruise are a little bit higher. The Tiki Village tour in Moorea has gone up from $59 to $79. The others seem to be at resorts in Port Denaru.

 

Thanks again.:):):)

 

Evon.

[Skyrules]

Hi thanks for that you must be going on the same cruise as us Pacific Dawn 16 nights, we enjoy snorkelling so was trying to work out whether to do the shore tours with p&o or organise our own thing, think we will definitely book the Amedee Island as I don't think much of Noumea and will be something to look forward to being our last island.

 

This cruise will be my 5th visit to Noumea, but the first opportunity I've had to see Ameedee, as 3 of the cruises were out of Brisbane and we only had an afternoon & evening in Noumea, and on the 4th it wasn't offered as a shore tour! Have seen most of what Noumea has to offer, so looking forward to something different at Amedee.

 

Check out the roll call thread for our cruise here;

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=715886

 

 

Kym