Take a 3 hour flight heading north-east from Sydney and you'll arrive in Vanuatu, a tropical paradise of 80+ islands neighbouring Fiji, the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia.
We spent a week on the main island of Efate, staying at Le Meridien, Port Vila. Given the holiday brochure description, we had in mind a lazy beach holiday with occasional outings, but it turned out to be an action-packed adventure.
The hotel complex was great in having poolside, beach and lagoon options. We made plentiful use of the free watersports and had much fun on the mini-catamarans - good to dust off the ol' sailing skills. On Thursday nights they host the Melanesian feast on the beach with local traditional displays, but the food was mostly bland and we missed out on the 'tongue-numbing' kava drink.
Lots to see out and about on the island. We had 5 great scuba dives with local outfit Nautilus. Tip-of-the-hat to instructor Lucy for providing VIP treatment. We would highly recommend seeing the Cascades waterfalls north of Port Vila. Lunch at the Tamanu on the Beach resort was a posh highlight with gourmet food and a fantastic beach-front setting. Concluding with the Coongoola cruise which takes you to a remote northern beach and snorkeling paradise!
By Darrell Grundy - visited on 26 September 2008