Tuesday 4^th January – Vanuatu 

• Arrival in the Republic of Vanuatu. You will be picked up from the airport and transfered directly to Hideaway Island Resort. This resort is on Imere Island and is the ancestral home of the people of Mele village.
• We check into our beachside huts and settle down for dinner and drinks by the sea.
• We head out to a nakamal – an informal place where the famous local kava drink is sold. Kava is a natural, mildly intoxicating drink made from the kava root.
• Vanuatu is one of the few countries in modern history run as a condominium with authority shared between the French and British. We’ll dine at the top French restaurant on the island, L’Houstalet, whose signature dish is the flying fox.
• Overnight on Hideaway Island.

Wednesday 5^th January – Vanuatu

• Option 1: after breakfast in the resort, we make the most of our full day in Vanuatu. We head off for a short hike (20 mins) to the spectacular Evergreen Cascades Waterfall where we cool off in the pool at the bottom of the falls. After lunch, we head to Port Vila for a walking tour of the city.
• Option 2:  Fly over a volcano! – YPT can arrange a day tour where you will fly out to Tanna Island for the flight of a lifetime over the live Tanna Volcano, before going by 4×4 through the rainforest to as close to the volcano as we can get (***extra charge, roughly $500 USD; let us know in advance if you are interested).
• Option of rum or more kava before heading for a unique experience where we’re invited to the house of a local family for an authentic homecooked dinner.
• Return to resort and overnight.

Thursday 6^th January – Nadi

• Breakfast and morning on the beach, taking advantage of our free access to the resort’s snorkelling gear.
• Port Vila is famous for the world’s only underwater post office, so you can snorkel down to this to mail unique waterproof postcards, or we can arrange a Scuba diving trip (extra charge, and you will need to bring your PADI licence).
• Transfer to the airport for the 15.50 2-hour flight to our next country, Fiji, and the city of Nadi (pronounced “Nandi”).
• The flight takes just over 2 hours, but due to the time difference we arrive at 19:05 and transfer directly to our hotel by Nadi Bay.
• Dinner, drinks and overnight in Nadi.

Friday 7^th January – Nadi

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Tour of Nadi area including the Hindu Temple and the Garden of the Sleeping Giant – founded by American actor Raymond Burr of Perry Mason and Ironside fame, who wanted to retire to this area.
• Lunch in Nadi.
• In the afternoon, we pick up some cold beers and head to the beach for some body surfing and optional beach massages.
• In YPT tradition we head to a Korean restaurant for dinner!
• Overnight at Nadi Bay Hotel.

Saturday 8^th January – Funafuti

• Up nice and early for the 07.50 flight to Tuvalu.
• #TRIP HIGHLIGHT# Arrival in the third-least-visited country in the world, Tuvalu, where we arrive at 9am – this is where the trip really gets into least visited territory!
• Funafuti is hardly a metropolis and the island’s only hotel is conveniently only 50 metres’ walk from the airport. We have time to freshen up and eat lunch before beginning our adventures in country number three.
• We’ll head off with our Tuvalu guide on an island tour including the government buildings, conservation area, and shipwrecks.
• On a Saturday evening, our hotel is often the location of local family celebrations such as birthdays or weddings, which happen on a grand scale in Tuvalu, so hopefully we’ll get a chance to watch or join in.
• Overnight at Funafuti Lagoon Hotel.

Sunday 9^th January – Funafuti

• Tuvaluans take their Sundays seriously, so those that want to can attend a local church service to repent their sins!
• The best way to navigate Funafuti is by scooter, so we’ll rent some for anyone wanting to explore by this means. The airport runway is only used for planes a few hours per week and the rest of the time it’s available for recreation, but sadly it’s not permitted to race scooters on it ?
• Dinner.
• Overnight at Funafuti Lagoon Hotel.

Monday 10^th January – Funafuti

• Seeing as we are on an island surrounded by other islands we do what should only come naturally and take a boat out for the day across the lagoon to explore some of the other islands, whilst enjoying the odd drink.
• Picnic lunch on any undisturbed beach that we come across.
• Those aquatically inclined should bring their snorkelling masks to check out the reefs.
• We head out to the local disco/beer garden (yes, you read that correctly) at the Matagigali bar.
• Barbecue dinner, with local dance show entertainment.
• Overnight at Viaaku Lagi Hotel.

Tuesday 11^th January – Funafuti

• For anyone interested in stamps and sending postcards we can make a visit to the Philatelic Bureau where unlikely stamp themes including the King of Rock n Roll. Elvis is still alive, at least in Tuvalu…
• All good things must come to an end so we head to the airport to check in for the 12.20 flight back to Fiji.
• It’s a local tradition to give necklaces made of shells to people heading off on a journey, so we can pick up some of these souvenirs from the vendors outside the airport terminal
• When there’s a plane about to land, a loudspeaker gives instructions to any stragglers to clear the runway. We can watch our plane land before boarding our flight back to Fiji, but this time to the capital city – Suva.
• Arrival around 4pm and transfer to our hotel in the centre of the city
• Overnight at the Raintree Lodge.

Wednesday 12^th January – Apia

• End of tour for those who do not carry onwards to Part 3 in which we visit the Samoas and Tonga.

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