Tuvalu is famously the 3rd least visited country on earth, but this in no way detracts from what a wonderful place to visit it is. Why is Tuvalu visited by so few people? Quite simply because it is one of the remotest, sparsely populated countries on earth.

Tuvalu is off the beaten track and a tropical paradise, for us at YPT this makes it a firm favourite!

Tuvalu has a population of around 10,000 people, the majority of whom are based on the main island and capital of Funafuti.

Tuvalu was previously known as the Gilbert and Ellice Islands and were formerly administered as part of what is now the Republic of Kiribati. When Kiribati became independent Tuvalu held its own referendum and opted for its own independence under the Commonwealth. That’s right, you will see pictures of Queen Elizabeth in Tuvalu!

Aside from Funafuti the country is made up of seven inhabited islands and main islets and atolls. The eight stars on the flag of Tuvalu represent the inhabited islands.

Most travellers though do not get to see the other seven islands and spend their time in Funafuti, as they all need to be reached by ship, with journeys of up to 20 hours. If the islands of Tuvalu were one land mass the country would be huge!

The capital of Funafuti is connected to the world by two weekly flights to Fiji and one to Tarawa in Kiribati. Currently all of our tours stay in Funafuti.

Funafuti itself is one of the funkiest capital cities in the world and we are fairly sure the only one in the world where you can drive down the airport runway on a motorbike!

As well as independent tours to Tuvalu we also visit at least once a year as part of our Least Visited Countries Tour.