When I went to Vanuatu, I had one island that I really wanted to visit: Tanna Island.
Tanna is home to the world’s most accessible volcano and my time living in a little beach side hut there was perfectly relaxing. Only two things disturbed my peace on that island – the burning black volcanic sand and the sonic boom explosions of Yasur Volcano. To get there, you have to fly into the main island of Vanuatu, Efate.
Efate is where the international airport arrivals land. This island, along with Espiritu Santo are the two main island in this archipelago of 83 islands. Most visitors coming to a resort will hang out at either of these islands, and if you want to spend a bit of time around Efate Island and the capital Port Vila, there are plenty of hotels and resorts around. One of the most interesting ones is called Hideaway Island.
It’s on the outskirts of town, so you need to take a short taxi / truck ride to get there. The islanders are friendly, so finding someone to give you a ride, real taxi or not, is pretty easy. Then it’s a quick 10-minute ferry crossing to Hideaway Island and your own little piece of paradise.
Palm trees and beaches await, as does the beach bar and – most interestingly – the world’s first underwater post office!
How cool is that?
I chose to stay at the Hideaway Island Resort & Sanctuary after my time on Tanna Island, because I was on a budget and they offer cheaper dorm type rooms in addition to their nice private bungalows. It proved to be a great choice as I was the only person in my 4-bed dorm room! I spent my time relaxing on the beach and snorkeling around the island, where you’ll see plenty of tropical fish.
Attempting to dive down to the underwater post office barrel is a heck of a challenge too. You can actually buy waterproof postcards to ‘mail’ yourself when they have a diver working down there to receive your postcards. Considering that back on Tanna Island there was a Volcano Post post office, I thought it was neat visiting these two odd post offices on my visit.
If you get hungry or thirsty, the food at Hideaway Island will do the job, but I decided to head into town. Between the ferry, walk and taxi it takes around 30 minutes to go back and forth. In town there are some fruit markets or plenty of tourist restaurants to choose from. I spent most of my meal time at the waterfront bar and restaurant at Anchor Inn as it is one of the better beer places in town, serving Vanuatu Tusker and Vanuatu Bitter beers.
After heading back to Hideaway Island at night, there was always some kind of lively activity happening at the island bar. Whether it was live music or drinks specials, the people staying at the island resort were a fun bunch to hang out with. Definitely a fun place to stay if you’re looking for something a little different from your usual hotel stay.
If you do make it to Hideaway Island in Vanautu…just watch out for:
Hey Red, I’m curious what you mean by “the world’s most accessible volcano,” since I’ve climbed Mt. Vesuvius in Italy (so that one seemed pretty accessible to me).
And that underwater post office is wild! I’ll bet that post office employees in a setting like that have a much lower chance of “going postal.” 🙂
Finally — did you notice any karaoke bars in Vanuatu?
Harvey (H-Bomb’s Worldwide Karaoke) recently posted..Touring Egypt, part 3: tomb raiding in the Valley of the Kings
Hey Harvey!
“The World’s Most Accessible Volcano” is just a marketing term they use a lot to promote Yasur Volcano in Vanuatu.
I know you can climb Vesuvius in Italy, or roast marshmallows in lava at Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala.
One thing that makes Yasur interesting is that there are no ropes, railings, fences, etc. to stop you from falling into the volcano…so in that sense…it’s “more accessible” haha! It’s also a very active volcano, exploding lava into the air every day. Sometimes when it is violent there is risk of having lava rocks fall on you…
As for Karaoke…it must exist in Port Vila on the main island, but I never actually saw any singing in action 😉
Great post and that post office is really something else! I know what you mean about the volcano being marketed as “the world’s most accessible volcano”. When we visited the island of St. Lucia we walked right into the caldera of the volcano they market as “the only drive-in volcano in the world”. It was cool to see, the steam and the smell were almost overwhelming, but we’ll never forget the experience.
Barbara recently posted..St. Augustine Florida Celebrates 500 Years of History
Thanks Barbara! Sounds like every volcano has it’s own twist on luring tourists in, haha…