Fifteen days is enough time to see the Solomon Islands in depth: Guadalcanal’s war history, a little-visited provincial capital on Choiseul, the reefs around Gizo, an uninhabited conservation island and the country’s largest lagoon. The route suits travelers who want variety and can handle simple guesthouses and a few early boat departures. The pace is slow, with two or three nights at most stops. You need several Solomon Airlines domestic flights, chartered and shared motorboats, and taxis or minibuses around Honiara.
Days 1-3: Honiara and the Guadalcanal battlefields
Two nights in
Honiara give you time to make sense of the 1942-43 Guadalcanal campaign before you see its wrecks and airstrips further west. Start at the
National Museum of Solomon Islands for its pre-war canoes and shell money, then take a taxi up Skyline Ridge to the
American War Memorial, where granite walls carry a step-by-step account of the campaign and look out over Iron Bottom Sound. In the late afternoon, head up Mount …
read more 👉Fifteen days is enough time to see the Solomon Islands in depth: Guadalcanal’s war history, a little-visited provincial capital on Choiseul, the reefs around Gizo, an uninhabited conservation island and the country’s largest lagoon. The route suits travelers who want variety and can handle simple guesthouses and a few early boat departures. The pace is slow, with two or three nights at most stops. You need several Solomon Airlines domestic flights, chartered and shared motorboats, and taxis or minibuses around Honiara.
Days 1-3: Honiara and the Guadalcanal battlefields
Two nights in Honiara give you time to make sense of the 1942-43 Guadalcanal campaign before you see its wrecks and airstrips further west. Start at the National Museum of Solomon Islands for its pre-war canoes and shell money, then take a taxi up Skyline Ridge to the American War Memorial, where granite walls carry a step-by-step account of the campaign and look out over Iron Bottom Sound. In the late afternoon, head up Mount Austen to the Japanese War Memorial, which is quieter, gets more wind and gives the view from the other side of the fight.
On day 2, take a minibus west along the coast road. Snorkel the hull of the transport ship at Bonegi I & II Wreck Dive Sites, which rises almost to the surface a few kicks from the beach. Continue to the Vilu War Museum, an open-air field of rusting American and Japanese aircraft, artillery and memorials in a family-run garden. Carry small notes in Solomon dollars for the landowner fees at both sites.Days 3-5: Taro Island and Choiseul Bay
Fly northwest to Taro Island, the tiny provincial capital of Choiseul, where the airstrip takes up a good share of the island and you can walk the rest in under an hour. Most visitors skip Choiseul, which is the reason to go. Life on Taro follows the boats: canoes cross the bay to mainland villages, and the market fills when they come in. Spend your full day hiring a boat with a local guide to snorkel the bay’s reef edges and visit a mainland village. Book the onward Taro-Gizo flight before you arrive, because it runs only a few days a week.Days 5-8: Gizo, Kennedy Island and Simbo
You land at the Nusa Tupe airstrip and take a 10-minute boat ride across to Gizo. It’s the most practical base in the Western Province, with dive shops, a waterfront market and the most guesthouses outside Honiara. On day 6, ride 20 minutes out to the Kennedy Island WWII Site, the islet where John F. Kennedy and his PT-109 crew swam ashore in 1943. Afterwards, spend the afternoon at Mbabanga Island Beach, a short hop back toward town, where you can snorkel off the sand until sunset.
Keep day 7 for Simbo Island, roughly 1.5 to 2 hours south across open water, so pick a calm morning. Megapode birds there bury their eggs in volcanically warmed ground, and sulfur vents steam beside the village gardens. It’s the oddest day trip in the Western Province.Days 8-11: Skull Island, Munda and Tetepare
Charter a boat from Gizo to Munda through the sheltered channels of the Vonavona Lagoon. On the way, stop at the Skull Island Shrine, where the skulls of Roviana chiefs and warriors from the headhunting era sit in a stone shrine. Spend one night in Munda to restock and confirm your Tetepare booking, then take the conservation boat out the next morning.
Tetepare Island is the largest uninhabited island in the South Pacific, and its descendants’ association protects it as a conservation area. Its eco-lodge is the only place to stay. Two nights let you go on guided rainforest walks, see coconut crabs after dark and snorkel over reef that hasn’t been fished for years, with rangers who know every turtle beach.Days 11-15: Marovo Lagoon, Uepi and the flight home
Day 11 is the long travel day. Return to Munda by boat, take the short flight to Seghe, and get picked up by boat for Uepi Island. On the way you see the first stretch of Marovo Lagoon, a maze of forested islets inside a double barrier reef. Uepi sits right on the barrier, so you can snorkel a drop-off straight from the jetty on one side and paddle the calm lagoon on the other. Three nights here are the splurge of the trip, and they come after the cheaper guesthouses of the past week. On day 14, fly Seghe to Honiara and spend a final easy night near the Central Market before your departure on day 15.
If you can add a few more days, fly to Rennell Island to see Lake Tegano, the largest lake in the insular Pacific, where the only traffic is outrigger canoes.v2.webp){kind=logo}
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