Trip Planning
The TakeYourBackpack guidebooks are your all-in-one travel companion, featuring the best cities, national parks, hikes, beaches, and unique sites, along with essential tips on when to go, how to get around, exchanging money, and even local phrases to get you started — everything you need for a smooth, unforgettable backpacking adventure.
Stop researching. Start exploring.Discover all 41 highlights,ranked
and organized into practical routes.
Get instant access
Planning a backpacking route through Vanuatu can be tricky — you need to balance must-see places, travel times, budget, and how long to stay in each destination. Our free personalized Vanuatu itinerary planner creates a route based on your travel style, trip duration, and interests, so you can spend less time researching and more time exploring.
Personal tip: I normally search on good rating for atmosphere (for meeting people) and location (for easy exploring). Cleanliness as a bonus.
Travel Essentials
There are no compulsory vaccinations for Vanuatu, except a yellow fever certificate if you arrive from a country with yellow fever risk. Make sure your routine shots (MMR, tetanus-diphtheria, polio) are up to date. Hepatitis A and typhoid are recommended for most travelers, and hepatitis B is advised for longer stays. Malaria is present in much of the country, especially outside Port Vila, so talk to a travel clinic about antimalarial tablets. Dengue outbreaks also occur, which makes daily insect repellent and long sleeves at dusk your best defense.
vaccination requirementsWhen I first started traveling, I often spent part of my first day in a new country hunting for a local SIM card. While this can still be slightly cheaper, it also takes time and planning.
These days, it's much simpler to install an eSIM before leaving home. Once you arrive in Vanuatu, you can activate it immediately and have mobile data from the moment you land — which is especially useful for ordering transport or navigating away from busy airports.
There are many providers nowadays, and price differences are usually small. I personally go with
Holafly, as it offers excellent network coverage throughout the country and strong global coverage, so you can manage multiple countries from a single app.
HolaFly eSimCulture & Customs
In Vanuatu, almost all land, beaches, reefs and waterfalls belong to someone under custom ownership. Paying the small “kastom” fee when asked and seeking permission before entering village land or swimming at a spot is expected, not optional. Cover your shoulders and knees in villages and towns, swim in shorts and a T-shirt away from resorts, and always ask before photographing people, ceremonies or sacred sites. Sundays are for church and family, so keep noise down and expect little to be open. Haggling is not part of the culture, and market prices are fixed and fair. At a nakamal (kava bar), drink quietly, since loud behavior is frowned upon. Women should be aware that some village nakamals are traditionally male-only, while those in Port Vila welcome everyone. Don’t touch people’s heads, and avoid public displays of affection, which applies to all couples and is especially wise for same-sex couples.
Trying traditional food is always a great way to experience the culture. Here are some must-try dishes for Vanuatu.
- Lap lap: Vanuatu’s national dish. It’s grated yam, taro, manioc or banana mixed with coconut cream, wrapped in leaves and baked over hot stones in an earth oven, often with chicken, pork or fish on top. It anchors feasts, weddings and custom ceremonies.
- Simboro: Grated manioc or banana rolled in island cabbage leaves and simmered in coconut milk. It’s soft, rich and a family staple you’ll find at markets and village meals.
- Tuluk: A dense, sticky manioc parcel with a pork or beef filling, steamed in leaves. It’s the go-to cheap snack at Port Vila’s market stalls and bus stops.
- Santo beef: Grass-fed cattle raised under coconut plantations on Espiritu Santo. It produces tender steaks that locals are proud of, and they cost far less than they would back home.
- Coconut crab: A giant land crab cooked in coconut cream or garlic butter, prized as a celebration dish. It’s harvested under size limits, so order it only where the crabs are legally sourced.
- Nalot: Roasted taro, breadfruit or banana pounded into a paste and drenched in coconut cream. It’s often served at gatherings alongside kava.
Tap water in Port Vila and Luganville is treated, and many locals drink it, but travelers with sensitive stomachs are usually advised to stick to bottled or filtered water, especially after heavy rain. On outer islands, water typically comes from rainwater tanks or wells and should be boiled, filtered or purified before drinking. A refillable bottle with a filter saves money and cuts plastic waste, since recycling is limited across Vanuatu.
The main language in Vanuatu is
Bislama. Backpacking is way more rewarding if you know a bit of the local language, so I'd suggest brushing up on the basics just in case your Bislama skills have become a bit rusty.
Want to understand locals better?The complete Travel Guide for Vanuatu includes 52 essential words and phrases — greetings, thank-yous, ordering food, transport, numbers, and common local expressions you'll actually hear.
Get your local basic phrases 👉
Get the Travel Guide - is widely spoken in Port Vila and Luganville, where hotels, tour operators and most shop staff handle it easily. Younger people and anyone working in tourism usually speak it well. In rural villages and on outer islands, English fades fast, and many people there were schooled in French instead. Bislama is the language that gets you furthest everywhere, and a few phrases like “tank yu tumas” (thank you very much) and “hamas?” (how much) are easy to learn and earn big smiles.
Money & Payments
The local currency of Vanuatu is VUV (VT).
Vanuatu uses the vatu (VT or VUV), at roughly 115 to 125 VT to US$1. ATMs from ANZ, BSP, BRED and the National Bank of Vanuatu are easy to find in Port Vila and Luganville, and you’ll find one at the international airport, but on islands like Tanna there are very few and most other outer islands have none. Expect a local fee of roughly 400 to 800 VT per withdrawal on foreign cards, plus whatever your home bank charges, so take out larger amounts less often. Visa and Mastercard are accepted at hotels, dive shops, supermarkets and bigger restaurants in the two towns, often with a 3 to 5 percent surcharge. Markets, minibuses, bungalows and village fees are cash only. Australian dollars are the easiest foreign currency to exchange, with US dollars and euros a close second, and banks or licensed exchange bureaus in Port Vila give safe, fair rates.
Tipping is not customary in Vanuatu, and it is not expected in restaurants, taxis or guesthouses. In Melanesian culture, giving without reason can create an awkward sense of obligation, so a warm thank-you is usually the better gesture. If a guide or village went well beyond what you paid for, a contribution to the community or school is appreciated more than cash handed to one person.
v2.webp){kind=logo}
Best Backpacking.jpg)
Over the years, I've learned the importance of packing minimally. It's so much easier to jump on the back of a truck or squeeze yourself into the last spot of a minibus without that supersized backpack. If you're headed to a warm destination, leave your winter jacket at home; for colder regions, opt for thin thermal underlayers. Instead of packing your entire wardrobe, bring just three sets of clothes, as laundry facilities are available everywhere.
.jpg)
Hi, I’m Johan (Netherlands 🇳🇱), the creator of TakeYourBackpack. Over the past 3 decades, I’ve backpacked through 90+ countries across six continents, gaining extensive experience with independent travel, long-term trips, and overland routes.