Backpacking Vanuatu: A 5-Day Guide

This five-day route is for travelers who want Vanuatu’s two best-known faces in one trip: the reefs, waterfalls and kastom history of Efate, and the active volcano on Tanna. The pace is relaxed, with one domestic flight each way and plenty of slack built around them, because inter-island schedules here can shift with little notice. On Efate you get around by Port Vila’s shared minibuses and a hired driver for the northwest coast; on Tanna you rely on the 4WD trucks that bungalows send to the airstrip.

Days 1-2: Port Vila, the Museum and the Northwest Coast

Spend your first morning in Port Vila at the National Museum of Vanuatu, next to Parliament. It is small, but the slit gongs from Ambrym and the sand-drawing demonstrations give you the context that makes the rest of the trip make sense, and entry runs roughly 1,000 to 1,500 VT (about US$8 to 13). After lunch, catch a minibus 15 minutes northwest to the Mele Cascades and climb the rope-assisted terraces to the top fall in the cooler late … read more 👉

This five-day route is for travelers who want Vanuatu’s two best-known faces in one trip: the reefs, waterfalls and kastom history of Efate, and the active volcano on Tanna. The pace is relaxed, with one domestic flight each way and plenty of slack built around them, because inter-island schedules here can shift with little notice. On Efate you get around by Port Vila’s shared minibuses and a hired driver for the northwest coast; on Tanna you rely on the 4WD trucks that bungalows send to the airstrip.

Days 1-2: Port Vila, the Museum and the Northwest Coast

Spend your first morning in Port Vila at the National Museum of Vanuatu, next to Parliament. It is small, but the slit gongs from Ambrym and the sand-drawing demonstrations give you the context that makes the rest of the trip make sense, and entry runs roughly 1,000 to 1,500 VT (about US$8 to 13). After lunch, catch a minibus 15 minutes northwest to the Mele Cascades and climb the rope-assisted terraces to the top fall in the cooler late afternoon, when the day-tour crowds have left.Day 2 heads up the west coast to Chief Roi Mata’s Domain, Vanuatu’s only UNESCO World Heritage Site. Guided tours from the village at Mangaliliu take you by boat to Hat Island (Artok), where the 17th-century chief was buried with members of his retinue, and to the cave on Lelepa where he died. Budget around 6,000 to 8,000 VT including the boat. On the way back, stop along Havannah Harbour, the long sheltered channel where the US fleet anchored in World War II; the water is glassy in the morning and good for a snorkel off the shore.

Days 3-4: Tanna Island and the Summit of Mount Yasur

Fly to Tanna Island in the morning (40 to 50 minutes from Port Vila, usually 15,000 to 25,000 VT one way). The transfer from the airstrip near Lenakel to the east side takes 2 to 2.5 hours in the back of a truck over a rough road through ash plains and banyan forest, so do nothing else that day except settle into a bungalow near the volcano. On the late afternoon of Day 3, go up to the Summit of Mount Yasur. Trucks drop you near the rim and you walk the last few minutes on loose ash, then wait as the light fades and the explosions turn from gray plumes to arcs of orange lava. The permit, which includes a short kastom welcome ceremony, costs around 9,750 VT, and it is worth every vatu.Day 4 is deliberately loose. Many bungalows can arrange a visit to a nearby kastom village, a walk to the hot springs on the shore below the volcano, or a second trip to the rim if the first evening was cloudy. Keep this day as your buffer if the weather or the flight schedule moves.

Day 5: Back to Efate and the Secret Garden Cultural Centre

Take the early truck to the airstrip and fly back to Port Vila. Once you land, head out toward Mele for the Secret Garden Cultural Centre, where tables of local food and short walking paths explain island legends, cannibalism history and the arrival of missionaries in a low-key, garden setting. It is a gentle afternoon after a 2-hour truck ride and a flight, and it puts the kastom you saw on Tanna into a wider frame. Spend the last night in Port Vila close to the waterfront for an easy airport run.

If you find an extra day on Tanna, ask your bungalow for a truck to Port Resolution, the quiet bay where Captain Cook anchored in 1774, with a reef-fringed beach and almost no visitors.