Sonic From Lithuania, joined Jan 2000, 1657 posts, RR: 1 Posted (2 months 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 776 times:
Hello,
I would be interested in a possibility of travelling to various islands in the Pacific Ocean. As they are far and hard-to-get to from Europe, I'd plan to visit maybe 4 or 5 in one journey. Examples could include Honolulu, Micronesia (Nan Madol), Fiji, Tahiti, Nauru, New Caledonia, Okinawa. Of course, exact islands would depend on possibility and I wouldn't plan to visit them all. You may suggest other interesting places there as well (I have been to Easter Island and New Zealand previously).
I would like to ask - what routes would you suggest?
1.What route to get there? It'd be interesting to get from one side, and back from the other side so there would be no flying back and forth. E.g. But unfortunatelly for example single-way flights to Honolulu from Europe are even more expensive than round trip is. Is it always so or are there some possible bargains?
2.What port of entry and port of exit in region would you recommend?
3.What itinerary inside the region could you recommend? E.g. which routes are available to fly on, which airlines are cheaper (especially on single-way flights, or perhaps you'd recommend e.g. baising myself in Honolulu and doing round trips to other places because of the costs)?
Gemuser From Australia, joined Nov 2003, 3106 posts, RR: 6 Reply 1, posted (2 months 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 758 times:
Quoting Sonic (Thread starter): I would be interested in a possibility of travelling to various islands in the Pacific Ocean. As they are far and hard-to-get to from Europe, I'd plan to visit maybe 4 or 5 in one journey.
1) Have plenty of money! Flights to islands "off the beaten track" are extremely expensive.
2) It's almost impossible to put together an island hopping itinerary that involves more than one nation. The days of long, multi-sector island to island routes are past.
3) The major exception to 2) is of course CO Micronesia'a "Island Hopper" which stills runs. This could be the basis for a good trip.
4) Another possibility is to base your self in Nandi, Fiji. From here FJ have flights to Kiribati, Samoa, Tuvalu, Tonga, Solomons and Vanuatu. A nice mix of Melanesian and Polynesian islands.
5) French Polynesia is another possibility. Air Tahiti has an extensive inter island network and you might pick up a good fare on AF or TN.
6) Papua New Guinea (PNG) is a fabulous place, but tourist infrastructure is not well developed. Manus, New Ireland & New Britain are all great islands to visit.
In summary I think you are going to have to pick a particular nation or close group of nations and explore that, leaving others for a later trip. And again "Bring Your Money With You"
Kiwiandrew From Mauritius, joined Jun 2005, 5562 posts, RR: 17 Reply 2, posted (2 months 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 745 times:
Dont forget too that CO is A: joining Star next week , and B: starting service to NAN
In theory from Europe you ought to be able to do something like this on a Star RTW giving you stops in Polynesia ( Samoa and Tonga) Melanesia ( Fiji ) and Micronesia ( Guam , Yap and Palau)
or
giving you stops in Polynesia ( Hawaii ) and Micronesia
Though of course we will need to wait until next week to see whether there will be restrictions in the fare rules on the number of stops permitted in the region , but this may well work out cheaper than doing separate fares . It is a shame that NZ no longer fly LAX-PPT or the PPT-RAR-NAN-AKL 'Coral Route' as this would have opened up even more possibilities
edited to add a couple more islands just for the fun of it
[Edited 2009-10-20 06:31:32 by kiwiandrew]
[Edited 2009-10-20 06:32:07 by kiwiandrew]
Moderation in all things ... including moderation ;-)
HT From Germany, joined May 2005, 5130 posts, RR: 36 Reply 3, posted (2 months 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 730 times:
Quoting Sonic (Thread starter): 1.What route to get there? It'd be interesting to get from one side, and back from the other side so there would be no flying back and forth. E.g. But unfortunatelly for example single-way flights to Honolulu from Europe are even more expensive than round trip is. Is it always so or are there some possible bargains?
As Kiwiandrew already suggested, try to look into RTW (Round the World) ticket.
Usually you even can add Surface-sectors (even though they count in your milage) inside the RTW-ticket, if you want to fly some other airline (-system) to some place and continue your RTW in another place.
On www.staralliance.com is a good tool available for planning RTW's, even if you might book with another airline system.
Quoting Gemuser (Reply 1): CO Micronesia'a "Island Hopper"
Recommended !
Quoting Sonic (Thread starter): 2.What port of entry and port of exit in region would you recommend?
LAX / HNL on the eastern side;
AKL, SYD and GUM (to HKG or Japan from here) should be the natural choice on the other side of the Pacific.
-HT
Carpe diem ! Life is too short to waste your time ! Keep in mind, that today is the first day of the rest of your life !
TimePilot From Japan, joined Sep 2005, 286 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (2 months 5 hours ago) and read 664 times:
If possible, you may wish to visit Rota, which is between Guam and Tinian/Saipan. I haven't been there myself, but I've read that Rota has remained largely untouched throughout history and therefore is extremely beautiful. Freedom Air and Continental Connection (Cape Air) operate flights there from Guam, etc. BONUS: you'd get to fly on a small plane
Teva From France, joined Jan 2001, 1823 posts, RR: 22 Reply 6, posted (1 month 4 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 624 times:
another possibility: In MAD, take a LAN flt. After a stop in SCL, you take a flight to Easter Island. After that, you take a flight to PPT, where you can enjoy Air tahiti amazing inter island network. (Or you can take a cruise on a cargo boat (Aranui, to Marquisas Island being the best choice).After tahiti, you can fly to Noumea, Wallis, New zealand or Australia.
Teva
Ecoute les orgues, Elles jouent pour toi...C'est le requiem pour un con
Sonic From Lithuania, joined Jan 2000, 1657 posts, RR: 1 Reply 8, posted (1 month 2 weeks 4 days 14 hours ago) and read 438 times:
Thank you very much for answers.
Indeed, I am interested the most in the idea about Round the World ticket with Star Alliance which, as I understand, would let me stopping in Hawaii, a couple of islands in Micronesia and also possibly Guam or Marshall Islands.
However, when will Continental Airlines and Continental Micronesia flights be available on the Star Alliance Round the World booking system? Peraps anyone kwnos that? On 27th of October I wrote them, they said that it will be very soon but they don't seem to be available yet.
MEA-707 From Netherlands, joined Nov 1999, 3435 posts, RR: 47 Reply 9, posted (1 month 2 weeks 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 397 times:
Another idea might be to make Sydney, Brisbane or Auckland your ''base"
From there, Virgin Blue and Air New Zealand often offer one way pricing to Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, Solomon, Cook, Samoa. Between these islands, there are some flights too by local airlines like Air Calédonie and Air Pacific, these might be more pricy then backtracking to your base but worth for rareness and saving time.
nobody has ever died from hard work, but why take the risk?
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