I have been looking around for a cheap surf holiday in the Pacific, looked at Fiji, Papua, Samoa, Vanuatu...
I want to save money, do it as cheap as I can as I'm not too wealthy!!
Can anyone advise me where is a safe, easily accessable location, cheap flights and if I should plan my own transport to the location save money.
I looked at Fiji, flying myself there and local travel to an Island close to Tavarua, but need to know the pro and cons of organising my own travel & surf trips or letting a tour co organise everything for me(which I noticed cost though the nose).
Has anyone organised their own travel and surf trips to any decent, cheap Pacific locations?
Looking for a cheap Pacific surf trip destnation
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dammit__01
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... just the heads up.
I'm interested to hear what you come up with here, surfaus.
I'd love to get somewhere cheap but how cheap and how uncrowded are the quesions im asking.
Fiji's got cheap flights but i hear the catch is its expensive getting to the actual waves and staying nearby.
Samoa you can stay in little bungalow type things for some ridiculously cheap rate, away from anyone i believe. When we were looking a while ago thought i sussed about a month stay for $1500 including flights? Not sure if memory's gotten the best of me there.
Tonga's cheap but i think the waves are fairly tide-dependent and there's not much to do if you dont surf. Not sure if that bothers ya but we were planning to take surfers and non surfers and that was what ruled us away from that little haven.
If i had a cool 2k handy i'd be whipping up to Bali for a month and trying to get a ratty boat to an island with no-one in sight!
I'd love to get somewhere cheap but how cheap and how uncrowded are the quesions im asking.
Fiji's got cheap flights but i hear the catch is its expensive getting to the actual waves and staying nearby.
Samoa you can stay in little bungalow type things for some ridiculously cheap rate, away from anyone i believe. When we were looking a while ago thought i sussed about a month stay for $1500 including flights? Not sure if memory's gotten the best of me there.
Tonga's cheap but i think the waves are fairly tide-dependent and there's not much to do if you dont surf. Not sure if that bothers ya but we were planning to take surfers and non surfers and that was what ruled us away from that little haven.
If i had a cool 2k handy i'd be whipping up to Bali for a month and trying to get a ratty boat to an island with no-one in sight!
You can still do Fiji fairly cheap.
I stayed at Seashell Cove last year for about $40 per night. The place is fairly basic, and I have to say Id rather spend the $$$ and stay somewhere better next time (Im looking at Nomotu).
The catch is that you will pay about $25 - $30 each time you go out in the boat. They will take you to breaks like Wilkes, Mini Cloudbreak and sometimes Nomotu lefts of Swimming Pools (with permission from Nomotu Isl.). If you are lucky you can get to surf Cloudbreak on the weekends (with permission from Tavarua).
If you stay at Plantation Isl. (much nicer but more expensive) they guy there charges about $40 per boat trip.
The boat took us out each morning for about 4 hours. We would surf 2 breaks on each boat trip (2 hours per spot). There were not too many people staying when I was there.
You can also do day trips from Seashell Cove to surf some of the breaks on the mainland.
One tip for Fiji: As the boat from Seashell leaves in the mornings it helps if you can plan ahead and book your trip during a week when the tides are favourable for the breaks in the morning hours ie. try to avoid days when the tide will be dead low early morning. Also the trade winds tend to come up around mid to late morning so more often than not the best conditions will be early.
If you are going to Fiji to surf Cloudbreak and Restaurants then you will have to join the queue and pay big $$$ to stay at Tavarua. I understand Quicksilver have most of it booked out most of the time.
Fiji has great waves and I will keep going back.
I stayed at Seashell Cove last year for about $40 per night. The place is fairly basic, and I have to say Id rather spend the $$$ and stay somewhere better next time (Im looking at Nomotu).
The catch is that you will pay about $25 - $30 each time you go out in the boat. They will take you to breaks like Wilkes, Mini Cloudbreak and sometimes Nomotu lefts of Swimming Pools (with permission from Nomotu Isl.). If you are lucky you can get to surf Cloudbreak on the weekends (with permission from Tavarua).
If you stay at Plantation Isl. (much nicer but more expensive) they guy there charges about $40 per boat trip.
The boat took us out each morning for about 4 hours. We would surf 2 breaks on each boat trip (2 hours per spot). There were not too many people staying when I was there.
You can also do day trips from Seashell Cove to surf some of the breaks on the mainland.
One tip for Fiji: As the boat from Seashell leaves in the mornings it helps if you can plan ahead and book your trip during a week when the tides are favourable for the breaks in the morning hours ie. try to avoid days when the tide will be dead low early morning. Also the trade winds tend to come up around mid to late morning so more often than not the best conditions will be early.
If you are going to Fiji to surf Cloudbreak and Restaurants then you will have to join the queue and pay big $$$ to stay at Tavarua. I understand Quicksilver have most of it booked out most of the time.
Fiji has great waves and I will keep going back.
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still here
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If you thinking of Fiji , and doing it cheap? by splitting time on an island and the mainland (Hideaway) .... check out the tides situation before you book .
It's a bit annoying being on an island with a $40 ride to the surf only to discover the tides wrong for morning before the trade winds pick up and it's hopeless . ... And worse to arrive at your second destination a week later only to discover that your new spot requires early high tides like the previous week but now it's low tide before the tradewinds pick up and destroy it .
It was fairly disapointing all round and nothing seemed cheap (years ago it seemed a similar boat would cost less in Sydney Harbour ) ......others I know also lucked out in Fiji as the far and few waves between are too fickle .
It's a bit annoying being on an island with a $40 ride to the surf only to discover the tides wrong for morning before the trade winds pick up and it's hopeless . ... And worse to arrive at your second destination a week later only to discover that your new spot requires early high tides like the previous week but now it's low tide before the tradewinds pick up and destroy it .
It was fairly disapointing all round and nothing seemed cheap (years ago it seemed a similar boat would cost less in Sydney Harbour ) ......others I know also lucked out in Fiji as the far and few waves between are too fickle .
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still here
- charger
- Posts: 913
- Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2005 1:07 pm
If you thinking of Fiji , and doing it cheap? by splitting time on an island and the mainland (Hideaway) .... check out the tides situation before you book .
It's a bit annoying being on an island with a $40 ride to the surf only to discover the tides wrong for morning before the trade winds pick up and it's hopeless . ... And worse to arrive at your second destination a week later only to discover that your new spot requires early high tides like the previous week but now it's low tide before the tradewinds pick up and destroy it .
It was fairly disapointing all round and nothing seemed cheap (years ago it seemed a similar boat would cost less in Sydney Harbour ) ......others I know also lucked out in Fiji as the far and few waves between are too fickle .
It's a bit annoying being on an island with a $40 ride to the surf only to discover the tides wrong for morning before the trade winds pick up and it's hopeless . ... And worse to arrive at your second destination a week later only to discover that your new spot requires early high tides like the previous week but now it's low tide before the tradewinds pick up and destroy it .
It was fairly disapointing all round and nothing seemed cheap (years ago it seemed a similar boat would cost less in Sydney Harbour ) ......others I know also lucked out in Fiji as the far and few waves between are too fickle .
Definitely check the tides. I was there a few months back on a family trip & stayed at Hideaway on the main island. Hideaway has a reef out front which aside from Sigatoka is the only place on Viti Levu that you don't need to have access to a boat to surf. Anyway, I did check the tides before I went (Hideaway can only be surfed two hours either side of the high tide) but didn't take into account the trade winds which for the first three days howled from fairly early in the morning, making surfing at Hideaway pointless. As it was I lucked out for the next three days & got it pretty good. Nothing epic by any means but 3-5 feet & glassy.Natho wrote:You can still do Fiji fairly cheap.
I stayed at Seashell Cove last year for about $40 per night. The place is fairly basic, and I have to say Id rather spend the $$$ and stay somewhere better next time (Im looking at Nomotu).
The catch is that you will pay about $25 - $30 each time you go out in the boat. They will take you to breaks like Wilkes, Mini Cloudbreak and sometimes Nomotu lefts of Swimming Pools (with permission from Nomotu Isl.). If you are lucky you can get to surf Cloudbreak on the weekends (with permission from Tavarua).
If you stay at Plantation Isl. (much nicer but more expensive) they guy there charges about $40 per boat trip.
The boat took us out each morning for about 4 hours. We would surf 2 breaks on each boat trip (2 hours per spot). There were not too many people staying when I was there.
You can also do day trips from Seashell Cove to surf some of the breaks on the mainland.
One tip for Fiji: As the boat from Seashell leaves in the mornings it helps if you can plan ahead and book your trip during a week when the tides are favourable for the breaks in the morning hours ie. try to avoid days when the tide will be dead low early morning. Also the trade winds tend to come up around mid to late morning so more often than not the best conditions will be early.
If you are going to Fiji to surf Cloudbreak and Restaurants then you will have to join the queue and pay big $$$ to stay at Tavarua. I understand Quicksilver have most of it booked out most of the time.
Fiji has great waves and I will keep going back.
Anyway, I'd suggest that you head somewhere with boat access like Natho said. I explored my options while I was there but found it to be impossible without a car. And car rental will set you back around $100 a day if you don't hire one from the airport. I did check out a place called Waidroka which claims they access a bunch of places like Frigates. But be warned. I'd heard nothing but bad stories about the guy down there & what I saw didn't lead me to believe any of the stories were untrue. The place looked like a dump & the guy was nothing but a rude prick when I enquired about his boat trips. That, plus talking to some guys who tried to get on one but got burnt when he decided against running it out on the day they went down there, made me decide against making the trip.
If you're wanting somewhere cheap you'd be much better off in Indo, but that's not to say Fiji ain't worth your while.
A good website to have a look at before you make a decision is www.wannasurf.com. You can get a lot of info there that you won't get from the travel agencies.
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barstardos
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Seashell Cove sucks because you are in the middle of swamp on the mainland. Expensive boat trips for any waves and you cant get Cloundbreak anymore. I was luck enough to stay there when you could still get Cloudbreak without the whole "exclusive" thing getting out of control
Much better off at either Waidroka Resort on the SouthCoast of mainland or Frigates resort on Beqa Is.
Waidroka has best choice of waves with at least 5 breaks nearby plus 30 min boat trip to Frigates. The Waidroka reefs are not as epic as Cloudbreak or Frigates but they do get very good and hand the full range of wind and swell combinations
Frigates resort is cheaper but you have only 1 wave, Frigates (its very similar to Cloudbreak), breaks in middle of ocean gets all the swell, holds up to 12'+
Much better off at either Waidroka Resort on the SouthCoast of mainland or Frigates resort on Beqa Is.
Waidroka has best choice of waves with at least 5 breaks nearby plus 30 min boat trip to Frigates. The Waidroka reefs are not as epic as Cloudbreak or Frigates but they do get very good and hand the full range of wind and swell combinations
Frigates resort is cheaper but you have only 1 wave, Frigates (its very similar to Cloudbreak), breaks in middle of ocean gets all the swell, holds up to 12'+
Stayed at Seashell second half of last year and got to surf Cloudbreak twice, so things must have changed recently.
Wiidroka sucks big time from what I hear.
Must admit that Seashell is not great, however if you are on a budget there is not too much option and they do have access to several breaks.
If you want to surf Fiji NOW is the time to do it. With all the new mega resort developements due for completion within the next couple of years (Intercontinental, Marriott to name only 2) the breaks are only going to get more and more crowded.
There are a few breaks on the mainland that you don't need boat access for (other than Hideaway and Sigatoka). One that comes to mind can be fairly epic. It is semi secret so I won't give anymore away but if you stay at Seashell then you may hear about it.
By the way Lion Isl. is in Pittwater in Northern Beaches area.
Wiidroka sucks big time from what I hear.
Must admit that Seashell is not great, however if you are on a budget there is not too much option and they do have access to several breaks.
If you want to surf Fiji NOW is the time to do it. With all the new mega resort developements due for completion within the next couple of years (Intercontinental, Marriott to name only 2) the breaks are only going to get more and more crowded.
There are a few breaks on the mainland that you don't need boat access for (other than Hideaway and Sigatoka). One that comes to mind can be fairly epic. It is semi secret so I won't give anymore away but if you stay at Seashell then you may hear about it.
By the way Lion Isl. is in Pittwater in Northern Beaches area.
Smack up Bali, or somewhere else in Indo i reckon... Beautiful temps, you can score next years wardrobe for about $200, pickup lots of dvds too, full on meals in nice restaurants for $3, you'll stay fit with all the surfing and eating well, beers cost about $1 everywhere, you can even buy em in convenience stores. Just be careful what you eat - i picked up Bali belly last time i was there and was so sick for three days i felt like i'd rather have died than go through it.surfaus wrote:Where's Lion isL? in NSW?
u MEAN Lion Island Nature Reserve?
Dont think I will do Fiji with that advice... Bali sounds good!!
Can anyone tell me about the area, whens good, breaks, crowds, suggest nice places to stay?
Bali does get crowds on lots of the main breaks down near Kuta-Uluwatu. Best bet is get there at sunrise and try to beat the crowds. Swell will consistently roll through and trade winds are offshore/crosshore.
I'd recommend for slumming it and picking up less crowded and epic waves try to get over to Sumbawa, but if you're entertaining non-surfers theyd like the mainland cause it has clubs, shopping, parties etc.
Went this time last year for a fortnight. $1100 return flight, spent about $900 total on other stuff over there, but i was living like a king in a killer pad up in Seminyak, picked up a hundred odd videos, clothes for me and the fam, you'd order a meal and if you didnt like it scrap it and just get whatevers next on the menu, til you find something tasty.
Cheap, good times my friend. Would love to do it again if i had the money, think i'd try to go for a month and steer clear of the bright city lights though, get more earlies up my sleeve and more watery caverns.
Either that or pick a random stretch of our own native coast, take a couple mates and set up tent. That's what i'll be doing in between shifts. Australia really is a ripper c(o)untry!!
Samoa is awesome and cheap.........
http://www.lineup.com.au/maninoa/index.html
Did that last year and scored a left hander to myself, a mate and 2 others 6 foot and howling offshore with a storm coming over.
http://www.lineup.com.au/maninoa/index.html
Did that last year and scored a left hander to myself, a mate and 2 others 6 foot and howling offshore with a storm coming over.
When all else fails you can't go wrong with Bali.
It's cheap, there are plenty of waves and it's always off shore somewhere. Just don't expect to surf too many breaks without a crowd.
If you go for 2 weeks you will get great waves at least some of the time.
For me wet season is the best time = less crowds and several great right handers come alive.
Everyone seems to want to surf Ulus. Yes its a good wave but I think it is way overated. I have had it big and as good as it gets, however it is not a perfect wave. I rate Sanua a better wave on its day (wet season).
It's cheap, there are plenty of waves and it's always off shore somewhere. Just don't expect to surf too many breaks without a crowd.
If you go for 2 weeks you will get great waves at least some of the time.
For me wet season is the best time = less crowds and several great right handers come alive.
Everyone seems to want to surf Ulus. Yes its a good wave but I think it is way overated. I have had it big and as good as it gets, however it is not a perfect wave. I rate Sanua a better wave on its day (wet season).
From what I've heard you can get some of the best (cheapest) deals to somoa. Not too bad crowding-wise either.
A mate of mine is just about to head over there. think he got an all included package (flights, accom, 2 or 3 meals a day plus loacl boat hire) for 2 1/2 weeks for around $1,600. Could be wrong though...
$2,000 ain't that hard to scrounge up if you plan ahead. Just save up and live like a tightarse bum for a few months.
A mate of mine is just about to head over there. think he got an all included package (flights, accom, 2 or 3 meals a day plus loacl boat hire) for 2 1/2 weeks for around $1,600. Could be wrong though...
$2,000 ain't that hard to scrounge up if you plan ahead. Just save up and live like a tightarse bum for a few months.
Ive tried samoa and its worth going, hard to get to from Oz as you go through Auckland or Fiji. Cheaper for us kiwis.
Great waves and nice place to stay and warm culture.
How cheaps cheap is relative and if you score good waves its always worth the price.
Check this out
or an article herehttp://surfr.blogspot.com/
Great waves and nice place to stay and warm culture.
How cheaps cheap is relative and if you score good waves its always worth the price.
Check this out
or an article herehttp://surfr.blogspot.com/
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