Top 9 Things to Do in Vanuatu

Author: Diana Lebe­de­va

Updat­ed: 31 August 2020

Van­u­atu is an island state with an unusu­al nature. It attracts with ever­green trop­i­cal veg­e­ta­tion and coral reefs. Peo­ple come here to admire the erup­tions of the Yasur and Ambrim vol­ca­noes, get acquaint­ed with the orig­i­nal cul­ture of the local peo­ple and walk through the san­dal­wood forests.

Who travels to Vanuatu and why

Fans of study­ing his­tor­i­cal mon­u­ments will enjoy vis­it­ing the cap­i­tal of the coun­try — Port Vila. Among the notable places it is worth not­ing the Par­lia­ment build­ing and the Cul­tur­al Cen­ter, which hous­es the Nation­al Muse­um. The Catholic Cathe­dral and the Angli­can Church are also inter­est­ing.

Fans of out­door activ­i­ties in the cap­i­tal will be offered horse­back rid­ing. You can also tick­le your nerves on the edge of the vol­cano crater. Extreme lovers climb Yasur and Ambrim to see sheaves of mag­mat­ic sparks and lava lakes.

Van­u­atu has pre­pared sev­er­al places for div­ing enthu­si­asts to choose from: the coral reefs of Invek Island and Port Patrick, Mele Bay, as well as a place called Mil­lion Dol­lar Point near the island of Espir­i­tu San­to.

Con­nois­seurs of pris­tine nature go there too. An indeli­ble impres­sion will leave a vis­it to the “Blue Holes” — deep reser­voirs with clear water of an unusu­al col­or.

Interesting places

Port Vila

The cap­i­tal of the state is locat­ed on the island of Efate. Here you can see the Par­lia­ment build­ing and the Van­u­atu Cul­tur­al Cen­ter, locat­ed oppo­site it. As archi­tec­tur­al struc­tures, the Catholic Cathe­dral of the Sacred Heart, the Angli­can Church in Taba­ga and the Con­sti­tu­tion Build­ing are of inter­est. You can take a walk in the Inde­pen­dence Park.

National Museum

The insti­tu­tion is locat­ed in the build­ing of the Cul­tur­al Cen­ter. It hous­es about 3,500 exhibits and objects that intro­duce the vis­i­tor to the his­to­ry and cul­ture of Van­u­atu. In the muse­um you can see draw­ings on the sand — a type of art char­ac­ter­is­tic of the arch­i­pel­ago, as well as prod­ucts of local arti­sans, var­i­ous sculp­tures and agri­cul­tur­al imple­ments. The same insti­tu­tion hous­es a library and nation­al archives with his­tor­i­cal doc­u­ments.

Notable Islands

Espiritu Santo

The largest island in the coun­try. On it is a moun­tain range with a dor­mant vol­cano Tab­we­masana. Vast areas are cov­ered with rel­ic rain­for­est, and at the north­ern tip of the island, the Big Bay Nation­al Park is orga­nized, pre­serv­ing the pris­tine nature. About 170 species of trop­i­cal birds and more than 10 vari­eties of orchids can be seen on Espir­i­tu San­to.

Million Dollar Point

A few kilo­me­ters from the island’s cap­i­tal, Luganville, is Mil­lion Dol­lar Point. This is the place where the US mil­i­tary, after the end of World War II, threw mil­i­tary equip­ment and vehi­cles into the sea so as not to ship them to the main­land. Piles of box­es of pro­vi­sions and cola, jeeps and bull­doz­ers root­ed in coral and cov­ered with algae.

Now this place is very pop­u­lar with scu­ba divers. Not far from this point, the Amer­i­can ships Pres­i­dent Coolidge and Tuck­er lie at the bot­tom of the ocean.

Aneityum

This island is locat­ed to the south of all, and its ter­ri­to­ry is the tops of two under­wa­ter vol­ca­noes. Exten­sive san­dal­wood forests grow on fer­tile soil, as well as more than 80 species of orchids. Here, the pop­u­la­tion of the kau­ri tree is restored and orchards are set up.

The island is attrac­tive with for­est trails for hik­ing, hot springs at Umech and Anwunupol with cas­cades of min­er­al water, as well as coral reefs of Invek Island and Port Patrick, which are excel­lent for div­ing.

natural attractions

Volcano Yasur

The vol­cano is locat­ed on the island of Tan­na, and it is the youngest and most active vol­cano in the coun­try. The diam­e­ter of its crater is 400 m. Despite fre­quent erup­tions, in which lava and ash can be thrown hun­dreds of meters up, Yasur is con­sid­ered the most acces­si­ble vol­cano in the world for climb­ing.

The ascent to its top takes only 10 min­utes. Hot stones and mag­ma splash­es con­stant­ly erupt from the vent. The best time to vis­it the vol­cano is at sun­rise or sun­set. How­ev­er, the most dar­ing tourists come on excur­sions even at night.

Mele bay

It is locat­ed a few kilo­me­ters north­west of the cap­i­tal — Port Vila. Tourists are attract­ed by crys­tal clear waters and coral reefs. Black Sands Reef is one of the most pop­u­lar.

Many caves and tun­nels have formed in it, through which divers make their way with great inter­est. The Gotham City reef is also pop­u­lar among div­ing enthu­si­asts, and in the Tuki Tuki and Katidral areas, you can see the MV Conan­da and Sem­ley Feed­ers sunken in the 1980s.

Volcano Ambrim

It ris­es on the island of the same name. There is high vol­canic activ­i­ty here, and lava lakes are con­stant­ly seething in the craters. Excur­sions are most often held to the Marum crater. If you get close to its edge, on a clear day you can see lava seething in the depths of the abyss.

“Blue Holes”

This spe­cif­ic name was giv­en to the nat­ur­al pools on the island of Espir­i­tu San­to. There are three of them — Matavu­lu, Jack­ies and RiRi Blue Hole. The largest and most vis­it­ed of them is Matavu­lu, which is usu­al­ly reached from Luganville.

The areas of “blue holes” have a rel­a­tive­ly large depth, and at the bot­tom of them are lay­ers of lime­stone that have a white col­or. This cre­ates an amaz­ing visu­al con­trast — bright blue water at depth, bor­dered by lighter “lay­ers”. Blue holes are sur­round­ed by palm trees and green veg­e­ta­tion. Equipped slopes lead to them — swim­ming is allowed here.