"You want to go where? Tonga?!" Tonga by Sduarte

Tonga Travel Guide: 197 reviews and 325 photos

You'll love it

While planning our trip to NZ and Australia we noticed that Air NZ gave us the option of a free stop-over in Tonga. We had never heard of this place and knew almost nothing about it, but being the adventurous travelers, we decided to book our tickets with the stop-over and worry about finding out what Tonga was all about once we got there.

Pulling teeth...

A few weeks before we got to Tonga we were desperately scouring the internet for information on Tonga... where do we go, what do we do, where do we stay...? We searched and searched, asked and asked and nothing, as if tourism information on Tonga was non-exsistent. Once in NZ, we talked to a few people that gave us a bit more guidence and information. Unfortunately, they didn't paint a pretty picture. I was so discouraged that I was willing to cancel my ticket and end the trip early... just head on home.

Good for me...

Fortunately, I didn't change my mind and headed to Tongatapu. The advice we got from people who had visited Tonga was to take a flight to the Vava'u group of islands (about 1 hour flight North of Tongatapu). We booked our flight with Airlines Tonga (for $150US return ticket) at the Domestic Terminal in Tongatapu. The airplane itself is a small 18-seater prop. engine and scheduling can be erratic [we heard of cancelled flights because there wasn't enough money to purchase fuel for the airplane or because there weren't enough passengers]. Our flight to Tonga from Auckland was on Air NZ and landed in Tongatapu at 1:00 AM. Since our flight to Vava'u departed at 8:00 AM, it was suggested we stay at a nearby B&B-type place, almost adjacent to the airport, instead of driving the 45 minutes to Tongatapu. The B&B is operated by a very nice man and his wife and they include airport transfer and breakfast for $15US per person. Tonga was quite the experience and something I will always remember as an amazing place.

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