Vanuatu Hotel Tips by Jame$76

We stayed at Le Lagon for our week in Vanuatu, in a "Lagoon View" room. The grounds and rooms are top notch. Having said that, we were a little let down by a few aspects of the service - and I was surprised by the high prices.

A local Vanuatu beer is around 500 Vatu, which is about $7 AUS. Imported beers are more. We dined in the restaurant and paid around $130 AUS each time. The restaurant food was decent, but still quite pricey by Australian standards. We chose the seafood buffet in the main dining hall one night, which was extremely disappointing. The thawed seafood in Australian supermarkets is generally better than what was offered. They don't seem to have much of a local seafood industry. The MOST IMPORTANT thing I can say is to consider the all inclusive package. We didn't take the all inclusive option and spent around $900 AUS on food and drink for the week, and we weren't being extravagant.

Perhaps it's the laid back island attitude but we found the majority of staff to be quite unattentive. We had a couple of small clothing items go missing from outside our room and it was near impossible to get anyone to do anything about it. In the end we gave up and bought replacements. The food and drink service was generally poor.

The most irritating aspect of our stay was the incessant music. The music at the pool bar started at around 9:30am and didn't stop until late at night. It was a mix of local "string bands", reggae, rap and top 40 hits. I'm probably starting to sound like a whinger but I'm just offering my honest opinion - the music was too loud; carrying through to most central areas of the resort. It's not what you want when you've planned to sit by the pool with a book for a significant portion of the trip. Even worse was when they started playing different music at the other end of the pool - which happened most afternoons. Noise pollution!

Unique Qualities: Beautiful tropical gardens, lagoon frontage (for the included sailing, snorkeling, kayaking etc), easy access to adjacent Erakor Island. Large pool with bar facilities. Golf course on the resort grounds. Two restaurants.

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Theme: Hotel
Comparison: more expensive than average
Prices: US$120-180  » Currency Converter
Address: Erakor Lagoon, Port Vila
Directions: 8km from Port Vila Bauerfield Airport, through the township itself.
Website: http://lelagonvanuatu.vu/

Although we didn't stay on Erakor, we spent an increasing amount of time there as it was so peaceful. The quiet, low key and relaxed resort was probably more what we were looking for (if only we'd known!). Small, tranquil - and really gives you that isolated tropical island paradise feel.

Erakor is a small island, around 800m long and about 100m at its widest. Accomodation is in the form of bungalows, most with direct water views.

We ate at Erakor twice and the food was good, but still reasonably pricey by Australian standards (around $90 AUS per couple for a family restaurant quality 3 course meal). The service was the similar to Le Lagon, with the staff being a bit absent minded, but they were friendly, interested in a chat and took as much care as they could.

Unique Qualities: Bungalow style accomodation. Bar, games room and separate waterfront restaurant. Small range of kayaks/surfskis for guest use.

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Theme: Other
Comparison: about average

Address: Erakor Island, Erakor Lagoon
Directions: Approximately 9km from Port Vila Bauerfiled Airport
Website: http://www.erakor.vu/