Tonga Holiday Planner - (BeautifulPacific.com)

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Tonga Holidays Guide

Beautiful Tonga Holiday Planner is a dedicated south pacific islands travel expert offering personalized tonga holiday planning with a reliable and unbiased booking service. It is our aim to help you select the ideal destination and resorts for your holiday

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Tonga vacations offer the least commercial and some of the most interesting sightseeing and activity holidays in the South Pacific. The islands are blessed with a huge variation of scenic attractions: remarkable blowholes, ancient archaeological sites, tiny romantic coral islands, great snorkelling, whale watching and exploring meandering causeways and secluded bays by yacht or kayak.

Daily flights except Sunday connect the two main island groups of Haapai (Lifuka Island 25 minutes flight from Tongatapu) and Vavau (Neiafu 45 minutes flight from Tongatapu). Branching out from these main centres, though, is a little more challenging - water taxis or local fishing boats are the only way to go island hopping and few buses operate - even Tongatapu has a confusing network of buses (Tongans are renowned for their inability to give directions, preferring to say yes to any direction you point towards) making it easier to cycle, hire a taxi or join a day tour to see the sights.

The main island of Tongatapu and its gorgeous lagoon scattered with tiny coral islands offers a delightful combination of palm fringed beaches and great sightseeing around the coast of the main island and to uninhabited islands and sand bars.

Of the Outer Islands, the Haapai Group is a step back in time with traditional fishing villages and a laid back subsistence lifestyle with some lovely beaches and snorkelling. Slightly further north, the Vavau Group is the activity centre of Tonga with the best whale watching in the South Pacific (May to October), great kayaking and fantastic sightseeing around the myriad of limestone islands, bays and causeways which also make this the best sailing destination in the South Pacific.

Tonga is one of the cheapest destinations of the main South Pacific islands so you'll find your money stretching further than Hawaii, The Cook Islands or Tahiti. Tipping is not encouraged and contrary to Polynesian culture. Most credit cards and travellers cheques are readily accepted and there are ATM machines at Westpac and ANZ banks in Nuku'alofa and Neiafu. Currency is the Tongan dollar.

Tonga lies to the south of its South Pacific neighbours, making the climate here slightly cooler and the humidity less intense. Winter nights even call for a light jumper. There is a distinct tourist season which falls in with the arrival of humpback whales and the yachting season, both coinciding between June and October. Outside of this period, tourism is usually in a lull, especially in Vavau where many hotels and restaurants hibernate. Flights during Christmas are more difficult to get as locals return home from overseas for their holidays.

Getting to Tonga is straight-forward with direct flights between Los Angeles, New Zealand and Australia, although most flights are on a weekly basis only. Direct flights operate extensively to and from other south pacific countries but again mostly on a weekly basis. So, if you are trying to organise a trip outside of the 1-week, 2-week structure, then you will need to do some shuffling.

English is widely spoken. Crime is virtually non-existent although petty theft is quite common. Electricity is 240 volts.