In short
Port Vila is the capital of Vanuatu, on the island of Efate. It is a small town on a lagoon, with its covered market open continuously from Monday to Saturday and a seafront in permanent reconstruction — the country is among the most exposed in the world to cyclones and earthquakes.
Vanuatu has more than a hundred languages for fewer than three hundred thousand people, one of the highest linguistic densities on the planet. Bislama, an English-based creole, serves as the common language, alongside English and French.
Arriving and getting around
Bauerfield international airport is a few kilometres from the centre.
The minibuses, recognisable by their plates beginning with B, run without fixed routes: you wave, you state your destination, the driver adjusts his route. It is the ordinary transport and it costs little.
The other islands require a domestic flight — Tanna, Espiritu Santo, Pentecost — and those flights are subject to the weather.
What it really costs
Vanuatu is more expensive than its Melanesian neighbours, everything being imported.
The country applies very light taxation, which explains the duty-free shops in Port Vila.
When to come
May–October is the dry, cooler season.
November–April is hot, humid and cyclonic.
What nobody tells you
Mount Yasur, on the island of Tanna, is one of the most accessible active volcanoes in the world: you go up by 4×4 then on foot to the crater rim, from where the explosions are watched. Access depends on the volcanic alert level published by Vanuatu's geohazards service, which can close the site without notice. Check before booking the flight.
Bungee jumping descends from the naghol, the land dive practised on the island of Pentecost: men jump from a wooden tower with vines tied to their ankles, between April and June, in a rite linked to the yam harvest. The modern jump was explicitly inspired by it in the 1970s.
Hideaway Island holds an underwater post office: you buy a waterproof postcard and post it while snorkelling, a few metres down.
The nakamal, kava bars, open in the late afternoon and signal it with a light. Vanuatu kava has a reputation for being stronger than Fijian.