3 days in Port Vila: Why you shouldn't skip Vanuatu's capital

Most holiday-makers bypass Port Vila in favour of seeing other parts of the country, but this traveller reckons the capital is best enjoyed over a few relaxing days.

We all know Vanuatu has pretty lagoons, right? Maybe you’ve been through on a cruise ship, so you know about the Mele Cascades – waterfalls 20 minutes outside Port Vila – or you’ve done a quad-bike tour? 

But Port Vila (and its surrounds) is a cool place just to hang out, and eat and drink, and generally be merry.

You can see a lot in 48 hours, but Vanuatu is in the South Pacific and you’re not meant to move fast in the South Pacific. Kick back, get comfy, people-watch, grab a happy hour-priced cocktail by the beach and live Port Vila as you should.

DAY 1: Evening

It’s hardly a colossal trans-Pacific journey to get to Vanuatu (less than three hours by air), but an afternoon and evening spent in an ocean-side resort barely 20 minutes from the airport sounds like a good idea. There’s a private sandy beach out front of Nasama Resort. Two minutes after I check in, I’m swimming off it, lapping up the warmth of the Pacific Ocean.

I arrive in time for happy hour at the resort’s Garden Terrace. It’s heaving and I like the energy; I order a Margarita and sit at a table surrounded by frangipani and gardenia (ah, the smell). Happy hour’s done by 7pm, so I drift off in the dusk to open-air restaurant Three Pigs. 

Happy hour at Nasama Resort's Garden Terrace.

DAY 2: Morning

I’m keen to check out Port Vila’s coffee options. I love seeing a new city start the day – and it’s only seven minutes’ drive away. Many South Pacific capital cities aren’t much to look at, but Port Vila is built on a pretty natural harbour, and is full of parks. I find Coffee Tree café in a laneway off a historic post office where ex-pats and locals gather for a brew. Plants hang down off an old brick façade in a space that feels part European, part Asian. I can’t resist a croissant (Vanuatu was once a French – and British – colony, and some things remain) with my latte.

Continuing my indulgence, I take a short stroll to Gaston Chocolat. Ex-pat French owner Oliver Fernandez blends local nuts and roots, such as the kava plant, into chocolate handmade on site. Kava chocolate is his biggest seller, but Fernandez warns me against overindulging (kava has a relaxation effect). “A customer ate a whole block recently,” he tells me. “She couldn’t move for half an hour.” 

Gaston Chocolat in downtown Port Vila.

Afternoon

Today I’m helping cook my lunch. I drive half an hour north to Papaya Loco for a cooking class. Aussie ex-pat chef Marcus Xavier left Queensland permanently in 2017 to run this cooking school.

“We have a serious ‘no shoes, no news’ policy in place,” he says on arrival before I help to cook a three-course lunch in an open-plan kitchen.

Dessert absorbs me most: ground-up cassava stuffed with prunes in coffee liqueur and wrapped in banana leaves. We swim between courses at a series of deserted beaches along the edge of his former copra plantation property. 

You won't find a better located cooking school in the world than Papaya Loco.

Evening

I stroll through the parks beside the harbour chatting to locals, then find the only bar-restaurant with a sandy beach in Port Vila: Banyan Beach Bar.

Part of local institution Chantilly’s on the Bay, it’s a barefoot sandy bar set right on Fatumaru Bay, complete with hammocks, four-poster beds and tables on the sand. I order a happy-hour cocktail and watch the sun set into the ocean, then order a wood-fired pizza. 

Port Vila Market brimming with fresh produce.

DAY 3: Morning

I check out of Nasama Resort and into the Grand Hotel and Casino in the heart of Port Vila. From my harbour view room I feel like I’m on a ship as I stand on my balcony looking out across the pool below to the islands of the bay. The Port Vila Market is just below me, on the foreshore. I hate being accosted by vendors at markets on holiday, but these are different. They’re divided into three sections – produce stalls, craft stalls and mini restaurants. It’s a colourful place, and you’ll get to see Vanuatu as it really is. I feast on a local dish, laplap – made when breadfruit, banana and taro are pounded into a paste, and coconut cream and pork is added. It’s so good, I go back for seconds.

Waterfront dining at Breakas Beach Resort.

Afternoon

I leave from the markets for a 5km taxi ride to Breakas Beach Resort. On its own private beach with a stunning reef to snorkel, it’s also the best place on Efate to surf – Pango Point is right out front of the resort. Watch local surfers thread their way across the reef, swim in the resort’s 22m infinity pool, then order lunch at the resort’s restaurant on the ocean edge (and order cocktails from the Salt Bar).

After lunch, I visit 83 Islands Distillery, behind Port Vila, for a tour and tasting. Co-owner Pierre-Luc Chabot left Canada to start the first premium spirits company in Vanuatu. They use sugar cane grown by local farmers, and put each farmer’s name on the bottle. I take a seat at a tasting bar overlooking a lagoon. Their rum’s already won silver awards at the world’s most prestigious spirits competition in London, and that’s good enough for me. Cheers.

Harbour views from Stonegrill Restaurant, Port Vila.

Evening

I’m a sucker for watery sunsets, and the best is at Stonegrill Restaurant. It’s set up high on a hill above the city, so you also get a bird’s-eye view of Port Vila thrown in. Stonegrill Restaurant is open-plan, so with the shutters rolled up, you get a stunning view of the harbour and the city from every table.

I order an ice-cold local beer and try to choose between cuts of beef at what’s considered one of the best steakhouses in Melanesia. I opt for marinated skirt steak, and I’m given a hot lava stone to cook it on.

After dinner, I set forth on a bar crawl around Port Vila to meet the locals. There are bars open till 2am, but I’m home by midnight.

The writer was a guest of the Vanuatu Tourism Office and Virgin Australia.

How to get to Port Vila, Vanuatu

Virgin Australia operates a direct service between Brisbane and Port Vila up to five times per week with connections to major Australian cities. 

Originally published as 3 days in Port Vila: Why you shouldn't skip Vanuatu's capital