I’d only recommend using this safe, ultimate Papua New Guinea travel guide in addition to booking your trip with an established guide and company. PNG Tribal Foundation offers immersive tours and custom trips, while also giving back to the communities and country. Check out their website if you’re interested!
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I’ll also be hosting one of our #MyLifesATravelTRIBE group trips there in September of 2024! If you’d like more information, please fill out this form !
Now on to the fun stuff!
Where is Papua New Guinea?
Papua New Guinea is located in the South Pacific Ocean, right above Australia! In fact, before the last ice age, it used to be connected, and that’s why you can find some marsupials in PNG!
It is its own independent country, and it used to be the whole island of New Guinea, however now Indonesia owns half of it (West Guinea).
How Do You Get to Papua New Guinea?
The only way to get to Papua New Guinea is by flight, and spoiler alert, it’s probably very expensive (if coming from USA or Europe). The main international airport there is in Port Moresby (airport code POM).
I would recommend playing around on Skyscanner using flexible destinations and dates to get the best prices.
For example, you can try to find cheaper flights into the Philippines or Australia, or even Japan, and then look at separate flights from there to Port Moresby.
What is Required to Enter PNG?
This is always somewhat dependent of your nationality, but the basics for entering Papua New Guinea are:
Valid passport for at least 6 months
Visa (approved and purchased in advance, print a copy)
Covid vaccines (bring physical or digital copy)
Travel Insurance (not by the country but by most tour companies), I recommend World Nomads
Malaria pills are optional. I personally never take them and recommend strong bug spray, but it is entirely up to you.
What Language do Papua New Guinea People Speak?
Most Papua New Guinea people speak English and Pidgin
Here’s a fun fact! Papua New Guinea has the most languages spoken in one country, with over 850 of them!
However most Papua New Guinea people speak English, and also Tok Pisin, which is also known as Pidgin. Pidgin is interesting to me because it basically combines two languages (a native one and English), so most of the time I could catch English words and slightly understand what people were saying!
For example, here’s some common phrases in Papua New Guinea Pidgin:
What is your name? – Wanem nem bilong yu? Who are you? – Yu whosait? My name is (Joe) – Nem bilong mi (Joe) Thank you very much – tenk yu tru(e) No thank you – sori nogut How are you? – yu orait ? (you alright) I’m fine – mi orait tasol How much is that? – em hamas?
Is Papua New Guinea Dangerous?
Even in a cave filled with skulls from previous cannibalism practices, I didn’t feel unsafe.
In the ten days I spent in Papua New Guinea, I did not feel any danger or unsafe at all. Again, I was there with the founder of an NGO who is from there, and would only recommend going with a tour, but I really did feel safe.
Actually the only time I felt unsafe was when we decided to jump off the cliff of an island, and below looked like all shallow coral. I definitely did not think that was a safe idea. But I did it anyway, and it was fine and FUN!
I wrote an entire (very long) post about the safety concerns in Papua New Guinea including current crime issues and something called Sorcery Accused Related Violence. Please read it if you plan on going to PNG!
General Travel Information for Papua New Guinea
Here’s a quick reference for some commonly asked travel questions:
Currency: Papua New Guinean Kina (1 Kina = 0.28 USD)
ATMS: easily accessible at the airport
Credit Card Use: most places accept cards (see my recommended travel debit and credit cards)
Connectivity: Free SIM cards are available at the airport! You need an unlocked phone to use it (and also cannot be an iPhone 14 purchased in USA as they took the slot away) for more info on how to use SIM cards see this post
Wifi: Available at all of the hotels and worked pretty well
Religion: Mostly Christianity (from colonizers)
About Port Moresby
Port Moresby is the main city in Papua New Guinea. Like most main cities, I don’t really recommend spending too much time there. Especially since there are just so many beautiful places outside of it to see!
I had heard mostly bad things about Port Moresby before I traveled there, but when I was there, I quickly found none of them to be true. To me at least.
Crime was something I heard often, so I just made sure to avoid sketchy areas, and only go where my host recommended. I stayed at nice hotels with security on purpose just in case, since it was my first time. And I don’t really go out at night, but we did have dinner and drinks a couple times and it felt safe.
If you’re staying in Port Moresby, and looking for safe things to do, I have a few suggestions!
1. If you’re just there waiting for a domestic flight, I recommend staying at Airways Hotel. It has a cool view of the runway and a nice pool, plus it’s literally next to the airport.
2. Port at Crowne Plaza has a nice restaurant/bar/lounge and is of course very safe. They also had live music.
3. If you want an island experience, book a day pass (or a night) at Loloata. It’s a resort on a private island!
4. The Waterfront is a bit more local, and has various restaurants and bars in an outdoor setting.
Getting to Other Areas Outside of Port Moresby
Here’s one of the main things that makes Papua New Guinea so expensive and so difficult to do logistically; the only way to see anything outside of Port Moresby, is by flight.
On top of that, most of the other regions and provinces don’t have interconnecting flights. Meaning you have to fly to them, then back to Port Moresby, then out to another one, then back to POM again. So those roundtrip flights really start to add up (they were around $500 each).
Their two airlines are Air Niugini and PNG Air. You can try to navigate their websites on your own, but this is another reason why I recommend just using a travel company.
FULL DISCLOSURE: While I was there, we had a total of five cancelled domestic flights. Because of these cancellations I couldn’t go to the Highlands, and we randomly went somewhere else (which was a beautiful island so I’m not complaining ).
Other Provinces/Towns/Areas I Went To
This is going to get confusing, so please read it carefully. In Papua New Guinea there are provinces. In those provinces there are towns. All of the above is in certain areas. Got it? Great, moving right along.
So for example, we went up to the “Islands area”, to East New Britain province , and went to towns called Kokopo and Rabaul. This is also where Duke of York Islands are. I’m not really sure which classification they fall under.
Here’s more about where I went:
East New Britain (Includes Kokopo, Rabaul, and Duke of York Islands)
Without a doubt, the Duke of York Islands were the highlight of my Papua New Guinea trip. I’m also an island-addict and was likely a dolphin in a previous life, so I might be biased.
Dolphin Tour
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Speaking of DOLPHINS!!! I saw more dolphins up close than anywhere else I have been to in the World! Previously it was Zanzibar, but Duke of York just replaced it! It was hands down one of the most magical moments of my entire life!
I sat at the bow of the boat for a while, where the dolphins like to play. Then they showed me this genius contraption that is like a rope ladder on the side of the boat that you lay on face down with your mask and snorkel in the water. Then the boat drives forward, attracting the dolphins to the bow, and you get an incredible opportunity to “swim” with them!
You can book a dolphin tour only (which leaves at 6am and comes back around 9am). But the tour I did was for Duke of York Islands which was half a day and took us to several different little islands We got lucky with the dolphins being out later).
Duke of Islands Tour
The Duke of Islands tour was just utterly incredible. Crystal clear, perfect-temperature water, buzzing with colorful sea life, and lush tropical islands. It really can’t get much better than that! Plus we immediately encountered all of the dolphins and got to “swim” with them for about 30 minutes!
This tour will take you to several of the little islands, depending on your preference. Some we just cruised by, some we snorkeled at, and one we actually swam up to a small beach cove, climbed up the rocks, and had local kids show us where to cliff jump into the water!
Towards the end of the tour, we stopped at a gorgeous sandbar area, that seriously looked like places I’ve seen in the Maldives, Hawaii, and Tahiti. It made me really wish PNG would get more attention! You can relax here and take in the views of the clear-blue shallow water with the three volcanoes in the distance!
Mt. Tavurvur Active Volcano Hike
Yes, you read that correctly. You can hike an active volcano in this area! Mt. Tavurvur is the smallest of the three volcanoes you see from any position in the Duke of York Islands area.
To do the hike we had two locals guide us up, and it took about 35 minutes for us (we are experienced hikers). From the top you can see partially down into the volcano, where smoke constantly rises. You also get a birdseye view of the islands below!
At the rim of Mt. Tavurvur — I’m the yellow dot in a dress
