Oceania
Wartime wrecks, vast lagoons and villages few travellers reach.
The Solomon Islands are a scatter of nearly a thousand islands east of Papua New Guinea. Around Honiara on Guadalcanal, the Second World War is ever-present, with battlefields and wrecks in Iron Bottom Sound. In the Western Province, Marovo Lagoon, Gizo and Munda offer exceptional diving, snorkelling and eco-lodges set among reefs, rainforest and traditional villages.
This is raw, rewarding Pacific travel: basic lodges, fresh fish and root crops, dugout canoes and very few crowds. Services outside Honiara are limited and schedules flexible, so leave slack in your plans. Domestic flights and boats connect the islands. May to October is drier and cooler; November to April is hotter, wetter and brings cyclone risk.
June, July, August, September.