If you visit Vanuatu, here is a little tropical oasis to enjoy about half an hour from Port Vila.

Eden on the River is 17km from town and it is a terrific spot for a couple of hours or even a whole day. You could also make it a stop as part of an around the island trip with a bus/driver or in a hire car.

It’s great for families with bridges to make exploring the rainforest fun, lots of swimming holes, mini-golf, guided tours, an animal farm, a playground and a café. You can pay for basic entry – 1000 vatu (AUD$12) per adult, children 4 to 14 half price and under three years free. This gives access to the tropical gardens, trails and swimming holes with no time limit and you can add other stuff on from there.

18-hole mini-golf costs 500 vatu or AUD$5, guided tours that take around two hours are 1200 vatu (AUD$15) for the botanical garden tour and 2200 vatu (AUD$25) for the Bridges of Eden tour. Tours usually start at 9:30am, 12:30pm and 2:30pm. Or you take the Big Day Combo that has all the above including a BBQ lunch for 7500 vatu (AUD$90).

They don’t take credit cards but will accept cash in vatu, AUD, NZD or USD. Grab a bus from town or your resort or ring Eden to arrange a transfer on 7710765.

Here is a link to the Eden on the River website.

Ekasup Cultural Village in Vanuatu is a terrific tourist attraction. Visitors get to experience traditional culture and history in engaging presentations. On arriving at the village you enter the rainforest to be greeted by the chief and warriors/villagers in traditional costume to be taken back to another time.

On entering the actual village you learn about natural herbs and medicines, food preservation and roasting, making hunting traps, weaving baskets & mats and preparing the local dish, laplap. You will be told about cannibalism and you might even discover how to catch fish using a spider’s web.

While it is a tourist attraction, income from tours makes the modern village sustainable and it is a way of passing the traditional culture down through the generations because pikininis to their elders are part of the generational experience.

Photo: WotzOnVanuatu

The much-loved Scottish author, Robert Louis Stevenson, spent the last of his young years at Vailima just outside Apia. He was aged just 44 when he died. He was opening a bottle of wine and chatting with his wife, Fanny, when he suddenly collapsed and died a few hours later, probably from a cerebral haemorrhage.

Famous around the world for his novels (the biggest sellers being Treasure Island, Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde), Stevenson is more famous in Samoa for simply being a great man who just happened to be a writer.

While his Samoan name was ‘Tusitala’ (‘Teller of Tales’) Stevenson was also a leader, thinker and motivator. His 20 staff members were more family than servants and a visit to the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum (formerly the writer’s residence) is highly recommended. It is simply the best museum I have been to – you feel as if you have walked in his footsteps.

Robert and Fanny are buried up the hill behind Vailima with Robert’s grave inscribed with his poem, Requiem…

Under the wide and starry sky,

Dig the grave and let me lie.

Glad did I live and gladly die,

And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:

Here he lies where he longed to be;

Home is the sailor, home from sea,

And the hunter home from the hill.

Top photo: ‘Vailima’, Robert Louis Stevenson’s home just outside Apia which is now a terrific museum

Bottom photo: Stevenson’s birthday fete at Vailima in 1894, the year he died

Polynesian nights in the Cook Islands are fabulous and a number of resorts offer a weekly ‘Island Night’. They should be enjoyed at least once by visitors – they are vibrant, colourful and sensual – it is hard to believe that the same dancers attend church on Sundays and also know all the hymns!

The locals are passionate about sharing their history, culture, traditions, dance, music and food. You may be invited to be part of the show and don’t be shy – it will be fun and memorable.

On the island of Aitutaki the celebratory fun is taken very seriously and the participants from various villages actually ‘compete’ to outdo each other. I have caught Island Night at The Rarotongan Beach Resort on Rarotonga and at Samade on the Beach on Aitutaki and they were quite different but both totally fabulous!

Most visitors to Fiji stay in their resort(s) and don’t venture out to experience the colour and vibrancy of the local markets. A visit to the markets will, however, give you an insight into local life and culture. They are often noisy and hectic and you’ll find an array of local produce, herbs, spices and souvenirs. The fresh fruit is full of taste!

I have enjoyed the markets in Nadi, Lautoka, Sigatoka and Suva. Mind you, in Suva I did get cornered by a fast-talking Indian hawker who was flogging little hand-carved balsa wood canoes. His modus operandi was to ask your name and before you could say ‘Bob’s your uncle’ or, indeed, just ‘Bob’, he would have your name carved in the side of the boat so you would feel obliged to buy it. I told him that he had the spelling of my name wrong and he said, “No problem” and with one swift, swiping whittle he removed the previous name and asked for the correct spelling. No need to feel guilty if you refuse to play as I did and he’ll just swipe it again and approach another tourist. If I kept correcting his spelling it may have ended with a haggle over a toothpick.

Photo: Lautoka Markets Trip Advisor