Solomon Islands Discovery Guide

The Solomon Islands receive a few thousand leisure visitors a year -- fewer than some single resorts elsewhere in the Pacific -- and that is the whole appeal: nearly a thousand islands, almost no tourism infrastructure, and reefs and wrecks that see very few people. Iron Bottom Sound off Guadalcanal holds dozens of warships and aircraft sunk in 1942 and 1943; Marovo is the largest saltwater lagoon in the world; and custom ownership of land and reef still governs almost everything.

The main travel issue

It follows from the same absence of infrastructure. The wet season from November to April carries the cyclone risk, sea crossings become unreliable and lodges close, and the domestic network runs small aircraft on a few flights a week with strict baggage limits and frequent changes.

The solution

Come between May and October, build spare days around every internal flight rather than connecting tightly, and arrange reef and village access through a lodge, which is how permission actually works here.

Diving the wrecks

Iron Bottom Sound between Guadalcanal and Savo holds warships from the 1942 naval battles, though many are far too deep to dive. Accessible sites include the Bonegi wrecks off Honiara, reachable from the beach, and around Munda and Gizo a remarkable concentration of ships, fighters and bombers in divable depths, including a Japanese transport and the Toa Maru.

Marovo Lagoon

The largest saltwater lagoon on earth, enclosed by a double barrier reef. Stay in a village-owned eco-lodge, travel by canoe between islands, and buy the hardwood carvings the lagoon is known for directly from the carvers.

Guadalcanal

The 1942 to 1943 campaign was among the most consequential of the Pacific war. Bloody Ridge, Henderson Field — now the international airport — the US and Japanese memorials above Honiara, and the Vilu open-air war museum.

Rennell

East Rennell is UNESCO-listed: the largest raised coral atoll in the world, with Lake Tegano, a brackish lake covering a fifth of the island, and endemic birds and bats.

Villages

Custom dancing, panpipe ensembles and shell-money making on Malaita, arranged through local guides.

The Solomon Islands are among the most culturally diverse places on earth for their size, and the organising unit is the clan rather than the nation.

Over seventy languages

More than seventy distinct languages are spoken by about 750,000 people — predominantly Melanesian, with Polynesian outliers on a few outlying islands. Pijin, an English-based creole, is what everyone uses to talk across that divide.

Kastom

Customary law, land tenure and obligation govern daily life far more than the state does. Land and reef are held by clans and cannot simply be bought, disputes are settled by compensation between groups, and a visitor’s access to almost anywhere depends on someone’s permission.

Shell money

On Malaita, strings of ground and drilled shell discs are still made and still used — for bride price, compensation and ceremony — alongside the national currency, which is unusual anywhere in the world.

The war

The 1942 to 1943 campaign is present in the landscape and in family memory; islanders served as scouts and coastwatchers, and the wreckage is everywhere.

The Tensions

Ethnic conflict between Guadalcanal and Malaitan groups from 1998 to 2003 required an international peacekeeping mission, and riots have occurred since, most recently in 2021. The politics remain fragile.

Church

Overwhelmingly Christian, and Sunday is genuinely observed.

Nearly all land and reef here is held under customary ownership by clans, not by the state. Practically, that means permission matters: to walk somewhere, to dive a reef, to visit a village or a war relic, someone has to say yes, and a fee is normal and legitimate. Go through your guesthouse or a local guide, and never assume access.

Logging is the country’s largest export industry and has been carried out at a rate widely described as unsustainable, with serious effects on rivers, reefs and communities. Choosing locally owned eco-lodges puts money behind the alternative, which is exactly the argument communities are having internally.

The reefs are in unusually good condition because so few people dive them. Keep off the coral, use reef-safe sunscreen, and use operators with moorings.

Wartime relics are graves as often as they are artefacts. Take nothing, and treat wrecks and crash sites as memorials.

Waste leaves by ship or not at all — carry yours back.

May to October is the drier, cooler season and the best window: less rain, calmer seas, better visibility for diving, and easier small-boat travel between islands.

November to April is the wet season, hotter and much more humid, with heavy rain and the cyclone risk running roughly November to April. Sea crossings become unreliable and some lodges close.

Diving visibility is best between about June and October, though the water is warm and divable year round.

The country is close to the equator, so temperature barely changes through the year — the seasons are about rain and sea state rather than heat.

Independence Day on 7 July brings celebrations and custom dancing in Honiara and the provinces, and is the best single day to be here for culture.

What a day costs, by how you travel

Relative cost across the country

The country is not cheap despite being undeveloped. Almost everything is imported, internal flights are costly and limited, and the lack of competition keeps prices firm.