Adventure Solomon Islands

Fifteen meters down on the starboard side of the Toa Maru, a 140-meter Japanese transport bombed by US dive bombers in 1943, you swim past a Type 21 tank still chained to the cargo hold floor. Sake bottles, neatly arranged. A motorbike. Schools of barracuda over the bow, a turtle drifting through a hatch. The wreck is so intact it feels like you have entered an enormous, silent museum that has been waiting eighty years for you to arrive. Above you, the dive guide signals to head deeper into the wreck. You pause for a moment to switch on your torch.

The Solomon Islands sits inside one of the world’s great natural adventure playgrounds and outside the radar of mainstream tourism. The country saw some of the most intense combat of the Pacific War; the seabed and the rainforests are scattered with wrecks, planes, tanks, and bunkers, almost all of them in the place they were left. The Coral Triangle waters around the country hold the highest marine biodiversity on the planet—more fish species per square kilometer than the Caribbean or the Indian Ocean. The interior of Guadalcanal rises through cloud forest to Mt Popomanaseu (2,335 m), the highest peak in the insular South Pacific outside New Guinea. And the country’s 25,000 international visitors a year (about a fortieth of Fiji’s) mean you will be alone for almost all of it.

This page is for travelers who want to do, not watch. Wreck dives that working divers fly halfway around the world for. Sport-fishing boats targeting marlin, dogtooth tuna, and giant trevally inside one of the world’s richest billfish zones. Surf trips to consistent reef breaks on Santa Isabel that the rest of the Pacific has barely heard of. Multi-day sea-kayak expeditions through the world’s largest saltwater lagoon. And rainforest treks to waterfalls and mountain ridges where, until recently, only the local hunters knew the way.

WWII wreck diving—the world’s most accessible underwater museum

The Solomon Islands is, by general consensus among working dive operators, the world’s best WWII wreck-diving destination. The Battle of Guadalcanal (August 1942 to February 1943) and the subsequent New Georgia and Bougainville campaigns saw over 200 ships, 690 aircraft, and tens of thousands of soldiers lost to the surrounding waters. Many of the wrecks lie in shallow, warm, clear water and have been left almost entirely undisturbed.

The country’s signature wreck, the 140-meter Toa Maru off Gizo, lies on its starboard side from 7 to 37 meters depth. The wreck remains so intact that experienced divers can swim guided into the workshop, crew quarters, and dining areas; the cargo holds still contain ammunition crates, a motorbike, and a Type 21 tank. The coral garden across the upturned hull is reason enough for the dive even before you go inside.

The Munda area, an hour’s flight or boat south of Gizo, hides a different concentration of wrecks. Dive Munda offers over 30 sites including the Douglas SBD-4 Dauntless dive bomber (shot down in 1943 and lying in 25 m of water), the underwater dump site of US-army tanks recently rediscovered in 2018, and the cave of the Kastom Shark—a tunnel of grey reef sharks and blacktips that drops out the side of an underwater wall. Visibility ranges 15–40 meters; the wall drops to over 600 meters straight down.

For the trip-of-a-lifetime option, the Solomons Master liveaboard runs dedicated “WWII Wreck Week” cruises out of Honiara. Eight days, seven nights, four dives a day on a different wreck each, with surface intervals between Florida Islands and the Russell Group reefs. The 37-meter steel-hulled vessel was purpose-built for technical diving and carries Nitrox, rebreather support, and rental gear. From around USD 4,445 per person.

Sport fishing—marlin, dogtooth tuna, and the world’s least pressured waters

The Solomon Islands sits in the heart of the South Pacific’s billfish triangle. The deep currents along the Vitiaz Strait carry food up from 2,000 meters and concentrate pelagic fish in counts that, in pressured waters elsewhere, would be a once-in-a-decade event. Marlin (blue, black, and striped), dogtooth tuna up to 60 kilos, wahoo, yellowfin, sailfish, and giant trevally are the main game-fish species. The local population of sport-fishing boats is small enough that most of them know each other; on any given week in the dry season you may pass two or three other boats on the entire ocean.

Tradewind Charters operates MV Alfred Wallace, a long-range expedition vessel built specifically for deep-water Solomon Island fishing. Customizable 7- to 9-night charters depart Gizo or Honiara and reach grounds far beyond the day-charter range of any other operator. Two skipper-led tenders for line work; full cabin accommodation for up to ten guests; chef on board. From around USD 3,750 per person twin-share for a week.

For lighter-tackle fishing and reef-edge popping, Zipolo Habu Resort on Lola Island has been operating since 1989. Day trips on the 28-foot fishing boats with experienced local skippers target dogtooth tuna in deep water off the lagoon, mangrove jacks and barramundi in the river mouths, and giant trevally on the surface around the outer reefs. The resort’s own house surf-break, Skull Reef, is also rideable for anyone who wants to mix sport-fishing with surf.

For visitors who prefer to fish for an afternoon rather than a week, most Western Province resorts (Uepi, Fatboys, Sanbis, Imagination Island) include reef trolling and bottom-bouncing in their daily activities; expect to land trevally, snapper, or coral trout most outings. Sustainable catches go straight to the resort kitchen.

Surfing—Santa Isabel’s reef breaks and the November–April season

Solomon Islands surfing is for travelers who don’t mind that almost nobody else has heard of it. The country has only three serious surf destinations: Papatura on Santa Isabel, the breaks around Gizo, and the Lola/Skull-reef on Vona Vona Lagoon. The combined number of weekly visitors in season would not fill a single average beach at Uluwatu. The surf is consistent November through April, when the Pacific groundswell that produces the Indonesian surf season hits the Solomons too.

Papatura Island Retreat, on Santa Isabel, is the country’s only resort with reliable access to multiple reef breaks. The signature spots Anchovies and Zoli’s are 20 minutes away by boat—Anchovies a fast right-hander breaking over a deep coral reef, Zoli’s a hollow left with a long inside section. Wave heights of 3–6 feet are standard in season; bigger swells produce 8–10 foot faces. The resort has the largest board collection of any property in the country—Firewire mals, short boards, fish shapes, fiberglass mals—and includes their use in the room rate. Boards-for-hire from around 400 SBD (approx. $50) a week or 60 SBD (approx. $7.5) a day.

Around Gizo the waves are more inconsistent but the breaks are accessible. Imagination Island, Sanbis, and Fatboys all have surf boards available for guests, and the local boat skippers know the reef breaks at Pailongge, Saeraghi, and the outer Mbabanga reef. Most operators will run a half-day surf trip when the swell is up.

On Vona Vona Lagoon, Zipolo Habu’s house break Skull Reef is a long right-hander breaking over deep coral—safer than most Indonesian reef breaks, with no exposed reef at low tide. Used boards are available for hire at the resort. The break is inconsistent but, when it’s on, you have it completely to yourself.

Kayak, hike, and the Solomon’s inland adventures

The world’s largest saltwater lagoon, Marovo, runs for 150 kilometers between New Georgia and Vangunu islands and is the country’s premier sea-kayaking destination. Uepi Island Resort, on the lagoon’s barrier reef, includes kayaks free for guests; you can paddle to small uninhabited motus, snorkel from the boat, drift back with the trade winds. The resort also runs guided 2-hour rainforest walks across Uepi to three lookout points on the New Georgia Sound side, leisurely fishing trolls along the outer reef at sunset, and weekly carvers’ markets where you can buy directly from the Marovo wood-carvers whose work fills the markets of Honiara.

For trekkers, Guadalcanal’s rainforest interior is the main draw. Tenaru Falls—a 60-meter waterfall over a freshwater plunge pool 90 minutes’ walk inland from Parangiju Mountain Lodge—is the country’s most popular day-hike. The Mataniko Falls hike, also from Honiara, climbs the Galloping Horse Hills (featured in Terrence Malick’s film The Thin Red Line) before dropping to the riverbed. Both walks need a local guide; Go Tours runs guided departures from Honiara hotels with a 4WD and an experienced custom landowner.

The most challenging trek in the country is the 2- to 3-day summit climb of Mt Popomanaseu (2,335 m), Guadalcanal’s rainforest-covered volcano. The route starts from the Gold Ridge Mine 25 km east of Honiara, follows the old “cross-island foot highway” to Nanala village (a half-day’s walk; visitors present a kastom gift to the chief and pay a small landowner fee), and then climbs through dense jungle, river crossings, and a final scramble up moss-covered slopes to a cloud-forest summit. The trek is arranged through Honiara-based tour operators rather than booked online; the climbing season runs April through October.

For visitors who want to combine multiple activities in a single trip, the country’s most logistically intelligent itinerary is a week split between Western Province (diving and surfing) and Honiara (WWII land tours, Tenaru Falls hike, and a day trip to Savo Island for the active volcano and the dolphins).

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