Home/Getting here
Getting here
Three flights and a boat ride. It's a lot closer than most people assume.
The route
Brisbane to barefoot
Step 01 · ~3 hours
Your city → Honiara
Most guests arrive via Honiara from Brisbane — about a three-hour flight. There's also limited service from Fiji, Vanuatu and PNG.
We highly recommend Solomon Airlines: they have the best schedules and connections to and from Brisbane, offer 30 kg if you book a through fare, and they're the domestic carrier to Papatura.
Step 02 · ~1 hour
Honiara → Suavanao
A roughly one-hour flight in a small plane to Suavanao, Santa Isabel's most northern airstrip. It's a grass strip, and the flight in is genuinely one of the best parts of the trip.
Our representative meets you at the airstrip.
Step 03 · 8 minutes
Suavanao → Papatura
An eight-minute boat ride from the airstrip to paradise. Your bags get carried up, someone hands you a coconut, and that's the transfer done.
Boat transfers are included in every package.
Don't book it yourself
We'll do the flights too
Go Tours Travel are the Solomon Islands travel experts, and can help with all your flight arrangements, Honiara accommodation and tours — plus bookings to any other resort or lodge throughout the Solomons.
The domestic connection to Suavanao doesn't run every day, and the timings matter. Getting the whole itinerary booked as one trip means you're not stuck overnight in Honiara unless you want to be — and if you do, we'll book that too.
Airfares from Brisbane start from $1,400 per person. We hold wholesale fares and see the specials first.
Before you fly
Boards, rods and baggage
Surfboards
If you're taking two boards in one bag, you may have to separate them for the domestic return flight to fit them in the smaller planes. We recommend taking one board only. Don't leave loose or valuable items in your board bag.
Papatura has a wide range of boards you can use free of charge — 6 SUPs, 3 mals, short boards, fish shapes and retro shapes.
Rods and spear gear
We have standard fishing gear available free of charge, but serious fishos should bring their own — especially lures. Spearfishing gear is available to hire.
Talk to our reservations team about luggage allowances before you book. We do this all the time.
Where exactly?
Santa Isabel, Solomon Islands
Santa Isabel — formerly Ysabel Island — sits in the Solomon Islands, about 80 km north-west of Guadalcanal. It's roughly 209 km long and 32 km across at its widest point, with a mountainous backbone rising to Mount Marescot at 1,219 metres.
A narrow passage divides Santa Isabel from a group of islets at its northern end. Papatura sits off that northern coast — 270 hectares of rainforest, eight minutes from the airstrip, and a very long way from anywhere else.
- Nearest airstrip
- Suavanao (VAO)
- Time zone
- UTC+11
- Currency
- Solomon Islands dollar
- Language
- English & Pijin
Let us work out the connections
Tell us your city and rough dates. We'll come back with flights, transfers and the island on one quote.