Micronesia (Marshall Islands)
Visitors Info
Getting There & Away wpe2F.jpg (188315 bytes)
Majuro International Airport and Kwajalein Airport are served by Continental Micronesia - which links the islands to Guam and Honolulu - and Air Marshall Islands - which flies some of the same routes and also to Fiji, Tuvalu and Kiribati. Travelers leaving the Marshalls must pay a US$15 departure tax.

Although there are inter-island boats within Micronesia, it's rare to find any sort of passenger vessel going to the Marshalls from countries outside the region, save the occasional private yacht.
Getting Around
Airstrips on many atolls are served by Air Marshall Islands puddlejumpers. Majuro and Kwajalein are the centers; a flight between the two takes around 50 minutes.

Majuro has a fine, incredibly cheap shared-taxi system that's very easy to use - just stand at the side of the road and wave when they come by. There are also 15-passenger minivan taxis that generally stick to the island's main road. Either way, they're frequent and affordable.

Car rental is possible on Majuro at reasonable rates. Visitors are allowed to drive in Majuro for 30 days with their home country's driver's license. Petrol is twice as expensive as in the US, half as much as in Europe. Driving is on the right.

Hotels can arrange boat rentals for you, but it's cheaper to cut out the middleman by making arrangements yourself - ask around the docks for private boat hire. State-run boats also ply routes between islands, but the service is irregular.

When to go
Rains are common in the Marshalls from March through April and more so from October through November, but these rarely come down hard enough to be called cyclones. Diving is at its best from May through October, when the water is calmest, though water temperatures are bathlike all year round. See also next weeks weather forcast for Kwajalein and Majuro.

Money & Costs
By international standards, travel in the Marshalls is relatively cheap, though by those same standards you'll be getting what you pay for. Most accommodations tend toward the austere, and there's not a whole lot to splurge on, food-wise, even if you wanted to. Restaurants don't exist outside the major atolls, and official hostelries are almost as scarce. Business-class hotels (of which there are few) all run over US$100 per night; the one resort in the country has rates more than double that. Budget travelers should be able to get by on US$50 per day, but that doesn't leave much room for things like scuba diving and island hopping. You'll have more fun if you plan on spending closer to US$100 daily.

There are banks in all the major tourist areas, and credit cards are becoming increasingly more widely accepted. Neither tipping nor bargaining is customary in the Marshall Islands, though the barter system is sometimes beneficial when looking for a place to stay or eat or a ride to a particular destination.

Meals
  • Budget: US$1-5
  • Mid-range: US$5-15
  • Top-end: US$15 and upwards