Hideaway Island Hotel

SNORKELLING AT HIDEAWAY ISLAND

by AusPinay

Hideaway Island Resort and Marine Sanctuary is a small coral atoll that's about as close as you'll get to a Robinson Crusoe island escape in the South Pacific. To best enjoy this place, snorkelling is a must! We visited this place on our own, but to had to haggle with a cab driver to take us to this place and then to Cascades Waterfalls and cost us $150 for the entire day - from pick up at the port and back for the four of us (2 adults and our 2 boys-20 and 11).

This Melanesian style resort is the custodian of one of Vanuatu's only marine sanctuaries. Coral reefs ideal for snorkeling or scuba diving right from the shore are fantastic! The weather as usual was a stinker but as long as you are in the water, you're right, almost!

The taxi van took us first to Mele Bay where we rode a motorised boat to get to Hideaway Island. It was just a short trip, less than 15 minutes.

all the action is in the water..

by cosmopolit

Experienced divers come to Vanuatu from all over the world so they can dive on the World War II wrecks that scatter its surrounding sea bed - the Star of Russia, the President Coolidge, the USS Tucker and Million Dollar Point. Whether you are visiting for a few days or several weeks, there is always something to see on the surface or beneath it. It is a new dimension to a whole new world.
Whether you snorkel, scuba or are hoping to learn either, Vanuatu is the ultimate diving destination. For the avid snorkeller, there are boats to take you out or beaches to wade from and if the underwater scenery whets your appetite to go deeper, there is a host of dive operators to teach you how to do it and where to go. In less than a week, you could be a certified diver - and you couldn't ask for a better training ground Fully trained instructors and dive guides are available from the following:
Aquamarine - Santo (678) 3619
Hideaway Island Resort
Nautilus Scuba - Port Vila (678) 22398
Pro Dive - Port Vila
Tranquility Island Dive Centre - Port Vila

Hideaway Island

by lead_riot about Hideaway Island

They have bungalows (a bit expensive), but they also have dormitory beds for about A$28 per night. Hideaway was a really laid back place, they've got a bar/restaurant on the beach and watersports. They don't have pool but that's made for because the island is surrounded by coral reef, perfect for snorkelling off the beach.

Fantstic relaxing holiday

by TripAdvisor Member Gratuk

Vanuatu has always been the place to go to relax or dive and Hideaway
island resort is great for both. Located just outside of Villa itself
the resort is an island just off the coast. This combined with the relatively small number of villas makes it an ideal spot for some quiet beach time. The resort itself has a number of activities such as kayaking and volleyball but it is the snorkeling and diving that is particularly appealing. The staff are very friendly and helpful and the trip to the local village is well worth the time. Not the place to go if you are looking to have someone think for you and keep you interested but a great place to go if you want time to unwind looking at the fish and enjoying the company of the wonderful Vanuatu people.

I'll certainly be going back

Fantastic fabulous family getaway

by TripAdvisor Member harinui

We had the wonderful experience of spending a week at Hideaway Island as part of a 3 week family holiday in Vanuatu. It was definitely the highlight of our stay -Stella and all the team at Hideaway made us feel so welcome. Nothing was a problem and we loved the warm friendly attitude and beautiful smiles of all the people on the island.Accommodation was great-the bungalows looked out to heavenly views and only steps away from great snorkelling. We had the pleasure of meeting the legendary Westie Bruce and his daughter Alison. Bruce is the chef and comedian extraordinaire and the food at the cafe was definitely the best we experienced in all of Vanuatu.
Hideaway provided us with all the rest and relaxation we needed and thanks to the professional and capable dive instruction provided by Mel and the guys our family was able to have the most amazing diving experiences imaginable..... We visited 5 different resorts around Vanuatu and Hideaway was definitely the pick of them all!

Fabtastic Snorkelling

by TripAdvisor Member Sn0rkellers

We had a fab time and can definitely recommend staying at Hideaway Island. The island was really easy to get to, it was about 10 minutes from Port Vila and then a short ferry ride form the beach to the island, you just stand on the beach and the ferry comes over to pick you up!

The snorkelling was great, was so good to be able to snorkel right off the beach at Hideaway, seemed very safe for children too. There were masses of fish and they were very friendly, some people were saying they were much friendlier than other places like Great Barrier. It wasn't over run with day trippers, though there were a couple of times there seemed to be a few people there, most visitors left around 3.30pm and quite often we would have the beach to ourselves early morning and late afternoon.

The staff were all helpful and friendly, the meals were good at Hideaway. One of the staff, Alice took us on a guided tour of the village one afternoon, that was really interesting. The dive staff were fantastic, we went on the snorkel safari twice, where they take you out to a reef further away then you would go snorkelling, the guys doing that were very safety conscious, especially good with the not so confident snorkellers.

We stayed in a bungalow on the east side of the island I would recommend this side, we had a breeze all day which was fantastic to be able to get away to when we got too hot on the beach, much of the time the beach was very hot with not too much wind, perfect for swimming. I had been a little concerned with some of the reviews for Hideaway on Trip Advisor, some say the accommodation was "basic" or "rustic" and I wasn't sure exactly what it meant. Our bungalow had a double bed and two singles, own bathroom, porch and double hammock, perfect for watching the sunrise from! No kitchen, just a fridge and kettle. We even had a couple of lizards living in the rafters, which is great for keeping bugs down! The bungalow could have been a little bit cleaner, we did have some ants, it was quite noisy at night due to the noises on the tin roof, things falling and branches banging, kind of like being out in the wilderness with lots of interesting noises...Only took one night to get used to that

Not much to do in the evening after tea, we pretty much went to bed really early and got up with the sun each day which was fantastic!

We did a wonderful day trip on the Coongoola, it is a sailing ship, there was a very rough drive for about 40 mins to the other side of the main island and then onto the ship to see a turtle sanctuary, they breed endangered turtles and release them, then we went to a beautiful white sand beach for a barbeque lunch, lazed on the beach went out a couple of times to different reefs for snorkelling and then back home, took the whole day and was great value for money. We also spent another day at the Mele Cascades it was beautiful there waterfalls and natural swimming pools.

We had a great time and would love to go back, for anyone wanting to go snorkelling in the pacific we would thoroughly recommend Hideaway Island.

We found Nemo!

by TripAdvisor Member HideawayNemo

We enjoyed the relaxed environment and comfortable accommodation. The meals were delicious, the gardens lovely and the snorkelling! Here are a couple shots from our new camera.

We never had to wait for the water taxi and highlights included visiting Mele, meeting the local children and the beautiful cascades within walking distance.

The people made our stay memorable.

We loved Vanuatu and recommend Hideaway.

Libby & Clive
New Zealand

Great but not what it seemed

by TripAdvisor Member MindWalker

While the other two reviews captured the people you will encounter there accurately, it should be noted that what appears to be white sand in the photo on the website is actually coral, and the "island' is not really an island.

We went there expecting beautiful white sand beaches and to be able to walk directly from our bungalow to the water for snorkeling. The area shown in the photo on the website is of the marine sanctuary where you can snorkel, but the resort facilities have the direct access (i.e. reception, the dive shop, and the bar/restaurant). The bungalows are actually on the other side and have ledges and a small cliff leading to the water, which you cannot swim in or get to safely - you have to walk around to the other side to enter the water. At low tide, the water on the bungalow side recedes a good 15 yards or so. There is very little to no sand at all on the resort grounds, particularly as you leave the bar/restaurant area. The ground is covered in coral and shells.

In addition, what the photo doesn't show you is that there is a children's school very close to the "island". At low tide you can literally walk over to the mainland, and you'll see local children walk from the school area over to the resort to play in the water. The water separating the mainland from the resort is maybe a foot-deep at low-tide. From our bungalow, we could often hear the kids playing over at the school.

That being said, it is a great place to visit. The snorkeling there was better than any we did in Hawaii or Fiji...we snorkeled every day for 7 days (sometimes 3 times a day) and every time we saw something different, from eels to sea snakes to lion fish to squid. The people were pretty friendly, the food was pretty good (although I did get a touch of food poisoning) and the view from the bungalow was outstanding. Just don't go expecting a 5 star resort. You'll have ants, mosquitos, and other bugs in your room. One cool thing (if you're into this) is that there are literally thousands of hermit crabs and regular crabs crawling around the resort; they are fun to watch. Note though, that you should expect to find them occasionally in your room, too.

If you are into marine life, you will absolutely not be disappointed.

Hideaway Island Resort(1)

by AyurinHiro

"Hideaway Island Resort"

It is situated just in front of the Efate main island. It is only 5 minutes boat ride. Small island with accommodation facilities, restaurants, Diving servise, and small shop.
We stayed here for about 1 week.

"Arriving at the island...the entrance"

This is the boat...it carries us between the land and the island.

"Hideaway Island Resort Reception"

"This is our room...Dormitory"

There are several kinds of rooms here in Hideaway Island....but, bungalows were full,so we chose the dormitory (4 beds inside) for our nights.

"Inside the Dormitory"

There are four beds inside.
Quite clean and i like this room.

"Restaurant area"

The restaurant is located on the beach. Here, we can enjoy not only our meals but also tranquil time all day long.

"Lunch time"

Hideaway Island Resort(2)

by AyurinHiro

"Restaurant area in the evening"

"Entrance"

"Restaurant and Bar area"

"Melanesian Feast"

Today,we have special dinner....Melanesian Feast....We enjoy Malanesian style food and kava drink.

"Melanesian Feast"

We also enjoyed dancing. First, the staff showed us their traditional dancing ,,,and then we joined them and danced together!