Nuku'alofa

Eat

For a small town, Nuku'alofa offers a decent range of restaurants and bars. Expect to pay T$15-40 for a main course in a restaurant and about T$5 for a takeaway at one of the roadside sellers. Seafood is usually good.

The Oholei Beach Dinner and Show is set in Hina cave on the beach on the south-east side of Tongatapu, near the airport. It includes a Tongan dinner and a traditional show (inside a limestone cave). The cost is about T$30 each and can be booked from the Tonga Visitors Center. Transport is extra. Make sure you understand the travel arrangements when you make the booking, e.g. where and when to be picked up.

Most restaurants and eateries are closed on Sunday but there are a couple of Chinese restaurants which are open Sunday.

Stay safe

is located at the south side of Nuku'alofa.

Tongatapu is very safe but the usual travel precautions apply. Don't flash expensive cameras and jewelry and don't leave passports, money, clothes, etc. lying around in hotel rooms. If you're staying with locals (there is a good chance you'll be invited to stay at someone's home on Tongatapu) take your valuables with you during the day and secure them at night

Tongan drivers are sometimes erratic so watch out. Asking for a helmet when you hire a bicycle is advisable. Dogs can be a nuisance especially in some areas outside of the capital and after dark.

Water that crashes over the reefs into the lagoons is sucked back out again through gaps in the reefs. Be careful when snorkelling that you don't get caught in one of these channels of water heading for open sea or you could be seriously damaged by the coral.

Connect

There are several internet cafes in town. The Friend's Cafe is most expensive at about T$8 an hour and some places charge as low as T$2 an hour. Use WhatsApp to call overseas because it's about T$1 per minute if you buy a phone card.

Mobile internet coverage is decent in Tongatapu. You will experience 3G or sometimes 2G connection even in Nuku'alofa, so don't expect the data speed to be fast.

Go next

There are flights and ferries to Vava'u, and Ha'apai. None of these services operates on Sunday.

'Eua Island is 17.5 km east-southeast from Tongatapu. It is the highest island in Tonga and is not related geologically to the other islands, being much older. It has beaches on the western side but dramatic cliffs on the east coast, with Tonga’s largest tropical rain forest, which is a great place to go trekking.

‘Eua is an eight-minute flight from Tongatapu. There is also a ferry that leaves from Nuku’alofa at 12:30 in the afternoon on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Cost is T$25. The ferry can get rather crowded, so be early. On average, the ferry will take about two and a half hours, but can take much longer (5-6 hours!) in poor weather. Flights and ferries can be delayed or even cancelled without notice in poor weather conditions.