Melanesia

Melanesia is a region of Oceania.

Countries and territories

Melanesia consists of the following small island nations:

Melanesia regions - Color-coded map

Fiji
A major island tourist destination. Resorts, coral reefs and beaches.

New Caledonia (France)
France in the tropics but at twice the price. A short flight from Australia.

Solomon Islands
Site of major Second World War battles that involved, among others, JFK. Its main island is Guadalcanal.

Vanuatu
Rewarding destination of very disparate islands with a relatively well-developed tourist infrastructure. As the New Hebrides, was a British-French Condominium until 1980.

Geographically, the Australian island territory Norfolk Island is situated in Melanesia, although no Melanesian people ever settled there:

Norfolk Island (Australia)
A small island home to about 2,000 people.

The large nation of Papua New Guinea and its neighbor West Papua (Indonesia) are also usually considered part of Melanesia, both culturally and historically speaking, but are covered in separate articles.

Cities

View over Noumea

🌍 Honiara — the capital of the Solomon Islands
🌍 Luganville — the second city of Vanuatu.
🌍 Nouméa — the capital of New Caledonia.
🌍 Nadi ー Fiji's main tourist hub.
🌍 Port-Vila — Vanuatu's capital.
🌍 Suva — the large capital of Fiji.

Other destinations

🌍 Espiritu Santo — the largest island in Vanuatu
🌍 Isle of Pines — a small island in New Caledonia and one of the most beautiful islands in the Pacific
🌍 Minerva Reefs

Understand

Get in

There are flights from Australia and New Zealand to Melanesian destinations. Fiji has some direct flights from Asia and North America too.

Get around

See

Canoeing in East Rennell

Each country and territory of Melanesia has exactly one world heritage site:

The Levuka Historical Port Town in Fiji.
The Lagoons of New Caledonia.
East Rennell in the Solomon Islands, the largest raised coral atoll in the world.
Chief Roi Mata’s Domain in the Shefa province of Vanuatu.
Australian Convict Sites on the Norfolk Island.

Do

Eat

Drink

Stay safe

Go next

Melanesia is well connected to the rest of Oceania.

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