Anybody been to Vanuatu?

Heading off early March 09 to Vanuatu for two and a half weeks. Accompanied by SWMBO and three littl'uns (Ages 7/4/2)

Anybody been there recently, say the last 12 months, for an extended time (We have a "house" with full kitchen, washing facilities)?

Trying to find out some general costs of living. Groceries, eating out, eating in.

Good things to do. :2tsup:

Things that weren't quite as good as you were lead to believe they would be. :~

Stuff to avoid. (I have heard about staying out of the towns when the cruise boats come in, things fill up rapidly and prices jump 15-25% :oo:)

Vanuatu is a fair sized place , where is the house
Rgds
Russell

10 minutes out of Port Villa by road, along the coast to the West

Yep been there and also some time in the Solomons..... best advice regarding cruise ships is particularly avoid ships loaded with AUSTRALIANS. Those ships are INVARIABLY loaded to the gunwales with loud, rude, ignorant, stupid PIGS! Whenever a cruise ship came to the Solomons all expat Aussies (me included) became Yanks for the day.... A hard thing to admit. :(

Do you have a car ? The main local food supermarket, is in the main street of port villa is excellent and will carry all you need , tad more expensive than here of course, the open air food market is also near by in the main street , eating out proberly the resorts le-legon has a great teppanyaki eatery and if you take your own towles their swimming pool set up is terrific for the kids just pay cash at the pool side bar and grill for what you eat and drink.
The prices didn't jump when the cruise ship came in other than the taxies costs jump big time , most taxi trips are 70 vatu the only duty free to use is the one right down the end of the main street on the western end check out the others but check their prices before you buy anything , though they don't carry as big a stock of shmbo stuff .
When a cruise ship does come in the wharf is covered in stalls with good trinkets for the kids , take lots of sunscreen insect spray , a couple of those small strip type plug in zappers for the bedrooms at night , good broad brimed hats, rash vests or all in one swimmers for the kids .and surf shoes and good open sandles, you can get those cheep at woolies before you go espically the surf shoes. :2tsup:

Eating out, there used to be a restaurant on the side of the marina area that had the best coconut crab awesome make sure you have some somewhere while you are there. Spent most of my time on Santo diving.