Savo Island - Solomon Islands - International Islands

The Solomon Islands and Honiara are already two of my favourite island destinations, but on my last trip we went out to Savo Island, a real gem when it comes to local customs and indeed weird eggs.

What’s the story with Savo Island?

Lying just 35 km from Honiara, Savo Island is one of the mesmerising 900 islands that make up this Pacific Island nation. You may well have heard he Solomon Islands a bit in the news lately as they recently signed a security pact with Australia, much to the ire of Australia.

The island was also an extremely important theatre during World War 2, with many locals servicing against the Japanese, as well as the site of five of the seven major naval battles during the Battle of Guadalcanal in the Pacific War.

It is populated mainly by speakers of the Savosavo language, an East Papuan language, as well as having a minority of Gela speakers.

Touristically people come for its remote location, authentic villages and some very special eggs, namely those of the megapode bird. SEspite sounding more like a transformer than nature these birds lay massive eggs, which are the buried in the sand. You can eat them and indeed did eat some! What did they taste like? Well like big eggs to be honest.

Getting to Savo Island and what to do

You can rent boats to the island, but there is no ferry as such and they tend to be private charters. Taking 20 plus people over to the island cost around the $400 mark.

35km might not sound like all that much, but if the weather is not in your favour then the journey can take a few hours. This can be made even less fun if one of your boats breaks down, as happened with us. A snug fit and lots of rain.

As for what to do here? Really get involved with the nature, and the people. We visited a farm producing the megapode eggs, visited some local villages and chilled out on the beach, where there is some excellent snorkeling.

To read about Funafuti Island click here

Diving can also be arranged, as can overnight stays, visits to sites related to WW2, as well as hikes to the top of the mountain. We personally went for a BBQ with the locals, which of course included megapode eggs.

Can you buy Savo Island?

This is a proper island where people live and go about their lives, so no you cannot buy the island. It has also not, yet at least been destroyed by either resorts, or mass tourism.

Whether this changes in the future though, particularly with Chinese investment is yet to be seen.