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Espiritu Santo, one of the Vanuatu islands, is the ultimate destination for an adventure luxury escape (or even a honeymoon!) but spoiler alert: it can be a bit difficult to plan and coordinate on your own. Which is why I would 100% suggest booking a luxury-adventure package with Exclusive Sunrise Eco Resort!
Owned by a lovely Australian family who now call Espiritu Santo home, you can be rest assured that everything about your stay will be expertly taken care of. Again, this is ideal due to how hard it is to get a hold of accommodations, transfers, and tour companies on the island, but the ultimate perk is basically having a full concierge service to handle everything!
They offer different ranges of packages, from room and board (includes meals), to all-inclusive including alcohol, and all of them include a variety of the islands’ most popular attractions and adventures! Oh and if you’re feeling extra fancy, you can also opt to take their private jet from and back to Melbourne!
At the time of my travels in Vanuatu, it happened to be when Vanuatu Airlines stopped fully operating. I found a direct flight to Santo though from where I was beforehand in Honiara (Solomon Islands). The only tricky part was getting out of Santo and to Port Vila to make my flight to Fiji, but the lovely people at Sunrise helped me figure it out.
Upon arriving at the Santo airport, I was warmly welcomed by the staff members, and helped to the comfortable resort-van for the ride there!
[[Something important to note about arriving in Santo Airport: If you have any souvenirs from another destination made from natural products such as feathers, shells, and wood, they will take them to get sanitized. They also took my spare shoes because they had mud on them, and sanitized those. Unfortunately they discarded the dead-flower crowns I tried to bring from Papua New Guinea though. They’ll give you a paper and tell you to pick your stuff up in two days from their office in town, but they rarely answer the phone, so you have to be very persistent with continuing to call.]]
Once I arrived at Exclusive Sunrise, I was greeted by the whole staff, who also opened a bottle of Moet as my welcome drink! Something I had been asked my preference of beforehand! I simply said “sparkling wine” but they went above and beyond with the champagne!
Beyond that wonderful welcome, I then was escorted to my villa, where a big beautiful gift basket was waiting for me! In the refrigerator, there was also a chilled bottle of my favorite kind of wine; Chardonnay!
Exclusive Sunrise Eco Resort boasts three villas in the main beach area, several rooms in the main villa (which can be rented out to groups or families!), and then two villas on their private island. Yes, that’s right, they have their own private island!
My villa was the Frangipani, which happens to also be my favorite flower, and now quite possibly one of my favorite beach villas I’ve stayed in! It’s expertly and perfectly designed; with a wraparound deck overlooking the private beach and private island, and everything inside you could need to literally live there!
The layout is seriously impecable, with an ensuite bathroom where the shower has a sliding glass door to open onto the deck, and the closet stretches on into a kitchenette! It’s also fully equipped with extremely thoughtful touches, with everything from mineral sunscreen and bugspray, to a beach bag, sarong, and snorkeling gear!
I also really have to comment about the bed, because it felt like sleeping on a luxurious cloud! As a big fan of tons of pillows, the six on the bed (not including four more decorative ones) was a cozy comfy treat too!
The cost per night per couple in the Frangipani is $1855 with a four night minimum, click here for full inclusions!
The first thing we did when I arrived in Espiritu Santo, was to head to the local market to pick up some fruits and vegetables for our meals at Exclusive Sunrise Eco Resort! Our chef joined us to do the selections, and explained what the local Vanuatu fare was.
Later on, chef appeared with an enormous red fish I’d never seen before, that was almost as tall as he was! It’s called “Pollito” which means “chicken” because the tail is long red like a rooster’s crown!
Since I’m a pescatarian, each meal was specially created just for me! And they were all absolutely divine! Even when I had a tour, the staff still pre-arranged and packed yummy little snack baskets for me!
Espiritu Santo has some seriously incredible adventures to partake in, from underwater WWII wreckage sites to crystal clear “Blue Holes”. Of course, there’s also picturesque white sandy beaches which dreams are made of, and interesting cultural immersions like Kava ceremonies!
Here’s all of the adventures I did in Espiritu Santo:
If you aren’t already scuba certified, you might want to look into getting it before heading to Vanuatu Islands! That’s because Espiritu Santo has one of the most well-preserved and intact WWII shipwrecks in the world!
It’s called The SS President Coolidge, which actually used to be the personal luxury cruise ship of former president Coolidge… and it’s so nice to see where tax money used to go…
Anyway, with the onset of WWII, then-prez Coolidge graciously donated his massive, super-luxurious personal cruise ship (sarcasm) to the army/navy to serve as a transport vessel for around 5,000 soldiers.
It’s at least nice to know they had a luxury cruise, complete with gourmet meals, accommodation, and entertainment, on their trans-Pacific cruise to most of their inevitable deaths. But they didn’t die when the ship wrecked, in fact, all passengers except two made it safely to shore! That’s because the Coolidge went the wrong route through the bays of Espiritu Santo, and actually hit an American-planted underwater mine! So the US accidentally sunk it’s own ship. Luckily it was very close to shore, and the slow sinking allowed everyone (except two) to get off.
Some of the most famous sights to see in Espiritu Santo, are the beautiful fresh water “blue holes”! Filling from deep underground, but mixing with the salt from the ocean at high tides, these blue holes make for the ideal swimming spot with their fresh and calm waters.
But that being said, if there’s a cruise ship at port in Espiritu Santo, you’ll want to avoid them! The team at Espiritu Santo always is on top of making sure not to plan your adventures at the same time as the big crowds!
My favorite of these two blue holes was Jackson’s Blue Hole! The water was crystal clear, and you can see evidence of marine life in the calcified coral! Plus, there’s a lot of tropical fish, which isn’t usually seen in blue holes!
Matevulu Blue Hole was a bit crowded by the time I got there, and it looked like a really fun place for families with all of the rope swings and even a slide!
Champagne Beach Vanuatu is another one of the most famous sights to experience in Espiritu Santo! There’s several stories about why it was named “Champagne Beach”, so try to see how many you can gather while you’re there!
Allegedly there are small bubbles that come up from the sand underwater, but another story just says that a French couple stumbled upon it while they happened to have a bottle of champagne. Either way, Eco Sunrise enhanced the experience by bringing my bottle of Moet on the excursion!
Champagne Beach also had really amazing snorkeling! Tons of coral, fish, and really good clarity!
For lunch, you absolutely have to head to Orly Beach, and the rustic-chic beach restaurant called Chez Louis! It’s such a vibe, and it has the world famous Coconut Crabs that were absolutely drool-worthy!
Orly Beach is also picturesque, but its above-water scenery is much better than the underwater one. The visibility isn’t great, and there’s a lot of rocks, which also can be slightly dangerous, so be sure to bring your water shoes!
More about Coconut Crabs: When I was first told that I absolutely had to try the coconut crab, I thought it was a type of dish! Perhaps just crab in a coconut sauce. But no no! Coconut Crabs are the type of crab, and that type is freaking enormous! They start as land crabs, but eventually move to inhabit coconut palm trees, hence, where the name comes from! My meal tasted like they were cooked in a coconut curry sauce, and I ate every last morsel of it! The dish will cost you around $50, and it’s the same price if you opt for a lobster tail!
One of my absolute favorite things about Exclusive Sunrise Eco Resort (besides my incredible villa) was the fact that its located on a private beach with an extensive coral garden surrounding it, and the private island! You can just grab your snorkel gear any time and head straight into the water anytime, and expect to see a plethora of sea life!
But if you want to take your sea life experience to another level, head out on one of their excursions to see the turtle and dugong sanctuary right by the resort!
In case you don’t already know extensively about dugongs like I do (I’m slightly obsessed), they are a cousin of the manatee, and extremely rare to see! When I was told there’s a bunch of them right near us in Espirtu Santo, I was so incredible excited!
BUT! Unfortunately my dreams were crushed by the airlines bumping my flight up (literally unheard of)! I still got to see photos of the tour, and there were so many dugongs! It was incredible! Oh, and we still tried to kayak to the sanctuary to see one, but without success — however we did see several large green turtles!
Read about the time I spotted an elusive dugong in Bazaruto Islands, Mozambique!
Kava is a traditional drink of Vanuatu (and Solomon Islands and Fiji) that’s made by grinding the root of a Kava plant into a paste, and mixing it with water. Most people’s first recollections about Kava are “it tastes really bad”, but I honestly didn’t think it was that bad. Considering all the other things I’ve attempted drinking around the world.
Anyway, to be in Espiritu Santo while a village is having a traditional Kava ceremony is really something special and authentic! I happened to be there when a nearby village was celebrating the anniversary of the death of a loved one, and therefore got to witness and partake in it!
I was a bit of a prude though, and only took one cup, but I’m glad I did because I wasn’t sure if it made me feel more anxious than usual. All I know is it definitely didn’t make me feel chill or high. Just like, aware that my heart was beating faster than normal.
Another famous WWII wreckage site is called Million Dollar Point, but unfortunately I didn’t have time to see it! Unlike most WWII wrecks, this one was done on purpose, and also unlike most wrecks that are ships, this one is a bunch of war tanks and jeeps.
Why were a bunch of brand new war tanks and jeeps dumped into the waters of Espiritu Santo you ask? Because the Chinese brought them over to sell to the US, but the US ended up not wanting to pay for them for some reason, so instead of giving them over anyway or returning them, they decided to just ruin them.
They are in shallow enough water to snorkel to, or for an up close look, you can also scuba dive!
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xx, Alyssa
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