Travel in Solomon Islands: in through Henderson Field and onward by small plane and boat

How visitors reach the islands

Honiara International Airport, formerly Henderson Field, lies about 12 kilometres east of the city on Guadalcanal and is the main point of arrival. Tourism Solomons lists four airlines with scheduled services: Solomon Airlines, the national carrier, Qantas, Fiji Airways and Air Niugini, with direct flights from Brisbane, Nadi, Port Moresby and Port Vila. Brisbane is about three hours away, and Solomon Airlines flies from there four times a week. A second international gateway opened in 2019, when Solomon Airlines began a weekly flight between Brisbane and Munda in the Western Province. Travellers from North America usually connect through Los Angeles and Brisbane or Nadi, and from Europe through Brisbane.

Entry rules changed in 2026. Australia's travel advice, updated on 28 September 2026, reports that the government has introduced an electronic visa system and that tourists must now apply before they travel, with a visa valid for up to 90 days; immigration officials were applying a temporary grace period in which a visa could still be obtained on arrival. Proof of vaccination against measles is recommended. Amounts above SBD50,000, in any form, must be declared on arrival or departure.

Yachts must clear customs and immigration at an official port of entry before anyone goes ashore: Honiara, Korovou in the Shortland Islands, Gizo, Ringgi, Yandina, Tulagi and Graciosa Bay. Each province also expects notice of a yacht's visit, and Tourism Solomons advises asking the relevant chief's permission before exploring onshore.

Who comes and why

Arrivals have risen every year since 2022, after the pandemic years, the national statistics office reports. The 27,329 arrivals of 2025 were 9.9% more than the 25,130 of 2024. Returning residents made up 51.8% of the total and visitors 47.8%. Men outnumbered women among arrivals, 68.0% to 32.0%.

Tourism has been here before and lost ground. Wikipedia's article on Honiara records that the country earned around $13 million from tourism in 1998 and $629,000 in 1999, as the violence of those years turned visitors away, and that foreign tourist organisations warned travellers off the islands especially in 2002 and 2003.

Australians were the largest group of visitors in 2025, 8,269 of them or 30.3%, followed by visitors from China at 12.9%. Among the 9,264 tourists in the narrower sense, residents of Australia accounted for 2,715, China for 1,394 and the United States for 1,311. Wikipedia records 26,000 tourists in 2017 and a government aim of 60,000 a year by the end of 2025.

How people get between the islands

Distances are long and roads short, so the domestic network runs by air and sea. Solomon Airlines flies to 20 domestic destinations from its hub at Honiara, Tourism Solomons records, with a luggage allowance of 16 kilograms; Wikipedia notes that most domestic airports take only small planes, with short grass runways. The main roads on Guadalcanal run from Honiara to Lambi, 58 kilometres to the west, and to Aola, 75 kilometres to the east, and Tourism Solomons describes road networks on Guadalcanal, Malaita and Makira, some unsealed or potholed.

There is no formal public transport system, Australia's travel advice notes. In Honiara a limited minibus network runs, and where it does not, people ride in open-backed trucks. Taxis may have no meter, so the fare is agreed before setting off. Rental cars are available in Honiara, and driving is on the left.

Boats link the rest. Passenger services run regularly from Honiara to Auki on Malaita and to Tulagi, and from Honiara to Gizo by way of Marovo; a daily high-speed catamaran runs to Auki via Tulagi, Wikipedia records. Outboard-powered dinghies are the most common transport of all, with passengers paying a fare by sector. Australia's travel advice warns that ferries are often overcrowded, that services change at short notice and that marine search and rescue is limited, and it suggests flying where possible.

What Honiara holds for a visitor

Honiara, a city of 129,569 people at the 2019 census, is where every route starts. It runs along the Kukum Highway on the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, with a seaport at Point Cruz and the Mataniko River flowing past Chinatown, and the airport lies about 11 kilometres to the east by Wikipedia's figure. The tourist office is on Mendana Avenue, the main street, and its staff can radio ahead to guest houses in the remoter islands to announce a visitor.

The city's own sights are close together. East of the mouth of the Mataniko, the wreck of a Japanese ship destroyed on 23 October 1942 lies in shallow water off the beach. The National Museum, opposite the Mendana Hotel, shows archaeology, currencies, weapons, ornaments, music and dance, fishing tackle and farm tools. The botanical gardens of the National Art Gallery are known for their orchids and include a model village. The Guadalcanal American Memorial, dedicated on 7 August 1992 for the 50th anniversary of the Red Beach landings, is another stop. The Central Market brings in fish and produce from the outer islands.

The capital also shows the scars of its recent history. Chinatown was burned in the riots of 2006 and again in 2021, and the flood of April 2014 swept away homes along the Mataniko. Traffic jams are common, and Australia's advice describes the roads as poorly lit and potholed.

Where the outer provinces lead

Each province has its own reasons to travel, Tourism Solomons records. On Malaita, the artificial islands of the Langa Langa Lagoon near Auki can be visited, and in Laulasi shell money is still made in front of visitors; the 'Are'are lagoon in the south is known for its panpipe bands. Isabel offers the stilt village at Kia, nesting grounds of the hawksbill turtle and panpipe concerts, and Choiseul has more hawksbill nesting beaches and whales offshore.

Central Province, across Iron Bottom Sound from Honiara, takes in Tulagi, the colonial capital, Savo with its megapodes breeding on thermal springs, and the coconut groves of the Russell Islands. Makira and Ulawa are known for an annual land crab harvest and as a nesting place of the Pacific Ridley turtle. Temotu, in the far east, holds the wreck sites of La Pérouse's ships at Vanikoro, the site of the village Mendaña tried to found, the volcano of Tinakula and the red-feather money of Santa Cruz.

What the war left around Guadalcanal

The battlefields of 1942 and 1943 lie around Honiara. Tourism Solomons lists Bloody Ridge, Red Beach, Skyline Ridge, with its American memorial, and Henderson Field among the sites, along with the Japanese Solomons Peace Memorial and the museums at Vilu and Betikama. Local guides lead tours to rusting jeeps and tanks in the jungle and to caves and foxholes used as Japanese observation posts.

Much of what remains is under water. Iron Bottom Sound, between Guadalcanal, the Nggela Islands and Savo, holds the wrecks of warships and aircraft of both sides; a few lie close enough to shore to be snorkelled, others need experienced divers, and Bonegi Beach on western Guadalcanal is among the dive sites. In the Western Province the wreck of the Toa Maru lies in Kololuka Bay. Kennedy Island, named after John F. Kennedy, whose crew Solomon Islander scouts found after the sinking of PT-109, is about ten minutes by speedboat from Gizo. In August 2023, at the 80th anniversary of the battle of Guadalcanal, the United States ambassador Caroline Kennedy met the children of the two scouts in Honiara.

The war also left explosives. Australia's travel advice lists Hell's Point and the ridges around Honiara, the New Georgia islands, Tulagi and the Russell Islands as areas with unexploded weapons, and warns against touching them and against digging or lighting fires there.

Where divers and birdwatchers go

The Western Province, which Tourism Solomons dubs the mecca of the country's tourism, is a province of lagoons. Eco-lodges stand on Marovo and Vonavona lagoons, where skull shrines from the headhunting era can still be seen, and the wrecks and reefs near Gizo are dive sites. Kavachi, the submarine volcano off New Georgia, erupts every few years. Live-aboard boats also carry divers between islands. The hyperbaric chamber in Honiara has only basic functions, and divers with decompression sickness may need to be flown abroad, Australia's advice notes.

Birdwatchers go to Mount Austen, about 45 minutes' drive from Honiara, for the Solomons cockatoo, the yellow-bibbed lory and other species, and to Rennell, whose eastern end around Lake Tegano is a World Heritage site with 21 endemic birds. On Rennell visitors stay in rest houses by the lake, and Bellona offers accommodation in caves. Inland on Guadalcanal, treks lead to the Mataniko cascade, Tenaru Falls and Barana Waterfalls, and a local guide is essential.

Surfers head for the western end of Guadalcanal, two hours and forty minutes by road from Honiara, and for Lau Lagoon and Suava Bay in northern Malaita, where landowners have been encouraged to open eco-lodges. At the eastern tip of Guadalcanal, Marau Sound has small island resorts 25 minutes by plane from Honiara.

When the weather suits a visit

The islands are hot and humid all year, with an average temperature of 27°C by Tourism Solomons' figure. It describes the drier months from May to October as the most comfortable time to visit, when rain, temperature and humidity are at their lowest; Honiara gets about 100 millimetres a month then against more than 300 in the wet months. The wet season runs from November to April. Tourism Solomons calls cyclones uncommon; Australia's advice treats November to May as the cyclone season and warns that flights can be suspended when one passes.

Health and hazards are part of planning. Malaria and dengue fever are widespread, Australia's advice of September 2026 notes, Zika virus and chikungunya are present, and earthquakes of magnitude 5.0 and above are felt routinely. Savo, 35 kilometres northwest of Honiara, is an active volcano, and visitors are advised to check with the national disaster management office before going. Crocodiles and sharks are common, including around Honiara, and beaches are not patrolled.

What customs visitors are expected to follow

Solomon Islands society is conservative, and Australia's advice asks visitors to dress appropriately and avoid swearing and public displays of affection. Same-sex sexual activity is a criminal offence. The legal drinking age is 21. Most land outside the towns is held along tribal lines, and treks and village visits are arranged through the villages themselves or with help from Tourism Solomons.

Cash is the rule beyond Honiara. International credit cards are accepted in major hotels and large shops in the capital and rarely elsewhere, and ATMs are found at the airport and the banks in Honiara and other main centres. Mobile and internet coverage is limited off Guadalcanal, on 3G and 4G networks only. The Honiara Central Market, where fish and produce arrive from the outer islands, also sells carvings, shell money and jewellery, and Tourism Solomons describes it as the main food market in the country.