Holiday in Rabaul
“All in one” could be a good way of describing Kokopo Beach Bungalow Resort. PNG residents or overseas visitors planning a holiday in Rabaul are sure to enjoy what the resort offers. The resort seems smaller in size when you arrive at first, but it leaves a lasting impression on its visitors.
The accommodation, food and activities give visitors a taste of Papua New Guinea’s popular tourist destination, East New Britain.
Activities and Features
- Tours
- Car park
- Outdoor Pool
- Restaurant and Bar
- Diving or snorkelling
- Airconditioned rooms
- Tavurvur Volcano within sight
- Dugongs and dolphins spotting
- Standup paddleboarding and Kayak
- Short walk to Kokopo market and War Museum
Visiting
Entrance showing you only reception area with local artist paintings here and there and gift shop windows behind you, but the moment you get to your room and step out on the balcony you realize, that this magical playground is way bigger than expected.
Rooms
The rooms are build from traditional materials sourced in Papua New Guinea. Each room is created to make you feel at home, while you holiday in Rabaul, with brown timber Kwila floors and wild Kanda vine weaving on the walls.
Big beds as comfortable as clouds, balcony with lush view, comfortable shower as well as AC.
Restaurant
Traditional style restaurant called HausWin provides great relaxing space with a touch of culture displayed around. On the wooden posts, traditional wood-carved masks can be seen brought in from Sepik region and New Ireland region, some as old as 15 years.
Food
The resort offers a fantastic array of traditional and modern dishes. Its multi-cuisine menu is a serve of traditional dishes and local staples such as:
- Mumu,
- Aigir (East new Britain traditional dish),
- Kaukau,
- Taro,
- Pitpit,
- Tukuru,
- Aibika
In addition, visitors to the resort also have a choice of international dishes like burgers, fish and chips, chicken curry, pizza, noodles and of course selection of fine PNG coffee and delicious desserts.
When you holiday in Rabaul, you’ve got to taste the local food and observe the way the ‘Tolais’ (local people of East New Britain) prepare the meals.
Traditional decor and galore
The ceiling view is an impressive piece of artwork.
Traditional fishing traps (baskets) from the local area are used as lampshades. The materials for the light shades come from ‘Kanda’ (cane vine). The craftsmen split the Kanda into strips and weave them into the fishing baskets.
As seen in the picture, each basket is a masterpiece. In fact, it takes time and care to make each unique basket. The skills have been passed down through generations.
Best view
For the best view at the resort, head down to the Treetop deck right in front of the restaurant. The deck is at the right elevation above the beach with an amazing view of Rabaul Tavurvur Volcano, New Ireland mountain ranges and Duke of York Islands.
During sunset, this spot becomes a hotspot for all sorts of colours in the sky over the volcano. And at the dusk sundown, the tree lights come on to give that magical feeling. The atmosphere is electric!
Recommended activities – Rabaul holiday
The Kokopo Beach Bungalow Resort has many activities available for you. Here are the recommended activities:
- Land tours to Japanese Tunnels,
- Volcano or local villages visits
- Sea tours to the islands with white sandy beaches, pristine coral reefs, war wreckage underwater and island villages.
Diving in Rabaul
Scuba Diving in PNG is world-class. There are healthy coral reefs and clear waters with fantastic visibility.
Soft corals seem to be swaying in the light current all over the place.
When on holiday in Rabaul, Scuba Diving is a must activity for those wanting to explore planes underwater, shipwrecks underwater and dramatic wall drops. The house dive centre Rabaul Dive Adventures will help you create once in a lifetime diving experience.
“Dubbed the ‘underwater photographer’s paradise’, we’ve taken away many an international award for underwater photography captured here. In our oceans, you’ll see up to twice as many marine species as the waters of the Red Sea and up to five times as many as the Caribbean.” (Papua New Guinea Travel)
Great muck diving nearly on every dive site and wall dives that always present opportunity to spot pelagics passing by.
The resort does regular daily diving trips. It also offers diving for small groups which is a bonus.
But, make sure divers make prior arrangements to book the daily spots.
Relax at the resort
For those who wish to catch up on reading and relax we have sunbeds right on the beach right by the water.
Standup paddleboards and kayak are available every day for light exercise.
In the late afternoons sometimes Dugongs seem to be floating around the nearby resort. The challenge to find Dugongs is always there.
Contact
To find out more and book your unique stay please email diving@kbb.com.pg or reservations@kbb.com.pg or you can always give us a call on 982 8788.
Editor’s note:
PNG Insight runs a featured initiative to showcase local travel destinations under our PNG Travel category. It is a free initiative. The article is from the Kokopo Beach Bungalow Resort. We edited the original work to fit our article template. Thank you, Kokopo Beach Bungalow Resort, for participating in this initiative.
If you are a local travel business, why not participate in this #PNGTravelDestination Initiative. Email info@pnginsight.com
