In May of 2026, we ran our very first snorkeling tour to the Solomon Islands, and as you’ll soon see, I have a lot to say about it, because it absolutely rocked! In the snorkel guide below, you’ll hopefully get a feel for the many different aspects of the tour, from the liveaboard, the travel logistics, the above-water experiences, and of course, the reefs and marine life. In my opinion, and I believe it’s the same for most of the guests who joined this snorkeling tour, it doesn’t really matter where you’ve snorkeled prior to the Solomons; you’re going to love it.
Where are the Solomon Islands
The Solomon Islands are located off the east coast of Papua New Guinea and northeast of Australia. The 1,000 islands that make up the Solomons are all located on the easternmost corner of the Coral Triangle, an area well known for having the most marine biodiversity on the planet.
How to Get to the Solomon Islands
The easiest way to get to the Solomon Islands is via Brisbane, Australia, or Fiji. On this particular tour, we started in Fiji and flew to the capital city of the Solomon Islands, Honiara. We’ve since decided that it’s easier to fly through Australia.
Once in Honiara, we catch an organized transport van which will take us to our hotel in town and on the coast. Honiara is not a very beautiful place; it’s a major port town and a bit similar to Sorong in Indonesia. We have a nice and comfortable hotel to stay in, though it’s called the Heritage Park Hotel, which is a 4-star hotel right on the water and a nice little refuge from the heat and chaos outside. The following afternoon, we board the Bilikiki.
The Bilikiki Liveaboard
Up until just a few years ago, the Bilikiki has been the area’s only liveaboard. The Bilikiki was established in 1988 and pioneered snorkeling and diving in the area. There is no question about it, with the Bilikiki’s stellar reputation and extensive history in the Solomon Islands, they are the liveaboard to run snorkeling tours with.
The Bilikiki is not a fancy boat; it’s all about function. She’s a 38-meter steel ship custom-built for diving and snorkeling in the Solomon Islands, and it really shows. While the Bilikiki might be the oldest boat we run tours on, she’s one of the best-maintained, and easily one of the quietest as she moves from one island group to the next. While she may not be as flashy as some of the boats we run tours on in Indonesia, you will want for nothing aboard the Bilikiki, and you’ll be sucked into the vessel’s charm and history soon after boarding.
The cabins of the Bilikiki are all below deck and offer the guests a comfortable place to rest between snorkels or at the end of a beautiful day. They are air-conditioned via central air, and they also have oscillating fans if you prefer. No, they do not have potholes or windows. The ensuite bathrooms have hot and cold water, and everything else you’d need to be comfortable in your cabins, including ample storage for your clothes. The cabins are more basic and smaller by comparison to some of the Indonesian wooden phinisi liveaboards we use, but guests really only used them for napping or sleeping, and it seemed to suit everyone’s comfort standards just fine. Most people spent their time reading or lounging in the different indoor or outdoor common areas.
As I said, the common areas onboard were great and offered everyone a variety of comfortable places to watch the unbelievable scenery pass by. The main deck has an indoor area with a few tables. One table is reserved for cameras, while the other two are for people to lounge around, though most preferred to hang out outside. Inside, there’s also a bar in the back corner where you can grab a beer or a cocktail, and a library full of fish ID books.
There are two outdoor areas, one on the main deck where we’d take all of our meals sitting around the large wooden tables, and a sun deck that’s nearly as big. The sun deck above is where everyone gathered for sunrises to watch the flocks of parrots scatter about the jungle, and sunsets where snacks and sundowners were served.
The top deck also features a charging room where you can conveniently charge all your different batteries safely. On the main deck, on the back of the boat, is where you’ll find the dive deck, where all your wet snorkeling gear will live. This area is spacious and set up perfectly for changing in and out of your wet gear, and then boarding the Bilikiki’s “tinnies.” The tinnies are the Bilikiki’s tender boats, which shuttle us the short distance to the snorkeling site. They are very easy to get in and out of, and offer plenty of space for guests and their snorkeling gear.
The Day to Day
On our trip, based on the guests’ preferences and the reefs we were exploring, we opted to do two long day snorkels each day, and on a couple of occasions, we’d enjoy a night snorkel. We’d start our days with a big breakfast around 7:30. We’d then have a snorkel site briefing, followed by the morning snorkel session around 8:30 or 9 am. As the sites are quite expansive in the Solomons and offer a lot of different areas to explore, we’d enjoy a two or two and a half hour snorkel in the morning. We’d then break for lunch around noon, and then hit the water again around 2 in the afternoon for another two-hour snorkel session on a different reef. There were two different opportunities for night snorkeling, which took place after dinner.
There were a couple of days where we had visits to the local villages, which was a real treat and helped give perspective as to how the local communities make their lives, while also being able to purchase some local carvings and observing traditional dances.
The Reefs
While I had a boat full of repeat Snorkel Venture guests who’d previously spent time snorkeling in places like Raja Ampat, Halmahera, Komodo, Alor, and the Banda Sea with us, I was quite apprehensive about how they would receive the reefs of the Solomon Islands. I had not seen the reefs of the Solomons for myself yet; I’d had friends and former colleagues who’d spent time in the Solomons in the past and had assured me I was in for a surprise, but the unknown still made me a bit uneasy.
As soon as we entered the water, my concerns were put to rest. While the reefs didn’t really resemble those of any of our Indonesian snorkeling destinations, they’re no less interesting or beautiful. Anyway, if they looked like any of the other destinations we run tours to, there’d be no point in traveling all the way to the Solomon Islands.
The Reefs of the Solomon Islands are uniquely their own. A blend of the classic Coral Triangle cacophony of colors mixed with the topographic elements found around Pacific Islands like Palau and Fiji. Most of the reefs were characterized by a hard coral reef, which very gently sloped away from the island, and would typically drop into a wall or a very steep slope. The reef tops were primarily covered in a mixture of hard corals, while the walls were a mix of limestone, soft corals, sea fans, and sponges. In a few areas we visited, the shallows weren’t so coral-dense, but more a mix of stunning limestone or volcanic topography, with some hard corals mixed in. For those who like to duck-dive, these underwater landscapes offer the ultimate place to explore the shadow swim-throughs. The diversity in the types of snorkeling sites rivals that of any of our other top snorkeling destinations!
As the trip progressed, we were treated to an even more diverse set of reefs, which offered some very interesting muck snorkeling sites, ridges and pinnacles where pelagic species roamed in the blue, a few wrecks—one of which is from WWII and starts right at the surface, and some very beautiful mangroves. Thanks to our drone, we even found a manta feeding area, something not even the most experienced crew had known about!
Marine Life
Like the reefs, the marine life is equally diverse and robust. Given that we’re in the Coral Triangle, you can expect all the staples of Indonesia, but you also get some new faces in the Solomon Islands that you won’t find in Indonesia, like the white bonnet anemone fish. This white bonnet anemone fish is a naturally occurring hybrid species that’s believed to be a cross between a pink anemone fish and a bluestripe anemone fish. Actually, where anemone fish are concerned, we had some quite unusual encounters as we were finding a lot of anemones with up to three different species in one anemone. Typically, one anemone will only have one species residing within it. I’ve only seen that a handful of times in all my past snorkeling experiences, but out in the Solomons, we were finding it on most snorkels.
We, of course, found plenty of moray eels, all the different species of angel fish and pufferfish, a number of different nudibranchs, including a species I’ve never seen before called the glossodoris averni. We had large schools of archer fish in the mangroves, along with many courting pipefish, and all the different masters of disguise like cuttlefish, octopus, sea horses, crocodile fish, and a number of different scorpionfish.
As for the bigger fish, we had plenty. On some of the ridges and pinnacles, we had some very large schools of big-eye jacks, barracuda, and batfish. We were also greeted by a number of juvenile and adolescent grey reef sharks, something we don’t really get on any of our other snorkeling safaris. We also had black tips and white tip reef sharks right up in the shallows, along with an eagle ray. As I said a bit earlier, we also had feeding reef mantas, about fifteen or so, swimming in circles around us for the better part of an hour.
The Local Vibe
While the snorkeling experience was nothing short of outstanding, I believe it was the genuine experience with locals from the many different villages that really made this trip unique. This was a completely unexpected element that I don’t think anyone had really expected, myself included. Nearly everywhere we turned up, it wasn’t long before there’d be one or a dozen hand-dug canoes slowly making their way to the Bilikiki. Before you knew it, a whole flotilla of wooden canoes would be tied up to the vessel as the locals sold their freshly picked fruits and vegetables to the chefs. This was how the Bilikiki maintained a fresh supply of produce, which we’d get to enjoy at the next meal!
We were also treated to a visit to two different island villages, once to visit a local carving market made up of all the nearby wood carvers selling their stunning ocean-inspired pieces, and then again for a tour of a traditional village led by the lovely chief. Given the lack of tourism in the area, and the well-established relationship between the Bilikiki and the local communities, every experience or encounter felt genuine and without any of that nagging guilt, we, as foreigners, often feel when we engage with the local residents like this.
How to Snorkel the Solomon Islands
While there are some small home-stays and resorts, we feel the best way to snorkel the Solomon Islands is via the Bilikiki Liveaboard. First, arriving at the resorts and homestays adds a whole other logistical layer to your already quite extensive travel itinerary. In order to access these places, you’ll need to catch small puddle-jumper planes followed by boat rides. After flying to Australia and then to Honiara, the last thing you want to do is get on an even smaller plane, followed by a boat. With the Bilikiki, you arrive in Honiara and board the vessel conveniently from the port next to the hotel.
Another reason why we are so pro-liveaboard is that liveaboards offer so much flexibility to move around unfavorable weather and to adapt to the marine life. Not to mention, you get to see a much bigger area of the Solomon Islands, not just the area ten to thirty minutes around the resort. It’s so lovely waking up to new scenery each and every morning.
