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Local Activities
The Kingdom of Tonga is the official
name of the islands. Tonga lies south of the equator and
is one of the most southerly of the tropical South Pacific
islands. It lies directly to the south of Samoa, south
east of Fiji and south west of Niue, the Cook Islands and
Tahiti.
Tonga Quick Facts:
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Number of Islands: 171 (Tongatapu
= main island)
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Population: 106,000
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Time: 13 hours ahead of
GMT
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Currency: Tongan Pa'anga
(Currency
Conversion Calculator)
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Languages: Tongan and
English
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Country Code: 676
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Airport Code:
Nukualofa - Fuaamotu International Airport (TBU)
Vava'u Airport (VAV) - Nearest Airport
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Electricity: 240 volts AC50 cycles (same as UK,
Australia and New Zealand)
Tonga Airline
Information:
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Getting to Tonga is
straight-forward with direct flights between Los Angeles,
New Zealand and Australia, although most flights are on a
weekly basis only.
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Direct flights operate
extensively to and from other south pacific countries but
again mostly on a weekly basis. So, if you are trying to
organize a trip outside of the 1-week, 2-week structure,
then you will need to do some shuffling.
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Peau Vava'u Limited (PVL)
is a domestic airline operating in the Kingdom of Tonga
that currently
operates aircraft between Tongatapu
(TBU), 'Eua (EUA), Ha'apai (HPA) and Vava'u (VAV).
Services to Niuatoputapu (NTT) and Niuafo'ou (NFO) are
following in the very near future.
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Air New
Zealand is the main airline offering flights to Tonga -
Fua'amotu Airport (TBU) - with direct flights from Auckland
(4/week) and Samoa (1/week).
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Travelers from Los
Angeles / London are best served by the Air New Zealand
service to Samoa and on to Tonga (1/week) or to Auckland and
back to Tonga (3/week).
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Air Pacific offer a
twice weekly service between Nandi (Fiji), Air Fiji flies to
Suva (3/week)
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Polynesian
Airlines flies to Sydney, Auckland, Wellington,
Christchurch, Apia and Honolulu.
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The high season for travel
is between December and February when flights are often full
with Tongans living abroad returning to visit relatives.
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