Best Things To Do In Kiribati (Tarawa + Kiritimati)

I’ve been to Tarawa three times now, and Kiribati is still difficult to explain. It is beautiful and ugly at exactly the same time: a picture-perfect Pacific lagoon with rubbish, rusted vehicles and broken machinery scattered along the roadside.

There is almost no tourism. No polished resort strip. No neat little circuit of attractions waiting for a bus to collect you at nine. You do not go to Kiribati for a holiday. You go for the experience.

For most visitors, the first decision is whether that experience means Tarawa or Kiritimati. They belong to the same country but sit thousands of kilometres apart and offer completely different trips.

First: Tarawa And Kiritimati Are Not Next Door

Tarawa is the capital and main entry point for the Gilbert Islands. Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, sits far to the east in the Line Islands. On my earlier trips, getting between them meant routing through Fiji or Hawaii, which made travelling inside Kiribati harder than travelling to another country.

That has improved. The current official flight page lists a weekly Nauru Airlines service from Tarawa to Kiritimati on Monday, returning Tuesday. It is still not a casual add-on: verify the schedule before booking anything and leave room for disruption.

If you have one week, choose Tarawa or Kiritimati. Trying to squeeze both into seven days makes the least touristy country you will ever visit feel oddly like an airport challenge.

Best Things To Do In Tarawa

Tarawa is not a list of conventional attractions. The real interest is seeing how people live on a narrow, densely populated strip of coral, surrounded by some of the clearest water on earth. These are the experiences I would build a first trip around.

1. Explore The Battle Of Tarawa Sites On Betio

Betio was the centre of the 1943 Battle of Tarawa, and the remains are still everywhere: giant coastal guns, concrete bunkers, pillboxes and wreckage sitting beside homes and beaches. It does not feel curated. That is precisely why it hits so hard.

Take your time and use the official battlefield map or arrange a local guide. This is a place where people died in enormous numbers, not a collection of rusty props.

2. Cross Into North Tarawa

South Tarawa is crowded, busy and heavily built up. North Tarawa is where the road begins to fall away and the version of island paradise in your head starts appearing more often: palms, lagoon, villages and long empty views.

Abatao makes a manageable day trip from the Buota side. Depending on the tide and local arrangement, the final crossing may be by small boat or on foot through shallow water. Ask locally rather than assuming the internet’s timings have any authority over the tide.

3. Say Yes To Village Life

One of my best decisions was saying yes when I was invited into village life outside South Tarawa. The maneaba, the traditional meeting house, is the centre of things: people gathering, food being shared, kids charging around and an enormous amount being communicated despite the language barrier.

This is not something to barge into with a camera. Go through a local host, accept the hospitality properly and ask before photographing anyone. The warmth is real. So is the fact that you are a guest.

4. Eat Whatever Came Out Of The Ocean

The food surprised me. Tuna can be absurdly cheap, crayfish does not require a mortgage, and the simplest catch-of-the-day plate is normally a much better decision than chasing imported Western food across the island.

Ocean Family Seafood was excellent for generous plates and lovely staff. Fair Price Golden Restaurant does Chinese-style stir-fries, noodles and seafood beside the lagoon. Chatterbox is the reliable coffee-and-sandwich option, while Koakoa’s Corner became one of those accidental finds I kept returning to.

Tip: Carry Australian dollars. Plenty of smaller places are cash-only, and the useful time to visit an ATM is when you arrive around Bonriki, not when you are hungry at the other end of the atoll.

5. Try Te Karewe

Te karewe begins as sap collected from a coconut palm. Fresh it can be sweet; fermented, it becomes tangy, earthy and considerably more interesting. I was passed the fermented version in a shell and the first sip made me squint.

After a few more it mellowed out and I understood the appeal. If someone offers it, you are being included in something local rather than sold another packaged island experience. Just maybe do not go back for thirds.

6. Ride The Island And Look Properly

Spend a day moving along the full spine of South Tarawa. Local buses are cheap, crowded and a far better window into daily life than hiding in an air-conditioned transfer. Stop at the causeways, markets and lagoon edges rather than treating Betio and Bonriki as two points to rush between.

This is where the contradiction becomes unavoidable. The water can be impossibly blue while rubbish piles up a few metres away. Rusted vehicles sit under coconut palms. It is confronting, but sanitising that out would completely miss the point of Tarawa.

Best Things To Do On Kiritimati

I know Tarawa from three visits. Kiritimati is the researched half of this guide, and I would treat it as a separate outdoor trip rather than pretending it is simply Tarawa with a quieter beach.

The Tourism Authority describes Kiritimati as the world’s largest coral atoll by land area. The entire island is a wildlife sanctuary, with restricted access to the most sensitive areas.

1. Go Bonefishing

Bonefishing is the main reason many travellers come. Kiritimati’s huge hard-sand flats support bonefish, giant trevally and triggerfish, with local guides reading tides and reef channels that visiting anglers simply cannot. If fishing is the point of your trip, book the guide and lodge first, then fit the flights around them.

2. Visit The Bird Reserves

Kiritimati supports major seabird colonies and the endemic bokikokiko, or Christmas Island reed warbler. Some breeding areas are restricted, so this is another activity where a local guide is part of the access rather than an optional upgrade.

3. Dive Or Snorkel The Atoll

The lagoon, reef passes and ocean drop-offs make Kiritimati a serious diving destination, but operators are limited. Confirm equipment, dates and the exact kind of diving available before flying in. This is not somewhere to arrive with a vague plan and assume a glossy dive shop will materialise beside the baggage carousel.

How Long I Would Spend In Kiribati

For Tarawa alone, four or five days is enough to explore Betio, spend time in North Tarawa, eat well and leave space for plans to happen locally. A full week lets you slow down and perhaps add a nearby Gilbert Island.

If Kiritimati is also calling, give the country closer to two weeks and treat the flight between hubs as the spine of the itinerary. Better still, decide which half you actually want and go deeper.

Kiribati is not easy, polished or conventionally relaxing. Parts of it are objectively a mess. Then the lagoon lights up, somebody invites you to eat, and the whole place gets under your skin. Go for that.