Planning & Information – Nauru

Where: Nauru
Transport: Airlines, Bicycle
Who: One backpacker
Currency: Australian Dollar (AUD)
 

Orientation
This itinerary takes you through some of the best places around the beautiful island country in the pacific – Nauru, for two days.

Visa
With less than 300 visitors a year, Nauru requires a visa-grant for almost all nationalities.

Step-by-step process to get Nauru visa easily Nauru is one of the least visited countries in the world, and one of the main reason is the requirement of a visa for almost all nationalities. Getting a visa to Nauru can take a while and can be challenging! Read this article for a step by step process to get a visa-grant for Nauru.

Here are some tips that I experienced on my trip to Nauru:

• Cash or cards – Credit cards are not widely used in Nauru, and ATMs or currency exchange centers are rarely available. Most restaurants, cafes, tourist sites will expect cash, and the option to use credit cards might not be available.
• Transportation – There are no public buses or taxis in Nauru. Very few rental cars are available, with some local operators including hotels provide their own rental cars. Driving (on the left, similar to UK or Australia) across the entire island nation takes 20-30 mins. Australian Dollar (AUD) is the official currency of Nauru.
• Airport to hotel (and back) – Most hotels will provide free or paid shuttle service to/from airport. Make sure to let the hotels know your flight details and confirm a day before your arrival or departure for the shuttle. Paid service can be A$5 per trip.
• Water – Tap water is not safe to drink. One liter bottle of water from a local market will cost A$5-A$8.
• Wi-fi – Mostly not available anywhere. Hotels may have it, but may not work.

SIM Card in Nauru Company: Digicel is the only one company operating in Nauru. Cost: It costs A$16 for a weekly pre-paid data for 1GB, which is definitely quite expensive! Where to get: The Nauru international airport has a Digicel kiosk, but it was not operational when we arrived. The best option is to go to the Digicel store in the Yaren district. You can top-up at multiple locations like general stores. If you have any updates, please leave in the comments below.

As a part of the visa process, I booked hotels before traveling to Nauru.

Hotels in Nauru At the time of writing this post, there are four hotels in Nauru: Ewa Lodge by Capelle Menen Hotel Budapest Hotel Od-N Aiwo Hotel The challenge is for these hotels to respond and send a confirmation. In our experience, Ewa Lodge was the quickest to respond.

Note: All values in USD, unless otherwise mentioned, are approximate and based on the exchange rate of USD 1 = AUD 1.50 at the time of publishing. Each cost is for one adult.