Aqua-Firma always places a special focus on locations which have great terrestrial wilderness and bountiful marine life. Papua New Guinea is a prime candidate with vast areas of both pristine rainforest and coral reef; colourful tribal cultures scattered from high mountains to tropical islands; birds of paradise; volcanoes and more.

A journey to Papua New Guinea cannot possibly feel like ‘doing’ the place. There is so much to explore above and below the water that you will find yourself immersed in a world that time forgot, scratching deep below what feels like an unfathomable surface. No one can possibly say that they know all the corners of Papua New Guinea – it’s simply too difficult to get around.

It is worth quoting a few numbers when describing Papua New Guinea, beginning with Tribal Culture. When we take you into the rainforest, an hour by motor canoe might take you past tribal villages spanning three or four unrelated languages.  Across PNG, there are a total of 848 known languages, spread amongst a modest population of 7 million people. Whilst very much a thing of the past, cannibalism and tribal wars have played a major role in isolating communities and preventing integration. Today, contests are more often settled at a festival where tribes compete for the most elaborate costumes and displays, or take to a patch of grass to play their national sport of rugby league.

Holidays to Papua New Guinea

A land that is bound to intrigue, excite and astound in equal measure, Papua New Guinea has always been surrounded by myths and superlatives and, for those with an adventurous spirit, a genuinely different experience awaits. Your Papua New Guinea holiday ingredients range from highland tribal festivals with painted warriors, crocodile watching along the Sepik River, stunning birds of paradise, fabulous landscapes, dive sites that are amongst the best in the world, peaceful beach resorts, fascinating WW2 history, serious trekking, and a colourful and friendly population that offer a true South Pacific welcome to everyone making the long journey to
these exciting islands.

The journey to Papua New Guinea is a long one and so the destination combines well with a stopover in Singapore, Hong Kong or Manila. Get in touch to let us plan your PNG adventure and we’ll create the very definition of a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience.

BirdQuest, founded in 1981, has an unequalled repertoire of birding tours and combined birdwatching and wildlife holidays and cruises that will appeal to every kind of birder. Our tours are celebrated as the very best available, and we have shown our clients and friends over 10,200 bird species worldwide, more than any other birding tour company (and not that far off the total for all other birding tour companies combined!), as well as an extraordinary variety of mammals and many other fascinating aspects of the natural world.

 UNCHARTED PAPUA NEW GUINEA EXPEDITION

Papua New Guinea Birding Tours: Birdquest has been operating tours to Papua New Guinea for over 30 years, but this phenomenally biodiverse country still conceals hidden avian gems which have been seen only by a handful of intrepid researchers and expeditioners. This special expedition will explore well off the beaten track in search of an enticing array of endemic birds which have previously been considered ‘off-limits’ to world birders, and our adventurous itinerary will certainly break new ground, potentially even rediscovering one or more lost species!

Founding the company

The company’s history stretches back to 25 May 1758 when Richard Cox was appointed as regimental agent to the Foot Guards by his mentor, Lord Ligonier, the commander-in-chief of His Majesty’s Armed Forces. The actual moment of appointment is captured in the allegorical scene shown in the painting above by the well-known military painter David Morier, in which Cox is deliberately positioned as Ligonier’s ‘right hand man’.
Today, Cox & Kings has built on the tradition of high quality service and attention to detail established by Richard Cox more than 260 years ago and it now provides travel arrangements of the highest calibre in many of the most culturally and naturally fascinating parts of the world. The company has extended its expertise to cover Africa, Australasia, the Caribbean, Europe, the Far East, the Indian Ocean, the Indian Subcontinent, Latin America, the Middle East and Canada.Papua New Guinea holidays by Cox & Kings

Papua New Guinea, composed of over 600 islands, lies 100 miles north of Australia. It can be a challenging destination for visitors as tourism is still very much in its infancy, but it is one of the most rewarding destinations in the South Pacific. Little is contrived for tourists and there is a huge range of unique flora and fauna to see. 

Authentic Experiences for Passionate Travellers

Do you yearn for the open road? Or do you prefer leaving logistics in the hands of an expert guide? Offering everything from escorted small-group holidays led by the best guides in the business to leisurely self drives, or how about a perfectly formed short break? We provide maximum choice and flexibility and we’ve been tailor making spectacular holidays for 35 years. We’ll show you hidden gems and take you on unforgettable adventures. We’ll recommend our favourite, tried-and-tested hotels and suggest itineraries and experiences that reveal the magic of a destination – whether you’ve got a few days to spare or several weeks to immerse yourself in a country.

Papua New Guinea Holidays

Mysterious, magnificent, yet rarely visited, Papua New Guinea can seem both irresistibly exotic and impossibly remote. By joining one of our expedition cruises, however, all logistics are taken care of as you set sail on a voyage rich in culture, history and natural beauty.

Both of our cruises begin with a charter flight from Cairns to Madang in northeast PNG. You have a choice of either a pioneering exploration of the 1,126km Sepik (the longest river in New Guinea) or a wider-ranging cruise along the island’s northern coast which culminates with a crossing of the Coral Sea and disembarkation in Cairns.

One of diving’s last frontiers Papua New Guinea plays host to a collection of the world’s finest reef diving regions. Here deep waters run adjacent to the mainland and neighbouring islands which in turn offers excellent chances of pelagic sightings such as sharks and rays. Combine this with pristine coral reefs and vibrant marine life and you have all the ingredients for a premier dive destination.

Kimbe Bay, Witu and Fathers Reef offer exceptional diving in the shape of huge soft corals and barrel sponges, big fish make for regular sightings in the open ocean north east of Kimbe with silvertips and grey reefs not uncommon.

We’ve handpicked a number of preferred operators throughout the region to offer a scope of the finest diving and land based opportunities. Walindi Plantation Resort is located in Kimbe Bay and is run in conjunction with FeBrina Liveaboard allowing easy access to local sites of New Britain and also the more remote regions of Witu and Father’s Reef.

Tufi Resort is easily accessed from Port Moresby on the north eastern coastline of the country, this is beautifully located resort is surrounded by inlets and dense tropical rainforest and offers superb diving. For land based we can arrange tours inland to Mt Hagan for authentic culture and beautiful topside vistas.

First and foremost, we are a small company and plan to keep it that way. 21 years ago, in 1994, we (Ian Green and Fiona Dunbar) started Greentours, from the back bedroom of our flat in Norfolk, where we had both been at University studying Ecology, with one computer and a new fangled phone/fax machine. We still have customers travelling with us who came with us on in our first year, or indeed on our first tour!

Ian, who had already been leading and organising wildlife tours for other companies, noticed a yearning on the part of many of his customers. Those on birding holidays rather wanted to stop and look at the butterflies and flowers that were being passed by, and customers on butterfly trips were covertly sneaking looks at bird books, floras, and even the odd tome on reptiles… Sometimes, there would even be couples with different areas of wildlife interest! Again guided by the desires of our customers, we have more recently started offering our popular photography, wildlife at leisure and Alpine Garden Society tours.

Naturetrek was founded in 1986 and our first tours specialised in birdwatching and botanical treks to remote and mountainous areas of the world. Thirty-two years later, we still offer many such treks, but our portfolio of holidays now includes 450+ holidays to over 90 different destinations worldwide. Today, we offer the world’s largest selection of professionally organised natural history holidays.

What Can I Expect on a Naturetrek holiday?

All of our holidays are expertly guided by a leading naturalist. In addition, we often take an expert local guide(s). Birds, mammals and plants are usually the main focus of our tours but we do incorporate as many other aspects of the natural world as possible, and many of our tours also include cultural highlights. Our holidays are often longer than other wildlife tours and, because they tend to be slower-paced (with the exception of our Bargain Selection), offer more time for detailed wildlife exploration, photography, relaxation and to take an interest in the region’s people, culture, history and architecture. We generally spend as much time as we can in an area searching for birds, mammals and plants on foot, though we do travel by minibus at least some of the time on most of our tours.

Papua New Guinea is one of the wildest and least explored regions on earth. Its astonishingly rich avifauna includes nearly 400 endemic species, amongst them the exquisite birds-of-paradise. This group of birds forms one of the principal objectives of this 16-day birdwatching tour. Starting in the capital Port Moresby, our tour visits Varirata National Park, Rondon Ridge, Karawari Lodge and finally the world-famous Ambua Lodge, encountering en route a wonderful variety of birds including many of the unique and fantastically plumaged birds-of-paradise. The lodge is situated at Tari Gap in the central highlands, home of the Huli tribe, or ‘wigmen’, known for their ornate ceremonial wigs, and dances and songs fashioned on the mating rituals of the birds-of-paradise.

Noble Caledonia’s raison d’être has from our earliest days been to offer varied cruises on vessels of a certain style and size. Such small ships allow us to create itineraries and an onboard ambience that is conducive to exploring the world and learning of its wonders in the company of like-minded travellers.  It is our view that the best way to achieve this ideal is to limit the number of passengers to such a size that allows the camaraderie to grow between passengers thereby creating a warm and friendly atmosphere onboard. Small numbers onboard also allow the crew and staff to provide a more personal and caring service, something which is not feasible on larger vessels.

The company’s success has been built on providing an informative yet relaxed atmosphere onboard combined with a true spirit of adventure. Amongst the wealth of information on this site you will not find a seemingly endless series of similar itineraries, but many one-off voyages that can transport you to the most interesting and often little known places where only small ships can venture.

We aim to offer many types of trips from expedition cruising, small ship cruising, cruises under sail and river cruising. Every year we re-invent our long list of trips keeping some of the most popular but always offering something new.  In addition to our first love which is small ships, we also offer journeys by private plane, private train and escorted worldwide tours.

Each year our horizons widen and we hope whilst exploring our website you will find ample evidence of why Noble Caledonia is the world’s leading small ship cruising expert. Whether you join one of the trips close to home in the Hebrides or in far flung Papua New Guinea you will be assured of a warm welcome onboard and a team of knowledgeable expedition staff and guest speakers that will make your journey an enjoyable and rewarding experience.

Original Diving Papua New Guinea

Original Diving are a team of committed divers, marine biologists and travellers dedicated to creating the best luxury diving holidays around the world. They create tailor-made itineraries that perfectly suit their clients’ needs, using their expert knowledge of destinations.

As one of the few countries left in the world that can still be regarded as ‘off-the-beaten-track’, Papua New Guinea boasts some truly world-class diving in unspoilt waters, with the added benefit of there being virtually no one else there. And it’s not just the underwater world that is unspoilt, in land there is plenty to be discovered, be it learning more about the country’s fascinating culture or enjoying the abundant bird and other wildlife.

The experts at Original Diving have extensively researched both the coastal and inland areas of Papua New Guinea in search of the very best accommodation, top dive sites and other must-visit spots to allow them to create fantastic bespoke diving itineraries.