Attractions & Natural Wonders · Vanuatu
Vanuatu: Five Attractions and Natural Wonders
An accessible active volcano that lets visitors peer directly into its glowing crater, and a centuries-old ritual of diving from towering wooden platforms with only vines to break the fall — the likely origin of modern bungee jumping
By Worldlore Editorial · 10 September 2026
An archipelago of active volcanoes and living tradition
Vanuatu, an archipelago of over 80 islands in the South Pacific, holds one of the most accessible active volcanoes on earth alongside an extraordinary diversity of Indigenous ni-Vanuatu languages and traditions — more languages per capita than almost anywhere else in the world. Its custom (kastom) practices, including a centuries-old ritual widely credited as the origin of modern bungee jumping, remain living traditions rather than museum pieces.
The five below run from the volcanic island of Tanna to Pentecost Island and the capital, Efate. The dry season (roughly April to October) is generally the most comfortable time to visit.
1. Mount Yasur
Mount Yasur, on Tanna Island, is one of the most accessible active volcanoes in the world, with a road leading almost to the crater rim and a short walk from there to a viewing platform that lets visitors watch its regular eruptions of glowing lava at remarkably close range — an experience with few equivalents anywhere else on earth given how safely and directly it can be observed.
2. Pentecost Island land diving
Pentecost Island's land-diving ritual (Naghol), performed each spring as part of a yam harvest ceremony, sees men dive headfirst from wooden towers up to 30 metres tall with only vines tied to their ankles to arrest the fall — a practice widely credited as the direct ancestor of modern bungee jumping, and one still performed as genuine custom rather than purely for visitors, though tourists are welcomed to observe.
3. Champagne Beach, Espiritu Santo
Champagne Beach, on the northern coast of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu's largest island, takes its name from the fine white sand that fizzes underfoot in the shallows. A wide curve of powder sand meeting clear turquoise water beneath forested headlands, it is consistently rated one of the best beaches in the South Pacific.
Espiritu Santo is also the base for wreck-diving the SS President Coolidge, a WWII troopship sunk just offshore and one of the most accessible large wreck dives anywhere in the world.
4. Port Vila
Port Vila, Vanuatu's capital on the island of Efate, serves as the country's main gateway and commercial hub, its lively produce market reflecting the strong agricultural traditions that remain central to ni-Vanuatu daily life alongside a growing tourism sector.
5. The Blue Lagoon
The Blue Lagoon, a short drive from Port Vila on Efate, offers a vividly coloured freshwater swimming spot with rope swings and calm, clear water — one of the easiest and most popular day-trip destinations for visitors based in the capital, and a gentler contrast to the volcanic drama found further afield on Tanna.
Vanuatu suits a trip combining Port Vila and Efate's easy day trips with a few days on Tanna for Mount Yasur, and, for those visiting in the right season, an excursion to Pentecost Island to witness the land-diving ceremony.