Hideaway Island, Vanuatu

W6 loving the pouring rain

Our little bungalow

Inside the bungalow - with very flattering lighting (it makes it look nicer than it really is)

A branching coral (I'd love an ID anyone - sorry I'm better with fish than coral)

Day Octopus (Octopus cyanea)

Red and Black Anemonefish (Amphiprion melanopus)

Mealtime activity pencil cases (stuffed full of new activity books, textas, invisible ink books etc.)

Zorbing - feels like an out of control water slide.  Not for the faint-hearted.  Wombat6 hated it.

W9 cracking open a coconut

W9 diving to post a letter to his best friend in the underwater post box

Sunset kayaking

Mele falls

In brief
Travel from Sydney
Fly Syd to Van (3 1/2 hrs); bus Port Vila to Mele Bay (10 mins); barge boat to Hideaway Island (5 mins).

Accommodation
Very basic bungalow with a nice view

Food
One restaurant only.  Food is pretty expensive but quite nice.

Pros
* easy to organise, can be snorkeling the same day you leave Sydney
* no stopovers
* amazing snorkeling (and diving operation)
* great rockpools

Cons
* can have a lot of day-trippers (cruise ship passengers on day trips), taking away from a remote island feel
* vibe at Hideaway was OK but not sensational - kind of lacked something
* coral beach might not be great for little kids 

Activities for kids:
* snorkeling (usually pretty easy, as you can swim along the edge of the coral reef and there are fish in the shallows)
* underwater post office (a great drawcard to get reluctant snorkelers out there)
* glass bottom boat tour (30mins) - which is OK
* rock pools and reef walks on the other side of the island at low tide
* pool (fairly small - like a large backyard swimming pool)
* zorbing for those kids who like fast 'rides' at Mele Bay (on Efate) - although it is really expensive for what it is
* walk to Mele Cascades (and climb via a rope for older kids - our 8yo did it) - about a 20 minute walk along an easy path.  Well worth climbing to the top if you can. 

Activities for adults:
* All of the above + beer and wine!
* Not great ocean swimming to be had, just because of the way the reef is shaped.  The crossing between Hideaway and Mele Bay would be a nice swim with someone or with a paddler though (looking out for boats).

Other comments
General comments
I booked this holiday for a few reasons.  First I wanted to be able to get there within the day from Sydney, as this was an 8 day jaunt.  No stopovers, no extra hotel bookings.  Second I wanted an un-resorty resort with excellent snorkeling.  Hideaway Island ticked those boxes.
We had been to Vanuatu 3 years earlier, a bit further afield - Espiritu Santo (an hour flight from Port Vila).
Vanuatu is really quite amazing.  It is staggeringly un-touristy.  Local people seem to be going about their lives, growing their own crops, managing their pigs, going to school.  The Ni-Vanuatu people are quite reserved and we felt very comfortable with this style.  No where near as 'touristed-up' as say, Fiji (although that isn't true of the outer islands in Fiji).

Mele Bay and Hideaway Island
The village at Mele Bay is directly across from Hideaway and you can walk across at low tide.  Local kids play on the beach a lot, and often walk across to the island after school, catching crabs or spear fishing (on the non-marine reserve side of the island).  Hideaway is a very basic, understated place.  There is one restaurant with pretty good food, a small pool, a coral beach (take your crocs or reef shoes) and awesome snorkeling (and diving).  The rooms are fine, with nice views, but watch for mosquitoes as there is Dengue Fever and to a lesser extent Malaria.  We asked for nets to be installed above the kids (after they were bitten) beds and burned coils (and had plug in mosquito repellers).
If you or your kids aren't into snorkeling or diving, it may not be the place for you....as that is the main attraction.  The snorkeling really is stunning - as good as I have seen on the Great Barrier Reef (although I reserve top honours for Lady Elliot Island...but that is for another post).  You do need to get out beyond both pontoons to see the really undisturbed special stuff though.  If you go right out to the white round buoy you will be rewarded with an amazing drop-off and lots of fish.

Activities
We went into Port Vila one afternoon, and it has really changed in the 3 years since we were last there.  Lots of traffic, a lot dirtier and clearly a growing population.  Locals told us that a lot of people are coming to Vila from the other islands (Tanna etc.) to find work.  It is a good way to get a feel for one aspect of Vanuatu, but if you are looking for a pretty town to visit, this isn't it.  That said, we enjoyed walking through the fruit and veg markets and met a lovely taxi driver from Tanna on our way back to Mele Bay wharf.  
Zorbing was really fun and usually needs to be organised ahead of time.  We were lucky that there was a tour group booked on the day we arrived.  You go up to a grassy hill about 10 minutes from the Beach Bar (which is right at the wharf where the boat drops you off & has excellent wood fired pizza), then basically get rolled down a hill in a huge plastic ball.  It is really fun, quite fast but really expensive (a couple of hundred dollars for the family) for 3 rides.