Things to Do in Nauru

About Nauru

The smell arrives first. Hot salt air laced with diesel from aging fishing boats that rock against the single concrete wharf in Aiwo District. Nauru offers no gentle welcome. The airport runway doubles as the main coastal highway, so your opening minutes on the island are spent sharing tarmac with forklifts unloading supplies from a twice-weekly flight that costs AU$1,200 ($800 USD) from Brisbane.

From the tiny terminal you confront the island's central scar: a lunar landscape of coral pinnacles where phosphate mining stripped the interior bare. Only the narrow coastal belt remains, where 10,000 Nauruans live between the rusting cantilevers of the phosphate conveyor belt at Aiwo and the concrete blocks of the Menen Hotel on Anibare Bay's white crescent.

The heat wraps around you like a blanket, 32°C (90°F) most days, with humidity that fogs your sunglasses the moment you step outside. One main road circles the island for 19 kilometers. It passes Buada Lagoon's murky green water where kids still fish for tilapia. It passes the abandoned phosphate processing plant at Topside where the conveyor belt sags like a broken backbone.

It passes the single Chinese restaurant in Denigomodu where a plate of fried rice costs AU$8 ($5.30 USD) and they close when the generator runs out of fuel. Power cuts last three days here. The internet arrives via satellite and costs AU$50 for 2GB. The president's house is a modest bungalow with peeling paint. Yet this is also where you'll find the clearest water in the Pacific.

Locals offer fresh coconut from trees planted by their grandparents. The sunset over Anibare Bay turns the sky the color of papaya flesh. Nauru isn't easy. Easy isn't the point.

Travel Tips

Transportation: No public transport exists. Just a 19-kilometer ring road that takes 25 minutes to drive around. Rental cars run AU$60 ($40 USD) per day from Capelle & Partner in Aiwo. Most visitors negotiate rides with locals for AU$5-10 ($3-7 USD) per trip. The island's one taxi, a white Toyota Camry, belongs to Menen Hotel and charges AU$2 ($1.30 USD) anywhere on the ring road. Walking works, everything's within 5 kilometers. But bring water. The heat will melt your shoes.

Money: Australian dollars only. No ATMs, no card facilities, no exceptions. Bring cash from Brisbane or Nadi. The Bank of Nauru in Aiwo District opens three days a week and might have AU$500 in the drawer. Hotels and the single restaurant take cards with a 5% surcharge, but the generator powering the card machine fails. Always carry AU$50 ($33 USD) in small bills. The corner store can't break AU$100 notes.

Cultural Respect: Sunday is church day. Everything except the Menen Hotel closes for hymns that echo across Anibare Bay. Ask before photographing phosphate ruins; they're family graves now. When offered coconut, drink it all. Leaving any feels wasteful in a place where everything arrives by ship. The elderly prefer 'Miss' or 'Mister' over first names. 'Tank yu' instead of 'thank you' shows you listened to the accent.

Food Safety: Eat where locals eat. The Chinese restaurant in Denigomodu and the fish fry at Anibare Bay serve reef fish caught that morning for AU$12 ($8 USD). Street stalls appear randomly under breadfruit trees. A plate of rice and curry costs AU$5 ($3.30 USD) and tastes better than the hotel's AU$25 buffet. Stick to bottled water (AU$3/$2 USD at any store). Peel your own fruit, the soil's phosphate residue lingers.

When to Visit

March through October gives you the dry season. Temperatures hover at 30-31°C (86-88°F) with low humidity and almost no rain. This is when Nauru's beaches work. Anibare Bay's turquoise water stays clear instead of murky from runoff. The coral heads off the phosphate loading dock are visible 20 feet down. Hotel prices drop 30% from June to August when Australian mining executives aren't flying in.

The Menen Hotel costs AU$120 ($80 USD) instead of AU$180. Flights from Brisbane cost AU$800 ($530 USD) return during these months versus AU$1,400 in December. November starts the wet season. Temperatures spike to 34°C (93°F) with afternoon storms that flood the ring road in minutes. December through February is brutal: 35°C (95°F) with 90% humidity.

Daily downpours turn the phosphate dust into ankle-deep mud. Flights get cancelled when cyclones track north. But this is also when you'll have Anibare Bay to yourself. Locals invite you to Sunday feasts because tourists are rare. The reef fish are fattest and the breadfruit sweetest. The Constitution Day celebrations on January 31st feature traditional dancing that hasn't changed in fifty years.

Come in March or September. You'll miss the worst heat, catch the best water clarity, and pay mid-range prices that feel reasonable for a country this remote.