Located 1,000km north of Fiji in the west-central Pacific Ocean just below the equator, this remote country isn’t the easiest of places to get to.
Indeed, there are no direct international flights to Tuvalu, and there are only three flights a week running from the island chain to and from Fiji, with a round trip costing $700.
Given it’s a remote, hard-to-reach location, the United Nations World Tourism Organization revealed Tuvalu as the least-visited country for 2023 with just 3,700 tourists landing on its shores per year.
In terms of area, the archipelago – which consists of four reef islands and five coral atolls – measures about 10 square miles, making it the fourth smallest country in the world and 0.8 times the size of Manhattan. As for its population, there are about 11,900 inhabitants.
There are no direct international flights to Tuvalu and there are only three flights a week running from the island chain to and from Fiji
Given it’s a remote, hard-to-reach location, the United Nations World Tourism Organization revealed Tuvalu as the least-visited country for 2023
A handful of TikTok videos take viewers on a tour of the main island, which has a palm tree-strewn interior framed by white sand and coral beaches
TikTok creators Jordan and Chloe visited a restaurant in Tuvalu called ‘Fast Food Restaurant’ and they got a large plate of chicken chop suey for about $3
Tuvalu is located 1,000km north of Fiji in the west-central Pacific Ocean just below the equator
As it requires a bit of time and money to get to Tuvalu, it tends to attract the more adventurous tourist and some have shared their insights of the place on social media.
A handful of TikTok videos take viewers on a tour of the main island, which has a palm tree-strewn interior framed by white sand and coral beaches.
TikTok duo Jordan and Chloe, who use the handle @countingcountries, decided to check out the island in 2022.
Jordan explains in a clip that ‘there are only a few hotel options in Tuvalu’ and they opted to stay in one right outside the airport.
He explained that their en-suite room, which cost $120 a night, was ‘nothing fancy,’ but it had all the basic amenities and ‘most importantly air conditioning.’
Indeed, Tuvalu is balmy all year around, with the average nightly temperature being about 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and 89 degrees Fahrenheit during the day.
While staying on the main island of Fongafale on the Funafuti atoll, Jordan and Chloe used a motorcycle to get around.
As Fongafale is just 7.5 miles long, the couple said it took them just 20 minutes to get from one end to the other on the only paved road, despite taking it slow.
The airport runway in Tuvalu doubles as a soccer field. Jordan highlights that since there are only two flights in a week, you don’t have to worry about planes landing
Dutch travel blogger Tom Grond visited the country earlier this year
In his TikToks, he can be seen checking into one of the few hotels, hitchhiking with locals and visiting the bank for cash as there are no ATMs in the country
While they were biking around the island, Jordan and Chloe found the food options were ‘limited,’ but they decided to dip into one spot called ‘Fast Food Restaurant.’
They ended up with a large plate of chicken chop suey which came in about $3 and they said it ‘ended up being amazing.’
The world’s least-visited countries, according to the UN
1. Tuvalu: Annual visitors 3,700
2. Marshall Islands: Annual visitors 6,100
3. Niue: Annual visitors 10,200
4. Kiribati: Annual visitors 12,000
5. Micronesia: Annual visitors 18,000
6. Montserrat: Annual visitors 19,300
7. Solomon Islands: Annual visitors 29,000
8. São Tomé and Príncipe: Annual visitors 34,900
9. Comoros: Annual visitors 45,000
10. Guinea-Bissau: Annual visitors 52,000
Source: United Nations World Tourism Organization
Along with few restaurants and hotels, the video reveals another unique feature of the country: that the airport runway doubles as a soccer field.
Jordan highlights that since there are only two flights in a week, you don’t have to worry about planes landing.
When they visited the makeshift sports pitch, the couple said they got ‘invited to kick the ball around and even got challenged to a game of tag’ by the local children.
Summing up their trip to the remote archipelago, the travelers said: ‘Even though Tuvalu isn’t structured for tourism, we found this to be one of the most memorable trips that we’ve been on.’
Other travelers have had similar positive experiences touring Tuvalu.
Dutch travel blogger Tom Grond visited the country earlier this year.
In his TikToks, he can be seen checking into one of the few hotels, hitchhiking with locals and visiting the bank for cash as there are no ATMs in the country.
In one clip, he also gives viewers a tour of the supermarket, which is restocked once a month as all of the supplies are shipped in and nothing is produced from within the country.
Some of the items he finds in the store include frozen crab, frozen chicken legs unwrapped in a chest freezer, preserved figs and ‘lots of canned food.’
In another TikTok uploaded by @dtrzrl, one male traveler said he had been on Tuvalu’s main island for about four hours and hadn’t seen another tourist.
For lunch he popped into a local restaurant where he ordered half a chicken and chips, and the waitress seemed very surprised to learn he was a tourist.
In another TikTok uploaded by @dtrzrl, one male traveler said he had been on Tuvalu’s main island for about four hours and hadn’t seen another tourist
For lunch he popped into a local restaurant where he ordered half a chicken and chips, and the waitress seemed very surprised to learn he was a tourist
Later, he ran into a man who was half Australian and half Tuvaluan, and he was invited into the man’s family home.
There he learned how most Tuvaluans sleep on woven mats on the floor and not on mattresses.
A local woman explains in the clip that nine people live in her house, but there are always other visitors who hang out and end up staying over.
On a more somber note, many TikToks highlight Tuvalu’s plight as it is predicted that the country could disappear in just 50 years due to climate change and rising sea levels.
In 2022, Tuvalu’s Foreign Minister Simon Kofe gave a speech to the United Nations COP26 climate summit while standing knee-deep in water where there was once land.
As the country’s highest point is four meters above sea level, any rise in the sea level means parts of some islands will be washed away, while other parts will become uninhabitable.
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