Tuvalu Travel Guide: Funafuti, Flights, Costs and Fekei

✈️ How to Get to Tuvalu

There is only one airline flying to Tuvalu: Fiji Airways. They essentially have a monopoly on the route, which means flights are usually extremely expensive for such a short distance. I personally paid around €900 for a return ticket.

The logistics are also surprisingly complicated. Most international travelers first arrive in Nadi, Fiji's main international airport. But flights to Tuvalu do not leave from there. Instead, you have to get to Suva, Fiji's capital, and fly onward from there to Funafuti, the capital of Tuvalu.

And yes, the airport code for Funafuti is literally FUN. After 180 countries, I finally arrived somewhere with the airport code FUN, which honestly felt pretty fitting.

Even once you have a confirmed ticket, nothing is guaranteed. Several travelers had warned me beforehand that people occasionally get bumped off flights due to weight restrictions on the aircraft. Since Tuvalu imports a huge amount of supplies through these small planes, cargo sometimes takes priority. That means even passengers with proper bookings can end up stranded in Fiji for several extra days waiting for the next available flight.

Simply reaching Tuvalu already feels like a mission. But once you finally land there, everything suddenly becomes incredibly simple.

🛫 The Funafuti Airport Runway

You can literally walk from the airport runway directly to your accommodation within minutes. In fact, the runway itself becomes one of the island's main public gathering places whenever there are no flights.

Since planes only arrive a few times per week, locals use the airport area as a social hub. In the evenings, people gather there to play sports, hang out with friends, walk around, and spend time together. It is probably one of the only places in the world where an international airport casually turns into a community park every evening of the week.

That first evening became one of my favorite memories from Tuvalu. I spent hours hanging out with locals on the airport runway while the sun slowly disappeared over the Pacific. Kids were playing sports, families were walking around, and people were simply enjoying the evening together in what is technically an active international airport.

At one point, one of the local kids suddenly recognized me from my travel videos online, which completely surprised me considering how remote Tuvalu is. After traveling to 180 countries, moments like that still feel surreal.

🥥 Trying Fekei in Tuvalu

The experience that truly made Tuvalu unforgettable happened the next day. One of my main goals on the island was surprisingly simple: I wanted to try fekei, a traditional Tuvaluan dish that you can pretty much only find in Tuvalu.

As someone who loves trying local food everywhere I travel, I became weirdly determined to find it. The problem was that nobody seemed to have it. I asked at basically every restaurant and small food place I could find around Funafuti, but nobody served fekei.

After a while I realized why: on islands like Tuvalu, many traditional foods are not really “restaurant food.” They are mostly prepared at home or for special occasions and ceremonies. So I started asking random people on the street: “Do you know where I can try fekei?”

👑 Sitting With the Chiefs

The ceremony took place inside one of the main community halls in Funafuti and lasted around three hours. Everything was conducted entirely in Tuvaluan. As somebody deeply interested in languages and linguistics, it was fascinating just sitting there listening to speeches, folk songs, conversations, and stories in a language I had never heard spoken extensively before. I did not understand a single word, but the atmosphere itself communicated so much.

In the very beginning of the event, one of the traditional chiefs came up to me. I got a little nervous. But instead of questioning why I was there, he invited me to come forward and sit next to him at one of the pillars in the hall's center.

Apparently, according to the local customs, that effectively made me one of the highest-ranking people in the room for the evening. People later joked that I had basically become part of the chiefs for one night.

It honestly felt very awkward at first because I absolutely did not want to disrespect local traditions, but everyone kept insisting that if the chief invited me to sit there, then accepting it was the respectful thing to do. And with that position apparently came privileges. When the enormous buffet opened, I was allowed to eat almost immediately after the leading chiefs.

Finally, after searching all over Tuvalu for it, I got to try fekei. It was absolutely worth the search.

The food overall was also surprisingly vegetarian- and vegan-friendly, which I had not necessarily expected before arriving in Tuvalu. Fekei itself is vegan by default, which made me even happier.

🛵 Driving Around the Island

The rest of my time in Tuvalu was spent doing something very simple: driving around the island endlessly on my scooter.

From one end of Funafuti to the other only takes around 26 minutes. I probably did that drive four or five times during my stay. Because honestly, what else do you do in Tuvalu? You explore. You slow down. You talk to people. You enjoy the atmosphere.

There is something fascinating about how isolated Tuvalu feels while still being so connected socially. Everybody seems to know each other. People wave at you constantly as you pass by. Children play outside everywhere, and there is a calmness to daily life that feels very different from most countries.