Private fully flexible VIP tour of Tongatapu island with lunch

Convenient Meeting point! Once you disembark the ship, you will take a very short 4-minute walk to the Friends Café where we have a table booked under Tonga Travel Troupe and enjoy a complimentary large Coffee, Tea or Juice before your tour. Your knowledgeable English-speaking guide will meet you at the table and escort you to your comfortable air-conditioned van.

Captain Cook's Landing Place

We drive 30 minutes out of town until we arrive at the landing site of British Explorer Captain James Cook. A plaque is in the place where a banyan tree once stood to commemorate the occasion that took place in 1777, as well as when Queen Elizabeth II visited the landmark in 1970 Captain Cook dubbed Tonga the "Friendly Islands" because of the warm welcome he received from the locals, however he did not know they actually had a plot to kill him! This is a just quick photo stop and is an easy walk from the Van.

Ancient Royal Tombs of Lapaha

Just a short 10-minute drive to our next stop. Tonga's ancient stonework monuments are unique in the Pacific, and the largest of them the Lapaha's Paepae 'o Tele'a tombs or Terraced Tombs will be our next stop. 1000 years ago, the ancient Tongan's constructed this enormous tomb in a similar way that the Egyptians built the Pyramids. With little evidence of any mechanical tools being available at the time, the corners of the hard-coral slabs used to construct the tombs have been neatly joined, like pieces of timber! Tentatively listed with UNESCO as a World Heritage site, this is one of the most important historical sites in Polynesia. You will be able to walk right up to the sight and touch the ancient coral slabs. Please don’t walk on the top of the tomb. Your guide will get into more details about the history of the tombs and Kings buried there.