Bilikiki Liveaboard
I went on a 10-day trip on the Bilikiki followed by a 7-day trip. Both trips were absolutely fantastic, and I would LOVE to return to the Solomon Islands on the Bilikiki. I'll start with the diving. The overall theme is incredible diversity of diving. There's a little bit of everything...wall dives and beautiful reefs, muck dives, shark dives, drift dives, and even wrecks. As such, there are endless photography opportunities. For the macro enthusiast, we saw tons of critters: lots of nudibranchs, multiple species of pygmy seahorses, larger seahorses, ornate ghost pipefish, ghost pipefish, cuttlefish, octopus, blennies, shrimp, mandarinfish...and the list goes on.
Amazingly, there were equally as many wide angle opportunities: huge schools of jacks and barracuda at Mary's Island, great visibility at multiple dive spots, manta rays, turtles, sharks, caves, and beautiful coral reefs. Oftentimes you will encounter multiple macro and wide-angle opportunities at the same dive site, so be prepared to choose your lens carefully.
Diving is sometimes done directly off the Bilikiki and sometimes from smaller boats that transport divers to/from the Bilikiki. Dive times are unlimited, and the dive platform of the Bilikiki makes your life very easy. The setup for photographers is nice as well with great care taken for photography equipment.
The next perk of the Bilikiki was the incredible crew. They were absolutely spectacular. Friendly, knowledgeable, and doing whatever it took to make passengers happy. The crew was truly a highlight of the trip.
The food was great as well. As context, I eat a LOT, and I was very happy with the food on the Bilikiki...great meals and lots of snacks in between meals.
I am absolutely thrilled with my Bilikiki experience and would love to return. My only frustration with the experience is the difficulty in getting there from the United States. We flew from LA to Fiji to Vanuatu to Honiara, and then we had to wait two days to board the Bilikiki. The reason for this wait was not due to any issues with the Bilikiki, but because this was the last flight available that got us to Honiara prior to embarking on the Bilikiki. I know this wasn't the case for all trips on the Bilikiki, but it was the case for mine.
Granted, I was there in 2008, so hopefully this is no longer an issue. And as I said, the overall experience was absolutely fantastic. I highly recommend the Bilikiki and the Solomon Islands.
