20 Best Tourist Attractions to Visit in Tonga
Here is a list of the 20 Best Tourist Attractions in Tonga
1. The Ha’amonga ‘a Maui Trilithon
The South Pacific’s parallel of Stonehenge, the Ha’amonga ‘a Maui (Maui’s Burden) Trilithon close to Niutoua, is one of past Polynesia’s most fascinating memorials and one of the best Tourist Attractions in Tonga. Archaeologists and hearsay accredit its establishment to Tu’itatui, the 11th Tu’i Tonga. Others tell it was constructed by old Chinese travelers. Either way, the construction made up of three big coralline stones, each stone’s weight is nearly 40 tones, ordered into a trilithon gate. Mortised junctions confirm the top stone won’t drop off, as per Stonehenge! A strolling trail serpentines northward past some langi(graves; familiar as the Langi Heketa), incorporating ‘Esi Makafakinanga.
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2. Talamahu Market
If you want to find the truth of Nuku’alofa, you have to stroll through the passages at Talamahu, Tonga’s key fresh-produce center. You’ll see vegetables and other goods heaped into handmade baskets, piles of bananas, colorful piles of fruit and several cooked-food stands – plus excellent (and inexpensive) Tongan arts and crafts. The total spot murmurs with chat and commerce, specifically on Saturday mornings.
3. St Joseph’s Cathedral
A sight of colonial devotion above Port of Refuge, St Joe’s is Neiafu’s describing piece of architecture and one of the best tourist attractions in Tonga. Inside, the hyper-colored crucifixion site beyond the altar is something to see. The extension of Fatafehi Rd beneath the cathedral is named Hala Lupe (Way of Doves), entitled for the melancholic singing of the feminine inmates (declared adulterers) who established it.
4. Mapu’a ‘a Vaea Blowholes
On an exceptionally fine day at Mapu’a ‘a Vaea (Chief’s Whistles), hundreds of blowholes squirt towards the sky suddenly. Time your trip for a breezy day with a mighty overflow, when the foam, enforced up through corroded holes in the coralline limestone, spurts 30m into the air. The blowhole-puzzled rocks extend for 5km along the south shore, close the village of Houma. This wonderful phenomena make this place a wonderful tourist attraction in Tonga.
5. Ha’atafu Beach
On the west side of the island, Ha’atafu Beach is a sandy portion defended by a reef, where several of Tonga’s finest surf peels in (skilled surfers just require to apply). There are shielded swimming and snorkeling at high tide in the wide lagoon. If your timing is perfect (June to November), you can someday observe whales skipping in the distance of the reef.
6. Hafangalupe Archway
Close to nowhere specific is this magnificent arch, also known as ‘the pigeon’s doorway’ – a virgin land span over the striking Pacific waves, created when the ceiling of a sea tunnel fell down. Stroll across the top and look into the hole, then stare west along the rugged shore. No barriers – mind your step.
7. Mu’a
The Mu’a region holds Tonga’s wealthiest concentration of archaeological remains and it’s one of the best tourist attractions in Tonga. In AD 1200, Tu’itatui, the 11th of the Tu’i Tonga rulers, transferred the regal epicenter from Heketa (close to modern Niutoua) to Mu’a. There are 28 regal stone graves (langi) in the region, made with huge limestone blocks. The most reachable of these are two huge former graveyards off the dirt street towards the sea, right north of the Catholic Church. The construction nearest to the main street is the Paepae ‘o Tele’a (Stage of Tele’a), a pyramid-like stone monument. Tele’a was a Tu’i Tonga who ruled during the 16th century. The other, the Langi Namoala, has a nice instance of a fonualoto (cellar for a cadaver) on top.
8. Hihifo’s Archaeological Sites
The neighboring residential region south of Pangai, Hihifo, conceals several archaeological remains apparently of more attraction to rooting pigs than anyone else. Concealed beyond a low wire barrier in a copse of Ironwood on Loto Kolo Rd is Olovehi Tomb, the graveyard for people bearing the aristocratic designation of Tuita. Rotate east at the Free Wesleyan Church on Holopeka Rd to see the circular Velata Mound Fortress, a 15th-century ditch-and-ridge palisade, the classic of Tonga, Fiji and Samoa.
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9. Fafa
Honeymoon couples, ignite your engines! Overlooking onto a glorious beach, Fafá Island Resort is the most graceful on Tongatapu’s off coast islands and one of the best tourist attractions in Tonga. It makes a wonderful day tour from Nuku’alofa too. Day-tour boats to Fafá leave Faua Jetty at 11 am and come back at 4.30pm every day. The resort’s conventional-style fale are ideal in their plainness, with timber-shingle ceilings and fences of knitted palm leaves.
10. Vavau
Vavaʻu is the island group of one big island and 40 tinier ones in Tonga. It is portion of Vavaʻu District which incorporates some other separate islands. According to convention the Maui god cast up both Tongatapu and Vavaʻu but put a bit more attempt into the previous. Vavaʻu mounts 204 meters above sea level at Mount Talau. The epicenter is Neiafu, which is the fifth biggest town in Tonga, located at the Port of Refuge.
11. Royal Palace, Tonga
The regal residence of the Kingdom of Tonga is situated in the northwest of the epicenter, Nukuʻalofa, near the Pacific Ocean. The timbered Palace, which was established in 1867, is the official home of the King of Tonga. Although the Palace is not accessible to the general people, it is effortlessly noticeable from the waterfront.
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12. Free Church of Tonga
This church of Tonga is a spiritual name in Tonga. The church was founded in 1885 by King George Tupou I and Rev. Shirley Waldemar Baker with its objective being free from Methodism in Australia, with Tonga having its own authority over belongings and goods.
13. Pangaimotu
A little island in the Tongatapu category of Tonga, Pangaimotu sits close to the epicenter Nukuʻalofa. It is accessible by a 10-minute boat tour from Nukuʻalofa. Alongside the beaches, a highlight of the island’s draw is wreckage leaping from the framework of the upside-down ship 50 meters away from the island’s principal beach.
14. Tongatapu
It is the key island of Tonga, a Polynesian archipelago. The Tongan epicenter town, Nuku‘alofa, on the north shore, is the abode to the waterfront Royal Palace. Indoor and outdoor counters at the Talamahu Market vend tropical vegetables and other goods as well as native arts and crafts. In the east of the island is the old epicenter Mu’a, today an archaeological place with centuries-old, pyramid-like regal graves and interment mounds. Tongatapu is familiar for its beaches, specifically on the northwest and southeast shores. These incorporate Ha’atafu Beach, on the northwestern end, beloved for surfing and snorkeling. South of this place, at the Mapu ‘a Vaea blowholes, water squirts into the air from naturally happening rock emergences. Humpback whale–observing boat tours go to the island of ‘Eua, to the southeast.
15. Haʻapai
It’s a cluster of islands, islets, ridges, and a group of fishes with a region of 109.30 square kilometers in the central portion of the Kingdom of Tonga, with the Tongatapu category to the south and the Vavaʻu category to the north. Seventeen of the Haʻapai islands are inhabited with total 6,616 people. Its loftiest point is Kao at nearly 1,050 meters. Pangai is the governmental epicenter village of the Haʻapai Group and is situated on Lifuka.
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16. Neiafu
The second-biggest city in Tonga, Neiafu has a community of about 6,000 people. It is located beside the Port of Refuge, a deep-water port on the south shore of Vavaʻu, the principal island of the Vavaʻu archipelago in northern Tonga. To the north-west stands the 131m elevated Mt. Talau with its unique flat peak. Neiafu is the government hub of the Vavaʻu group and has administrative offices, banks, schools, a police camp, and a hospital. It is also a significant hub for tourism with plenty of yachts harboring in the Port of Refuge.
17. Eua
It is a tinier but even now a main island in the kingdom of Tonga. It is near Tongatapu, but has a different governmental division. It has a region of 87.44 km², and a community of 5,016 people (in 2011).
18. Foa
A little island in Tonga, Foa is situated within the Haʻapai cluster in the middle of the country, to northeast of the national epicenter of Nukuʻalofa. Foa is connected to nearby Lifuka Island by a track, and is situated 640 metres northeast of Lifuka. The island has a regionof 13.39 km² and has a community of 1,434 people (in 1996). The number reached to 1,485 in 2006.
19. Kanokupolu
Kanokupoli interpreting: the flesh of ʻUpolu, is a tiny village in the western region of Tongatapu. It is significant, however, in the history of Tonga as being the emerging place of the Tuʻi Kanokupolu ancestry, to which the present ruler of Tonga still trailing his succession. The inhabitants of Kanokupolu are the sole ones permitted to dress in a specific lakalaka outfit, named the folaʻosi, when they stage this dance.
20. Kolovai
A village on the Tongan island of Tongatapu, Kolovai has a community of 4,098 people. The village is important for its lakalaka, the traditional dance of Tonga. A national memorial has been suggested to conserve the place of the koka tree where members of the Tu’i Kanokupolu ancestry accepted investiture. It is the abode to a big dominion of Pacific Flying Foxes, a type of fruit bat.