While YPT usually celebrate New Year in Nauru, among other places this year we decided to try out Tuvalu, so how is New Year in Tuvalu? Well one might say surreal to say the least…..
No more New Year in Nauru?
Pre-covid our old Least Visited Country Tour always saw in New Year in Nauru, a weird escapade on the least visited country on earth which would lead to dinner, drinks and well jumping fully clothes into a swimming pool.
We enjoyed this and it became a tradition, but Tuvalu was our favourite place, and timing leant towards us instead moving new year to Funafuti, the capital atoll of Tuvalu that at the time at last had two functioning bars….
Could this beat the Nauru pub crawl of YPT fame, or even Christmas in Tarawa? We were to find out.
New Year in Tuvalu
On the day of the event, December 31st in case you were wondering we headed to a “city tour”, before preparing for New Year mostly to be held at the Funafuti Lagoon Hotel, THE place in capital.
They had a bar and big area for us to party, with the group not only topping up on duty frees, but the bar also providing Vodka Cruisers and some weird 16.7% beer that had been made in China.
The bar stayed open until 10, after which we git down with the supplies that we had. At midnight, as you will see from the video we did a classic count, which included Champagne.
Clubbing in Tuvalu
Tuvalu is very religious, which means that Sunday is holy. After midnight though is less so,. So while 12 am- 1 am was deemed and hour of prayer, the “Club” opened at 1 am.
I went delve into the name of the best bar in Funafuti for fear it will end up on another companies itinerary within a day, but suffice to say it was extremely good. There was a public area, a VIP area and lots of locals to intermingle with.
Overall very YPT, with some staying until 2, while others were there until 5 am.
Regardless we still got up on January 1st for some of the most epic island hopping in the world.
Overall New Year in Tuvalu was a great success, and as things stand will remain part of the 2024 Least Visited Countries Tour.