Normally, we don’t write blog posts about hotels or hotel recommendations, because we are not the fancy luxury vacation type and usually choose cheaper places without much comfort. In general, we explore the country and the people during our travels and are only at the hotel to sleep. But exceptions prove the rule, and the experience we had at Tabon Te Keekee cannot simply be summed up in two sentences. It deserves a blog post of its own.
Why Tabon Te Keekee?
In Tarawa, there is only a very small selection of hotels. Kiribati’s Ministry of Tourism has created its own website listing all available hotels. You can access it here.
Tarawa is divided into South Tarawa and North Tarawa. South Tarawa is Kiribati’s main island and this is where most of the sights are located.
North Tarawa is more remote, fewer people live there, and most islands can only be reached by boat.
You can also see this difference in the accommodation options. In South Tarawa, hotels look like normal hotels. In North Tarawa, hotels are lodges, and you sleep in buias (traditional bungalows on stilts). Some of these buias are even built over the water.
When we saw photos of the overwater buias, one thing was clear: “We want to go there!”
Where is the hotel located?
The hotel, or eco lodge, is located on the southern side of Abatao in North Tarawa, right by Sue’s Creek. That means you are far away from the overcrowded south and can fully enjoy the absolute peace and remoteness. Locals offer a ferry service in a small rowboat for 0.5 AUD per person to cross Sue’s Creek. On the other side, the road begins that takes you all the way to Betio, allowing you to explore South Tarawa. This makes the location perfect for exploring the south while still enjoying the quiet.
If you want to know what you can see in Tarawa, check this out: 15 Highlights in Tarawa (Kiribati)
How can you book the hotel?
So far everything sounds wonderful. Now comes the interesting part: how do you actually book Tabon Te Keekee?
Online booking is not possible, and the link on the official hotel list does not work. After a bit of research, you can find this page: (the broken link is probably meant to lead there).
On that page, there is a flyer with accommodation prices from 2022, an email address, and a phone number for the owner (Ms. Veronica Karea).
You can book the accommodation via that email address.
However, emails are not answered very often. We waited more than a week for a reply.
In South Tarawa, there is Café Chatterbox in Bikenibeu. Veronica works there or may even own it, we couldn’t fully figure it out, but you can also reach her through the café.
What does the hotel offer?
You can rent overwater bungalows and bungalows on land.
The bungalows are traditional and very simple. If you are looking for luxury, you are in the wrong place. There are no windows and no doors. The floor is traditionally made from woven palm leaves. In the middle of the room there is a mattress directly on the floor. Above the mattress there is a mosquito net.
On all sides there are blinds made from woven palm leaves that provide privacy.
There is light and electricity in the bungalows.
In the middle of the property there are toilets and showers.
Food
The price includes half board with breakfast and dinner.
Breakfast is very simple but good.
Dinner was always very good, but it is not a restaurant where you can choose. There is one meal and that is it. Most of the time it is fish or chicken with side dishes. The food was always delicious.
Water, tea, and coffee are always available at the lodge.
We organized lunch and a few beers ourselves in South Tarawa.
Internet
Internet is available for an extra fee, but it works very poorly. It is enough to quickly check WhatsApp, but the connection comes and goes and has very limited bandwidth.
But a few days without internet and without a phone is absolutely relaxing.
Airport transfer
And now the fun begins. In principle, an airport transfer is offered for an extra fee. However, both our arrival and departure were a complete adventure and deserve their own section.
Activities
The range of activities is limited.
Abatao
The islands Abatao and Tabiteuea can be explored on foot.
Boat trip
With a boat, you can either go towards North Tarawa or to South Tarawa to Café Chatterbox.
Swimming
The lagoon water has an unbelievably beautiful turquoise color and temperatures of 28 to 29°C. Unfortunately there are no coral reefs in the lagoon, so you won’t see that much while snorkeling.
You should only swim on the lagoon side. On the surf side facing the open ocean, there are very strong currents and high waves.
Rental car
We were able to organize a rental car through Veronica, but you have to pick it up and return it at Café Chatterbox. That means you also need a boat transfer to the café, which you also have to pay for.
If you want to learn more about driving in Tarawa, check this out: Driving in Tarawa
Getting there
Getting there was more than just interesting.
Weeks before arrival, we sent Veronica our flight times, multiple times by email, WhatsApp, and Facebook, but we never got a reply. When we landed, of course nobody was there to pick us up. Bonriki International Airport is also the smallest international airport we have ever been to, and we landed between 07:00 and 08:00 in the morning. There are no shops in the airport, only a few small stands outside where you can buy SIM cards and other things, but not at that time of day. There are also no taxis in Tarawa, so we were stranded at the airport with no plan, no transfer, and no SIM card to organize anything.
So we talked to a customs officer, who made a few phone calls, and after almost an hour someone came to pick us up.
The hotel is about 4 kilometers north of the airport. But first we drove 6 kilometers in the other direction to Café Chatterbox. At that point, we did not know that Veronica worked there.
When we arrived at the café, they told us to wait a moment, and a boat would be organized to take us to the hotel. After about an hour, they said: “We have a boat now, but nobody who can drive it, so please wait a bit longer.”
After another hour, there was still no boat in sight, and we were driven to the hotel by car, at least almost to the hotel. The road ends about 100 meters before the lodge at Sue’s Creek. Here, locals run a small ferry service with a rowboat. We crossed to the other side and finally reached the hotel around midday.
We don’t know why we weren’t simply driven to Sue’s Creek right away and then crossed the last 100 meters by boat.
If you think this was a one-off, unfortunately you are wrong. That day, two planes arrived, ours in the morning and one in the afternoon. Later that evening, an American tourist arrived at the lodge and basically told our story word for word: nobody answered emails, there was no transfer, she was taken to the café, waited for a boat that never came, and eventually ended up being driven to the lodge by car.
Abreise
Arrival was already quite an adventure, but departure was no less exciting. Our flight was again before 08:00. After our experience on arrival, we wanted to play it safe and start early, around 05:00 to 05:30, so that in the worst case we could even walk to the airport and still make it in time.
This time a boat was ready, but you have to understand that the lagoon is very shallow. Even hundreds of meters from shore, the water depth can be just a few centimeters. So we sat in the boat, one person steering, and a second person shining a phone flashlight at the seafloor, trying to navigate us through the lagoon. In the end, we probably went about 500 meters out into the lagoon, turned around, entered the waterway in Sue’s Creek, and were then dropped off on the road. This whole thing definitely took about an hour. On the other side, a car was already waiting and took us to the airport.
Again, we don’t understand why we didn’t simply walk the 100 meters through Sue’s Creek. The water is only hip deep, so carrying the suitcases would not have been a problem. But then we wouldn’t have a story to tell.
Island life
Island life, we heard that phrase a lot, from locals and tourists alike. In Kiribati, it does not only mean “life on an island”. It is a lifestyle. Stress is an unknown word. Planning is optional. Problems are handled with calmness and patience, and somehow, at some point, they will be solved. For us Europeans, that is unfamiliar and sometimes a bit strange.
Power outage
One example of island life was a power outage. On the second day we rented a car and explored South Tarawa. When we returned in the evening, there was no electricity, it had gone out sometime in the afternoon. The next day and evening there was still no power. Only in the evening did they realize that the generator had run out of diesel, and that diesel had to be brought from South Tarawa by boat. From the start of the outage until that realization, the boat would have gone to South Tarawa three times anyway. They could have just checked instead of waiting for the problem to solve itself. But that is island life.
As a tourist, you simply have to accept that not everything runs perfectly. Getting upset or stressing yourself out helps nobody.
Sunset
Because of its proximity to the Equator, sunrise and sunset happen at more or less the same time all year. Sunrise is always around 06:30 and sunset is always around 18:30.
From the lodge we saw one of the best sunsets. Together with the buias, the photos are incredible.
But even without a buia, the sunset looks absolutely amazing.
Night sky
Light pollution in Kiribati is very low. Even though more than 70,000 people live on Tarawa, most of them in South Tarawa, at night between 22:00 and 24:00 most lights go out and you get an unbelievably beautiful starry sky. Especially because there are no mountains or other elevations that block your view.
As you can see in this picture, at night there are a few scattered lights on, but they are absolutely not disturbing.
How much does the hotel cost?
We stayed at the lodge in summer 2024.
- 180 AUD per night (2 people, half board)
- 60 AUD for the airport transfer (one way)
- 40 AUD for the boat transfer to Chatterbox
Very important: you can only pay in cash and there is no ATM near the lodge.
Was it worth it?
820 AUD for four nights is not exactly cheap. But you have to put it in perspective, because tourism in Micronesia is expensive everywhere. On top of that, not everything goes to plan and luxury is an unknown concept here.
But all of it together, the adventurous arrival and departure, the location in the buias, the magical sunsets, island life, and everything else, created a dreamlike authentic experience and stories we will never forget.
That is why we think it was absolutely worth it.
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