Port Vila runs on vatu you barely need to spend: market mamas serve full plates for 300 VT, minibuses cost 150 VT anywhere in town, and the lagoons, seawalls and lookouts are free. Three days built around kaikai stalls, kava shells and island ferries.
Vanuatu's national assembly ground opposite Parliament, where the independence flag was first raised in 1980. Open lawns, banyan shade and pick-up football most afternoons; the Chiefs' Nakamal sits on the northern edge.
The Vanuatu Cultural Centre museum holds slit gongs, Malakula rambaramp funerary figures and Lapita pottery shards. Open Mon-Fri 09:00-16:30 and Saturday to 12:00, with sand drawing, a UNESCO-listed art, demonstrated on request.
A quiet town-side bay north of the centre with a concrete seawall, shade trees and calm water over a small coral shelf. Local families swim here in the late afternoon and there is no gate, kiosk or hire stand of any kind.
The 24-hour ferry from the wharf beside the seafront crosses to Iririki in three minutes and costs nothing if you buy a drink on the island. The 1 km shoreline path loops back to views over Vila Bay at dusk.
The rear and upstairs kaikai stalls sell island cabbage, laplap, rice with reef fish and taro plates cooked by mamas from Efate villages. The market trades continuously from Monday 05:00 until Saturday afternoon, then closes.
Under the green roof on the seafront, sellers from Ambrym, Pentecost and Malakula trade tamtam carvings, pandanus mats and shell jewellery. Prices are stated once and mild bargaining is only accepted late in the trading day.
A residential-suburb market 3 km inland where locals shop and tourists rarely appear: bundled kumala, island cabbage, papaya, peanuts and pamplemousse sold in stacked heaps. Bring small notes, as no stall takes cards.
A single-bulb kava bar serving fresh-pounded Tanna kava by the shell from about 17:30 until the roots run out. Etiquette is fixed: drink the shell outside in one go, spit, then keep your voice down and the lights off your face.
Vanuatu's longest white-sand strip fronts Mele village, 8 km from town on any minibus marked for Mele. Access at the village end is free and ungated, with shallow reef flats, coconut shade and no resort wristbands required.
The ring-road climb above Mele Bay opens onto a roadside pull-off looking across Hideaway Island, the Mele reef and Efate's west coast. Ask a minibus to drop you at the crest and walk the shaded descent back down.
A small ferry crosses Erakor Lagoon on demand — ring the bell at the jetty at the end of Erakor Road and it comes over. The island's white-sand loop takes 25 minutes and the mangrove-fringed water stays flat all day.
The headland south of Erakor Lagoon ends in low cliffs above the reef pass, with surfers working the break below and an uninterrupted western horizon. Minibuses run as far as Pango village; the last stretch is a 15-minute walk.