For couples seeking a honeymoon that blends barefoot luxury with genuine tranquillity, Ratua Private Island Resort delivers an experience unlike anywhere else in the South Pacific. Set on its own private island in Vanuatu, this intimate retreat offers a rare combination of privacy, natural beauty and thoughtful hospitality. Our Honeymoons expert, Lisa Perkovic takes us inside a stay that proves sometimes the most unforgettable escapes are the ones furthest from the crowds. A huge thank you to Lisa and the Ratua Private Island Resort for sharing all the gorgeous photographs! Goodbye Winter blues, we’re off to Vanuatu Dottis! 

Tropical holidays typically start with the gift of a shell necklace, or a drink with an umbrella but in this case, Vanuatu added a  tropical deluge for effect. Let’s take a step back.

After the short 40 minute flight from Vanuatu’s main island Efate, we landed on Santo Island in bright sunlight. We’re enroute to Ratua Private Island via the resort’s speed boat when the skies open up. The clouds roll in fast. When they catch us we’re drenched in minutes. But we’re still smiling. The thrill of racing the rain, the smell of dense jungle drifting across the water, the warm wind whipping our hair – it’s a rush to be somewhere new and exciting, and a little bit wild.

Photography: Ratua Island Resort 

The rain lifts just as we veer around the headland. We catch our first glimpse of Ratua Island right as the sun comes out. It’s tiny in the scheme of things, dotted with coconut palms from an old coconut plantation, but as we discover after five nights, it’s the perfect size for our kind of paradise.

Photography: Ratua Island Resort 

As the name suggests, the resort has the entire island to itself. This private hideaway has villas for just 32 guests, quiet and peaceful in a way you won’t find at island resorts in nearby Fiji.

Our official greeting to Ratua starts at the jetty, where we’re serenaded by an acoustic guitar. Fresh coconuts are waiting too. Before we’ve finished our drinks, we’re whisked down the garden path to our villa. The dark wood of a 200 year old Indonesian home appears through the palm trees. Ratua’s original owner selected these ornate antique homes, which arrived via shipping container and were painstakingly put back together. Each villa is named after an animal. There’s Crocodile, Tiger, Deer… and they’re as individual as the animals they’re named after.

We’re in Cobra, where mosquito nets hang from high ceilings to drape down over a four poster bed. Chunky wooden doors open straight to the ocean. A stone path studded down to two lounge chairs and a hidden private beach is straight out of a romance novel. Our bathroom is another home, connected by a short covered wooden terrace. Its eaves are carved in intricate designs, paired with hewn concrete sinks and copper taps. Add in dramatic black and white photographs, antique side boards and mismatched chairs, and it’s like stepping back in time, albeit a highly styled, ultra chic, past.

Photography: Ratua Island Resort 

Inside our room, there’s no glass or screens in the windows. With the shutters pulled tight we’re in deep darkness, bliss if you’re a light sleeper. We prefer to keep the doors and windows open, for the breeze, the smell of the sea and to just lie back in bed and enjoy the view.

Our days take on a slow rhythm, matching the energy of the island. Nothing is hurried, no schedule is fixed. We start the days with fresh pastries and fruit plates the colour of the rainbow, before hearty omelettes filled with vegetables from the garden. Some days we skip breakfast for an early morning snorkel, swimming straight off our beach into the warm water, returning to find our croissants still waiting for us.

Photography: Ratua Island Resort 

Meals are in an open-air pavilion, home to the restaurant, the bar, and a lounge area filled with low slung chairs, an eclectic mix of wooden sculptures, shell necklaces, books, yoga mats, bean bags and fans. It’s laidback luxury all the way.

Steps away is the pristine white sand and a calm lagoon. The water is so clear we watch black and white striped fish zip in and out of their coral homes even while we’re walking along the sand. The island’s reef is unmatched from what I’ve experienced anywhere else, and that’s just what’s right off the beach. One morning we hop on into a bright green banana boat with the island’s skipper and head around the corner from the villas. We jump off the boat to snorkel over a patch of reef that certainly gives the Maldives a run for its money. Even better, there’s no  one around. In this small pocket off Santo there’s little boat traffic, and no day visitors, just a handful of Australian guests who, like us, seem to be wondering how they lucked into such a spot.

Photography: Ratua Island Resort 

We feel even luckier one sunset, when we’re handed the keys to the overwater spa for the evening. A deep bath made from a hollowed out tree trunk is filled with bubbles, there’s a bottle of bubbles chilling off to the side, and it’s just us, the sunset and the occasional fish we spot jumping up from the reef below.

A sunset bath is certainly our speed, but just as special is a bright morning spent riding horses bareback down to the beach. For us non-riders, it’s a white-knuckled experience as the horses make their way onto the sand, but soon we’re lifted up by the warm waters of the lagoon as the horses start their daily swim. We hold onto their manes and are pulled along for the ride. It’s a rush to do something so wild and slightly out of my comfort zone, and I feel we’ve earned our mimosas as we head back onto the sand.

Experiences like this really do sum up Ratua. We bask in the thrill of spotting turtles and eels out on the reef, just as much as dozing in the late afternoon sun ashore with a fresh coconut. Meals out under the stars, with a chilled South Australian red wine, offer us a taste of the island, with vegetables from the garden and Vanuatu beef on the menu. And then there’s the staff. They’re as close as a family and go out of their way to ensure we feel like we’re at home too.

Photography: Ratua Island Resort 

With the luxury a private island offers and the wild beauty of this part of the world, there’s no way a honeymoon at Ratua isn’t all kinds of wonderful.

About Lisa Perkovic: Lisa Perkovic has spent the past decade travelling the world writing for Australia’s leading newspapers, magazines, and blogs about all things travel. Her own honeymoon was her pièce de résistance – an epic journey to the Maldives and South Africa. Now she loves nothing more than sharing destinations and tips to help other newlyweds work out how to have the honeymoon of their dreams.