Port Moresby

The Kokoda Track exists in Australian national memory the way Gallipoli does, a defining, costly campaign that shaped how the country understands its own military history. In 1942, Japanese forces pushed toward Port Moresby along this exact jungle ridgeline, and Australian troops, alongside Papua New Guinean carriers who hauled supplies and evacuated wounded soldiers through terrain that defeated vehicles entirely, fought a months-long retreat-then-advance campaign that ultimately stopped the Japanese advance short of the capital.

Trekking it today means engaging with that history directly rather than reading about it at a remove. The 96-kilometer route climbs and drops repeatedly through dense jungle, river crossings, and steep, often mud-slick ridgelines, and modern trekkers carrying a fraction of a soldier's load, with licensed porters and guides required by track regulations, still typically need eight to twelve days to finish it. Memorials at villages along the way mark specific battle sites, giving the physical difficulty of the trek a direct, unavoidable historical weight.

Port Moresby itself, the necessary staging point for any Kokoda trek, carries a safety reputation that's worth addressing honestly rather than glossing over. The city has documented high rates of violent crime, and most government travel advisories recommend visitors exercise heightened caution, arrange trusted transport rather than walking, particularly after dark, and avoid displaying valuables in public. Many visitors treat the city primarily as a logistics base, arriving to organize their trek through an established operator and departing directly for the track rather than spending extended unstructured time exploring independently.

That caution shouldn't obscure what the wider region offers beyond the immediate city center. Varirata National Park, a short drive from Port Moresby, gives visitors a controlled, accessible way to experience Papua New Guinea's rainforest and birdlife, including birds of paradise, without the logistics of a full Kokoda expedition. The National Museum and Art Gallery similarly offers a concentrated, secure introduction to Papua New Guinea's extraordinary cultural diversity, home to over 800 living languages, before or after a trek.

Papua New Guinea remains one of the least-visited countries in the Pacific by international tourists, a combination of safety perceptions, genuine logistical difficulty, and limited tourism infrastructure outside a handful of established operators. For travelers who do the necessary planning, working with licensed guides, booking secure transport, and treating Port Moresby as a gateway rather than a destination in itself, the Kokoda Track delivers one of the most historically weighted treks anywhere in the world.