Pacific Bar Review - Big D’s Waterfront, Betio, Kiribati
- Jun 29
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 29
By Dirk Heinz
On possibly the thinnest of island strips in the boundless expanse of the Pacific Ocean, there’s barely enough room to swing a bonito. In parts of Betio on the island of Tarawa, it goes like this. Ocean. Sand. Road. Sand. Ocean. Driving along the causeway to Betio has to be up there with one of the most surreal and majestic experiences one can have in the Pacific. Cruising at a leisurely 60kms an hour, all around you is ocean. On one side, the Pacific, on the other, the vast indigo waters of the lagoon of South Tarawa, and then there’s you, wedged in the middle of both, driving along on a thin strip of road with your head out the window like an excited kelpie.
It is perplexing to think that in one of the smallest countries by total land area, you have to do a lot of driving to get anywhere. But that is the reality in South Tarawa, where to get from one end of the island to Betio at the other (covering a mere 30 kilometres), you can be in the car for over an hour. Peak hour traffic and +85% humidity never helps.
This is all to say getting around South Tarawa can be thirsty work. On this particular occasion, I’d come from a meeting at Ambo up the road to Betio for another meeting. It was 4:30pm and I was parched. Driving along the sliver of bitumen on my way back out of Betio I had thought that perhaps a water from one of the roadside vendors might suffice. But then I saw it. A small, quaint wooden shack facing the sunlit lagoon. I brought the car down to a speed of about 10kms an hour to get a better look as I passed by the entrance. The table out there on the deck did look nice. Pretty hard to get closer to the sand too. And that definitely looks like a fully stocked bar fridge…
After a quick U-turn (which can be no easy feat on an island like Tarawa), I was parked out front and ambling into Big D’s Waterfront Bar. My perceptions from the road had been spot on. This was indeed a perfect joint for a stop. Thoughts of hydration by means of water quickly faded when I spotted a fridge full of cold Heinekens. I ordered two and sat down (before you judge, I was with a mate).
Big D’s wasn’t exactly firing at 4:33pm on a Thursday afternoon, but didn’t matter. Having such a sweet seaside set-up all to yourself only increased the ambience. Not sure any food was on offer – there might have been a couple of packets of twisties behind the bar, can’t remember – but I wasn’t hungry anyway. All in all, a top shelf Pacific bar experience if you ever find yourself on the atoll.
Ko raba to my crew at Big-D’s.
