Stanley

                                   

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Money

• Currency is the Falkland £ which has parity with the UK £. Both can be used and interchanged when shopping but remember to make sure you have only UK notes and coins when you leave. They are not likely to make exchange offices happy anywhere else in the world – and the £ is weak enough without taking any more of a hit because your money has a penguin on it!!
• Take as much £ cash as possible. There are no cash machines and just one bank which charges heavily to advance cash against a credit (not debit) card. Maximum is £500 on any one day. Normally that might seem enough but wait….
• A small number of shops take credit cards. The most commonly used island card is a debit card issued by the Falklands Island Company (FIC) to islanders. So unavailable to visitors.
• Some shops take US$ or Euro but beware the exchange rate. I saw both US$2.00 and US$1.60 to 1£ being used at a time when the island bank rate was US$1.55.

Communications

• Postage worldwide is very cheap. The post office has an excellent selection of special issue stamps which seems to have become something of a profitable cottage industry. The place is a good source of interesting presents if you want to avoid something with the ubiquitous penguin on it! When we were there it also housed the islands “Santa” who was answering the letters sent form the islands children to Santa Claus…. Not many Post Offices offer that service! It has stamps not just for the islands but also South Georgia & the British Antarctic Territory.
• Despite what the guidebooks say mobiles from elsewhere do not appear to work/roam/sing or dance in the islands. I believe an unlocked phone could be made to work in exchange for a £22 SIM card but by this time I was in £ conservation mode.
• A £5 or £10 Cable & Wireless phone card is needed to access the islands phone system. This worked well and worked out at about 45p a minute to call Europe which was not too bad. We still had about £3 left on it when we left but the Airport phone does not use them so use it all up before you leave or else leave it to an islander as we did.
• Internet: apparently most islanders are broadband connected. One of our B&B’s had free wifi which worked well. But if you have no machine with you or have no domestic wifi access the internet is expensive. £6 an hour and I was unable to find anyplace with Skype phones. Guidebooks talk of internet café’s but we found them all closed down. The official Tourist Office is your best bet.
• TV & radio: two radio stations: Falklands Island Radio Service (FIRS) which gives what must be a unique (but probably vital) addition to the weather report: the “sheep chill factor” for newly shorn sheep in the coming night. And St Helena Radio, retransmitted here for the many immigrant workers from this other Atlantic island. This is when you realize you really are far away – you twiddle the AM/FM band and hear nothing but these stations. Otherwise it is shortwave and a number of houses have huge visible shortwave gear in the garden, although internet radio makes this pretty redundant now I would think (until the phones are down….). The first TV came with the war in 1982 when Argentina set up a service and imported the first sets. Now the islanders receive BFBS, the British Forces TV which is made up of UK TV programmes. When we were there the first night was full of Strictly Come Dancing and then the X Factor. On the radio chat shows avidly discussed the two programmes. It may be a long way from the UK but TV interest is exactly the same. BFBS coverage is limited on the islands but most islanders now have multi channel Satellite TV. (Being so far south the 1.2m? dishes are almost vertical to catch the signal!!) This seems to be drawn from the south American Direct TV service but takes the Chile feed, not the Argentine one although programmes to both are similar…..
• The Press. The local paper is the weekly “Penguin News”, £1, on sale in the West Store and other shops

• Most visitors by far come from cruise ships (on one day we saw 1,800 come ashore) but they are catered for on the ships and need little island infrastructure. Independent travelers are in a somewhat more difficult position. We booked 8 months in advance and still could not stay in one place for the entire week. There is only one (very small) hotel now in Stanley charging from £58 a person a night for B&B (ie £118 a room) although we saw plans for its enlargement. B&B’s are the main places to stay. Our experience of them was very good. Friendly owners, good cooked breakfasts, cakes and buns in the late afternoon (just like the best ski chalet holidays!!). They cost between £35 and £50 a person a night (ie £70-£100 for a double). The B&B’s are also a good way of finding out about the islands and the islanders by talking to the owners who were always happy to chat and give advice.
• Independent travelers need to remember the islands are very small so the choice of places to eat and drink is limited. Nonetheless, there are a couple of quality “restaurants” in the dearer price range. Otherwise pubs and a place called Shorty’s Diner keep the independent travelers alive. They offer a variety of UK style “pub” and “motorway café”  food. Of the pubs the “Victory” seemed the most pleasant. Alcohol is cheap (beers are UK variety in cans), duty being much less than in the UK. Supermarkets also stock all that a UK one would and to UK prices, except fruit & veg which is more expensive as much needs to be flown in. Surprisingly perhaps we saw little fish for sale (except as “mullet & chips”…)
• We met several tourists out to see the wildlife and who were travelling/staying on different islands for several weeks. Flights and full board accommodation can be tricky on the islands given its limited availability. They seemed to have purchased complete packages to include flights/transfers/island stays at a (more reasonable) all in rate. This would be recommended if longer stays beyond the main east island were needed.

You should be prepared to meet other independent travelers on a regular basis in pubs/shops/walks. We worked out there were no more than 10 of us during our week’s stay but there are so few islanders and with you all doing the same things you soon bump into each other (and exchange stories….)