Honiara is a Pacific arrival city and hybrid living space that retains many village-like qualities. It shares similarities with Doug Saunders's ‘arrival city’ model: new arrivals are sustained by established networks that enable them eventually to integrate into urban life, along with considerable circulation through a constant flow from and to the provinces. Yet the relatively small size of Honiara and Solomon Islands, plus the resilience of aspects of village culture, bring into question theoretical models based on much larger, more anonymous developing world cities. Settlement and squatter areas are more dominant than fixed-tenure suburbs. Wantokism, kastom and linguistic diversity permeate this urban diversity and extend family networks. The conclusion argues that authorities must come to terms with new arrivals, squatters and settlements/urban villages and incorporate them into planning or face future urban turmoil.