Welcome to Aitape!
Aitape is a small town of about 18,000 people on the north coast of Papua New Guinea in the Sandaun Province. It is a coastal settlement that is almost equidistant from the provincial capitals of Wewak and Vanimo and marks the midpoint of the highway between these two capitals. Aitape has 240 V power (in general 24 hours), a telephone, a bank, a post office, a courthouse, a police station, a supermarket and many trade stores, a petrol station, two airstrips, two secondary schools, a mission office, and a hospital. Aitape was established as a train station by German colonists in 1905 as part of German New Guinea. During the Second World War, the town was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army.