The port at Betio is the commercial and human centre of Kiribati: container ships from Fiji and Australia tie up at the wharf, inter-island vessels load and unload supplies for the outer islands, and a fleet of small fishing boats comes in each morning with reef fish, tuna, and lobster. The market next to the port is the liveliest spot on the atoll — pandanus baskets of fish, taro, breadfruit, imported rice, and clothes from China — and a good place to get a sense of how the country actually feeds itself.
It is also a useful place to ask around for boat charters to North Tarawa or for a guide to the Battle of Tarawa sites a few hundred metres inland.