Fiji on F$200-250 a day?

Hi there -- two of us are having a 7-day stop-over in Fiji in November on our way to New Zealand. We're on a 6-month trip and that means a tight budget! We're estimating about CDN $130-140/day to cover travel, accommodation and food while in Fiji (which works out to about F$200-250/day). Is this realistic? Here's what we're thinking:

1) arrive in Nadi really early in the morning, and then hop on a bus that will take us up around the northern route of Viti Levu, eventually ending up in Suva. If we want to get off the bus at a few places to look around during the day-long trip, is public transportation really an option, or should we look at a tour bus/hiring a driver?

2) spend 2 days in Suva looking around. Cheap and cheerful accommodation recommendations appreciated!

3) spend a couple days in Kadavu. There seems to be a few cheap and cheerful places to stay -- my concern is that it's not worth going out to the Island chain for only 2-3 days because of the length of the boat trip out.

4) return to Vitu Levu and spend our remaining days along the Coral Coast. We're bringing a surf board with us and so this seems like one of the few surfing areas. Also, we're interested in heading up into some of the valleys for a hike or two if it's fairly easy to get there.

We're really looking forward to our week in Fiji, but can't break the bank whilst there. Your wisdom is greatly appreciated!

Bula. Here at Pacific Harbour along the coral coast 45min from Suva, we have all the activites you re looking for.White water rafting wihch include a visit to a village. Rappids not so great but the scenery is out of this world. A bit of hiking through bushes carrying your paddles takes you to the rafters, Stops at a couple of waterfalls for swimming and lunch. Magic. Zip Fiji is our newest activitie amongst beautiful rain forest.
Surfing also is done from here. You travel for about half an hour by boat out to the surfing area. Great surfs.To check these activities in the nett: www.riversfiji.com www.zip-fiji.com Also sea kayaking, jet skiing.

A local bus leaves from the domestic terminal a 7am reaching Pacific Harbour at 11am. A more comfortable bus leaves at 9.30am reaching Pacific Harbour at 12.30pm.

I see you are on a budget. I do a Homestay-B/B where I let only one double room with en-suite out at any one time, so you would be the only guest. Bedroom opens out to swimming pool as seen on my profile. My husband and I are the only ones in this household.
We have a supermarket , 3 restraunts, two very lovely resorts, beautiful beach (5 minutes walking to all immentities) 45mins to Suva and 3hrs from Nadi.
Costs: Room $F80 including breakfast. Other meals $10 or less eating with host.

Vinaka. Anne

coming back from Suva heading towards Nadi i.e. the Coral Coast consider Danny's Village Stay

you can see photos at this link

http://www.fijihomestays.com/fiji_homestays_photos.htm

If you are looking for surfing on the coral coast consdier

http://www.waidroka.com/pages.cfm/surfing/

or

http://www.surfingfiji.com/faqs.html

hope these 3 suggestions help in someway

for bus from Suva to Nadi here is a timetable

http://www.fijihomestays.com/fiji_bus_timetable.htm

Anne and NZTourist -- thanks very much for the quick replies. I will take a look at the links you've provided to help us plan the trip. We're looking forward to visiting Fiji!

Hi! I'm doing the same thing - Fiji in Nov en route to NZ. Do you have the LP Fiji book? You might want to at least borrow it from the library for a while and check it out as a lot of what has been suggested so far - and more - is printed in that book.

I've heard the beaches are not good on Viti Levu. It might be worth it to take a day trip to one of the other islands for surfing - not sure.

There are three national parks I think on Viti Levu, one not too far out from Nadi (Koroyanitu, I think off the top of my head is the name), the Sigatoka Sand Dunes, and Colo-I-Suva. Sounds like there is some nice hiking at all three.

I'm hoping to do village stays the whole time I'm there + maybe splurge one night on a hotel if I have the time. Haven't gotten to closely looking at accommodations yet so I can't offer any advice.

The Upper Navua gorge Rivers Fiji rafting tour is the only thing I know I am doing for sure since I already paid for it. The pictures make the scenery look really amazing. It is pricey at 170 USD (online booking), though, but I've read great reviews. And it's supposed to be 7 hours on the water. They have a slightly less expensive version that I think the LP book highly recommended that was 4 hours on the water plus a village visit, but I really want to see the gorge.

FWIW, I have 12 full days in Fiji and decided I didn't have time to make it to Kadavu.

Interesting that you want to do the northern route to Suva - what's out there? I haven't read much about that stretch on Viti Levu.

It is perfectly viable to circumnavigate Viti Levu by public transport. And very cost effective. We like the open busses without windows.

We are living in Lautoka and have made day trips by bus as far as Rakiraki and back comfortably so far.
There are not many good beaches in the west or north. First Landing north of Nadi is OK and the 2 resorts north of Rakiraki (http://www.volivoli.com/ and http://www.wananavu.com/index.html ) have good beaches. You will need a F$15 cab ride from Rakiraki to get to them.

Cheers,
Peter

I love open buses without windows! I'll need to rethink my Viti Levu transport...Thanks Peter for the info.

"I've heard the beaches are not good on Viti Levu" - they are quite nice in parts of the Coral Coast esp - Natadola Beach - http://www.worldsbestbeaches.net/fiji/natadola-beach-fiji.html

PriorityMail and Peter - thanks very much for the information.

PriorityMail - we're working from Moon Handbooks South Pacific book (ISBN 1-56691-411-6) and we really like it. It has a one week itinerary that suggests taking a bus along the northern Island to Suva (a day trip) and then spending a couple days there. Next, it suggests flying to Levuka for two nights (we were thinking Kadavu, but it may be too far away). Finally, the book suggests spending our remaining days somewhere along the Coral Coast. There doesn't seem to be much reason to spend any time in Nadi and so we would just catch transportation into Nadi from the Coral Coast to catch our flight to NZ. Thanks for the information about the Upper Navua gorge river rafting trip -- we've been looking into that as well. What company did you book with?

Peter -- thanks for the suggestion about taking the open window transport. Sounds fun! And I've seen some of your other posts recommending Volivoli resort. The place looks wonderful; I just fear it's out of our price range.

Thanks again for the suggestions. Keep them coming!
Dave

Ahh. I should check out the Moon book! Thanks for reminding me about that.

It sounds like the northern route to Suva is less developed so it may be nicer...I've been planning to rent a car out of Nadi and drive the unpaved road from Ba to Navala village to Sigatoka (supposedly 6 hrs of 4WD but I wonder if it will be passable in November given the rainy season). and then return it in Suva. I will probably try to return to Nadi via the north route...

If you want to do Levuka, you might look into boating/flying out of Nausori (I think that's what it was) north of Suva; that may save time but I'm not positive. Kadavu sounds really nice. Maybe if you were willing to fly it would be doable? I think the reason why I eliminated that from my plans early on was because of cost and the fact there are no national parks there - but sounds like really nice beaches and good diving so it depends what you are looking for. I'd like to see at least one turquoise/crystal clear water beach at some point and I'm not sure it exists in Levuka...The LP book pushes Kadavu and Taveuni instead as good alternatives to the Yasawas, Mamanucas. Would be great to hear from someone that has first-hand experience...

The LP book says there is nothing in Nadi worth seeing so I'm also planning on not sticking around there.

For the gorge river trip I booked with Rivers Fiji. They seemed to have the longest water time and the other ones sounded a little touristy to me. They do other trips but this one sounded the coolest to me. I hope "level 2 rapids" isn't too crazy because I'm going for the scenery.

Have you been to NZ before? Let me know if you have any tips :) I'll be there for 6 weeks and already know it will not be nearly enough time for all the amazing trekking they have there! I'm having a hard time visualizing how big each island is. Do you think it is doable to make it to the southern end of the South island in this time frame or would I be better off sticking around the northern end? I'm flying into Auckland.

Forget using a ferry to travel anywhere in Fiji in a short a time as you have.

Level 2 rapids means you could sleep through them.