Help! Advice needed on Fiji and where to stay ASAP

Hi,

My husband and I have just returned abruptly from our honeymoon in Europe. We returned a month early due to a family funeral. We now have a couple of weeks to spare before returning to work and wanted to go to Fiji to relax. We don't know much about Fiji and the location of any of the islands. As we have very little time we would like to book somewhere ASAP but when we're reading about package deals etc we don't have the nous to know whether what is offered is a good place to stay and we don't want to finish off our honeymoon on a bad note. We don't need to have a 5 star place but somewhere decent and clean and near a beach would be good. We would be grateful for advice on the following:

- Some islands/areas to go
Is Nadi the best place to fly to and is it easy to get transfers?
- some places/areas to avoid

Thank you very much in advance.

Cheers

Nadi will probably be the ONLY place you could fly to. Being the international gateway to Fiji, the majority of holiday resorts are within easy striking distance. There are many resorts along Viti Levu's south coast, which is not the most attractive place to visit. The Yasawa and Mamanuca island group are off the west coast of Viti Levu, most often accessed by boat from near Nadi (a few places can be reached with sea plane, assuming you want to pay for the luxury). Some of the popular Mamanuca islands are small, pancake flat and have little other than the resort on them. Some of the Yasawa islands are more interesting scenically (hilly) and large enough to have a local village or two, and space for walks/hikes to get away from the resort grounds.

It'd not easy to advise further on specific islands/resorts. Even when objective quality isn't an issue, there are big differences among resorts in terms of their size, the ambience they offer etc. What I might avoid (the bigger, more popular 'holiday tourism' type places) might fit you perfectly. Being near a beach is not a criterion to use, because 99.9% of the resorts will likely be on a beach. So you should think more in terms of the sort of activities you're interested in, and whether or not you want a small vs larger (with more 'western' facilities) resorts.

The Yasawas are the most convenient to get to from Nadi. And if it's just a matter of relaxing for a week or so, there are enough places to choose from to suit a wide range of tastes.

If you were feeling more adventurous there are interesting places all over Fiji -- Taveuni, for example, is a more lush (jungly) island with better diving than the Yasawas, and has several mid to (very) upmarket places.

If you want better feed-back, you probably need to name the names of candidate resort packages you're considering.

Thanks very much for your help. I think after all of your helpful advice we are just going to stay in Aus as we have some other commitments and it is all a bit rushed. Thanks so much for your time though.

Cheers

I recently stayed at the Lomani Beach Resort. It was wonderful with just twelve rooms, only adults, wondeful pool, good snorkeling near by. You can get there by boat in under 45 minutes.