Suggested itinerary

Hi, fellow travellers!
My name is Lori, I live in the UK, I travel solo and I am planning to spend three months visiting some of the islands in the South Pacific, from January to March 2020.
I have already booked a flight from Brisbane to Nadi for the beginning of January, but I am still unsure where to go next.
I am gathering ideas and info from the LP guidebook, but I would like to get some tips about how to organise my trip.
Ideally, after three weeks in Fiji, I would like to visit New Caledonia, Samoa (but I have read rather disheartening comments on the forum), and perhaps fly to a couple of other places, before returning to Brisbane.
I have realized that flights from island to island are rather expensive, therefore planning the right itinerary could save me money.
I travel on a budget, staying at backpackers and avoiding very expensive resorts and activities.
I am more interested in visiting and understanding places, rather than doing fancy activities.
I love walking, swimming and snorkelling, visiting museums and historic sites, enjoying natural beauties and getting to know the local culture.
I would greatly appreciate any suggestions, for which I thank in advance those of you who will take the time to reply.
Warm regards.

LORI

Hi Lori,

Holler if you have any questions on Samoa. I feel like it fits the description of what you are wanting, and flights are relatively inexpensive (for the S Pacific) from Nadi to Apia via Fiji Airways. We've been living in American Samoa for the last year, and have spent a fair amount of time in Samoa and always enjoy it, so happy to help put a positive spin on the county.

Meredith

Hi, Meredith! And thank you for taking the time to help.
I will get back to you once l have decided which islands to visit.
Thank you for now and all the best.

Lorella

from Brisbane to Nadi for the beginning of January, but I am still unsure where to go next.

Are you looking for suggestions for where to go on Fiji, or suggestions for the rest of the 3 month island itinerary? Or both? I could make a few suggestions for the 3 week Fiji part.

Hi, Bthdth!
Any advice about Fiji would be great. I am planning to spend about a month there (on a budget).
Thank you in advance for your help.

LORI

I will make a few general remarks about what you can expect on Fiji .. taking account of how you describe your interests:

I travel on a budget, staying at backpackers and avoiding very expensive resorts and activities.
I am more interested in visiting and understanding places, rather than doing fancy activities.
I love walking, swimming and snorkelling, visiting museums and historic sites, enjoying natural beauties and getting to know the local culture.

I traveled around Fiji at low budget level for 2 months. The least expensive places will not be the small-island 'resorts' .. any place renting out 2-3 bure will call itself a 'resort'. Some have dorms, or rent out tents. However, the price problem is that most of these places are on otherwise uninhabited (small) islands, with the consequence that meal plans are obligatory. This is what can double or triple the cost of a stay. Even if there is a village, there won't be stores or restaurants .. or any sort of tourist strip outside the resort(s).

If you are interested in local culture, then the small island resorts aren't the best place to be anyway. Contact with Fijians will be limited to the resort staff doing their work.

My best recommendation for a good cross-section of activities as well as experiencing local culture would be the island of Ovalau, east of Suva on Viti Levu. Levuka is a small town dating out of the 1800's, a decent guesthouse, a few restaurants in town, Epi's guided hike into the mountain village of Lovina, at least one lagoon island 'resort' with dorm accom on Leleuvia. There was another backpacker place on Caqalai (pronounced 'Than gal eye') but I get the impression from the web that it might be closed. But you can inquire if/when you're in Levuka.

https://levukatourism-com.webs.com/
http://www.leleuvia.com/

You'd get to Ovalau from Suva, itself an intereting place, not most tourists' idea of a beach holiday on Fiji, but if you're interested in local culture and history ..

An accom recommendation for Suva:

http://www.fiji4less.com/south.html

It's an attractive old colonial house/mansion, and as good a place as any to meet like-minded visitors to Fiji.

Bus/ferry combo to Ovalau from Suva (or 15 minute flight if budget allows, could be complicated getting to airport for early morning flight).

Ovalau would be my #1 recommendation for Fiji. With a month at your disposal you certainly have time for a fair bit more. I personally wasn't much interested in beach holiday resorts in the Mamanuca and Yasawa islands. Lautoka on the mainland (north of Nadi) would be a base to consider various outings .. such as to one of the above island groups. Lautoka gives you another good look at local island life, although not the usual beach holiday idea of Fiji. I stayed on Waya. It has a couple of resorts close to a real village so you could see what does and doesn't happen in a sleepy island village. It's also possible to take inland trips to homesteads, mountain hikes, etc. So you don't have to go far to be able to see and do a lot, especially if local culture is a priority.

Island bus transport is pretty good. Getting between islands can be relatively more time consuming if you don't fly .. for example if you wanted to go to Taveuni (for nature hikes) or Vanua Levu. Here's a link to a remote resort on Vanua Levu accessed from Taveuni, to give you an idea of prices. It's relatively low-budget, with tent accom:

http://www.dolphinbaydivers.com/

If you want to go further afield than Viti Levu and Ovalau, it would be a good idea to do some thinking and planning about what, specifically, you want to do. Viti Levu and Ovalau you could practically improvise and get away with it. Some uncertainties with traveling further (flight/ferry delays etc) is what makes planning a good idea. Everything works on local time and local priorities, which don't always fit with short-time tourist requirements.

Hello, again!
Thank you for your prompt and detailed suggestions.
I will take them into account when planning my stay in Fiji.
The links are very useful too.
Above all, thank you so much for taking the time to help.
I wish you all the best.

LORI

I agree that if you want a quieter history sort of place Levuka on Ovalau is a wonderful place. There is a local history museum there and it is a lovely place to walk around the back lanes.

Thank you for your advice!
All the best.

LORI

Places I found interesting in Fiji:

• Rabi Island (Micronesian culture; you can probably reach it by boat from Vanua Levu, just go to Savusavu and ask around)
• Lau archipelago (Polynesian culture; fly from Suva, the flight is not that expensive)
• Rotuma (Polynesian culture; north from Viti Levu; I don't know if the flight is expensive)

As a personal opinion, I find the two main islands of Fiji not interesting. You only see around Indians (from India), that are definitely not peculiar to the place, and which culture you can experience in many other places, you don't need to get in the middle of the Pacific. To find local Melanesian culture you need to go deep in the interior; I didn't do it, but Fiji are so touristic, I personally suspect that most of the places where you can "officially" experience Fijian culture in Viti Levu are fake.

Outside Fiji:

Samoa and Tonga are well connected to Suva and Nadi. They are very touristic. Most tourists go around holding a Disneyland-style map with a list of uninteresting little attractions, like waterfalls and blowholes. If your main purpose is to see waterfalls and blowholes, I don't suggest going to Tonga and Samoa, you find much better ones in Australia and New Zealand. If instead your intent is to experience interesting Polynesian culture, traditions and archaeology, luckily both Tonga and Samoa still have a lot of offer. But you have to throw away the Disneyland map, go out of touristic paths, and enter in contact with locals as much as possible.

From Nadi, you are quite close to Kiribati, which in my opinion is the most interesting country in Oceania. From Tarawa (the main island) you can easily and cheaply fly to a lot of outer islands where people still retain the old culture, to an extent that would be undreamable in most other Pacific countries. I just checked the price, return flights Nadi - Tarawa - Nadi start at 500 GBP. From Tarawa you can also fly west to Majuro and come back to Brisbane via Nauru (if you don't want to come back to the place you started)

From Suva, you are also able to catch the only scheduled flight to Tuvalu. Tuvalu is less interesting than Kiribati, because in the main island there are a lot of foreigners, but there are frequent cheap ferries to the outer islands. If you spend three weeks there you can stay over in one of the outer islands and have a great time, they are little paradises.

Ah, if you are on a budget stay WELL AWAY from New Caledonia...

Thank you very much for the detailed and very useful info!
I have now clearer ideas about where to go and not to go.
All the best!

LORI

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