travel notes from my fiji holiday - Yasawas & Viti Levu

We spent 4 weeks in fiji in May-June 2008. These are some general travel notes of our holiday which started with a few days at a Denaru resort, then almost 2 weeks in the yasawa islands where I did a scuba diving course, then finishing with 2 weeks traveling right around the main island of viti levu on public transport. Viti Levu relies heavily on aussie/kiwi tourists and was thus very quiet at the moment. Some high level political tensions between our nations but absolutely no concerns on the ground or diminished friendliness! The yasawa islands are on the international backpacker circuit and in some cases were already packed to capacity this early in the season!

This was our first holiday with a baby in tow and the fijians certainly lived up to their friendly reputation which made the traveling much more interactive with the locals who can of course, all speak english! One big surprise to me was how expensive everything was. I thought fiji was the cheap winter holiday destination for people in eastern Australia whilst those in the north and west could easier fly to thailland or bali. Fiji, however, is in the South Pacific and not Asia. Almost everything manufactured has to be imported at great expense so this makes prices for many things even more expensive than back home. We were reasonably frugal in our food and drinking, caught buses and most often stayed at top of budget or bottom of mid-range accommodation and the month still costs us about $5000 AUD not including airfares or the dive course.

These notes follow the order of the lonely planet 7th edition from 2006. general upfront comments are
Accommodation: On the islands its increased about 20-30% and even in May some places were booked out by the international backpacker circuit. The mainland was very quiet and in some places was actually cheaper than the book! Try and book direct with the operator, if you use a travel agent they take 20-30% commission and often add their commission on top of the normal price! Many places now have their own direct webpages/emails that you can book direct.
Transport: taxi prices seem to have gone up about 20-30% because of high fuel costs. A good general rule is about $1/km with short trips of less than 5km commanding a doubling premium. Buses are fantastic value. The sunbeam company runs the best, newest, express buses at hardly any extra cost over other operators. They are air conditioned along queens road but not on kings road. Check out their timetable at www.sunbeamfiji.com.
Food: Any imported processed food is 2-3 times the price back home but bread, bananas and fruit from the markets is quite cheap and we used this for most of our breakfasts and lunches.
Pronunciation: Although missionaries invented the written language for fijians in the 1830's using our alphabet, there is some bizarre illogical pronounciations (pages 273-274) that its probably worth mastering to show that you arent too ignorant of the culture you are visiting. D has a silent N in front so hence naNdi. Same for G so its siNgatoka and beNga lagoon and C is pronounced TH so its the mamanuTHa islands. B is supposed to have an M in front but many locals didnt even seem to use this?
Tours: booking direct may be best given that many hotels etc add their commission to the base price rather than have it as a fixed inclusion within that?

Geography & Geology page 74
this section currently doesnt have any geology and yet this is what controls why such a large land mass exists in a pacific ocean generally populated by much smaller islands. Fiji lies on the interface between the pacific plate and Austral-Asian plates. The pacific plate has been sliding down (subducting) beneath the other plates to create the ring-of-fire for the last few hundreds of millions of years. This stable process was interrupted in southwest pacific about 25 million years ago when a large buoyant plateau – the ontong-java plateau – arrived on the pacific plate. Unable to sink beneath the other plates because of its buoyancy, this led to an 'irresistible object meeting the immovable' and resulted in a major plate tectonic re-arrangement to accommodate the disruption. Parts of the plates were ripped open with a massive upwelling of lava from the mantle below constructing the volcanic edifice of the fijian islands. This massive plug-shaped edifice is tilted slightly downwards to the southeast so that only the scattered tops of volcanoes breach the ocean surface here as small islands, whereas the fully emergent northwestern portion forms the main large islands of fiji

Money p77
Its not explicitly mentioned but the ANZ bank at the airport does have an ATM. Whilst your partner preserves your spot in the long customs queue, you can nip over and whip out some cash so that you have some in your pocket as you leave the airport – like most ATMs there is a withdrawal limit of $1000.

Cruise operators p 80 & 149
Beachcomber cruises has now been bought out and integrated into South Sea Cruises. They had a great range of day cruises out of Denaru Marina. Can spend the morning snorkeling at South Sea Island and then choose 1. to stay there for the rest of the day or 2. go to bounty for the afternoon or 3. go on the afternoon run past all the mamanuca island which was very pleasant and interesting to see.

Nadi p 80
we just had to spend the nite in Nadi so we didnt need anything flash. Went looking for the sunview hotel but Gray street is actually signposted as 'northern press' road. As we tentatively made our way down this street we came across the Peridom Hotel which for $40 which was clean, had a/c and hotwater. It was basically next door to the '88' restaurant which served great chinese food.

Denaru Island. p87
All the major hotel chains have resorts here now – the sheraton options described, hilton, sofitel, westin, radisson – and they are all pretty much from the same cliché mold with the live music cocktail lounge, the pool with sunken bar, and ocean side restaurant. We got a few days at the Radisson for a good deal as it trys to gain market share but these places are all just a generic template of tropical idyll catering for the 'drop & flop' type holiday market so you wont experience anything of real fiji. Hideaway Holidays in Sydney had some really good fly & accommodation deals on their great webpage if you want this sort of 5 star indulgence. Although its certainly 5 star infrastructure, I reckon the location of Denaru Island is probably one of the worst spots for seeing Fijian beaches, coral and jungle. If you want a 'relax by the beach holiday' with better beaches and some coral to view, I'd actually recommend one of the cottages on nananu-i-ra island (see later) although these arent 5 star.

Aound Nadi: lomolomo guns p 89
having missed the opportunity to see the momi guns, I thought we indulged and take this small shortcut in the taxi that was taking from Lautoka to the airport. I wasnt a good sign that our taxi driver of twenty years who has also been a tour guide once hadnt heard of them. Sure enough the road soon became too rough for his taxi so we walked the last few hundreds metres up the hill along an overgrown track to find the concrete foundations (there are no guns here). Unfortanetly mature trees on the forward slope of the hill now block the view from here and we saw better views from the main highway just a little further north anyway! This site is a dud so dont waster your time and perhaps its no surprise that there was no signage

Lautoka p92
accommodation options are a bit limited and seem to have gone up almost 50%! Sea Breeze hotel rooms are now $68/74 so we went to the Waterfront which was $156 for the garden rooms (ocean even more) but the amenity was just so much better. Normally Im really frugal on accommodation but since we were staying here during the daytime we paid this extra amount.

Sigatoka area p105-108
Korotogo is the place to stay and one-way taxi fares from here to nearby places of interest are: $15 to the dunes, $6 to Sigatoka, $8 from Sigatoka to the Hill Fort.

The dunes takes about 2-3 hours to do the walk and its worth the effort to do this longer walk to see the big mobile dunes. The Tavuni Hill fort only takes about 30-40 minutes and I found it a bit disappointing even though Im interested in archeology. There was just a few mounds of stones and for $12 entry is was pretty expensive although it does help the local community. I reckon the most efficient way to get around see all this in comfort, in your own time in one day, would be to pick up and Avis car from Korotogo for the $66 8am-4pm day rate (kiosk just west of the Outrigger – book beforehand) and then drive up to see the Momi guns, come back via Natadola beach and then on to the Sigatoka Dunes before heading up to the Hill Fort and maybe a bit up the valley and then back to Korotogo to return the car by 4pm inside the 200 km limit. The kula ecopark is walking distance from korotogo along the beach and then up thru outrigger resort. Its now $20 and again this only takes a couple of hours but the money helps build capacity for fijians to save their endangered wildlife.

The description of Crows Nest Resort didnt sound good in the guide but its under new management, has been done up. I thought the huge attached cottages with fans, a/c and sea views were great value at $88 – way less than the old price!

Pacific habour p113-115
there is no map in LP which is a bit disappointing but there is a good map in the moon fiji guide – Pacific habour is dispersed over a couple of km so choose wisely depending on your activities on where you want to stay.
there are 3 distinct dive operators here:
Beqa Adventures at Lagoon resort a couple of km north of town.
AquaTrek at the Pearl South Pacific who also does shark dives (contrary to the 'exclusivity' claimed in the box on page 58). I did it with these guys as the 2 dives for $180 since they almost invariably wave the gear hire fee.
Dive Connections just across the road doesnt have the shark dives but does snorkeling and dive trips at the cheapest rates (2 dives plus lunch for only $155). They required a minimum of four to go out and we didnt have the numbers so I didnt do any dives with them.

Instead I did the upper navua rafting. This is run by Rivers Fiji whose office is also at the Pearl South Pacific right next to Aqua Trek. To their credit is was very professionally run. The scenery was nice but at $275 it was expensive and the rapids weren't much at all. Ive rafted better rivers elsewhere for cheaper so it was more about the scenery and geology of the gorge

We planned to stay at Safari club but it was booked out by a group. I had read some blog concerns about cleanliness but it looked great to us. If its still the LP price of $55 then it would be fantastic value in a good central location. Instead we went the next street up to Club Coral Coast where a decent double room with the same sort of amenity as Safari cost us $90. Both these places are about equidistant to everything. Just a stroll away across the highway is the Rivers Fiji, Aqua Trek and Dive connections offices and you can also the great food in the restaurants of the Pearl South Pacific with having to pay for their expensive accommodation! The Tsulu bunkhouse at the arts village/sopping plaza is another option one km to the east but their doubles accommodation is expensive. The budget options of Deuba Inn or the Christian Centre are one km to the west and didnt have direct beach views in any case.

Suva p121-129
we stayed at Motel 6 that is now called Suite 6 and has some extra wings added (to the south of the carpark/office) with fantastic habour views. I think they try to fill the old rooms first but insist for these new rooms with their fantastic views. In quiet times prices obviously drop below the rack rate with Deluxe rooms going for about $80 and the standards for $60 which was good value with friendly staff.

Fiji Museum is quite small and only takes 2-3 hours. Colo-i-Suva Forest park walk also only takes about 3 hours so it would be possible to do both in one day. The recommended route for the walk is down the kalabu road and turn in at the upper pool park trail. Follow downstream all the way to the lower pools and then back up the main Falls trail where you can then walk back to the main road and come out at the Rainsforest lodge to enjoy lunch or dinner at the very picturesque restaurant there.

Kings road p136.
In getting there & around it suggest Kings Road from Naususori to Lautoka is 4.5 hours in total?. We used the sunbeam express and just to raki-raki is 3.5 hours (the un-made road slows things down!) and from raki-raki to Lautoka is another 2.25 hours to make it almost 7 hours total. The mountain scenery along Kings road is fantastic and well worth doing from suva instead of returning via Queens road.

Around Rakiraki – ellington wharf – nananu island p 138-142

this was the only place on the mainland that had the sandy beaches, coral, fish and jungle that was anything like the islands and instead of Denaru Island this should be the place to go! Note that there is no longer any accommodation at Ellington Wharf. The Safari Lodge closed the accommodation here as they expanded on nananu itself. Often a taxi is waiting at the turn-off and will take you to the safari lodge office at the wharf if you haven't already booked elsewhere ($4).

There are two very distinct options on the island. On the eastern (safari lodge) side, the prevailing wind makes this the spot to windsurfing and kiteboarding. There is also the better coral reef here but on windy days the choppiness decreases the visibility and makes snorkeling a bit difficult. We stayed with safari lodge in their one basic double room for $90. Dorms here would be good value, The hosts are lovely and use of the kayaks and snorkel/masks is free! The other 'family room' inside the lodge is really a dorm with a couple of double mattresses in a room that didnt have very good amenity for a family. Maybe consider one of their newer rooms built since the LP guide but note that these are more upmarket and expensive options. The western side side is more sheltered for snorkeling or paddling about. There is also a great jetty where you can look down thru the still water onto reef and we saw sea-snakes and octopus hunting etc. At the end of the jetty several hundred colorful fish of many varieties hang around almost demanding to be fed and this was a real highlight for our holiday snorkeling with these creatures! Charlie's ($?), Macdonald's (now $120) and Bethams (now $130) cottages are side-by-side here and would make a great spot for a family to come and relax for a week or so instead of say going to Denaru Island (note that nananu is not 5 star indulgence though!) macdonalds and bethams have basic beachside restaurants that anyone can eat at though you need to order by mid-afternoon. Note that the Bethams cottages are no longer 'caravan-type' cabins but are now proper brick buildings on concrete slabs. Nananu Lodge on the north of the island has apparently gone out of business and this whole northern area is indeed being looked at for a development similar to Denaru Island.

Since we had a little baby I didnt want to do too much dispersed island travel. Thus I didnt really think about the option of Lomaiviti group close to Suva with the Canqelai resort sounding like a nice option? We ended up with a couple of spares days so I tried to call them from Suva but the phone rang out with no answer so we instead went to nananu island?

Yasawa Islands.

We did want to see some sandy/coral islands of course, so we visited two of the Yasawa resorts over 10 days. This made it cheaper for us to buy the individual legs rather than a bula pass. Most people spend about 2-3 days at 3-4 spots but I needed to stay in one spot for a while to do my dive course.

I chose to stay at Coral View Resort on Tavewa island (page 167) and do my course at the co-located Dive Yasawa Lagoon dive shop (course $600 – see their like-named webpage). Westside Watersports has moved across the bay and is now co-located with Nanuya Island Resort. Coral View lived up to its friendly reputation and they were fantastic with our young baby and my wife who stayed around whilst I did my diving. I was expecting pretty rustic conditions in the double bures but they have a set of 8 new, wood-lined ones with 24hr electricity, fans, ensuites, and fly screens that I thought were great value inclusive of all meals for two for $170. Bures are well located away from the drinks bar and any music! They are currently building a new swish dorm to match the upgraded bures. Food was fine also and there is enough of a beach to lounge around on. Being on the backpacker circuit meant there was lots of interesting new people turning up every couple of days (for my wife to talk to) whereas nearby Otto & Fannys and Davids Place that I had also considered looked almost deserted so pick want you want to experience: people or solitude? Note that many of the people are extremely attractive young ladies spending all day in their bikinis working on their tans!

Dive shop instruction was adequate and because so few people stay long enough to do the course, you are likely to get your own personal instructor who takes you thru at your own pace. Many fijians are rather introverted, so its up to you to read the theory and ask questions to get the most of your instructors experience. I would be happy to recommend doing a course here. On Sat & Wed they also do a single tank shark dive for $105 dollars and we had a fantastic experience with a big shark (about a 10-12 ft) coming in and seizing a big chunk of food and tearing it apart with a mouthful of teeth just a couple of metres in front of us! Guide said it was a grey nurse after a bit of web-research I reckon it was just a big bull shark. The beqa lagoon shark dives feed by hand and I didnt see the adrenalin-pumping spectacle of a big bitey shark mouth full of teeth on that dive – the sharks hardly seemed to open their mouths as the took if from the feeders. Just offshore from Coral View there was also a small but great patch of coral to snorkel over with giant clams, schools of squid, sea snakes and many varieties of colorful fish.

We also spent a couple of day at wayalailai resort (page 163) on the way back and they have the co-located Dive Trek Wayaseya dive shop whose instructor really impressed me with his safety practices and explanations. A dive course here was only $550 so this is another option if you are not interested in traveling right up the island chain to Coral View? Bures here were a little more rustic but the staff were friendly and the views from the peak just behind (about 2-2.5 hours return walk) are fantastic. Bures are close to the music from the bar but dont panic, they are very friendly and turn it down quite early and upon request. Note that this resort is run by the villagers next door so that on Sunday no activities are conducted. Coral view was run by staff on a roster system so it has activities 7 days a week.

Hope these notes are helpful to fellow travelers. I have the 7th edition june 2006 fiji lonely planet guide for sale in reasonable condition for $20AUD. I will post free to anywhere in the world and can accept paypal payments. Contact me at taylorwohlt@yahoo.com.au

thanks
david and kylie and zoe

Thanks David. if I get to Fiji as hoped this year, it will be with a friend who grew up in Nadi, and we will only be staying a week or so. However, your overview is very helpful.

Great report, thanks for taking the time to do it. Lots of useful information.