Traveling To Fiji On a "Shoestring"

Hi,

My fiance and I are trying to find somewhere to go on our honeymoon. He have been doing our research and we keep coming back to Fiji. However we are stuck... Our idea of a trip is to book our hotels at night depending on where we have ended up and to get lunch at local resturants or grocerie stores. Traveling on a shoestring but a little more. We have done this in other countries, Thailand, Bali, Costa Rica.... From some of what we are reading about Fiji this does not seem possible. Am I right saying that? Or can you enjoy Fiji on a low budget just bumming around? Any advice and if its not possible any ideas?

Fiji can definitely be enjoyed on a low budget... However, you will be staying at backpacker lodges... you can still book a seperate room at backpacker lodges, depending on your budget.... You will likely be confined to the mainland as island transfers can be expensive... Activities & tours are very expensive, so depending on your budget you may be ruling these out... Last minute accommodation bookings is possible (I live in Suva & frequently book weekends away on the Friday night, or even on the Saturday morning!)... If it is peak period, you may find some places are fully booked so you will need a plan b & c... Unfortunately there are no last minute specials when booking same day... I think it depends on how "shoestring" your budget is... What is your budget? Are you happy to stay on the mainland or are you wanting island hopping? Is doing activities/tours a must? Happy to give you ideas of where to stay/what to do if you can give me a bit more info :)

It is difficult to compare Fiji with, say, Thailand or Bali. The reason has to do with the community/cultural structure of Fiji.

If you want to be close to a lot of options for
> lunch at local resturants or grocerie stores

then you are going to have to stay in the larger towns. A lot of the population live in settlements that have very little infrastructure for anyone, tourists or locals. A "grocery store" might be a closet in someone's house with a supply of breakfast biscuits, instant noodles and tinned tuna.

If you go to a resort, be it lower or upper market, then there are not very often any eating alternatives outside of the resort itself. This will limit you to the resort's meal plan/restaurant. The resort might be the only inhabited spot on the island, or with locals in settlements (see previous remark).

So, Fiji is in that respect a combination of extremes. Larger towns with the facilities you mention and the resorts with just their restaurant at your disposal.

When I was in Fiji I split my time between both. It might have been possible to combine a town visit with beach/recreation time but generally it wasn't easy to combine.

Larger towns that I thought interesting were Suva, Lautoka, Labasa, Savusavu (bit of an expat yachtie hangout) and Levuka.

I was overall less interested in the holiday resort experience. For the beach and snorkelling/diving side of things I stayed on Waya island in the Yasawas (a few, up to midrange, places and an OK island for hiking). Taveuni was also good for hiking.

The best overall compromise for me was Ovalau island, with Levuka a town-with-facilities and a couple of lagoon island resorts (Leleuvia and Caqalai) for that castaway experience.

It was all doable at a budget end, not as low as Thailand, but not difficult to plan for.

All good info above.
Bumming around and book as you go is possible if you have plenty time. However if you want to stay resort style for a bit above low budget it is better to book beforehand. Check tripadvisor for popular resorts in the Yasawas, like Octopus and Blue Lagoon Beach Resorts. They have very good dorms at a reasonable price. There is a compulsory meal plan (excellent meals btw, which are served at communal tables with an opportunity to meet people from all walks of life). Both have beautiful beaches with good house reefs and offer all kinds of activities, some free, some not.

Levuka, combined with a stay at Caqalai island is also a good option. Caqalai being rather basic. It's a very small island (walk leisurely around in 10 minutes) and run by methodists (BYO booze); pretty good snorkelling there. Levuka has some low/medium budget accommodation as well.

To add to above comments regarding making reservations: depending on where you go, there aren't a lot of low budget accommodation options and on any given day a popular place might be full.

I usually called ahead 2-3 days in advance, to my next planned stop. Client turnaround was usually pretty quick (nobody stayed anywhere for long), so vacancies were always opening up. Once you're there you will get a feel for how much backpacker tourist traffic there is and plan accordingly.

So bumming around is workable, but a bit of advance planning will improve your chances of getting into the accommodation you want.