Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

Where and what to do in Fiji?

Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Fiji

Hi everyone. Me and my girlfriend are heading to Fiji for three weeks from Aug 30th- Sept 21st. We haven't done much planning since we have been pretty occupied with our 3 month trip to new zealand. We are both pretty outgoing and adventurous.We would like to do some hiking, snorkeling, and any kind of outdoor adventuring. But since it's Fiji we would like to be lazy on beaches as well. Maybe a nice mix of both would be great. We plan on budgeting around 1000 dollars Canadian each. So within this budget and timeframe we are curious where and what we should do. We are both 19, but would prefer remote and/or low key areas, sociable though. Any suggestions will be much appreciated.

Remote, low-key with both hiking and snorkeling?

Sounds like Taveuni to me.
Or maybe Kadavu - more remote, but less good for hiking.

If you are not really serious about remoteness, you could do hiking on the main island of Viti Levu and beachy things on the nearby Mamanusa or Yasawa Islands.

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You can do day hikes on some Yasawa islands - I know Octopus on Waya and Blue Lagoon on Nacula do.

Taveuni - lovely place but low on beaches, - although Lavena Beach is great.

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$1000 each is going to be very limiting for 3 weeks. That'd be a more reasonable amount for 2 weeks.

Blue Lagoon & Octopus are each about $75/day/person plus the cost of getting to them, so any time at them would need to be very limited. There are a number of cheaper places in the Yasawas for about half the cost, but you get what you pay for.

Sticking to the mainland will make your dollars go a lot further, but the beaches and snorkelling are very poor by comparison. Good for hiking, though.

An additional $500 or so would give you a lot more options.

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Actually, based on reports here it seems that those who like hiking on their own had better avoid Octopus Resort as it bans guests from hiking independently around Waya to force them to take (paying) guided hikes instead.
Hiking on your own in the Yasawas is otherwise no problem, and the villages tend to be very friendly. I did it quite a lot myself, though most tourists just stick to the beach right in front of their resort.

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on a budget consider a village homestay

we did and it was awesome...1 price pays for everything food and accommodation.

we had to pay for extra like if we wanted to go somewhere like the waterfall tour or hot pool tour but the cost was just for the guides time and transport to get us there.

real good way to meet the real people of Fiji in a village.

food was amazing so much food was cooked for us

google - danny's village homestay fiji

or look at this link

http://www.fijihomestays.com/homestays/dannys-village-homestay

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