Starting our RTW in paradise!

Hello, my wife and I will begin our 9 month Round-the-World trip with 5 nights in Fiji. Obviously we don't want to break the budget at the start of our trip, although I know Fiji will be way more expensive than say, SE Aisa or Bolivia. Can anyone recommend the best place for us to stay to really explore, but not venture too far to keep costs down. We would like to stay at a cheap and basic place, w/ private bathroom, safe, and conveniently located. Also, are there any excursions that we must do, or any beaches or islands that you visited and thought "wow, anyone who doesn't come here is really missing out"!

Finally, to keep the weight of guidebooks down, we will not have a Fiji guide, so can anyone recommend any websites where I can find reliable information about the islands.

Thanks-
JU

5 nights doesn't give you much time to explore anything. And you're being too vague about what is supposed to be 'conveniently located', probably because you don't know much about where you're going. If you don't want to buy a guide book, then visit a library and invest a couple of hours reading a chapter on Viti Levu.

Otherwise, browse David Stanley's online Guide to Fiji . The info will still be OK (given what you now know), although the prices will obviously be out-of-date - relative pricing should still be valid, ie the cheapest places mentioned will still be the cheapest places.

I can't help with the 'musts', because I don't believe in the concept when it comes to travel which, for me, is a personal endeavor.