The good, bad and ugly sides to a holiday in Fiji – the hardest decision is where to go first
The cannibals may have been replaced with smiling locals in the South Pacific islands, but keep an eye on your wallet
The good
On a recent press trip, several big-league travel writers with well over 1.5 million kilometres under their belts were informally polled as to their all-time favourite destinations. Without consulting one another, each of the journalists unhesitatingly answered, “Fiji”. The man who took the poll, himself a globetrotting airline executive, was astounded. “I’ve never been there. What makes it so great?” he asked. “The people,” was the reply.
OK, so that introduction from Lonely Planet’s Fiji: A Travel Survival Kit dates back to 1990 but little has changed over the years. Jump on a local bus; greet everyone with a hearty Bula! and you could find yourself joining in a lung-busting sing song before disembarking with the addresses of half a dozen strangers scribbled on bits of paper. And to think Fijians were once cannibals.
In tourism terms, there are three Fijis. Package holidaymakers from Australia and New Zealand make up two thirds of all visitors, with the majority staying along the Coral Coast, a strip of resort hotels on the main island of Viti Levu. The second group comprises airline passengers crossing the Pacific from Australasia to North America (or vice versa), who choose the Commonwealth country as a stopover destination.
These “48 hours in Fiji” tourists tend to stay in the same Coral Coast hotels due to their location, a short drive from Nadi International Airport. Then there’s the mix of backpackers, retirees and other globetrotters who leave their watches behind and embrace the leisurely approach to life known as “Fiji time”.
The archipelago’s 330 islands are blessed with pristine beaches, dazzling coral gardens and cerulean lagoons – the toughest decision is where to go first. A week is the minimum needed to explore the Yasawa Islands, a Maldives mini-me you’d be mad to miss. Stay on Nacula or Tavewa, which combine low-key tourism with a back-to-nature vibe, or book a boutique cruise and see the atolls and islets from a different perspective.