Featured · Fiji · Honeymoons · Oceania · Regions · Speciality Travel
Fiji – more than just beaches
Fiji has got to be one of the easiest to reach of the South Sea islands, with flights from Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand on Fiji Airways. Perfect for a honeymoon, or even to get married, Fiji is undoubtedly one of the most wonderful destinations on the planet for an utterly relaxing holiday. For those looking for a stopover, Fiji also makes a good break in the journey to or from New Zealand or Australia.
Whether you choose to stay on the main island of Viti Levu or one of other islands in the 333 island archipelago, you will find gorgeous beaches, miles of bleached Saharas with nobody and nothing on them save the odd coconut husk and the occasional bleached white driftwood. The phrase ‘barefoot luxury’ will immediately spring to mind.
Of the other islands, the most popular are the Mananucas, home to Likuliku, a couples-only resort with overwater bungalows set on a beautiful turquoise lagoon, and the Yasawas, an archipelago of ninety islands that shower away from Viti Levu. One beach is even known as Eight Months Beach as that is how long it takes to get the grains of sand out of your hair! Vanua Levu, the second largest island, and Taveuni, known as ‘the garden island’, offer hiking trails and waterfalls in their tropical rainforest interiors.
However, there is so much more to Fiji than just beaches, sunshine and sun downers. You can visit traditional villages, a culture largely untainted by western values, where you can offer the village chief a gift of yoqona, a tongue-numbing ceremonial drink. There is also excellent sailing and snorkelling, to more extreme activities such as shark diving and sand duning. Golfers can enjoy courses with stunning ocean views; whilst the more adventurous can explore the waters by traditional canoe poled by ‘warriors’.
To top this all off, Fijians are among the friendliest people on earth, full of warmth, charm and good humour – even the men wear flowers in their hair.
David Wickers is Director of Bridge & Wickers.
If you would like to be a guest blogger on A Luxury Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.
Whether you choose to stay on the main island of Viti Levu or one of other islands in the 333 island archipelago, you will find gorgeous beaches, miles of bleached Saharas with nobody and nothing on them save the odd coconut husk and the occasional bleached white driftwood. The phrase ‘barefoot luxury’ will immediately spring to mind.
Of the other islands, the most popular are the Mananucas, home to Likuliku, a couples-only resort with overwater bungalows set on a beautiful turquoise lagoon, and the Yasawas, an archipelago of ninety islands that shower away from Viti Levu. One beach is even known as Eight Months Beach as that is how long it takes to get the grains of sand out of your hair! Vanua Levu, the second largest island, and Taveuni, known as ‘the garden island’, offer hiking trails and waterfalls in their tropical rainforest interiors.
However, there is so much more to Fiji than just beaches, sunshine and sun downers. You can visit traditional villages, a culture largely untainted by western values, where you can offer the village chief a gift of yoqona, a tongue-numbing ceremonial drink. There is also excellent sailing and snorkelling, to more extreme activities such as shark diving and sand duning. Golfers can enjoy courses with stunning ocean views; whilst the more adventurous can explore the waters by traditional canoe poled by ‘warriors’.
To top this all off, Fijians are among the friendliest people on earth, full of warmth, charm and good humour – even the men wear flowers in their hair.
David Wickers is Director of Bridge & Wickers.
If you would like to be a guest blogger on A Luxury Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.
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We stayed at Likuliku for our honeymoon last year. Wow! The best vacation we’ve ever had. Splurge for the overwater bungalows, even just for 1 night.
I love Fiji! Went there for two weeks a couple a years ago. We actually spend a lot of time travelling to other small Island (as we were based at Nadi). Would so love to go back some day and explore a few more of the hundreds of island that is there.
Combination of a developed economy, buildings with architecture of Dutch and British colonialism, sandy beaches, excellent weather, warm people and most of all it’s remoteness.. You almost sit in the middle of nowhere sipping Kava and enjoying the sun. What else you would need?
We couldn’t agree more, it’s got all the right ingredients for a great holiday and so much more to offer than people may at first think. Fabulous place!
You put a great idea into my head with this. If I ever take a trip to Australia and/or New Zealand, I will definitely look at a stopover on Fiji!
Sounds idyllic, I love the idea of barefoot luxury and only seeing the odd coconut husk. I also think that visiting the villages would be a must for me. I did this in Bali, and I imagine it may be similar – the Balinese I met were living very traditionally indeed.
This is the sort of place I would love to go as it is almost out of reach and so would be so much cleaner and quieter than say the Maldives. Am I right that flights can now go over the North Pole, so means we can get there quicker from the uk?
Hi Anna, according to our experts you can travel from to Fiji via Hong Kong or Los Angeles to Fiji. Hope that helps.
I’m not so much of a beach person but I like the sound of the hiking trails and waterfalls on Taveuni and I’m not averse to sharing a canoe with a few young warriors
I am almost tempted to agree with Heather who indicated that she is not much of a beach person but after seeing such beautiful beaches that Fiji has to offer, I may well be swayed to change my opinion if we ever venture to this part of the world.
We are considering heading to Australia and New Zealand at the end of 2014 and I was originally planning on heading over to Asia first, probably Singapore but after reading this post I may be more inclined to look into the possibilities of a relaxing few days in Fiji because this looks breathtaking.
With so many islands to choose from in the 333 island archipelago (I am sure many of these are inhabitable of course!) there are a plethora of options available for tourists heading to this region. I certainly would anticipate seeing a large increase in visitors especially with such positive feedback as this article.
yes, i once stopped by fiji on a conecting flight, didnt have much time to explore but i could see it was a verry beautiful place, will definately make a point of going there as a destination! great article cheers!
I’m a travel blogger (along with my sister) and we are fortunate enough to be going on a 7 night cruise with Captain Cook cruises in Fiji at the end of July. We love to snorkel and are thrilled that they offered us this opportunity! However, I have to respectfully disagree that it’s an easy place to get to from the U.S. The only airline that flies there is Fiji Airways (others show flights to Nadi but they are literally all code shares and the plane will be Fiji Airways). Fiji Airways has an amazing amount of negative consumer feedback about flights being up to ten hours late taking off, people getting food poisoning from their food or at a minimum saying it’s atrocious, etc. And, with it being a complete monopoly, the prices are very high and there does not seem to be any incentive or desire to improve the service. I’m going to take my own food onboard and just endure it but I don’t think it’s easy given all of that! I’m still looking forward to the trip and enjoyed your article. :)
Kay, thanks for taking the time to respond to this post. In answer to some of your concerns, we’ve spoken to Tourism Fiji for feedback on Fiji Airways and overall it seems to be surpassing expectations on the new aircraft in both cabins. Fiji Airways is the only flight from Los Angeles to Fiji and also from Hong Kong. Korean flies from Seoul and there are options from Australia and New Zealand. They did have delays over Easter, which took a couple of weeks to normalise, but now seem to be running on time. Fingers crossed it stays this way.
There have been some comments on the choice of breakfast (Egg muffin), but luckily the new economy menu is just about to unroll!
As you’re such a keen snorkeller, we recommend the Yasawas. I hope that answers some of your questions. Have a great trip!
David
Yes, Absolutely Fiji is more than beaches. I have recently visited Fiji. It has so many amazing places to visit. There are many luxury resorts as well with good & friendly service. One of the private resorts is Raiwasa.