Just came back from a 9 day Fiji tour, here’s the update for discerning travellers’ fiji holiday:
Nadi/Mainland area:
At the airport, Mocambo has just been renovated, and is now renamed Novotel, rooms have been significantly improved, highly recommended for pre/post stay for island holidays.
We stayed in Shangri-la for two nights for the trade day organised by Fiji Visitors Bureau. Its not a hotel suitable for first class travellers, except the new ‘premier ocean bures’ being built on the other side of the hotel, in front of the spa facilities, all luxurious one bedroom, with indoor and outdoor spa, beach front, between the exclusive Chi Village and Wedding Chapel. A heli pad is also provided for guests who wish to take heli transfer from the airport. This hotel offers varieties of dining options, a night club, excellent evening shows, great facilities and activities for kids.
In Denarau area, we visited the new Hilton and Radisson.
Hilton is very modern, does not have much of a fijian feel, too much concrete i think. Part of resort is still under construction (further apart from the completed section). studio/1br/2br are beautiful, but not too spacious. 3 br villa is impressive, with plunge pool in the garden. Resort pool is enormous, other facilities (gym, kids club) are average. The beach has black sand, but covered with white sand transported from elsewhere. White sand gets washed away at certain parts and require new sands.
Radisson is a nice 5 star property, not as luxurious as Hilton, it offer great value. beautiful lobby, pool area and nice accommodation. Currently has some great offers for rates as well as upgrade from deluxe room to 1br, and from 1br to 2br.
I revisited Westin, i’m not a big fan for the renovated Westin, mainly because the bathroom is quite ordinary, definitely not the usual Westin standard. For that reason, and value for money, i’d much prefer Radisson or Sofitel. If you are staying in Westin, book the deluxe rooms which are on second floor, with high ceiling, dvd, surrounding sound system.
Our next stop is the Vomo Island, the island has nice beach and on two different sides of the island. Accommodation are mostly beach front, some hillside, the bures are nice but not as impressive as the new 3 br villa - absolutely gorgeous. The resort is also completing some beach front 4br villas. You can go to Vomo island via helicopter or boat transfer with South Sea Cruises, its a vessel transporting general public, if you want extra comfort, pay additional fee to get in the captain’s lounge. On the way back from Vomo, we actually met the priminister of Fiji in the lounge! Shame we didn’t take a photo with him..
We then flew to Northern Islands, where its known for world class diving sites.
the aircraft to Northern islands are usually small, 20 seaters, which would certainly make some passengers nervous.
We visited Taveuni Island Resort, Qamea, Namale and Jean Michel Cousteau.
Taveuni Island Resort, is 10min drive from airport. Its set on cliff, beach is down below and not that great, but the accommodation is beautiful, most with stunning ocean views, open space, lots of green lawn area in front of the villas. It does not cater for children.
After half an hour on a bumpy road, and a 15min boat transfer, i was expecting to see a 6 star property on Qamea Island, unfortunately its a 4 star and i believe their best villa accommodation is over priced. However, its a great property for ppl who loves the rain forest experience, and for divers who has easy access to some of the best diving sites. Resort management and staff are hospitable, very friendly and organise alot of activities which easily fill a week’s holiday.
Namale is a great resort for honeymooners and corporate conferences (the resort is in the process of seperating the resort to these two areas). The grand villas are luxurious, with lots spaces. The resort, being Anthony Robbins’ training ground at times, has lots of interesting facilities, where you could easily entertain yourself if it rains for days, facilities like ten-pin bowling, basketball court, 1200 sq ft gym with huge screen for sports tv, movie theatre, virtual golf, putting green, billiards… the resort also has excellent spa facility.
The best family resort in fiji would be Jean Michel Cousteau, nothing beats ‘a nanny per child under 5 offer’ by the resort and the kids club is the best i’ve seen in fiji. Most rooms are designed for family (except the honeymoon bures), not so luxurious, a 4 star, except ‘The Villa’ - definitely 5 star plus. its however located at a windy spot.
I also had the best snorkeling experience with the resort marine biologist who even brought an underwater notepad with him and wrote down all the fish names when we did the snorkeling! Varieties of colorful marine life right near the resort.
After returning from the Nothern islands, we visited some resorts in Mamanuca islands - Tokoriki Island Resort, Amunuca and Liku Liku.
Tokoriki’s bures are all beach front, and rooms are nice, with strong fijian flavour, but the bedding is quite pethetic. If Westin’s heavenly bed is 5 star, this is only 3 star bedding. The sunset villa has a plunge pool and day bed, great for honeymooners. the resort has a beautiful infinity pool, but the beach seems to have alots of sea weeds and rocks at certain parts.
Heavy rain started the night before we visited Amunuca, which is located on the same island as Tokoriki, but a different side and requires a boat transfer. We held umbrellas in the palling rain and strong wind on a small dingy and got half drenched by the time we got there… we could not take the Tokoriki Island Resort’s umbrellas with us, but Amunuca has only 2 umbrellas for the 8 of us.. and being a new resort, the lobby has leaking ceilings along the corridor, wet floor everywhere, some areas has buckets on the floor and the resort does not have enough staff to dry all the wet floor. One agent slipped and fell on the floor despite being carefully.. The resort accommodation is like domitory style, except the honeymoon villa which is quite decent. the rest are all crowded, and have no living rooms. The beddings are nice, as wel as the common pool area, and the spa supposed to be good, but we didn’t have time to visit. I will not recommend this to discerning travellers, except the honeymoon villas, but not till the resort is ready.
We had to make a decision at Amunuca whether we’ll proceed with our inspection of Liku Liku which is a 50 minutes boat transfer and we could be soaking wet by the time we reach there, or we skip that and return directly to Nadi. We decided to continue our inspection, as we don’t have umbrellas, we had black garbage bags and turned them into rain coates..things we do for our clients!
When we got to Liku Liku, things were better organised, we were greeted with staff on the jetty with umbrellas and later upgraded to white disposabal rain coates, quite funny to see the transition from black trash
to white trash..lol. Liku liku is another newly opened couple’s resort, the only resort in Fiji which offers overwater bungalow. The resort is beautiful and staff are well managed (same owner as Mololo on the other side of the island and Rosie’s holiday - Fiji’s largest local operator). It has nice beach, crystal clear water, and excellent rooms, whether on the beach or overwater. highly recommend!
During my trip i also met a Fijian girl who had worked at the Wakaya Club for 4 years. I’ve never seen the resort, so was quite keen to find out why its been one of the top resorts in Fiji. She said apart from the elegent accommodation, its the friendly yet unobtrusive services the resort offers to its guests who value privacy. Many celebrities are repeat clients of the island and hardly any celebrities were photographed while visiting the island.
The upcoming area on coral coast is now the Taunovo Bay, its between denarau and pacific harbour. For our first class clients, the brandnew Taunovo Bay Resort & Spa (link to the new product) is offering luxury beach front villas, will be open for business from Jan 2008, currently openning specials are at half price! Unfortunately we did not have chance to visit the property. but the pictures look beautiful.
Please check our Fiji Luxury Islands for updated recommendations from us.
