"Fiji Islands" a Fiji Travel Page by mashed_NZ

Nadi is somewhat of a bussling little township. People are friendly and helpful and you won't get lost. For the most part, the shops there have great specials on all sorts of items such as clothes and souvenirs. On my first trip there however, I was conned by some locals as I was walking along to come and visit a "traditional" all hand made souvenir shop and have some karva with them. To me this sounded like a great experience and so I followed. We had the karva with the locals which was fun and enjoyable, but then after that we were pressured into buying an item for the "free" karva. So we purchased something small and left only to find the exact same item at Jacks (the largest store there basically). There is a large grocery store there too and prices are not over the top. This is really beneficial if you're staying at a resort that has a small kitchen or kitchenette in your room. Out of the 3 times I've been there, I've always had some of the local food. Its cheap and I've never been sick from it. Only drink bottled water. Also, this isn't too expensive especially if you buy it in bulk from the grocery store. There is a really great fruit market that is extremely cheap and they have everything (season dependant) from mangos, watermelons and paw paw's.

Taxis are great in fiji. The drivers are very friendly and always very helpful. You can also negotiate with them for set fares. Generally speaking they have set prices for specific trips such as from the airport to Nadi or Denerau Island. My brother and I like to endulge in how should I say....some of the locally planted "greenary". For this we simply asked the first taxi driver and he was more than happy to drive us to get some which wasn't too far out of Nadi town at all. The quality was fairly good considering the climate of fiji. The cars themselves have most definately seen better days. The roads are very bumpy and on occassion the drivers seem to think they're in a F1 Grand Prix car.

I have learnt the hard way now twice and will be very very careful next time I book into a resort on the mainland while trying to be cost efficient. It simply is NOT worth it. Take my word on this....spend that little bit extra and stay somewhere that has a reputable name. On my second trip to Fiji, we stayed at a little resort called Club Fiji. The drive took about 15mins from Nadi to get there of which the last part was along a gravel road. When we finally got there, it seemed nice enough, but after further investigation, it turned out to be very average. For starters, it seemed like we were the only guests there. The bures were in average condition, the beach wasn't like you see in advertising photos and the pool was small and just the simple old rectangle. The food was on the other hand very good and at a reasonable price. But we became very bored, very quickly there. We had friends luckily who were staying on Denerau Island, so we pretty much taxied there each day for about $15 and spent the days there. On my 3rd trip to Fiji, we stayed at the Beachside resort....the shock my brother and I got when we were driving down the same gravel road to get to Club Fiji was aweful. We just knew we were in for something of the very bored and uninteresting times. This resort to say the least was terrible! The room was tiny with no TV, no fridge...just two beds. The pool was smaller than Club Fiji and mosquitos were everywhere. They wouldn't let us pay with cash for our drinks and when we did have a few drinks, they were very quick to tell us to shut up....even though there was only 1 other room occupied!! Dennerau Island is by far the best of the best and there are a wide selection of hotels to choose from in a variety of price ranges. I highly highly recommend staying here as it is bussling with activities and people all the time. There is the Bula Bus that takes you around the island for free and stops at all the major hotels. The price of food and drink however is farely expensive....what you'd expect to pay say at a resort in Australia. But to me, the whole Fiji experience is to stay in the outer islands. I've stayed at Musket Cove Resort twice now and this is where my brother got married. It is absolutely amazing. There are many island out there, but I recomment and island in the Mamanuca Group.