Fiji living costs for two weeks

Hi!

My wife and I will be arriving in Fiji in early November and we were just wondering how much we should budget for the trip.

We will be staying for two weeks and already have our accommodation paid for. So, excluding that cost, how much will we need?

We would like to have a drink in the evening so how much is it for a beer/wine or a spirit and mixer on average? How much would you expect to pay for a decent meal in a restaurant? An example of high-end, midrange and budget would be really helpful.

What about internet cafes? What would you say is the average hourly rate?

We plan to lounge about on the beach and soak up the rays for most of our holiday - will the weather be nice and warm for us?

Any advice you can give will be greatly appreciated.

John and Desiree
Scotland

You should mention where you will be going, and the type of accommodation you're booked into. Many places are relatively isolated and self-contained 'resorts'. There won't be any restaurants to go to - all the eating is at the resort itself .. they'll have a meal plan.

I don't drink much .. most often a beer or two in the evening, and a Fiji bitter was probably in the FJ$2 range, I can't recall exactly, but nothing which I felt put a dent in my daily budget. So I wouldn't worry about that.

It a different story for the hard drinks and wine, etc that you'd get at the resorts. I've seen and heard reports from people who recommended bringing in their quota of duty-free alcohol - apparently the markup in the resorts can be substantial.

Only the bigger towns will have restaurants to choose from, and most tourists do not spend any time in the major towns. The result is that most restaurants you will find are aimed at the local pocket -- so meals are on the budget side. If I ever paid FJ$15 for a single suppertime meal it was a lot. If I was in a town and bought both lunch and supper in restaurants (chinese-type stir fry etc most common, fried fish and taro, etc), then I was usually paying under $FJ15 for both. Maybe a 'mid-range' would average FJ$5 more -- I didn't notice a huge budget-to-midrange difference. I wasn't really checking, as I focused mostly on the budget level. Sometimes 'budget' was all that there was. I wasn't looking for high-end restaurants so can't comment on the prices in such places - they'll likely be in the upper-end hotels, if anywhere.

Internet cafes .. again, it will make a huge difference, depending on where exactly you are. You'll only find internet cafes in the larger towns. More important, cost is not the thing you should worry about. The big practical problem is speed, or lack of it. A lot of internet connections are only phone line modems and can be painfully slow, to the point that the connection can time out before you can open an email account,etc. So, while a modem connection might cost Fiji$2 an hour, it would be more economical to find a cafe with a fast connection and pay Fiji$4 an hour. You'll get more done that way, and in the long run probably pay less.

In the outlying places about the only internet connection you'll reliably find is in dive shops, not internet cafes. So you're stuck with whatever price they ask. But it's usually fair, a bit more than in a town but not much.

Hi and thanks for your response. We'll be staying in Smuggler's Cove, near Nadi, for one week then we go to Vanua Levu and stay in Savusavu for a week. What are the prices like in these places?
Also, how long is the ferry journey between the two islands? Is it expensive?

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers!

I don't know much about the area around Nadi. Aside from Nadi town, where the facilities are concentrated on a couple of main streets, much of the tourism-oriented places in the area seemed rather spread out. So I don't know how easy it will be to get around with Smuggler's cove as a base - eg, whether there are independent restaurants (not connected to hotel) to visit and so on.

Savusavu will be comfortable at budget end - it won't hit the wallet if money is a tight issue. There's a number of Chinese and Indian restaurants/take-aways. Many of the tourism/yacht related facilities are on a small pier (the Copra Shed , if remember the name correctly) a bar/restaurant, a tourist office with an internet connection. The town itself is something of a base for retirees and yachties touring the S Pacific. So, some of the facilities are more up-market as well.

The ferry situation has changed a bit since I was there. It may now be possible to ferry direct from Lautoka (north of Nadi) to Savusavu with the Sulivan ferry. Inquire locally once you arrive. It would only depart a couple of times a week, so you'd need to plan around the schedule. There are more ferry options from Suva (including Sulivan). The ferry between Savusavu Suva cost me FJ$70 for first class (recommended for the comfort), and was an overnight ride and a few hours late. Sea travel isn't always reliable, time-wise.

Considering the travel time and the cost, it might be worth your while to take a look at the flights between Nadi and Savusavu even if you're on low budget. Overall, it might be cost/time effective, at least for one-way. I took two internal flights and considered it money well-spent.