Ideas for 2 1/2 days in Fiji in January?? Help!

Hi guys,

Fantastic forum and I already have learnt heaps.
I need some advice / Ideas for 2 1/2 days in Fiji in January.

We have only 2 nights in January 2014, 2 ½ days in Fiji as a stopover, arriving Nadi 5.30 am on a Tuesday, leaving around 4.30pm on Thursday. We are 2 adults and two 17 year olds, keen to chill, relax, maybe a bit of walking if there are any views,go snorkelling and see some lovely beaches. Really want somewhere we can snorkel straight off the beach so not reliant on the tides of availability of boats.

A few questions with regard to this limited time:

Was thinking we might head straight out to an Island – was thinking the Mamanucas as they are closer - perhaps Mana, castaway or plantation

• Any recs re a good mid range island resort to go to where we can snorkel off the beach and bearing in mind the time taken to get there?

Wondering if it is worth even going to an island given the time to get there from Nadi airport – bus or taxi to Port Denarau then ferry to whichever island – we might only have 1 ½ days given we need to then leave the island on Thursday morning to get back... or should we stay on the mainland near Nadi and get a day trip snorkelling??
• Any recs re a mid range hotel with a pool esp if they do buffet breakies? ( teenager love!)
• Any recs re a good company to go snorkelling with?

Also wondering about going to the effort of an island given January is one of the wettest months and may not be a great time to be on a boat or snorkelling anyway??

Any thoughts?? thanks heaps

I can recommend Mana Island if you think it's worth the effort. The ferry(South Sea Cruises Fiji) departs at 9am from Denarau Marina (you can catch their shuttle bus across from the airport in front of Raffles Gateway Hotel) and arrives at Mana at 10:25. Your return ferry would leave Mana at 10:25am 2 days later and arrive back at Denarau at 12 noon - plenty of time to get to the airport. Mana has great snorkeling off the beach(tidal), super nice beaches and a couple of short hikes for views. Mana Island Resort might be in your budget and it does offer a pretty good buffet breakfast(although a bit pricey). You could also have a look at the backpackers places, which are a lot cheaper - Ratu Kini is moving a bit more midrange with their newer accommodation. If you opt to not try the island, I can suggest the Raffles Gateway Hotel - it has a great pool with slide, a pool table for your teens - the buffet breakfast is alright if you order the eggs option. We have taken the bus from there into Nadi which is really only worth a short excursion. You can also book a snorkeling day trip(SSC Fiji) from there as they have a tour desk in the lobby. If you don't want to bother with all your luggage for your short stay, there is a left luggage facility at the airport that you can avail of.

Brilliant!
Thanks heaps. I will check out Manna - exactly the kind of information I was after.

Any comments about the climate in January and whether the snorkelling is any good?
your comments much appreciated.

I have not been there in January so I have no personal insight for that time. But I can suggest you check out www.wunderground.com - it is a great site for checking weather. You can check out what the weather was like for your dates going back quite a number of years. It usually breaks the information down into hourly(sometimes 4 hour blocks depending on information they can get from certain locations) stages, so you can see just when it rained, how long and if heavy/light, etc. While not a forecast, it will let you see what it was like and you can get a fairly good idea of what to expect. I have found the information excellent for helping decide our travel plans.

The snorkeling is quite good off the North Beach (we did not try the South Beach) - you will see some coral damage from recent storms but on the whole it is in great shape - lots of fish and they have a conservation program on going- if you check out the Mana Island Resort Facebook page you should get to see some photos of the reefs/fish/turtles,etc. - enjoy!!

Thanks again. I have been checking out the prices and it seems around $A800 return for the Ferry... Does that seem right? Kinda pricey. I also saw a post on this forum about flights ( might be an old posting) there which are at all similar in price to the ferry, but our travel agent says there re no longer any flights to Mana Island. Does that seem right too? We might bite the bullet and go for Mana but I wouldn't mind just checking out any other place that might be still good for snorkeling, beaches and walks but easier (and cheaper) to get to..... Coral coast any good? Any ideas for places... Then we'll make our decision!

Looking on the website is so slow an all the resorts sound good of course! Hanks again!

Cheers,

Unfortunately it is pricey getting to the islands - it was almost $300Cdn for us in July so your price sounds great for 4. I don't know anything about the flights but I do know there were landings at the airport when we were there but I believe they were helicopters. If you want really up to date info you should check out the Fiji Forum at Tripadvisor - lots of active posters there with a couple of dedicated Mana Island experts - I found them to be quite helpful when planning our trip.

if you want Coral Coast the best beach in Fiji is at Natadola at the intercontinental Hotel, high end budget, their buffet breakfast and dinner is realy something, there is a recent post from someone looking to get there at a reasonable price.

for a budget resort you could go to the Beach house, their food is also good and you walk straight out to the water. I would google both to make up your mind.

Thanks again guys, great ideas and I'll definately have a look!

Cheers,

Thanks for all your advice, very useful!

We have decided to go very down market in Fiji and just stay somewhere cheap, see how the weather is at the time, and maybe do a day snorkeling trip or an island tour, something or just chill out.

So we'll treat it just as a 'taste of Fiji', and put the emphasis on our USA road trip!

Thanks all