Here's our final Fiji Blog, an account of our accomodations...
My track
record for booking accommodation is pretty good. I have found affordable gems
in Italy, USA, Canada and NZ. I was feeling pretty
confident when I started planning our trip to Fiji. My confidence set me up for
disaster! I started my research a good month in advance and found great deals
on flights. I usually scour Expedia looking for deals and then read as many
hotel reviews before making a decision. My plan for Fiji was Heaven on a Budget.
Initially it might look like my plan is impossible but when you have a couple
other vacations under your belt you feel pretty cocky. I was sure I would be
able to save on some cheaper accommodation at the start of our trip so that I
could splurge later. It turns out that it is possible to accomplish a
progression of budget to decadence it was just not possible in the places I
booked.
When I read
hotel reviews, as with anything on the internet, I am sceptical of the source
of the review. I generally picture the authors of hotel reviews as late
bloomers that regularly send meals back in fast food restaurants and wet the
bed until adulthood. The parameters I gave my self were to find:
-
Coastal
resorts with access to the Mamanuca Island Chain
-
Included
breakfast so that we would have the ability to load up on PB and J if we were
feeling extra cheap
-
Generally
positive reviews of food and location
I did not
feel that this was going to be too hard to meet my goals. Fiji consists of 303 Islands
surrounded by coral. I figured that you could easily visit the “real” Fiji
islands from lesser resorts.
The first hotel I booked was the Tropics of Capricorn.
This was the biggest mistake of my travel career. When we arrived we were happy
that they paid for our taxi from the airport, and upon arrival we saw a great
view, (the next picture). It turned out that we weren't staying in the same
building. We waited 1/2 an hour before our room was ready and when it was, we
were taken around the block to a non-descript building guarded by a large stray
dog in an over run yard. When we got in the room we were treated to spider
nests in the blinds, broken screens, garbage in the bathtub, and trash in the
cupboards. A lovely touch was the Christmas lights strung up instead of working
room lighting... We tried to suck it up because we booked 3 nights here, but
both of us suffered major allergies and we found another room in a near by
hostel the next morning.
STOP 1: Tropics of Capricorn
Our Review: Total Failure (0 stray dogs out of 5)
A beautiful view from our disaster of a first stop.
Some creatures that we met along our travels.
Our second stop was for one week at the
Anchorage Beach Resort. This
resort offered good value with a variety of things to do near by. The major
downfall was the food but a short walk away was a marina where we were able to
eat better meals and for less money. All we had to do was follow the sugar cane
tracks...these were easy to find because they were two steps out our door. The
room was huge, clean, and had a small patio to have our evening drinks and
enjoy a show of giant Batman Bats!
It was from this resort that we went to Beachcomber Island two times
- the sister resort, and where we went snorkelling.
STOP 2: Anchorage Beach Resort
Our Review: Good (3 Sugarcane stocks out of 5)
We had a great view when the tide was high, but when it was out the "beach" was quite pathetic.
We had some great Papaya here, and I even tried to farm some
on my own by throwing sticks and rocks up the papaya trees - narrowly missing
Jess on several occasions. Also, Fanta is great. But Pineapple Fanta is
amazing.
Our final stay was 4 nights at Sonaisali Island Resort.
As the name suggests, this resort was alone on an island just a short 5 minute
boat ride from Fiji
main land - an Olympic long jumper could make it over easily. This was to be
our "treat" finale resort, and it was in many respects. We stayed in
a beautiful water front bure - the Fijian word for cabin or hut. We
had a huge living space, a large deck, and private recliners by the water. The
resort made some great bread for breakfast toast and all of their sandwiches,
but as far as the rest of the food goes we were pretty disappointed with the
lack of quality and the huge price tags.
STOP 3: Sonaisali Island Resort
Our Review: Good (3 Falling Coconuts out of 5)
Our water front bure. We had the spot on the right, and if you look close
you can see me mooning Jess as she took this shot unaware...
We were treated by a visit from a hawk on the ledge of our
railing a couple of times
You aren't truly living, until you are sleeping with three pillows. Luxury.
Our pool side spot most nights. Many Fiji Bitters were consumed at happy hour because it was too expensive any other time.
This was the coconut warning written in the resort manual. On several
occasions we could hear the loud thud of a coconut falling from inside our
bure. We didn't see any coconut casualties.
And finally, our new friend Katich, ('little guy' in
Fijian), is pictured below. He was our cab driver for our entire stay. Although
we drove in a straight line, his steering wheel pointed several degrees to the
right. We decided it was a character cab, and a true rural road vehicle. He
drove us from each resort and also took us into Nadi for
authentic Fiji Indian food. This was the only good food we ate here. The
waitress gave us the plate of peppers in case we wanted to make it spicier.
Katich told us many things in our short trips together.
Mostly it made us feel good that he was a trained light weight boxer, (very
light weight), and could hopefully defend us in any potential Nadi town brawl. Happily this training was never put to the test, and we had a safe and enjoyable holiday.
