Fiji Facts

From the gateway city Nadi with its numerous shopping and dining possibilities, it's only a quick commuter hop to the enticing Mamanuca Group with about half of Fiji's resorts. The long, narrow Yasawa Group off the sugar city Lautoka is wilder, mightier, and less developed than the Mamanucas: The beaches are longer, the jungle-clad mountains higher, and the accommodations rougher. It's Fiji's most magnificent island chain.

Ships, buses, and planes depart Suva for every corner of the republic. It's a fascinating place to explore.

Several adjacent islands allow one to escape from Suva. Kadavu to the south is a characteristic Fijian island of small villages strewn between beaches and hills, but it is also a mecca for scuba divers who come for the Astrolabe Reef, and for surfers who have discovered Kadavu's waves. Back toward Viti Levu is Yanuca with inexpensive beach camps full of enthusiastic surfers.

The 486-km highway around Viti Levu passes a series of appealing cities and towns with bustling markets, bus stations, shops, cafes, clubs, monuments, and facilities of every kind. The Coral Coast in the south is the country's second resort area, with a series of large hotels nicely spaced between Nadi and Pacific Harbor. Pacific Harbor itself offers access to some of the best diving, fishing, kayaking, white-water rafting, and golfing in the South Pacific, and Nananu-i-Ra off Viti Levu's north coast is a favorite of backpackers.

Repeat visitors and local Fijians often assert that Taveuni is Fiji's finest isle, a claim which is difficult to deny. Taveuni's high spine is draped in impenetrable rainforest, with huge coconut plantations tumbling to the coast. Magnificent waterfalls pour down the steep slopes, and the scuba diving is world famous.