Mrs. AAR had wanted to visit Fiji for her 50th birthday ("Fiji for 50!"), which wasn't possible at the time. So now only a few years later . . .
If you need to visit Fiji, it's more than likely you will get there via Fiji Airways, which requires a long line to check-in, an onerous check-in process, a long line to board, and then another long line on the other side of the boarding agent.
My trip didn’t get off to a good start, as at LAX, Fiji Airways wanted to charge me $250 USD because my carry-on bag weighed more than 15 pounds. So I had to open it up on the floor and transfer some of my stuff into my personal item (a large fabric bag) right there at the counter. I’ve seen other people do this at the airport before and thought "What a bonehead" and . . . well now I was the bonehead.
The joke was on them though as immediately after I cleared TSA I put everything back in my carry-on.
As Fiji is a former British colony, it all reminded me of a story I read about the Calcutta Stock Exchange and how complicated and costly it was to trade stocks, as the only thing the Indians kept from the British was the bureaucracy.
The 11-hour flight in economy was brutal, are the seats getting smaller or am I growing? My knees ached for two days.
All international flights to Fiji arrive at Nadi (NAN), which is pronounced: "non-dee." To then get to Suva, the capital requires a four-hour bus ride. I emailed this fact to Mrs. AAR while this trip was still in the planning stages. Documentation which came in quite handy, as soon after boarding the bus and realizing what was what, she said "Four hours on a bus, I'm going to kill you!"
It costs $22 FJD ($10 USD) and departs from directly under the N in Nandi, out front of the domestic terminal.
All the websites indicate the trip is four hours, but this is done to make this odyssey appear just a little more palatable - it's actually 4.5 hours. The bus is a coach bus which in this case means it's like flying coach, only in a smaller seat and without in-flight entertainment, free beer, or a lavatory. It's only 145 winding and hilly miles which means that for the entire journey, the bus was traveling entirely too slow (except for the times it was traveling entirely too fast). It also included too many stops, including one to drop off what appeared to be some fast food.
There was actually some in-flight entertainment as a movie was played on a tiny TV located above the driver's head. The movie was The Wolverine, though the sound was so low you couldn't hear a thing except when Wolverine kills someone and then you are awakened by a loud disembodied scream (note: if you have never seen the movie, Wolverine kills a lot of people).
It dropped us off at the Suva bus station which was then a $3.90 FJD (5 min) taxi drive to . . .
You've traveled halfway across the earth and then all the way across Fiji's main island, Viti Levu (also called "the mainland"), so don't you want to stay at someplace with a little style and comfort? If you do, there are two options:
1. The Grand Pacific Hotel is the grande dame of Fiji hotels. Built in 1914 in a steamship-plantation architectural style, with a spacious central hall that ends in a very dignified doorman wearing a salu standing under a very dignified porte-cochere, which allows your taxi to drop you off in a very dignified manner. It all has a very British feel as you can easily imagine businessmen in a bygone age in seersucker suits, drinking G&Ts while reading The Times ("I say old man . . . "). When the Queen visited in 1953, needless to say, this is where she lodged.
2. Rather strangely the Holiday Inn Suva is the other staying-in style option. Built in 1968, it has a rather ordinary though efficient lobby with oddly, a bakeshop adjacent to the front desk. As with its neighbor the Grand Pacific Hotel, it is an InterContinental (IHG) property which gives a guest the illusion of choice. It’s a little busier and trendier, and less stately, with a queerly shaped, unlapable pool. It's also a little cheaper but either way, you're still lookin' at well over two (US) bills a night.
I know you may find this hard to believe, but I actually booked the Grand Pacific Hotel.
The plan was to use Dicta 3 of the AAR Lodging Protocol to book four nights (via booking.com, completely cancelable at $250 USD/night - inclusive of tax and the ubiquitous 2.5% Fiji credit card fee) and use that time to get the lay of the land to then figure out the next move. Well on day two, we decided to extend for two extra days. The consummate leader, I empowered Mrs. AAR to negotiate the extension which should have been as straightforward as determining how much the two days would cost via booking.com, and then contacting the front desk to get a better/equal rate. It was not, as after contact she had to wait for over two hours for a rate that was 150% of the booking.com rate, so she booked via booking.com at $256 USD/night (inc. tax).
I subsequently discussed this with the general manager. Not sure if it will lead to any process changes for your stay, but it did get us free morning breakfast for the balance of ours.
Even taking into account the rate kerfuffle, our stay was quite enjoyable mostly due to a large sumptuous room with a blissful harbor view, a very friendly staff, free sumptuous breakfasts (due to my aforementioned negotiating skills, and what must have been some kind of bookkeeping issue) and a very long and very cold pool. Perfect for laps and more blissful views of the Suva Harbor. Its coldness isn’t a complaint as it was quite refreshing and kept all the other guests out, making it in the end my personal pool.
According to its Facebook page, Tiko's Floating Restaurant is "Fiji's one and only floating restaurant specializing in fresh seafood and steak located in Suva Harbour." It's a statement that could lead an English major to think that there may be another floating restaurant in Fiji devoted to barbecue or Mexican. It was also recommended to me by someone at the pool so . . .
It's an intimate and romantic restaurant located quite close to the Grand Pacific Hotel that serves delicious walu, lobster, prawns, and roro (Fijian creamed spinach; except instead of cream they use coconut cream and instead of spinach they use taro leaves). All that and live music. If you're in Suva it's a must eat. Warning: the place is floating, which I find rather relaxing and romantic, but others may find is the route to motion sickness.
Paradiso Restaurant is a short walk across the street from the Grand Pacific Hotel to the other side of Prince Albert Park. Not as fancy (or as floating) as Tiko's, but still good eats.
A guy from the NY Times spent some time in Suva in 2023, specifically because most visitors do not. The idea of going where "tourists" don't is what attracted me to the place. As I walked around the downtown area, it made me think of the time I spent in Maputo, Mozambique, as it was quite obvious I looked very different then everyone else.
The NY Times guy specifically mentioned having a drink at two private clubs that admit guests; the Defense Club and the Merchant's Club. Unfortunately, as the former had recently burned down, I could only visit the less manly named later club.
The Merchant's Club was formed by Indo-Fijian businessmen to socialize, play snooker, and drink cheap draught beer. It's a nice place to chat with the locals, including the manager, who almost immediately after meeting, invited us to his home for dinner. I immediately thought that this man must be either the kindest man I ever met in my travels or a serial killer. Either way, we were down, though as we were flying out in two days our schedules didn't allow it.
A number of people had mentioned we needed to visit the Fiji Museum ($20 FJD). The place was ok. As I had previously visited Easter Island and lived in Hawaii, I was interested in how Fiji was settled by Austronesians, a subject which the museum doesn’t cover, though oddly it does detail the migration of Indians in the late 1800s. It also unsurprisingly doesn't cover the relationship between these two very distinct groups of Fijian citizens (indigenousness Fijians and Indo-Fijians) as it's a subject that has led to numerous coups in the last 45 years.
This was unscientifically confirmed by an Indo-Fijian cab driver¹ that unsolicited, had some very unkind things to say about indigenous Fijians.
As it’s the only real museum in Fiji, it does warrant a drop-in. Mrs. ARR though really enjoyed the place, particularly an exhibit about a woman who was doing extensive work to save the coral reefs in Fiji. A woman she subsequently contacted, so we could stay at her resort on Tavauni Island during Part II of our Fijian adventure.
After inspecting the Suva Market, en route the Merchant’s Club, I noticed a bar on the second floor of the building across the street. The Metropole was filled with locals with not a Caucasian face to be seen. A perfect location for . . . #AARBeerOclock, and after navigating a steep utilitarian staircase I was inside a very dark and noisy bar. I saw a door on my right leading to the veranda and made a break for daylight. And the next thing I knew I was chatting with some locals while slaking my thirst via a gigundo bottle of Fiji Gold.
I surveyed my fellow man: some drinking kava out of a communal bowl, others with a bucket of beer, with a few smoking local cigarettes that smelled like stogies - with everyone listening to the soundtrack of Fiji (a rotation of what sounded like Hawaiian music and Reggae, but which are all 100% Fijian). It was nice to chat with some of the patrons, one of whose wife whose visiting the States. To me, this is what travel is all about.
Odds and Sods
1. ATM fees in Suva range from $10-15 FJD ($4.5 - $6.65 USD): My NFCU ATM card did not work in Fiji (even after repeated calls to customer service) and was thankful that I packed a Capital One backup card, as well as a few hundred bucks of USD. BRED bank appears to offer the lowest ATM fee at $10 FJD.
2. Credit cards are accepted in most places in Suva though most charge a 2.5% credit card fee for international credit cards. Why? Because they can.
3. "Bula" is "Hello" in Fijian. Everyone says it when they see you with such genuineness and smileyness, that you will find yourself saying it to everyone you meet.
4. Fijians are a soft-spoken bunch which generally can be a very nice quality (Gary Cooperish), though if you worked around marine power generating equipment for a significant portion of one's life, after speaking with a Fijian it could require you to lean forward and say "I'm sorry, what did you just say?"
Endnotes: I wanted to provide some very specific details that while vaguely interesting did not contribute to the overall narrative. Perhaps just wait until the end to enjoy.
¹ This same cabbie provided us with a very memorable memory: When talking about the smorgasbord of Fijian religion, Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Islam, and even Mormonism, I asked Bapu if there were any Jews. He replied "What kind?" which I thought was strangely specific, when I replied "Hmmmm, Sephardic?", he then said, "No, but we have pineapple juice."
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