Cyclone season starts in November and goes through to April for the South Pacific. I am putting that statement here at the very start of this blog in the hopes people will read this and keep it in their minds when planning their next escape. If you want to remove additional stress when travelling to these incredible locations with your family, please remember this period isn’t the best time to travel with a family. Sure, you may want some risk in your life, travelling to the islands on the chance they get hit by an intense weather event, go for gold, but at Zest4Travel we put your safety and enjoyment above a cheap price to go somewhere and will give you the same warning when you book with us.
Now for the actual family trip.
Bula!
Flying from Christchurch to Nadi with Fiji Airways in the last quarter of 2023 (before cyclone season) was an absolute delight. Our children were 7 and 8 at the time, and the Fiji Airways crew looked after us all superbly whilst on our exciting adventure. Entertainment on the flight was decent, it wasn’t as seamless as say Air New Zealand, but it certainly did the trick. The food was standard and enjoyed by our not very fussy kids. A couple of standard drinks were enjoyed by my husband and I knowing we didn’t have to drive on arrival.
Once through immigration and customs which was faster than our transfer company expected, it was a 30 minute drive to the Sofitel Fiji Resort on Denarau Island where we stayed in a Family Room. This room configuration was perfect for what we required as a family, and they do have other options available. The Family Room has bunk beds in their own little room with a sliding door, allowing my husband and I to enjoy another separate area with a bed and tv, but still close to the kids. The bathroom was nearly as large as the living area, the shower itself could hold the whole family at once if you needed. These rooms had been recently done up so very modern and clean. Unfortunately, noise would travel from the corridor easily through the main door, and being the room closest to the walkways that join 3 other hotel sections together, a couple of nights were quite noisy, but as we were on the bottom floor we had a sliding door straight out onto the grass via our patio which was superb for the kids to run around, do cartwheels and find frogs at night, this door was soundproof.
The resort facilities include a family fun swimming pool with a simple water slide, a playground which backs onto the kids club, 7 dining areas not including room service and although the beach wasn’t a swimming beach, they did have free activities like fish feeding, kayaks, paddle boards on offer. There is an adult’s only area to keep away from noisy families like ours. Although we didn’t use the kids club, a couple of families that our kids befriended said that it was great, they weren’t going to use it for multiple days, but the kids had so much fun they requested to go back the next day. Breakfast was a highlight for all with endless options on offer and most importantly, good coffee. If you want sushi for breakfast, or ice cream, or French patisseries, Indian style dishes, bacon & eggs, cereal, toast and spreads, they have it! In the evenings you can have dinner at the resort with multiple options available or you can take the Bula bus or walk to the town of Denarau where there are many different restaurants to choose from, which is what we did for our evenings.
The Bula bus, if you haven’t heard of this before, is a lot of fun & a cheap way to get around Denarau for just $11FJD per adult per day or $35 FJD for a 5-day pass (Kids under 12 travel free with a valid ticket holder) it’s the relaxed way to travel. The bus visits all the major resorts on the Island in a loop and stops off at Denarau Township, the golf course, Big Bula Waterpark (The biggest and only waterpark on the island) and you can get your tickets from your accommodation.
Visting the outer islands is a fantastic family adventure and there are a few different companies that you can use to get out there from Denarau. The team here at Zest4Travel can book exactly what you need. For us, we went on a family friendly trip to South Seas Island on the Finding Nemo South Seas Cruises tour. This is a great trip for young families who may not be confident in water as well as those who can swim. It’s an early start where South Seas Cruises will pick you up from your accommodation and you depart Denarau at 8:45am on one of their high-speed ferries. On arrival at the island 30 minutes from port, you jump onto tender boats for a beach landing as the ferries are too big to dock. You are welcomed with music and songs from locals on the coral beach, you certainly want to wear appropriate beach shoes. Once on the Island there are a few activities to choose from, the 1st is the glass bottom boat where you sit in the hull of the boat with glass sides and shown the beautiful reef, the 2nd is a boat snorkeling experience where they take you further out and feed fish bringing massive schools close to the boat. The snorkeling experience is incredible if you have water confident children. They supply life jackets for the kids to wear and adults if needed on the island and we were lucky to be given the life ring so the whole family could float together looking down. This was our children’s 1st time snorkeling and our eldest was a little scared to be in the deep water, but after getting her to look down in the water with her mask and snorkel, the happy scream of excitement that came through the snorkel was priceless. The kids didn’t want to get out of the ocean when the time was up. If you didn’t want to do the glass bottom boat or the boat snorkeling trip, you can grab your own snorkeling gear and walk to a safe shallow area on the island and snorkel there or use the free kayaks and paddleboards on offer. After our snorkeling trip we enjoyed a free drink and relaxed before heading back on the high-speed ferry to Denarau just in time for lunch.
