6 Fiji islands that belong on your bucket list

With more than 330 islands to choose from, exploring Fiji can resemble a giant jig-saw puzzle – you simply don’t know where to begin!

Some of its islands are already familiar to you, thanks to Hollywood. Their natural beauty pops out like a picture postcard from a more innocent time, with fine white sand and sweeping swathes of coconut palms.

So if you’ve been dreaming of South Pacific getaways, here are six reasons to visit Fiji and say “Bula” (hello) to its amazing islands.

 Monuriki

The Mamanucas form a chain of emerald and turquoise islands so perfect they should only exist in fantasies. One of them in particular may be familiar to you: Monuriki is the island where Tom Hanks was marooned in the movie Castaway. The island is uninhabited, but you can go on a tour around the movie’s key locations (they can even rent you the DVD if you haven’t seen it!) It’s a turtle nesting site, and you can go snorkelling, but surely the biggest attraction is the cachet of saying you’ve been a “castaway” in real life?

Viti Levu

Half of Fiji’s population lives on Viti Levu and in its capital city Suva, which has everything you would expect of any South Pacific capital – a parliament house, a museum, lots of hotels and bars, and a colourful, vibrant produce market. It’s the largest island in the archipelago, and as such is very ‘touristy’. For some people that’s a positive sign that all mod cons will present and correct; for others, the vital sense of exploration will be missing. There are no dreamy beaches near Suva, but the trip to Colo-i-Suva Forest Park will make up for this. This is Fiji at its most commercial.

Nananu-i-Ra

From the air, Nananu-i-Ra looks like a collection of skinny promontories – at its thinnest it’s only 100m across! There are a number of self-contained cottages set back from the beach that allow you to cook your own meals and move at your own pace, but no large resort or the bars, shops, etc, that come with it. The coral shallows just off the shore have that turquoise hue that makes them perfect for snorkelling, windsurfing and diving. One of the least touristy islands, Nananu-i-Ra is still only a couple of kilometres from Viti Levu.

The Yasawas

The 1980 flick The Blue Lagoon with Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins was shot on the Yasawa island of Nanuya Lailai, and you can see why. These islands have dramatic mountain backdrops, rather than the flat, coral atoll look of Nananu-i-Ra. The only way to get to the Yasawas is by a catamaran known as the Yasawa Flyer out of Nadi, but once there you can kayak, snorkel and sail to your heart’s content. Do a three-day scuba course and dive with manta rays from May to October.

Vanua Levu This is where the TV show Survivor Fiji was filmed, which should give you a clue to its nature: modern and comfortable enough to accommodate a TV crew, with enough sandy coves and coconut groves for contestants to plot and scheme in. Less touristy than its larger sibling Viti Levu, Vanua Levu is big enough to have hiking trails through those areas not given to the sugar cane industry that dominates the island. A history of escaped Australian convicts and European copra, sandalwood and sugarcane concerns means there’s a colourful expat community in the main town, Savusavu. Hire a car and take a tour of the old plantations to understand why these islands defined the European dream of a tropical paradise.

Ovalau

The main town on Ovalau, Levuka, used to be Fiji’s capital. This means that unlike most islands in Fiji you will find historical European-style buildings here, reminders of the islands’ colonial past (Fiji was a British colony from 1874 to 1970). A ferry takes you from Suva to Levuka and Ovalau Holiday Resort, or the Royal Hotel, which claims to be the oldest continuously run hotel in the South Pacific. Here is the place to sip a G&T while reclining on rattan furniture as the ceiling fans turn slowly above you. The Catholic and Anglican churches, mission school, and the Ovalau Club will add to your exploration of Fiji’s colonial past, as will the local characters you meet.

Even if you visit all of the above, there remain hundreds of islands to discover in Fiji. These are just the first steps in your exploration of this South Pacific Island Paradise.

(Feature image: stevetulk; Search flights to Fiji image by Roderick Eime)