The international borders are beginning to open up down here in New Zealand! Mark and I decided to check another Pacific Island off our list: Fiji. Due to a new public holiday, Matariki, we booked our flights and accommodation over a long weekend so we only had to take 1 day off work.
Only a 3 hour flight from Auckland, we landed in Nadi around 2pm. Being the same time zone made traveling very easy 🙂
Mark was able to use hotel points so we chose the Marriott Momi Bay as our hotel. It is a good hour drive South of the airport, and they do not have a shuttle. Catching a cab from the airport was $70 one way for both of us.
This resort is famous for its overwater bungalows. Although they are super cool to look at, I would recommend staying at an oceanfront villa instead. We opted to splurge on drinks and food so were able to stay free with a bay view suite. We booked at Fish Bar for our first night and enjoyed one of the best places to watch the sunset in Fiji.
Fish Bar is also the “Adults Only” section of the resort. They have an infinity pool, cabanas, and 2 happy hours a day.
Although this was our preferred place to relax, for obvious reasons, I did not think the area was big enough for the amount of guests at the hotel. Yes, there were a lot of families, but I would say about 40% were couples which saw this area having few to no seats. It was not relaxing to always keep eye on who was leaving so you could take their lounger.
We had friends staying closer to town in Denarau, so we met them on Friday for a day trip to Cloud9. This is an excursion you definitely need to book beforehand, as they arrange your transportation. We were picked up at 11:30am for a 1pm sail.
Cloud9 is a floating bar and club! You are on the boat for about 4 hours, which is plenty enough time for soaking up the sun, drinking, dancing, eating and jumping into the water.
For $229 Fiji dollars, $165 NZD, I thought it was a great deal as this included transfer from hotel to the port, return boat journey and a $60 bar tab to use on food and drinks.
Saturday was our only full day at the resort so we decided to check out the entire property. The closest restaurant from our room was The Lagoon House. The bar was connected to the pool and had swim up access on the one side!
We ate at the Lagoon House for dinner Friday, and their menu was Mediterranean. Fish Bar is seafood based. The other main place to dine was Goji. This was closest to the main entrance and included a buffet for breakfast.
Since we did not have an all inclusive meal plan, we ordered a-la-carte. Honestly, we did not feel the service was that great for dinning a-la-carte. It took a very long time to get our order taken and drinks refilled.
There were also 2 other places to eat, however they were more bar food. This was the Lagoon Lounge, just a short walk from reception, and Voi Voi. The Lagoon Lounge had live music every night, while the Voi Voi specialized on Fiji cuisine and rum. There was a kava night there twice a week.
Overall, we had a good stay. That said, I would not stay here again for a few reasons:
- I’ve learned I do not like resorts. I would rather stay at a hotel and be able to choose my own activities and food venues.
- It was too far from anything, you felt you couldn’t leave the resort. Yes there were heaps of things to do, but I’m not a type of traveler who wants to be stuck at a resort.
- Unhospitable staff. When we reported our room didn’t have coffee, they just dumped a bunch on the table. At the same time I reported no coffee I told them our safe wasn’t working… this did not get repaired nor did I hear about it being looked at. The front desk tried to overcharge us for a taxi back to the airport!
I would go back to Fiji if I stayed in Denarau to be closer to the Nadi Market, and or spent most of the visit on another smaller Island.
Have you been to Fiji? What did you think of this Island Nation?