Travel advice for Fiji
From travel safety to visa requirements, discover the best tips for traveling to Fiji
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From travel safety to visa requirements, discover the best tips for traveling to Fiji
On the ground travel tipps and advice for Fiji from A to Z. All the practical information you need for travelling to Fiji.
Hostel accommodation will set you back around F$40 a person for a dorm bed, or F$85 per person including meals at the popular Yasawa backpacker resorts. Town hotel rooms start from around F$70, with double or twin rooms often the same price as a single. A moderate beach resort starts from F$200 for a room, the more popular holiday resorts cost from F$350 and a luxury boutique resort will set you back anything from F$500 to over F$2000 per night.
Food on the whole is reasonably cheap, with local produce offering by far the best value, especially when purchased from the roadside or at municipal markets. Supermarket shelves tend to be dominated by more expensive imported food items, mostly canned and restricted in variety. Dining out is affordable, with cheap restaurant counter food costing from F$5 a serving, and main dishes ordered from a menu from F$9 to F$25; resort restaurants are invariably more expensive.
Travelling around Viti Levu by public transport is especially cheap, with the five-hour journey from Nadi to Suva costing just F$22, and local journeys starting from 80 cents. Visiting the offshore or outer islands is going to eat up a larger chunk of your budget. For example, the hop-on, hop-off boat pass along the Yasawas costs F$191 for seven days; and a domestic flight to Taveuni can cost up to F$250 one way, although discounted fares are usually available via airline websites and can almost match passenger ferry rates, which cost from F$65 between Suva and Taveuni.
Every traveller over twelve years of age departing Fiji pays a departure tax of F$200, although this is pre-paid in the cost of your airline ticket.
With machismo entrenched in Fijian culture, sexual harassment can be an issue for female travellers – a firm “not interested” should ward off any unwanted attention while all the usual precautions apply, such as avoiding walking alone at night. If in need of assistance contact the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (w fijiwomen.com) in Nadi (t 670 7558), Ba (t 667 0466), Suva (t 331 3300) or Labasa (t 881 4609). Domestic violence, or “wife bashing” as it’s rather crudely known in Fiji, is also disturbingly prevalent, and a bruised eye is seldom concealed or reported to the authorities. At the same time Fijians are a respectful society and treat each other and especially visitors with kindness.
Although commonly smoked by young urban Fijians, marijuana possession is strictly illegal and is strongly discouraged in more traditional rural areas where it is perceived as a dangerous evil – if a village youth is caught smoking more than once, public floggings may result. The official penalty for marijuana possession is three months in jail, so consider wisely before indulging.
The Fijian police are for the most part helpful, with police stations in all towns and major settlements. Larger towns have additional posts in busy areas.
A maximum two-month visa extension may be made on application with the Immigration Department at Nadi Airport or Suva, but there are no provisions for stays beyond six months for any overseas nationals unless obtaining resident status or work/student visas.
All visitors are required to fill out standard immigration cards upon arrival. The card must be surrendered to Fiji immigration authorities upon departure.
Belgium Embassy of the Republic of Fiji, 92–94 Square Plasky, 1030 Bruxelles t 32 2 736 9050.
New Zealand High Commission of the Republic of Fiji, 31 Pipitea St, Thorndon, Wellington t 04 473 5401.
UK and Ireland High Commission of the Republic of Fiji, 34 Hyde Park Gate, London SW7 5DN t 020 7584 3661.
US Embassy of the Republic of Fiji, 2000 M St NW, Suite 710, Washington DC 20036 t 202 466 8320.
European Union Commission, 4th floor, Development Bank Centre, Suva t 331 3633.
Federated States of Micronesia 37 Loftus Rd, Suva t 330 4566.
Kiribati 38 McGregor Rd, Suva t 330 2512.
New Zealand Pratt St, Suva t 331 1422.
Tuvalu 16 Gorrie St, Suva t 330 1355.
UK High Commission, 47 Gladstone Rd, Suva t 322 9100.
US Embassy, 158 Princes Rd, Tamavua t 337 1110.
For unlimited Wi-Fi on the go whilst travelling Fiji, buy a Skyroam Solis, which works in 130+ countries at one flat daily rate, paid for on a pay-as-you-go basis. You can connect up to five devices at once. Prices start from as little as €5 a day.
International students may apply for enrolment at the University of the South Pacific (w www.usp.com.fj, t 323 1000) on either a cross-credit semester or a full-time course, providing you have attained a High School certificate pass or similar from your home country. There’s no age limit for enrolment and a student visa is granted to all successful applicants providing a clean police record and clear medical including a negative HIV test.
Alternatively, a variety of marine conservation organizations offer unpaid or even you-pay internships for periods lasting a week to several months.
Otherwise, if you have a large chunk of money you’re willing to invest and you can find a local partner who must hold at least a fifty-percent shareholding, you can set up or purchase a business. Specific questions should be addressed to Investment Fiji (t 331 5988; w investmentfiji.org.fj), headquartered at Civic Tower on Victoria Parade in Suva, with another office on Naviti Street in Lautoka.
Post can be slow, especially posting items to Fiji and it’s not uncommon for letters to take three weeks from North America or Europe, with delivery to the outer islands often taking an additional week. Posting items from Fiji is cheap and somewhat quicker, with letters to Europe commonly taking less than ten days. All letters and postcards should be labelled with an airmail sticker otherwise they may go by boat, taking months to arrive. UPS, DHL and Federal Express all have offices in Suva and Nadi, although Post Fiji’s in-house courier service, EMS, is considerably cheaper.
Stamps are available from most hotels and gift shops, as well as some bookstores. Public mail boxes are very rare, and you should always find the nearest post office to mail important items; most resorts, especially those on the outer islands, will post letters for you.
Poste restante is available at all post offices. Letters should be marked “General Delivery, Poste Restante”, followed by the location of the post office and your name. Letters will be held for two months – for post sent to Nadi, be sure to specify either Nadi Town or Nadi Airport. To receive a parcel in Fiji, you must clear it through the post office’s customs counter (Mon–Fri 10am–11am & 2pm–3pm), and pay a service charge plus any customs or import duty.
For 1:250,000 topographical maps of the individual islands and 1:15,000 town maps (around F$8–9 each), contact the Lands and Survey Department (t 321 1395, w www.lands.gov.fj) or visit the Map Shop on the ground floor and at the back of Government Buildings in Suva, or the Government Bookshop on Rodwell Road, also in Suva.
Travellers’ cheques tend only to be accepted by hotels or cashed at banks, but credit cards are widely accepted, although only Visa and MasterCard, and very occasionally AMEX; all usually incur a service charge of around 4 percent. If visiting the Yasawas, bear in mind some resorts are cash-only environments whereas others insist everything is payable by credit card at the end of your stay; check with the resort beforehand.
ATM machines are available in all towns on Viti Levu except Tavua and Korovou, in Levuka on Ovalau, at Savusavu and Labasa on Vanua Levu and at Naqara on Taveuni, as well as at Nadi Airport, the Nadi branch of McDonald’s, the shopping mall in Port Denarau and several of the large hotel chains in Nadi and along the Coral Coast. If you plan on using your debit card or credit card at an ATM, make sure you have a personal identification number (PIN) that’s designated to work overseas.
Having money wired from home is never convenient or cheap and should only be considered as a last resort. The post office acts as general agents for Western Union (w westernunion.com), which has branches at Nadi Airport, Nadi Town, Lautoka and Suva; MoneyGram (w moneygram.com) operates via Westpac Bank and some Morris Hedstrom supermarkets. Direct bank transfers are also possible but you’ll need the address and swift code of the bank branch where you want to pick up the money and the address and swift code of the bank’s Suva head office which will act as the clearing house; money wired this way usually takes two working days to arrive and costs around £25/US$40 per transaction.
The cheapest option of all though, is taking advantage of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls (for example w skype.com) from an Internet café.
Local calls have become substantially cheaper in recent years. If calling overseas, landline costs remain prohibitive, with most destinations costing 75¢ per minute, often with a hefty surcharge billed when calling from hotel rooms. Consider buying a telephone charge card from your phone company back home. Using a PIN number, you can make calls from most hotel, public and private phones that will be charged to your account, but check to see Fiji is covered and bear in mind that rates aren’t necessarily cheaper than calling from a public phone.
The government-funded Fiji Visitor Bureau (FVB) provides basic tourist information through its website w fiji.travel. Its head office is sited in an obscure location at the Colonial Plaza in Namaka, Nadi (Mon–Thurs 8am–4.30pm, Fri 8am–4pm; t 672 2433); you can pick up several useful tourist publications here, including Affordable Guide and Fiji Dive Guide, but there are no staff on hand to help with travel enquiries or bookings.
Two of the outer-island regions have established their own privately funded tourism organizations: the Savusavu Tourism Association (w fiji-savusavu.com); and the Taveuni Tourism Association (w puretaveuni.com).
New Zealand 35 Scanlan St, Grey Lynn, Auckland t 09 376 2533.
UK Albany House, Albany Crescent, Claygate, Esher, Surrey KT10 0PF t 0800 652 2158.
US 5777 West Century Boulevard, Suite 220, Los Angeles, CA 90045 t 310 568 1616.
w fiji.travel The official Tourism Fiji website.
w islandsbusiness.com Current events and issues affecting Fiji and its Pacific Island neighbours.
w roughguides.com Post any of your pre-trip questions – or post-trip suggestions – in the Community section, our online forum for travellers.
w spto.org Useful website for sourcing hotels, tours, travel agents and cultural events throughout the South Pacific.
British Foreign & Commonwealth Office w fco.gov.uk.
Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs w dfait-maeci.gc.ca.
Irish Department of Foreign Affairs w foreignaffairs.gov.ie.
New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs w mft.govt.nz.
US State Department w travel.state.gov.
New Year’s Day January 1
National Youth & Commonwealth Day March 10
Prophet Mohammed’s Birthday March 17
Good Friday
Easter Saturday
Easter Monday
Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna Day May 30
Queen’s Birthday Third Monday in June
Fiji Day October 10
Diwali Late October/early November
Christmas December 25
Boxing Day December 26
From travel safety to visa requirements, discover the best tips for traveling to Fiji
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