Nadi

General information about Nadi

Nadi airport is the gateway to Fiji and you are usually met by local musicians serenading you and flowers for your hair, sounds cheesy, however it suits the laid back feel to the island. There is no problem finding a taxi outside and most drivers will give you a detailed explanation of the island on your way to the hotel and will be available if you need them for half or full day trips.

Most of the big resort hotels near Nadi are on Denaru Island, a man made piece of reclaimed land with a marina, large hotels, golf club and some small housing development. It is actually a great place to stay as you can walk from one resort hotel to another or use the Bula bus, a very reasonably priced shuttle that visits all the hotels and the marina.

If you are more adventurous you can get the local bus into Nadi (pronounced Nandi) town for shopping and also a look at local life on the way there.

Hotels in Nadi

As usual check the web sites www.booking.com and www.venere.com we chose the Sofitel Resort which was mid priced and it was lovely, it may be one of the older ones but the facilities and the design are much nicer than many of the newer ones. It faces the beach and although it is described as grey sand it is still a beautiful tropical paradise.

Restaurants, Bars & Cafes

Restaurants

Every hotel has their own, usually two or three, some are family oriented others upmarket and adult only while the Port Denaru Marina has a wide selection, the ones we tried are below.

Bonefish, at the marina, is owned by a well known Sydney chef and specialises in fish as you may have guessed. As you would expect given the owners reputation the food was good but also reasonably priced.

Nadina is an authentic Fijian restaurant also at the marina and is very welcoming and the food is good and reasonably priced, worth trying.

Lulu is the marina’s café and also has a restaurant, at lunchtime it does some very reasonably priced sushi.

BoHai, Main Street, Nadi, worth going into town for, as it does excellent Chinese food at incredibly reasonable prices, very popular with local people from the various offices.

Sofitel V Restaurant needs to be booked in advance and is very good, excellent service and some lovely extras between courses, one for a treat but worth the money.

Westin Hotel Steakhouse, tried this as it was lovely to walk down the beach in the evening and also good to visit another resort hotel. The service and the food was good, however it is overpriced compared with for example V at the Sofitel.

Bars & Cafes

All the resort have a selection of bars and most have various happy hours so you can sample a few different places.

Lulu at the marina is good for a drink, snack or a meal, they seem to have happy hour offers.

Corner Café, in Nadi, owned by Jacks who have all the main shops, is a handy place for a drink or a meal if you venture into town.

Drink

Fiji does not produce wine but there is no shortage of imported wines from Australia and New Zealand and the hotel bars will all produce an array of cocktails and other drinks.

They do however produce their own beer, either Fiji bitter or Fiji gold, both perfectly drinkable, they also produce a rum called Bounty but the speciality is kava, also called grog. If you visit any of the outlying islands on a boat trip you will probably take part in a kava ceremony, someone described it as tasting like sawdust mixed with earth and that is pretty accurate.

Culture

Relaxing on the beach or at the pool is why you are here, but do go on a trip to some of the Islands, there are loads of offers when you get there or you can book up in advance.

We did the Seaspray full day trip with South Sea Cruises, it gives you a great chance to see the islands and you land at a couple although beware that Castaway Island can be incredibly hot with not very much shade, drinks and lunch included.