Fiji’s best places to stay, whatever your budget

Kokomo has just 21 villas and all are located right on the beach with their own plunge pool.Credit: Kokomo Private Island Resort

From rustic hostels and bures set on quiet beaches to private island retreats frequented by Hollywood stars, Fiji has somewhere to stay for every traveller and every budget. Wherever you choose, famously friendly service, and immersion in local culture and cuisine is guaranteed.

Fiji Beach House

Perfect for: Budget travellers, adventurous families, groups
How’s this for Fiji’s best-kept secret; a beach retreat on the Coral Coast with its own beach with bungalows that cost less than the price of a round of drinks at some five-star resorts. Choose between bungalows ideal for couples or dorm rooms for groups of friends (or budget travellers) set in hectares of forest beside the beach, with a pool looking over the ocean. Fiji Beach House is the base for an aquatic adventure operation so you can choose between surf trips, paddle-boarding, snorkelling, fishing tours and more. Feast on fresh seafood and local produce at their on-site restaurant.
Queens Highway, Coral Coast; [phone]. See www.fijibeachhouse.com. From $115 a night.

Fiji Marriott Resort Momi Bay

Perfect for: Couples and families alike, which isn’t always the case in Fiji
Fiji Marriott Resort Momi Bay is both a romantic adults-only retreat for couples and a stylish family resort for parents who want to step beyond the typical family resort. Guests choose between adults-only overwater bungalows, or family-friendly rooms. There’s also an adult’s only bar and fine dining restaurant built on a cliff looking across the Mamanuca Islands. Families have a choice of four dining options. Set beside the sea and around a man-made lagoon surrounded by green grassy hills (and cows), it’s hard to believe you’re 25 minutes drive from Nadi International Airport.
Savusavu Road, Momi Bay; [phone]. See marriott.com. From $600 a night

Matanivusi Beach Eco Resort

Perfect for: Solo travellers, couples and families seeking water adventure
You don’t have to surf to stay here, but you’ll wish you did when you see the perfect uncrowded waves – but just being here is enough for anyone who likes the ocean. Off a secret road between the Coral Coast and Pacific Harbour, you’ll pass through a village to an eco-retreat built in coastal forest beside a stunning lagoon. Villas are connected by a boardwalk built above the forest, among 400-year-old fig trees. Meals are served communally with produce from an onsite organic garden – and there’s yoga and massage.
Vunaniu Road, Serua; [phone]. See surfingfiji.com. From $355 a night.

Grand Pacific Hotel Fiji

Perfect for: Solo travellers and couples interested in history and culture
It’s a side of Fiji you mightn’t think of. Most of us rush to Fiji’s island resorts, but you could choose to look back at the South Pacific’s colonial-era times by sleeping at the South Pacific’s most iconic colonial-era hotel. Built in 1914, stay in the suite Queen Elizabeth has slept in four times. The hotel has housed every major dignitary to visit Fiji (Fiji’s parliament is across the road). Its walls record black-and-white memories of them all. Located in Suva, check out nearby historic botanic gardens, restaurants and bars and enjoy high tea on your private lawn.
Victoria Parade, Suva; [phone]. See grandpacifichotel.com.fj. From $350 a night.

Kokomo Private Island Resort

Perfect for: Solo travellers and couples with an unlimited budget
It’s not cheap; but you’ll be staying on a 60-hectare island with no more than 50 guests surrounded by the Astrolabe Reef, one of the largest, most pristine coral gardens in the world (there’s 40 private dive sites off-shore). Only reachable by helicopter or seaplane, Kokomo Private Island Resort is in Fiji’s rarely visited Kadavu Islands. There are 21 seaside villas set beside some of the best beaches in Fiji. Despite its price tag, its piece de resistance is a bar/ restaurant cobbled together with driftwood and items from a Suva boatyard where guests watch baby black-tip reef sharks in an open-air eatery a metre above the sea.
Yaukuve Island, Kadavu; [phone]. See kokomoislandfiji.com. From $2900 a night.

Shangri La Yanuca Island

Perfect for: Families and couples who may never leave the resort
Drive 50 minutes south of Nadi International Airport and you’ll find Shangri La Yanuca Island connected by a causeway. It’s surrounded entirely by water, so you never have far to go to swim. There are five restaurants and three bars all on the waterfront, in a resort modelled on a traditional Fijian village. It’s perfect for families for its kids’ clubs, free activities and family-friendly amenities, but then couples also have the option of staying in its adults only Reef Wing or making use of its award-winning day spa, a short walk away.
Yanuca Island, Coral Coast; [phone]. See shangri-la.com/yanucaisland/fijianresort. From $280 a night.

Castaway Island Resort

Perfect for: Families who don't want to stray far
There’s nowhere safer for families to stay than Castaway Island Resort. Set on a 70-hectare island surrounded entirely by beaches and lagoons protected by coral reefs in the Mamanuca Islands, it’s a 90-minute ferry ride from Port Denarau. Stay in thatched bures set out like a traditional Fijian village. Guests congregate by the island’s best beach and swimming pools, to watch the sun setting. There are four restaurant/ bars to choose from (including one where you dine barefoot under the stars) or access nearby islands by speedboat.
Qalito Island, [phone], outrigger.com/fiji/castaway-island-fiji. From $650 a night.

Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort Fiji

Perfect for: Couples and families who adore the water
Escape to Fiji’s second largest island, Vanua Levu, to find one of the South Pacific’s best combined family and couples luxury resorts. Located along a white-sand bay at the north of the island, you might guess that any resort owned by a relative of diving pioneer, Jacques Cousteau, is proud of its diving offering. Access some of the best dive sites on Earth at sites nearby, such as Namena Reef, which offers some of the most diverse fish and coral species in the world. Families have free kids’ club, dusk-to-dawn nanny service and a variety of activities, and couples have adults-only dining and luxury spas.
Lesiaceva Point Road, Savusavu; 03 9815 0379. See fijiresort.com. From $1760 a night.

Vomo Island

Perfect for: Mums and dads who are couples too
You don’t have to go far in Fiji to escape to islands completely removed from its main island. Take a boat (or helicopter or seaplane) from main tourist hub, Denarau Island, and some of Fiji’s best islands – the Manamucas – are just there. The most removed is Vomo Island – a private island resort at the northern end of the archipelago. There’s no-one else on the island – though if you want more privacy, there’s a tiny islet you can reach with a two-minute boat ride. Couples love Vomo Island’s romantic restaurants and bars, but families have options with kids’ clubs, water activities and kids’ dining while parents escape to an adults-only restaurant.
Vomo Lai lai Island. Phone: [phone] or 1800 324 916. See vomofiji.com. From $A1600 per night

Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort

Perfect for: Families looking for an easy Fiji holiday
Picture a Fijian family resort: staff greeting you with bula, kids playing in kids’ clubs by the beach, kava dished out by friendly locals, dance performances by night, nightly buffets, swim-up pool bars. That’s Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort. While it’s not for everyone (couples might be advised to stay clear), this is the ultimate South Pacific family resort. There’s free kids’ club, nanny services, complimentary beach activities like beach volleyball and paddle-boarding and eight bars and restaurants – but there’s also adult’s only restaurants and swimming pools to flee to when you drop the kids off.
Sydney Drive, Queens Highway, Sigatoka; [phone]. See outrigger.com/fiji/fiji-beach-resort. From $280 a night

Mantaray Island Resort

Perfect for: Budget-minded adventurous families, couples and solo travellers
The Yasawa Islands remain one of Fiji’s best-kept secrets: 20 islands open to land-based tourism only since the late-’80s. While it’s home to some of Fiji’s most expensive private island retreats, why not stay beside the water for less than $150 per night? Take a catamaran from Port Denarau and sleep beside your own beach, close to some of the best diving and snorkeling in Fiji. Between May and October, these waters become the best spot on Earth to swim with manta rays. There’s a PADI dive school on site, and other activities such as fishing tours, guided snorkeling and village visits.
Nanuya Balavu Island, Yasawas; [phone]. See mantarayisland.com. From $125 a night

Wakaya Island Club & Spa

Perfect for: Couples with unlimited budget to disappear
Entrance is by propeller plane only, but that’s the whole point. There’s only 10 suites and two villas and with the dining and activities options available, chances are you won’t see any other guests. With that kind of privacy you might imagine the guests who’ve come before (did anyone say … Tom Cruise?). Everything is perfect here because you paid for it to be. Sleep beside a beach that fronts onto a Marine Protection Area where you snorkel or dive some of the most pristine reefs on Earth. Meals are served pretty much anywhere you like.
Wakaya Island; [phone]. See wakayaresort.com. From $A4000 a night.