5 Days In Fiji

Bula! In the Fijian language, this word is used to greet someone or say hello - and actually translates to wishing that person life. Beautiful!

When planning our Australia and New Zealand trips, we knew we wanted to include some lazy beach days in amongst the road trips and city driving. We originally were planning to visit Australia’s Gold Coast, but after plans changed, we decided to add a South Pacific island to our itinerary to make sure we got that beach time in. After lots of research, and knowing short time we had for this trip, we decided to visit Fiji!

Since we were traveling during the beginning of COVID-19, we were very aware of the people around us, keeping our distance, and sanitizing everything around us. The locals were really cautious and informed about COVID, which countries their tourists were coming from, and how long they spent in that country prior to landing. That aside, once we were in our resort, we felt safe and comfortable. We were able to keep our distance from others while still having a good time and not feeling trapped.

Covid aside, our arrival at the airport was straight out of a movie, with a man playing beautiful island feel music on his ukulele. Listening to his tunes, we we all waited in line at customs (that part was not from a movie) which was relatively smooth. All locals we came in contact with at the airport, our taxi driver, and then all the staff at the resort, were so genuinely nice and friendly. And that just continued throughout our trip and really helped make it so memorable.

We knew we weren’t going to do very much but swim, lay out, eat, and be sun bums. And that’s precisely what we did! It was as relaxing as you’d imagine it to be (with an almost 2 year old). We stayed at Pullman Nadi Bay Resort and Spa which was paradise and we would recommend it to anyone looking to have a relaxed and resort-like stay in Nadi.

We rented a car through the resort for a couple days and visited a well-known beach with toursits - Natadola Beach. It’s on the south side of the island, around an hour drive from Nadi, and pretty remote which was nice (aside from the Intercon that we could see down the coast). There were kayaks for rent which was nice, and one coconut stand, so I’d recommend bringing drinks and snacks with you.

Aside from that, we hung out at the resort and made the most of our short stay there. There were a few markets and restaurants just up the street from Pullman Nadi Resort which was nice because then we didn’t have to rely on dining at the resort for every meal. If you’re a fan of Korean food, you’re in luck! The nearby Grace Road Kitchen and Awesome Grill are owned by a sweet Korean family and offer Korean dishes at Grace Road Kitchen. Both menus offer a great variety so there is something for everyone.

We loved our time in Fiji and would love to go back and explore more of the island as we just got a taste of what it’s like there!