Reviewed By:
Chris Jones
Travel Date:
January 2003
We are a family of 2 adults and 2 kids 8 and 10, who travelled
to Fiji from 24 December 2002 to 11 January 2003. We stayed at Tokatoka Resort,
Oarsman Lodge, Crusoes Retreat and Castaway Island.
Tokatoka has a fantastic pool/outdoor dining complex and is
definitely recommended. The kids just loved the pool and waterslide, and they
enjoyed having a TV in the room. We rather enjoyed a trip into Nadi and also a
local taxi driver for F$60 took us on a half day tour of the fairly interesting
local sights (First Landing, Viseisei, Lautoka Markets - where we just managed
to escape the clutches of the infamous sword sellers - and Garden of the
Sleeping Giant).
We flew on a Turtle Air seaplane to Oarsman Lodge in the
Yasawas. The adults enjoyed the trip over the coral reefs, the kids were hot and
uninterested. We're sorry to say we didn't enjoy our time at the Oarsman Lodge
at all. The beach is great and the snorkelling also, and the food was good (but
sometimes too spicy for the kids). The bure was small but okay. Not okay was
having very intermittent water supply. When it is hot with a family you need the
basics and we were really unhappy with the lack of water. (There was a sign up
indicating that it might have been a temporary problem but we have considerable
doubts). There was also a general air of disorganisation eg having to wait a
couple of hours with all our luggage when we arrived. The hosts also didn't seem
interested in what the guests might want to do as opposed to what the hosts
might want to do. There were limited activities. All in all we were very pleased
to leave Oarsman's Lodge and it is not recommended for a family.
We then went via Kula Eco Park (recommended) to Crusoes
Retreat on the Coral Coast. This Resort was just great and is very highly
recommended. Management and staff went out of their way to be helpful. The
Resort is set in pleasant gardens, with a nice pool. Food was excellent with
wide variety. Each day the Resort had an itinerary of mainly free activities
such as a nature walk, basket weaving, trip on a boat to the Mangroves, snorkel
and glass bottom boat trips, fishing trips, meke etc. There are also canoes etc.
The kids also enjoyed playing with the numerous hermit crabs near the beach, and
if you looked closely you could also find little mudskipper fish which sometimes
hopped around out of the water. In the evening it was nice to sit on the patio
and be serenaded by a chorus of frogs. All in all the kids really enjoyed this
Resort and it was the favourite of the adults. On top of that it was really
outstanding value. You do need to note though that the bedrooms contain two
double beds rather than singles, which in our opinion was a very minor matter in
all the circumstances. We would incidentally tend to recommend a "beachfront"
bure.
We then returned up the Coral Coast and took the boat to
Castaway Island, which is also highly recommended. This is an expensive and on
the whole well managed resort, with nice bures. We had a beachfront bure and
this is definitely recommended as then generally you are only a few metres from
the sea. The beach is very nice and the snorkelling off the beach good. A
snorkelling trip by boat is recommended but only for kids who are confident
swimmers (and watch for sunburn!). Our older child enjoyed going round the
Island on the Banana boat, but again this is for somewhat more confident
swimmers. We went on tandem parasails with both kids and this was worth the
F$160 or whatever it cost. Kids Club was a mixed experience. Certainly it wasn't
as good as we had hoped - no good for older kids during the day, but a lot
better attended in the evenings. Castaway's food was excellent, with the Meal
Plan probably recommended. Castaway has a very nice pool and a well stocked
shop. There were some small niggles eg the staff (despite complying to tedious
extreme with instructions to say Bula to everyone) had obviously not been
instructed to clear up glass pieces. There was quite a bit of glass around
including in the kids dining area and it was just luck that no-one was cut.
Still, our stay at Castaway was overall very pleasant and we also highly
recommend this Resort.
In conclusion despite it being the hot season (low to mid
30's) we had a very good holiday.
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