Fiji Family Reviews - Shangri La's Fijian Resort Fiji

Jackie
September 2008

We recently visited the Shangri La in sep 08 with our 2 boys 7 and 9. We waited to go overseas with our children until they where of an appropriate age to be able to speak their mind, to know what was good and bad, and to be able to pick and choose. I read the reviews of other parents that where disappointed by the places they have stayed at and I think no wonder, their kids were not ready to experience an overseas holiday because of their ages and I think that personally the parents wanted more out of the holiday than they got.

Choose your hotel wisely, if you want personal service to bring your drink or food to you stay somewhere that offers that. We loved the Shangrila and our kids did too. We spilt our holiday into two, with one week on the mainland and one week on an island (Malolo) so we could experience both worlds. The food was great at the Shangri La, because we didn't eat at the buffet, ( the breakfast is by far the better option for the buffet) we ate at the other 4 restaurants, yes they were pricey but that's what we expected.

Our kids did not go to kids club by force, we did not go on a holiday to get rid of our kids, we wanted to spend quality time with them, in the end they chose to join in the kids club at night, allowing my husband and I some time to enjoy dinner on our own. The beach is great, the weather is beautiful, you can snorkel off the beach, their are activities besides the kids club for older kids to do all day, our room was well appointed, (stay in a lagoon room ground floor if you can) What more do you want?

I had a ball and would go back and in fact my kids have asked to go back, I would say to anyone going to Fiji, access your children, is this holiday about you or them? Wait until they are of an age to enjoy it. We saw alot of babies and young children, stressing out their parents for that very reason. Also where else can you go that compares?

Jenny
September 2008

We spent 7 nights at the resort with our two children (4 and 3) and two other families with children between 6 and 10. Overall we didn't really enjoy the resort. It is really very large and we missed the personal and higher level of service experienced during a previous visit to The Outrigger in 2005. The quality of food was also pretty poor considering the prices. Some specific comments:

Kids Club:
Our children didn't enjoy their two different experiences of the kids club (little chiefs) and so our plans to have some grown up time and enjoy the adults only pool, tours and facilities was quite limited. We found the carers in the Little Chiefs club were not that interested and engaged with the children, there were large groups of children (2-5 and 6-12) with a low number of adult supervisors. At one session our children seemed to watch cartoons on television and because of the "long line" they missed out on the face painting and arm band making that appeared to be the only activity for that session. My son wasn't allowed to go into the other room to play with blocks. My 3 year old daughter had a fall on another visit to the kids club (only an hour). Apparently the only people who comforted her were the other children we had travelled with who were older and who had decided to stay with the younger group. The play area is quite large and some of the equipment really needs supervision with younger children. We often saw children playing and running around but no adults.

General staff presence:
In other areas the number of staff around the pool, beach area was very light on. I think having a presence here would help with the large number of families wanting to go out on catamarans and sea kayaks and also with the volleyball facilities nearby. We hardly ever saw a waiter from the nearby beach bar and grill and it was therefore almost impossible to order a drink or food unless you got up from your spot and talk the walk over and ordered. It seemed it was a hassle to serve anyone outside a restaurant. This was not what we had expected, at the Outrigger on an earlier visit we were blown over by the number of staff always on hand to help or provide food and beverage service. While there were many friendly staff they were busy and many were always talking amongst themselves. It had a "big business" feel about the place we didn't enjoy. At the Outrigger by the end of the visit most of the regular staff knew our son by name and we even had one of the babysitters personally phone us on our last day to wish us well. We also missed the Outriggers very personal breakfast service where they had babysitters on hand to help entertain the children while we enjoyed a cup of coffee, or just watch them for a minute while we got their breakfast. We also found staff reluctant to enforce the "no barring of pool lounges" policy clearly displayed at the pool. Our family was always there first after breakfast and couldn't get anywhere to put our towels as people had "barred" seats on their way to breakfast. Staff didn't seem that interested to be honest.

Food:
The food was below par. The buffet selection for breakfast and dinner was the same every night and jostling with the crowds became quite tedious. The kids stay and eat free policy was taken to the extreme, with kids given wrist bands to wear supposedly at all times. We carried ours with us and on the last day of our trip because my girlfriend and I collected the children's meals we were told we had to have the kids with us. I suspect because starving parents were eating the extras they were picking up with their kids meals as the resort food was overpriced. There was a very limited variety of fresh fruit for the week which was very disappointing as this was one of the thing we were looking forward to.

Payment:
Everywhere at the resort wants you to charge your purchases to your room so you don't need much cash at all.

I could go on but overall the resort didn't live up to our expectations.

Chris & Emma
September 2006

This was my fifth time to Fiji but the first time with my children so choosing a resort with a kids club was top priority for my husband and myself. My children are 7 and 9 years of age. We departed on the 11.30pm flight out of Melbourne. It was delayed 2 hours which was great as my kids had some sleep at home before we departed. They slept on the flight and seem to cope well with the full day in Fiji including time in the kids club. We arrived at the Shangri-La hotel at 10.00am greeted with music and a tropical juice. Our room was ready on arrival, but not all people had their rooms ready as some people had to wait until 2.00pm. We stayed in an Oceanview family room which we just loved if you don't mind walking distance to get to everything. If you like being close to the action then the the Lagoonview rooms are better. If you have young children and particularly a pram then I would recommend the lagoon view rooms and ground floor. They are near the main pool, beach, restaurants and kids club. We not believe how many people travel with prams and young babies.

The kids club was great, well supervised, great activities and organised. Breakfast was full of variety, from yoghurt, fresh fruits, pastries to hot food. The kids had free lunchboxes at lunchtime at the Lagoon terrace between 12-2pm. These were supplied in takeaway boxes then could be eaten whereever. We like our kids to eat a balanced diet and we found the choices here great. Everyday they got a container of watermelon and pineapple. Other choices were ham and salad sandwiches, fried rice, vegetables, crumbed fish, chips, spaghetti....and it meant our kids had healthy choices.

Our next stay was Plantation Island in a beach bure....which if you can afford it is the best choice for a family of four. The weather was warmer than we thought and having the sea breeze was great. The 2 bedroom family bures looked ok too but I would request one on the same side as the beach bures. The resort was busy with lots of families and I would not recommend it for a couple looking for quiet romance.

Considering it was an island resort the food was great with a different buffet choice everynight. I would strongly recommend buying the breakfast and dinner package before you go. Make sure the breakfast one includes hot food for all the family and that the children can eat with you at the buffet. We met many people with different food vouchers and some were told their children could only eat between 5-6.30pm for kids dinner. Our kids ate with us everynight then at 7.00pm they disappeared into the kids club (next to restaurant) and would pick them up about 9.00pm. All in all a good experience. There is a shop at Plantation too that sells fresh bread, cheese, yoghurt etc at good prices so you don't need to have lunch in the restaurant after a big breakfast. We enjoyed our stay and combining mainland with island was a good option. With the late flights from Melbourne, I would advise doing mainland first then finishing off with an island. We would do the same trip again tomorrow and did not have any bad experiences at all. "Vinaka" thankyou in Fijian.

June 2006

We spent 8 days at the resort around mid June 2006. We had two boys aged 15 and 10.

The Good.

The resort is very nice with good facilities – shopping area, kids playroom, nice walks around. Five good restaurants to chose from and food of good quality (although not enough vegies and fruit like apples, pears, etc.). Many activities, such as pool and beach volleyball, pool basketball, coconut and spears throwing, etc. Good kids club (we only used it couple of times). Our lagoon family room was quite spacious for all of us, nice and clean. The corals are very close to the shore and made the snorkelling very enjoyable. Free diving lesson at the pool was a bonus. The beach is close to the accommodation and to the pool and is quite nice. The staff is very friendly.

Room for improvement.

The weather was not ”dry season” weather. Although it was hot, we did not have one clear sunny day. At nights it was pouring rain, which made snorkelling and diving in the lagoon impossible.

The snorkelling equipment at the resort is mostly old and neglected. Masks leaked, snorkels felt off. There is not enough equipment - during peak times there was not enough and we had to wait or just forget about it, even though there is a 2 hours limit on free use.

Whilst they blamed the weather, the motorised sports offering was poor. No parasailing, jet ski was only on our last day, tubes (doughnuts) were being repaired. Most of the days it was only banana boat rides. And we were prepared to spend the money! The sand on the beach is not as fine as we are used to on the Gold Coast. The sand on islands is better, but beaches are still not as good as the Gold Coast.

Other experiences:

Be ware of daily cruise trips by South Sea Cruises! As we wanted to feel the islands’ experience, we were lured to take up the day cruise to one of the islands. We heard about the Castaway Island, and although it was the dearest of all, we took it for the advertised “5.5 hours on the island”. It turned out to be the Fijian 5.5 hours, as we spent only about 4.5 hours there and about 4.5 hours on the board of the catamaran which takes you there and back! 4.5 hours on the island is not at all enough, considering that you have to change cloths before and after, have lunch in the middle and also see around the resort. It definitely was not worth FJD420 for our family! Also, the bus that picked us from the resort was old and very shaky and noisy and actually broke down just before Nadi. We had to wait on the road for a replacement bus. Same old bus on the way back – no matter how tired you were, you could not sleep because of the noise and shaking. We tried to complain to South Sea Cruises but without any success.

Regards from Melbourne.

Jon
November 2005

7 days at the Fijian. 2 adults 2 children 16 & 10.

Upon arrival out first problem appeared. We had paid for all meals for both children but were informed that the 'Fijian' child eat for free policy was for under 12 only. After a frustrating 2 days we finally were able to discuss with a suitable resort manager who undertook to contact the travel operator and agent to sort out. The in house staff are not big on customer service if you need help. Eventually sorted and 16 yo meals for free.

We paid for a lagoon view room but upon showing us the room it was clearly a little cramped for 4 with the children sharing a double bed. We were offered a family lagoon or ocean view upgrade for $20/night which we accepted. Room was great, central air/con, temp not adjustable all new quality fittings etc, cleaned daily. Inbuilt safe a bonus. children slept on 2 single sofas made into beds, not that big so the 16 yo had to push the mattress down and add cushions to fit on (6'1").

Food expensive $F35/adult for buffet and quantity not quality. Kids menu OK, mini burger/chips, sandwich etc. Buffet breakfast included was good, stack up on breakfast and could then go until early dinner at the buffet or one of the restaurants. Beach bar & grill OK, not a great variety though. Other 2 restaurants kids had to pay so only tried one night and was $F120 for 4 with a beer and glass wine. Check out "Geckos" across the road from the entrance to the resort, bit cheaper and includes a show, or Tom Liu's.

Activities were generally 'free' however all had a catch, eg snorkelling gear was free but only for the first 2 hours, sailing boat free but only for the first half hour. Jet ski was $F50 for 15 mins. Good snorkelling just off the resort in the lagoon, not deep but good for kids. No good if rains as 2 rivers feed into the lagoon and was brown for 2 days. Pool is good with pool and beach volley ball, other stuff had to pay for.

Natadola beach is worth a visit. half hour drive. Nothing there to do but swim and snorkel good waves when a swell running, has a small resort and horse riding, pf you sit in the shade locals will sell you cheap jewellery. Resort had a trip on the train for $F85/head, resort taxi was $90 return but go out the front and get a taxi for $F40 return. No taxi call nos in the resort so talk to a porter to arrange. Resort only has a 'resort' taxi service which is heaps more than outside resort. Taxi is good way to get around, safe and cheap. Can go to closest town, Sigatoka, for a look around, Sat is market day, $25 with resort taxi.

Guests were mostly families with under 12s, some teenagers, some HSC kids, and honeymooners. Get to know the 'good oil' to save $ as soon as you can. Overall 8 out of 10.

Michael, Sandy, Joshua and Kirsten
August 2005

As this was to be our first overseas holiday with our children, 6 and 8 yrs, we did a lot of research before we settled on the Fijian. And we are very pleased we did choose this resort, as we had a most fantastic time! I will break this review into the appropriate sections so it is more helpful.

Accommodation: We had booked and paid for a Lagoon View family room, but on our first night we had an Ocean View family room (the resort had a large group in and our room wasn’t available, but we changed the next day). Supposedly these are superior to the Lagoon family rooms, and in size I guess they are, being slightly bigger. But for location, you cannot beat the Lagoon family rooms, which are all within 50 metres of the main Lagoon pool, and only a few minutes walk to the Lagoon Tce restaurant and Beach Bar and Grill. And they are of a more than adequate size, and also have the advantage of being able to section off the kids sleeping area by a curtain at night! We loved our Lagoon family room – being on the ground floor was great, and the standard of fittings, particularly the bathroom, is superb. In summary, if you are a family with young kids and want to be near all the action, ask for a Lagoon wing room, but if you want some peace and quiet (couples), go for the Ocean wing. Either way you won’t be disappointed.

Food/meals: our kids ate under the Kids eat free program, and overall we were very pleased with this. The buffet breakfasts, which were covered in the costs for us also, are superb, with great variety and quantity – you can really pig out if you want to. The only poor aspect of the breakfasts was the coffee – it tasted foul and in the end we took in our own Nescafe sticks and used those! In fact if you are a coffee lover, you will be desperate for a good coffee by the time you leave as no where on the resort can you get a top notch coffee. The kids lunches are either a lunch box from the Lagoon Tce, or they can eat free off the kids menu at the Beach Bar and Grill. These meals are adequate, with a few healthy options, but our kids were so busy and active during the day that lunch wasn’t that important to them – they ate it on the run more often than not! We shared a Caesar Salad wrap from the Beach Bar and grill, at $16 not too bad a price. With drinks we spent about $24 on lunch, which we could live with. Most dinners we had were at the evening buffet at the Lagoon Tce, where the kids ate free if dining with adults. This buffet, like breakfast, is excellent, with good variety and generally good quality. The cost per adult is $35, which is a tad on the high side but ok considering what you can eat if you have the appetite! On a couple of evenings, after the kids had dined at the buffet and then adjourned to the evening Little Chiefs Club, we dined twice at the Black Marlin Bar and once at the very expensive Kalevu Restaurant. The Black marlin is a blackboard menu, with mains around the $20 to $25 mark. I would have to say the food here is not as good as the Lagoon tce. The Kalevu is very expensive, mains around the high $20 mark, and the portions quite small. But nice for an intimate meal without the kids! Overall, the dining experience at the resort is very good, and we averaged about $150 per day, including ice-creams and drinks – ice-creams are about $3 each and drinks add up too, with a stubbie of Fiji bitter costing $5 and house wine about $4 per glass.

Activities: In summary, our whole family had a great time, whether it be relaxing by the superb Lagoon pool or on the beautiful beach, or partaking in the endless free activities, such as pool basketball/volleyball, petanque, beach cricket, soccer, canoeing, snorkeling etc. These things just listed kept our children active all day, and they had a quite simply wonderful time! They both fell in love with Johnny, the friendly Fijian whose job it is to get people involved in the poolside activities, and then run these activities with real laid back Fijian humour! His regular calls of “Basketball Nowwwwwww!! became a highlight during our stay. There was no need to put the kids in the Little Chief’s club during the day because they made heaps of friends and these kids kept themselves all entertained without any need for the adults to intervene. And from your chair by the pool you can easily watch them as they are always close by, with the beach only a few metres away! Just paradise! And if you felt the need to spend a bit more money, there was the Banana boat, Glass Bottom boat, parasailing, fishing trips, just to name a few, to spend your money on. Would also recommend the shopping trip to Sigatoka, which takes about 3 hours and is a good way to introduce the kids to a different culture! Be ready to haggle over prices!!

Summary: At the end of our stay I asked my wife and our 2 kids how they rated the holiday out of 10, and all said 9 to 9 ½. I would have to agree. We were lucky in that we had a week of sublime weather, with only half a day of rain in total, and the rest of the time being fine with temps in the mid to high 20 degrees Celsius. Within a day we were all relaxed and a combination of a well laid out resort, an excellent room, good food, great weather, very friendly Fijian staff, and the ability to just relax or take part in the regular activities led to a fantastic family holiday. We are already planning another holiday at the Fijian resort next year, so I guess that says it all – the fact we are all so keen to go back tells me it is a must for any family wanting to experience a resort style holiday! Go and book now!!

VINAKA!

The Mitchell Family
August 2005

We have just returned from a wonderful trip to Fiji – we had 8 nights on Plantation Island and 5 nights at the Shangri-La Fijian – traveling with hubby, and two girls aged 2 and 6yrs.

We caught the 1:20am flight from Melb and arrived in Nadi at 7am. Pretty horrendous but it enabled us to get the 10:30 cat to Plantation Island straight away without having a night in Nadi first (which would be quite disruptive for the 2yr old anyway). We organized private car transfers which was great but the ‘baby seat issue’ arose again! (as it did last year). The one on the way to the marina was strapped in with an okky strap and looked like a converted baby bouncer! So if you are fussy about the babyseat for the car, take your own! (and given the way the Fijians drive you may like to consider it especially if traveling with a younger infant).

Plantation was great. If you can afford it book an oceanfront bure, there are only 10 so you will need to book early. Our bure was about 10 steps from the water, with palm trees and a hammock right outside the front door. The bure was large with a separate room with two single beds and a cot (we had pre-booked the cot but one which is definitely NOT Australian Standards approved – it was a wooden contraption of some sort that Bessie could easily climb out of – take your porta-cot and cot sheets with you, it is hard to make up a cot with two single bed sheets), as well as a king size bed, a large bathroom and sitting room as well with a lounge and two chairs. There was also a little fridge, ceiling fans and plenty of storage. There is no tv and the phone did not work in our room. The room was comfortable and not stuffy at all. Plantation is not a 5 star resort, so no hairdryer (but who cares) , and every day we had a different amount of towels, sometimes 4 with two bathmats, sometimes only 3! You can borrow beachtowels from the resort– so don’t waste space taking your own. When they get dirty you just swap them for new ones.

The food was pretty average at Plantation. It is worth walking to Lomani’s restaurant in the adjacent Resort for a ‘date’ (no children allowed so it is very quiet and they serve great cocktails but be prepared to pay a bit more!) There are also two shops at Plantation with various snacks etc and there is a larger shop at the marina at Musket Cove resort (about 15 min walk) that has cheese and bacon rolls, fresh bread etc. It caters for the yachties so has a huge range of stuff. The babysitting at Plantation was a little unsettling; a babysitter only costs F$3 ph and off duty staff are used. I was not really confident with their responsibility and professionalism; on the last night we had a young guy babysit (my husband had met him playing golf so I was a little reassured he was OK) but when we told him that the girls would be asleep he asked whether it was OK for him to do the Cultural Dance Show seeing as they would be asleep anyway! AND he ate 5 TimTams out of the fridge!!!! When we came home he was so sound asleep we had difficulty waking him. My advice, screen the babysitter! We also had a babysitter to look after the girls one morning and she was much better. They went to the Creche which was pretty ordinary (it consists of a ball room and jumping castle sort of thing and it is dark and a bit dingy) but they enjoyed painting their T-shirt. Kids under the age of 4 need a babysitter at the crèche.

We spent our days snorkeling (you can borrow the snorkel/masks for free but check they are OK before you get in the water! One mask fell apart and my husband mask leaked) the free snorkeling boat trip is worthwhile but for the more experienced swimmer – it would be difficult with small kids. We took two ‘noodles’ (the floating tube things) and these were great for snorkeling as the kids can hang on to them and still put their head and mask under water. It worked great with the 6 year old and meant she could stay in the water much longer. The noodles can be squashed into the suitcase and are light and so cheap you can even leave them behind if you can not fit them in your suitcase on the way home!

The Fijian was a very different experience from Plantation. We booked a groundfloor room in the Coral wing which is a good 10 min walk from the main beach/pool/restaurant area. So don’t forget the stroller. The Coral Wing is a very quiet part of the Resort with its own infinity pool which is lovely and a lot quieter than the main pool. We booked a family room which was large and comfortable with a beautiful bathroom, lovely sheets and pillows etc. Food was divine, breakfast enormous and the kids eat free deal excellent. We spent a lot of money on fine dining and had a babysitter every night. We used the same babysitter as last time (we wrote to each other a few times during the year) which was nice; she is much more professional and capable than the staff at Plantation and we could really relax and have fun at F$20 for the first 3 hrs then F$5 ph after that. The minimum is 3 hours. We also booked her for one morning as the little one is still very little; even though the kids club take them from 2. The new kids club building is purpose built and is more like a well equipped Kindergarten, the attached playground is also excellent.

There are plenty of activities but they will cost; to hire a bike is F$20 per hour and the bikes are quite old! (it feels strange paying 4x as much for using an old bike than a babysitter to look after your children!!) Cycling through the local villages etc is interesting though and well worth it.

Overall we had a great holiday! We stayed at quite different places; Plantation was beautiful, but at times very disorganized, the Fijian glamorous but more hectic and expensive. We have come home relaxed and happy and would like to go again next year if we can afford it! Probably would stay at Plantation for longer and maybe only 4 nights at the Fijian.

Ross, Kathy, Lauren and Wade
April 2005

In Easter 2005 our family headed off for a much anticipated holiday to Fiji. We stayed for 6 nights at the Shangri La's Fijian Resort and travelled with our two children.

The Shangri La is in the process of being renovated as the resort is showing signs of ageing, however it has all the amenities and is situated on a great bay, so low tide does not effect your water sports. We stayed in the Golden Cowrie wing which was a little crowded for a family of 4, but the view overlooking the bay was a feature, and it was close to the main facilities. There are family rooms available so choose carefully, but remember that the Reef Wing, Ocean Wing or Coral Wings will mean a little bit of exercise to walk to the main lagoon beach once renovations are completed.

There are many activities organised to do, for the grown ups as well as the kids. The cry of Bocce nowwwww, or Volleyball nowwww each day meant that either way, your afternoon nap would be disturbed and it was best to join in, than fight it. The snorkelling is great, while the local bike tour to the local village is a must. Only disappointment was the lack of snorkelling gear at peak times and the Banana Boat was out of action. Do not worry about the kids as the water is safe for snorkelling, canoeing or just swimming and they are entertained all day long.

The food at the Shangri La was fine, but needed more variety within the Lagoon Terrace restaurant, while I heard the Takali Terrace and Kalevu restaurants were overpriced and the portions were small. The children's dining was a bit limited if your kids don't like the standard fish / nuggets and chips and you will find the kids will eat better with you at the buffet dinner in the evening. The dining highlights for us was Geko's where young people from the youth centre entertain with singing and dancing on Sunday's and Tommy Lu's in the nearby village. If you go to Tommy Lu's ask Sam to arrange a drink of Kava for you. I also heard about , but was not able to get to a Meke at one of the local villages, which would have been an experience, while the resorts fire walking and Meke was overpriced.

Expect to spend a fair bit on food/drinks while you are there, as the children quickly pickup on how to charge ice-creams and drinks to the room at the poolside snack bar, your daughter will want her hair braided as well, but hey you are on holidays.

The staff are wonderful people and always look happy. They love kids and willing to help as long as you ask. The Shangri La resort is wonderful, where you can relax, have a cocktail at happy hour and say BULA!.

Julie
March 2005

In March 2005 our family headed off for a much anticipated holiday to Fiji. We stayed for 7 nights ar the Shangri La's Fijian Resort and 5 nights at Plantation Island. It was a fantastic holiday and one which I would highly recommend. We travelled with two children; 4.5 yrs and 3 years and they had a great time.

The first stop was the Shangri La which was, in a word, wonderful! The resort is in the process of being renovated and the facilities are fantastic. We stayed in a Lagoon view family room. The room was beautifully decorated and serviced each day - complete with frangipani flowers left on the pillows! The airconditioning in the room was a saviour as the heat was oppressive when we were there. The rooms are small however that did not prove a problem for us as we were rarely in the room and often in the pool. If possible get a ground floor room: it is great being able to walk back and forward between the room and the pool - although on the first day our 3 year old was so excited she bolted straight to the pool and jumped in well before I had even got my swimming costume out of the bag. The "Little Chief's" kids club is very well run and the staff adore the children. There are plenty of activities organised for the children throughout the day and after dinner as well. Your child will need to be 4 years and over to go into the kids club after dinner. Younger children can attend if accompanied by an adult - we arranged for a babysitter to take our 3 yr old to kids club a few evenings so that we could have a quiet dinner - at $4 per hour it was not a big expense.

The variety of the food at the Shangri La was excellent. The breakfast buffett is so big that you would be hard pressed to sample it all over the period of your stay. The vast majority of people staying in the lagoon rooms have their breakfast in the restaurant near the Lagoon rooms. However, you can also have your breakfast , and the kids free breakfast, at the restaurant adjacent to the "adults only pool". It is a much quieter restaurant, with beautiful ocean views and much cooler. The main restaurant could get quiet hot and occassionally stuffy. The children's free buffet lunch was a bit limited if your kids don't like the standard fish and chips or nuggets and chips - however there was always a plentiful supply of fresh fruit if you want to steer away from the fried food. Our kids ate with us at the buffet dinner most nights rather than going to the kids buffett as there was a great variety of food. Expect to spend a fair bit on food/drinks while you are there - we found that we ate quite big breakfasts so didn't feel like eating much at lunch time but wanted something light at about 3 or 4pm - it was hard to get a light snack, with most "snack's" being a large size and between $15 and $20. After a day or so we got a cab into the local town, Sigatoka, and bought drinks and snacks to keep in the room. The range of snacks in Sigatoka is not great so next time I will pack snacks to take with us.

There are just so many activities organised to do, or not do, that you could never be bored. The snorkling safari was a highlight for us. My husband also found, to his delight, that he could go surfing on the reef breaks at the front of the resort. He had brought his board as he was intending to surf at Plantation Island. He approached the water sports staff who agreed to take him out to the break, and pick him up an hour later, all for $10. Once he had done that once surfers came out of the woodwork and joined him. It seems no one knew they could surf from the resort but there were at least 3 of them surfing each morning before breakfast by the end of the trip. Surfing is not an organised activity at the resort but just ask the staff, they were more than happy to accommodate (you will need to take your own surfboard).

The Shangri La is a wonderful place for adults and kids and we left there feeling very relaxed - mum and dad had just as much fun as the kids.

We then headed over to Plantation Island for 5 nights. The island itself is beautiful (especially the beach to the left of the jetty, away from the main part of the resort). However the resort is very run down and in urgent need of an overhaul. There were broken tiles, loose concrete and rotten wood around the pool and you would never find a table in the restaurant that didn't wobble! After a day or so of it annoying me, I got over it thinking "hey - we're still on holidays on a tropical island!"

We booked an ocean front hotel room as we understood it was the only air conditioned accommodation - these rooms are very basic and the airconditioning is only turned on between 4pm and 4am. That is no good if you are trying to get your kids to have a rest in the middle of the day as the rooms are very very hot. We complained about the aircondiitoning and were moved to a new room that is to be officially openned within the next month or so. These rooms are great, a good size and fully airconditioned. They will be over looking the new pool being built which has the potential to be great. When we were there the pool was still empty and a work in progress. While we were staying in a construction site I would not have changed it for any of the bungalows as they were not airconditioned and anyone we spoke to staying in a bungalow said they were very hot and difficult to sleep in.

The kids club is fairly badly supervised and I was not happy leaving our kids in there during the day. When we were there the ages of the kids ranged between 3 and about 10 and they were all lumped in together in one group. Obviously some of the older kids could get a bit excited and I didn't see any attempts by the staff to control them. I did see a few of the younger kids being accidentally knocked over and I also saw some of the younger kids wandering off from the kids club area and again no attempt by the staff to bring them back. This is a concern given the proximity of the kids club to the pools. I think the "kids club" during the day is better described as "kids activities". At night a movie is organised for the kids in the creche room which was supervised. As the kids were all fixed to the screen at the end of an active day I was comfortable to leave them there while we grabbed dinner.

Organised surf trips do leave Plantation Island each day which is the reason we went there. My husband said the surf was great and the waves uncrowded. Pack your board if you are a surfer.

The food at Plantation Island was reasonably good. The buffet dinner is probably the resort's best meal. However on the last night we discovered the restaurant at the end of the resort adjacent to the air strip which was great. Fantastic curries! If we had discovered that restaurant earlier we would have gone there every night. The lunch buffett/ala carte menu was OK - but do try to sit outside as the restaurant gets very stuffy. The buffett breakfast was fairly ordinary - boxes of stale cereal, baked beans, donuts and muffins. You could get eggs or pancakes but that was an additional cost (approx $10). By the end of the trip were calling the room in which breakfast (and the kids meals) are served "the sauna". That room is very stuffy and not at all pleasant.

My daughter cut her foot on something (hopefully coral and not a broken tile!) and it got infected - the nurse at the resort was wonderful and treated the cut everyday. However I would say that if you are to go there please pack a strong antiseptic cream and bandaids as infections are common given the heat and moisture. Also pack the aeroguard as there are plenty of mozzies at night.

All of that aside we still had a fantastic time. I probably wouldn't go back to Plantation Island again but nevertheless had a great holiday. I highly recommend the Shangri La and will definitely be going back there again!

Joanne
September 2004

We visited both Plantation Island (4 nights) and Shangri La Fijian (8nights) in Sept 04 with our 2 children 11yrs and 7yrs together with another family with a 9yr old and 7yr old.

Cannot recommend Plantation Island highly enough, it was our 2nd trip there and it did not disappoint once again. We flew out of Melbourne on a night flight so landed in Nadi at 7am so definitely recommend paying the extra $110 for family to fly to Plantation in 10 mins rather than wait hours to go via bus/catamaran. We were by the pool relaxing by 10am! The kids absolutely loved it, this time we had a ocean view hotel room and it was much better than the bure last time that was so far away from everything. The kids loved being closer to the restaurants etc and we could leave them playing in room at night to have our meal and they could easily be checked on or could wander out themselves. Rooms are large, cleaned early every day and all we needed. The weather was fantastic, much better than the mainland, we didn't see a cloud for 5 days, the free snorkeling trips are fantastic, the food was good, the kids meals were great, Fijians very friendly and we couldn't believe all the renovations that had taken place in the previous 12 months and more seem to be happening all the time.

The Shangri La was a different story however. We were looking forward to going to a different resort so much and unfortunately spent the whole time comparing the 2 resorts. The Shangri La was much bigger, newer etc. Our room was recently refurbished and was lovely but we were on the 2nd floor which we found a nuisance and you couldn't swing a cat in the room, however kids loved the pay tv. The main dining room was a nightmare, admittedly it was school holidays so the resort was full but queuing for a breakfast table for 20mins was not our idea of fun. The breakfast was fantastic however, full hot buffet and then we didn't need lunch, the kids meals were very disappointing, not much variety. Expensive to eat at night but we had a great night at Gecko's and Tom Lui's so highly recommend leaving the resort. We had a hire car for 3 days which wasn't necessary in hindsight but bought soft drinks, lollies, chips etc at supermarket in Sigatoka much much cheaper than at resort. The water activities are free here but it wasn't easy to acquire a catamaran etc easily with so many people there and getting a deckchair was a joke unless you were down there at 7am putting a towel on one! The kids preferred Plantation Island where they could roam around independently and there wasn't such a crowd. The weather on the mainland was often cloudy and windy, something we had been warned about compared to the islands.

The men enjoyed the golf course and tennis court facilities. The 3 washing machines and dryers for a resort that size was not adequate, I spent a whole morning sitting waiting for washing as it was miles away from the main pool and our room. The kids were not really interested in the kids club, went to a couple of things only.

All in all, we cannot wait to return to Plantation Island and next time are going to try Naviti Resort which we were told by many was similar to Plantation in size/style.

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