One Week Layover In Fiji

If you would prefer hiking to spa treatments, making new eccentric friends to pristine hotels and finding hidden gems to buying guided tours, then you will absolutely love following the adventures of Ryan McDowell in Fiji.

En route to Australia, Ryan made the terrific choice to layover in Fiji for a week before ending up Down Under and here he recalls his adventures.

As an American flying to Australia, he decided to enjoy a layover in one of the South Pacific’s most stunning destination, Fiji. As you may have deduced, I am a traveller on a tight budget not only by financial restriction but because to me that is where the best experiences are found.

I touched down in Nadi on the main island at 5:30am after a long flight from Los Angeles (seated next to a native Fijian) and was quickly carted to my beach front hostel. I was staying at the bamboo hostel on what is locally referred to as “Travellers’ Beach.” It was an extremely friendly establishment, where the help felt more like friends. Perhaps it was because they were so happy or perhaps it was because they were always late, or as they referred to it “on Fiji time.”

This hostel had a nice little bar, a pool, large basic dorm rooms, a beautiful beach and a small price tag. The price tag was actually the entire reason I found myself in Fiji. I was en route to Australia for a year of working and travelling but it just so happened that having a week long lay over in Fiji was cheaper than a straight shot to Oz. Well twist my arm; I decided that to be financially responsible I had to stay a week in paradise.

While relaxing on “Travellers’ Beach” I bonded with a couple of German travellers named Jon and Eva over far too many bottles of Fiji Bitter. I spent most of my time on the islands chasing good times with these two, and good times were an easy catch.

One my favourite adventures we went on was a hike to remote difficult to locate waterfall. The national park where the falls were located sees only 1000 visitors each year and as a result it is pretty untouched and raw jungle. This could be due to it being a difficult 4×4 drive to get to, that many of the locals had never heard of. The highlight of the park was tapping into my inner Tarzan and climbing the gigantic twisting vine growth trees to see above the jungle canopy.

Another excursion came at the hands of a late 50’s Elvis impersonator that we met drinking at a nearby hotel. While his performance left some to be desired this hound dog’s company did not. He took us to some less known spots on the island including the most beautiful beach I have ever seen and the landing point of the first settlers of the island.

By night we would hang out on “Travellers’ Beach” mingling with other travellers and some locals around a glowing bonfire drinking Kava and playing guitar. Kava is a Fijian drink made from mixing water with a ground pepper root. It has “psychoactive properties” that produce a numb mouth and sensation of calm. The effects are very mild but the taste of sticks and dirt is very strong. The location and time of the Kava sessions were not announced, but as the sun sank behind the horizon surely enough somewhere on the property you could make out the ringing of six strings and find a bowl of the muddy liquid. Singing Bob Marley songs and drinking around a camp fire is something that happens everywhere in world but it felt unique and somehow special here.

Somewhere between the Kava, the sun soaked beaches, the slew of new happy friends I realized that stopping in Fiji was possibly the greatest accident I had ever encountered. Keep in mind I saw a small portion of only one of the islands while I was there and I still did not have a chance to see everything that I wanted to. This chain of islands is a magical and beautiful place with many hidden gems that I plan on returning to find.

By Ryan McDowell