What's the Best Time to Visit the Pacific Islands?

May to October, during the ‘Fijian winter’ when humidity and rainfall are lower

What are the Essential Experiences?

 Exploring Suva’s waterfront and market, with its exotic fruits and vegetables, seafood and spices

Snorkelling and diving in Fiji’s extraordinary crystal-blue reefs

Experiencing the warmth and hospitality of Fiji’s multiethnic inhabitants

Surfing the fantastic breaks of the southern Mamanucas

Admiring traditional bure (thatched dwelling) architecture in the highlands

Swimming through the dark chambers of the Sawa-i-Lau caves in the Yasawa group of islands

Getting Under the Skin...

Read Fiji’s most popular coffee-table book, Children of the Sun, with photos by Glen Craig and poetry by Bryan McDonald

Listen to the guitar-strumming, crooning songs from Bula Fiji Bula: Music of the Fiji Islands

Watch Tom Hanks playing the modern-day Robinson Crusoe in Cast Away, featuring Monuriki Island

Eat traditional Fijian foods including tavioka (cassava) and dalo (taro) roots, and seafood in lolo (coconut cream)

Drink cloudy bowl of lip-numbing yaqona (also known as kava), a ritualistic drink prepared from the aromatic roots of the Pacific pepper shrub, originally drunk in honour of the ancestors

In a Word...

 Bula (hello)

What are the Pacific Islands Known For?

Surfers seeking the big break; honeymooners’ paradise; grass skirts; Blue Lagoon; endless bowls of yaqona, hammocks; woven baskets; white-sand beaches

Surprises...

Over 300 islands comprise Fiji’s archipelago, and about two-thirds are uninhabited; boiled beak (bat) was once a popular indigenous Fijian dish