Hotel Review: Castaway Island, Fiji

A big thank you to Castaway Island and Tourism Fiji for hosting our stay so we could provide this detailed review of our experience.

Bula! If you’re following along on our epic trip to Fiji and Australia, this is part three. We left off just after touching down in Nadi, Fiji following an 11-hour Fiji Airways flight from Los Angeles. With the help of Rosie Holidays, we then transferred 30 minutes to Port Denarau to catch the 90-minute ferry to Castaway Island.

As you’re about to see, we had an incredible stay at Castaway Island Resort. Here’s what it was like:

1. Welcome reception

We arrived at 11am and because the water surrounding Castaway Island is quite shallow, guests are picked up from the ferry in tenders. The transfer of luggage and guests was seamless. TIP: You need your boarding pass for your return trip on South Seas so put it in a safe place when you get it and take a photo of it just in case you lose it.

The welcome ceremony doesn’t get much more special than it was here. There were at least 20 staff members (a few playing guitars) all singing a traditional Fijian welcome song. It was truly amazing. Above is a short video that will give you a sense of the experience. FYI: I noticed that guests who arrive on private transfers or during busier parts of the day, like breakfast, don’t get as large a welcome or send-off.

Once you arrive, you’ll be escorted upstairs to the open-air pizza restaurant, where you will fill out the usual hotel paperwork, provide your passport and credit card, get your room keys and, most importantly, receive a refreshing scented towel and a tropical welcome drink.

My kids (ages 5 and 8) couldn’t wait to jump in the water so they ran down and started exploring the beach and wading into the water immediately. From where I was checking in, I could see them frolic and play and there was an immediate sense of calm and peace.

2. The friendly staff

This was my fourth trip to Fiji and I told my wife to be prepared to meet some of the friendliest people on earth. Most of the staff didn’t disappoint. Almost everyone we encountered was extremely friendly and helpful. Good to know: Fiji is a non-tipping culture but of course it’s always appreciated. There is a staff gratuity box at the front desk where tips are split up at the end of the year.

3. The beach

I mean: Just look at the photo above. Need I say more? There are beach chairs and umbrellas, though not many. However, we didn’t ever really need them. We spent most of our time enjoying the water and soft sand.

Good to know: The beach is so nice and big that they’ve opened it up to the public by partnering with South Sea Cruise. The resort allows up to 20 people come spend the day between 10am and 4pm for $147 FJD ($64 USD). The only two days they don’t allow day trippers is on Christmas and New Year’s Day.

4. Activities

There are a lot of beach activities that are free and will keep the whole family busy all day long.

Our kids loved kayaking and I went out in kayaks with both of them multiple times.

Paddleboarding is free. The resort also offers other activities that have a cost like banana boat rides, jet skis and electric surfboards.

5. Snorkeling and diving

I’m not a scuba diver but I do snorkel and on this trip, I got my kids to do it for the very first time … and after some convincing, they loved it. They weren’t comfortable going too far off the beach to explore the reefs where you can really see abundant sea life but they still saw plenty from the knee-deep water.

We saw sea stars, baby black tip reef sharks, stingrays, all kinds of fish and a sea krait, which is something we didn’t want to see as it’s extremely venomous. This black and white striped sea snake swam right by us. A staff member warned us to stay away from it and said they won’t bite if you don’t provoke it.

FYI: There’s a dive shop right on the beach where you can get everything you need for diving and snorkeling. You can also get PADI certified (you have to be 10 years old or older).

6. Rooms or bures

Sixty-five spacious, free-standing bures (rooms) featuring Fijian-style thatched roofs are nestled amongst lush tropical gardens or along the water’s edge. Inside, you’ll find vaulted ceilings lined with hand-painted ‘Tapa’ cloth – each one a unique and individual design. We were in the most basic category of room, a garden bure. I loved it because it was unique with its high ceilings and beautiful tapa cloth. Here’s a virtual tour.

Our bure had one king size bed and two twins in a separate living room area that could be converted from couch to bed at night. The room has air conditioning and ceiling fans, both of which were needed it was hot. The rooms all have a mini fridge and a coffee station. They use the same outlets as in Australia so bring adapters to plug devices in. I use this international adapter, which can be used around the world and my wife bought these adapters and this 7-in-1 power strip to charge up everyone’s devices.

The bathroom in our room had two sinks and a shower but no bathtub. Most importantly, there were no bugs in the room but there was bug spray in the closet so if you leave food out, you probably will get some ants, like everywhere in the tropics.

7. Free WiFi

The good news is that there’s free WiFi in the main restaurant. The bad news is that there’s no WiFi in the rooms or at the pools. There are also no TVs or phones in the rooms. When you come to a place like Castaway Island in Fiji, of course it’s ideal to disconnect and take a break. But if you’re running your own business like I am, it’s hard to be offline for days at a time. Fortunately, having to go to the main restaurant to connect meant enjoying some amazing views, food and drinks at the same time so it’s not really a bad thing.

8. Laundry

Right outside  the front door of each room is a shallow bucket of water where you can rinse all the sand off your feet before stepping inside your bure. There’s also a clothesline to dry wet bathing suits. My wife and I loved and appreciated that laundry is available (especially helpful when you’re traveling with little kids) and it’s inexpensive. It cost $20 FJD (about $8.78 USD) for one bag, which was about the size of one load at home.

9. Food

There are four restaurants on Castaway Island and we mostly ate at Water’s Edge, which is the main restaurant. There, you can either order off the menu or do the buffet. We did the latter and it was excellent.

For breakfast, you’ll find tropical juices, pastries, breads, cereal, eggs made to order, as well as a slew of hot stuff like baked beans, hashbrowns, bacon, sausages, pancakes, French toast, scrambled eggs and more.

For lunch, we usually ate at the buffet but one day, I did order a chicken sandwich.

For dinner, the buffet has a different theme each night. Monday is seafood; Tuesday is international cuisine; Wednesday is Fijian food; Thursday is Mongolian; Friday is Italian food; Saturday is Australian BBQ and Sunday is Indian night.

We were so jetlagged that we went to bed super early and only ate dinner once at the pizza place.

10. Sundowner Bar & Grill

Perched above the beach is Sundowner Bar and Grill where guests can enjoy made-to-order, wood-fired pizzas. Here’s the menu. I had the Tandoori Chicken Pizza ($45 FJD = $19.72 USD), which had red pepper rouille base sauce, tandoori chicken, fresh tomato, red onion, coriander, fresh chili, yoghurt and mozzarella cheese. I loved it.

The two restaurants we didn’t eat at were Nuku Marau Pool Bar and Grill, which serves mostly sushi at the kids pool and 1808, which serves Fijian-Asian fusion cuisine. I didn’t even learn about the latter until I was researching this story.

Castaway offers multiple meal plans, depending on your needs. You can get just a breakfast plan or breakfast, lunch and dinner, which is $196 FJD ($85 USD) for 13 years and up. Or $98 FJD ($42 USD) for kids 3-12.

11. Drinks

Castaway is very quiet at night. It’s not a party resort, it’s family oriented. However, there are several bars. There’s one at Sundowners, a swim-up bar at the quiet pool, a small bar on the beach and a large bar at Water’s Edge. There you will find Tom Hanks’ oar from the movie Cast Away hanging up. The movie was filmed on a neighboring island and Castaway offers tours.

In the morning, there’s a coffee barista who recently was voted best barista in all of Fiji, for his concoction called Orange Coffee. His coffee is made with fresh orange juice and honey and it’s pretty darn good. My wife also said he makes a great cuppa tea, which she will tell you is hard to find.

12. They take food allergies seriously

As a remote resort, it’s comforting to know that they take food allergies very seriously. Our son’s allergies were already noted on our reservation, but at check-in they had another sheet of paper asking about food allergies to confirm . After we identified our son’s, they brought the chef out to talk to us about the food at the resort and to let us know that any time we had any questions, to just ask for a chef to come out and they will check and double-check everything for you. Every food item at the buffet was clearly marked with allergen information and the chefs were indeed happy to come out and chat about any questions I had. Traveling to a remote part of the world with food allergies can be stressful and Castaway did everything they could to help ease our fears.

13. Live music

Fijian music plays a crucial role in the country’s culture and it’s deeply embedded in daily life and ceremonies. It also plays a big part at Castaway Island as almost every meal service had live music and it’s really beautiful, adding so much to the experience. Usually, the musicians were playing modern songs with a Fijian twist, making some songs far better, in my humble opinion.

14. Stargazing

Without a doubt, one of the highlights of the trip was when we took advantage of the jet lag. The time difference was 20 hours or four hours behind L.A. plus a day. So when we woke up in the middle night, we went outside to see the stars. Boy, they didn’t disappoint! This was a really incredible experience for our kids to have. The sky started to get light around 4:30am so you don’t want to wait too long to go outside. We ended up walking the beach and watching the sun rise at 5:20am. It was a magical morning.

15. Swing

While walking the beach, we discovered a large swing with the words Castaway Island Resort written across the top. The kids loved it and so did I. Instagrammers will love this spot – it seems made for it!

16. Quiet pool

There are two pools: A quiet pool with a swim-up bar and a kids pool. Kids can go to the quiet pool but they’re expected to be quiet. Since kids + pool doesn’t exactly equal quite, we spent most of our time at the beach or at the kids pool.

17. Kids pool

The kids pool is well-designed. The majority of it is really shallow and there’s a waterfall. They also have plenty of floats around, probably left by other guests. There’s also ice cream available at the casual sushi restaurant.

18. Kids club

Castaway has a kids club that’s free. There are three sessions a day (9am-12pm, 2pm-5pm and 6pm-9pm). Or you can hire a babysitter for $9 Fijian/hour, which you pay directly to the sitter.

19. Babysitters

Our sitter, Vani, was wonderful with our kids and they loved spending time with her. She hung out at the beach with them, took them to the pool and also hung out in our room coloring and writing stories with them when my wife and I had a couples massage.

To give you an idea how special the sitters are, Olivia asked if she could hug Vani goodbye. Vani of course said yes, and Olivia ran and threw herself into her arms. She doesn’t do that for many people and certainly not for people she’s only known for a few days.

20. 24/7 front desk staff

I woke in the middle of the night one night and discovered that there is someone working the front desk 24/7, which is always comforting especially if there’s an emergency or you get locked out of your room when stargazing in the wee hours. Do I sound like I’m speaking from experience?

21. Nurse on property

If you need medical attention, it’s also comforting to know that there’s a nurse on-site. We saw the nurse once  because our daughter appeared to have gotten stung by a jellyfish. We didn’t see any and they’re not that common this time of year (so I hear). The nurse said it wasn’t a jellyfish sting but a guy at the dive shop thought it was. Either way, it went away a day later, just like the nurse predicted.

22. Well-groomed property

Castaway Island has 174 acres and the resort property portion is really well-kept and lush. There are beautiful flowers like vibrantly colored hibiscus growing abundantly from the trees. It’s really beautiful.

23. More things to do

If you get bored on Castaway Island, they do offer excursions including going out to surf the world famous Cloud Break or tour Mondriki Island, where they filmed the movie Cast Away. There’s also a tennis court and a bush walk on the island, which I regret not doing.

24. Spa

While walking to the spa, I saw a huge building where the laundry is done, along with a desalination plant where they pump out one million liters fresh water of on the island each day, which is impressive.

Natalie and I had a couples massage that was peaceful and relaxing. The open-air bure really added to the sense of calm and relaxation … and knowing that the kids were happy with Vani helped us relax even more.

25. Farewell song

I told my wife before we left home that she was going to cry when we left Fiji. Well, she cried when we left Castaway Island Resort because the farewell ceremony is just so beautiful. As you can see in the video above, it’s incredibly special and moving. About 20 staff members came out to the shore to bid us farewell and the song, despite not understanding the words, hit each of us hard. No words were necessary to feel the emotion.

As you can tell, we absolutely loved our time on Castaway Island and three nights was just too short. Next time, we will have to spend longer. It’s truly a special place that you really do need to experience yourself. And I hope that one day, you get the chance to.

Part Four: Nanuku Resort Fiji

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