Fast Facts

American Express -- Fiji does not have a full-service American Express representative.

Business Hours -- Stores are generally open Monday to Friday from 8am to 4:30pm, although many close for lunch from 1 to 2pm, and many stay open until 5:30pm. Saturday hours are from 8:30am to noon in town, but many suburban stores stay open until 6pm and even 8pm. Shops in most hotels stay open until 9pm every day. Government office hours are Monday to Thursday from 8am to 1pm and 2 to 4:30pm, Friday from 8am to 1pm and 2 to 4pm.

Camera/Film -- Caines Photofast, the largest processor of Kodak films, has shops in the main towns.

Clothing -- Modest dress is the order of the day, particularly in the villages. As a rule, don't leave the hotel swimming pool or the beach in bathing suits or other skimpy attire. That includes low-slung pants and shorts which show everything from your navel down to your you-know-what. If you want to run around half naked, go to Tahiti, where the French think it's all right. The Fijians do not. Do not enter a Fijian village wearing a hat or sunglasses, or with your shoulders uncovered.

Fijian men and women wear sulus, the wraparound skirts known as pareus in Tahiti and the Cook Islands and lava-lavas in the Samoas. Fijian women wear chambas, or hip-length blouses, over their sulus. Many Indian women wear saris, lengths of cloth wrapped and pleated around the body.

Drug Laws -- Marijuana is grown illegally up in the hills, but one drive past the Suva Gaol will convince you not to get caught buying it -- or smuggling narcotics or dangerous drugs into Fiji.

Drugstores -- The main towns have reasonably well-stocked drugstores. Their medicines are likely to be from Australia or New Zealand. The large Morris Hedstrom department stores throughout Fiji carry a wide range of toiletries, including Coppertone, Colgate, and many other brands that are familiar to Americans.

Electricity -- Electric current in Fiji is 240 volts, 50 cycles. Many hotels have converters for 110-volt shavers, but these are not suitable for hair dryers. The plugs are the angled two-prong types used in Australia and New Zealand. Outlets have separate on/off switches mounted next to them.

E-mail -- Most hotels and resorts will send and receive e-mail for their guests. Cybercafes in Nadi, Suva, and Savusavu have computer terminals, as does Connect Internet Services (or simply "Connect" to the locals), Fiji's major Internet service provider (tel. 670 7359 in Nadi, 330 0100 in Suva; www.connect.com.fj). No U.S. Internet service provider has a local access number in Fiji. If you take your laptop, you can sign up for temporary dial-up access through Connect.There's a F$33 (US$20) fee for 1 month's access, plus a F8¢ (US5¢) a minute access fee, which will be billed to your hotel room. (Be careful, for some hotels add a whopping service fee on top of Connect's charges.)

Embassies/Consulates -- The U.S. Embassy is at 31 Loftus St., Suva (tel. 331 4466; www.amembassy-fiji.gov). Other major diplomatic missions in Suva are Australia, 37 Princes Rd., Tamavua (tel. 338 2211); New Zealand, 10th Floor, Reserve Bank of Fiji Bldg., Pratt St. (tel. 331 1422); United Kingdom, Victoria House, 47 Gladstone Rd. (tel. 331 1033); Japan, 2nd Floor, Dominion House, Thomson St. (tel. 330 2122); France, 7th Floor, Dominion House, Thomson St. (tel. 331 2233); People's Republic of China, 147 Queen Elizabeth Dr. (tel. 330 0215); and South Korea, 8th Floor, Vanua House, Victoria Parade (tel. 330 0977).

Emergencies -- The emergency telephone number for fire and ambulance is tel. 911 throughout Fiji. The police emergency number is 917.

Firearms -- Guns are illegal in Fiji, and persons found with them could be fined severely and sentenced to jail.

Gambling -- There are no casinos in Fiji but you can play the local lottery.

Healthcare -- Medical and dental care in Fiji are not up to the standards common in the industrialized world. Most hotels have private physicians on call or can refer one. Doctors are listed at the beginning of the White Pages section of the Fiji telephone directory, under the heading "Medical Practitioners."

Hitchhiking -- Local residents seldom hitchhike, so the custom is not widespread, nor do I recommend it. Women traveling alone should never hitchhike in Fiji.

Insects -- Fiji has no dangerous insects, and its plentiful mosquitoes do not carry malaria. The only dangerous animal is the bolo, a venomous snake that is docile and rarely seen.

Liquor Laws -- The legal drinking age is 21. Both beer and spirits are produced locally and are considerably less expensive than imported brands, which are taxed heavily. If you drink quality brands of liquor, bring some with you. Fiji Bitter and Fiji Gold are the local beers. Fiji Bitter served in a bottle is known as a "Stubbie." Fiji Gold is a much lighter lager than Fiji Bitter. Most bars also sell Budweiser from the United States and most Australian and New Zealand beers.

Maps -- Most bookstores and hotel gift shops sell maps of Fiji.

Newspapers/Magazines -- Three national newspapers are published in English: the Fiji Times (www.fijivillage.com), the Daily Post (www.fijipost.com), and the Fiji Sun (www.sun.com.fj). All are tabloids and appear daily. They carry a few major stories from overseas. The international editions of Time and the leading Australian and New Zealand daily newspapers are available at some bookstores and hotel shops. The latter usually are several days old before they reach Fiji. Published monthly in Suva, the excellent Pacific Magazine (www.pacificislands.net) covers South Pacific regional news.

Pets -- You will need advance permission to bring any animal into Fiji; if not, your pet will be quarantined.

Post Office -- All the main towns have post offices operated by Fiji Post, and there is a branch at Nadi International Airport, across the entry road from the terminal. Allow at least a week for delivery of airmail letters between Fiji and North America. Surface mail can take 2 months or more. Post offices usually are open Monday to Friday from 8am to 4pm. Mail moves faster if you use "Fiji Islands" on envelopes and packages sent here.

Radio/TV -- The Fijian government operates three nationwide radio networks whose frequencies depend on the location of the relay transmitters. Radio Fiji 1 carries programming in Fijian. Radio Fiji 2 is Hindi. Radio Fiji Gold broadcast in English and sounds very much like a popular-music station in Western countries. Radio Fiji 1 and Radio Fiji Gold both carry news bulletins on the hour and full world, regional, and local news reports and weather bulletins daily at 7am and 6pm. Several privately owned English-language FM stations can be heard in Suva and Nadi.

Fiji has one broadcast channel which could be received around Suva, Nadi, and Lautoka. The local news and weather comes on at 6pm daily. The published schedules are carried in the local newspapers. Many hotels have Sky TV, a pay system with the BBC, sports, and a few other channels.

Safety -- Fiji has experienced a serious increase in crime in recent years. Property theft is commonplace, and armed robberies -- once virtually nonexistent -- have become more frequent. A tourist's chances of being robbed or assaulted in Fiji are lower than in the centers of most large American cities, but caution is advised at all times. Stick to the main streets after dark, and take a taxi back to your hotel if you're out late at night. Do not leave valuables in your hotel room or unattended elsewhere, including in rental cars and tour buses.

Women should not wander alone on deserted beaches and should be extremely cautious about accepting an offer to have a few beers outside a bar or to be given a late-night lift back to their hotel or hostel.

Taxes -- Fiji imposes a 12.5% value added tax (VAT) on most goods and services, which is included in most prices. These are known as "VAT-inclusive prices," or VIP for short. Hotels are not required to include it in the rates they quote outside Fiji, so be sure to ask whether a hotel room rate or other price includes the VAT. You will not be entitled to a VAT refund when you leave the country.

In addition, Fiji imposes a 3% tax on all hotel expenditures: rooms, restaurants, bars, and activities. The hotel tax may or may not be included in the rates advertised overseas.

Fiji does not have airport departure taxes.

Telephone/Fax -- International calls can be dialed directly into Fiji from most areas of the world. The international country code is 679. There are no area codes within Fiji.

Several international long-distance carriers have access numbers their customers can call from within Fiji to reach their international networks: AT&T (tel. 00-48-901008); AT&T Canada (tel. 00-48-901009); MCI (tel. 00-48-901002); Sprint (tel. 00-48-901003); Hawaii Telecom (tel. 00-48-901004); Verizon (tel. 00-48-901007); Bell South (tel. 00-48-901010); and Teleglobe Canada (tel. 00-48-901005). These numbers can be dialed toll free from any Phonecard public phone . Check the front of the Fiji phone book white pages for Australian, New Zealand, and other phone companies.

The numbers for directory assistance in Fiji are tel. 011 for domestic information, tel. 022 for international numbers. On the Web you can look up numbers at www.whitepages.com.fj.

Pay phones -- Pay phones are located at all post offices and in many other locations. You can make local, domestic long-distance ("trunk"), or international calls without operator assistance from any of them. They accept only prepaid Fiji Telecom Phonecards, not coins. Post offices and many shops (including the gift shops in the Nadi Airport terminal) sell Phonecards in denominations up to F$50 (US$30). Peel the tape off the back of the card to reveal your user identification. Calls to the United States cost about F$3 (US$1.80) a minute when dialed directly. You cannot use your AT&T or other phone company credit cards from a Phonecard phone.

To call outside Fiji, dial 00 first, then the country code (1 for the U.S. and Canada), and the area code and phone number. No prefix is required for domestic long distance calls.

Vodaphone Fiji (tel. 672 6226; www.vodafone.com.fj) rents cellphones and GSM-compatible SIM cards at its desk in the arrivals concourse at Nadi airport. Phones cost F$6 (US$3.60) a day, SIM cards F$2 (US$1.20), plus F95¢ (US57¢) per minute for outgoing calls to land lines, F52¢ (US31¢) to other mobile phones. All incoming calls are free. Vodaphone will pre-authorize a credit of F$200 (US$120) on your credit card, to which it will bill your rental and usage fees. The desk is staffed daily from 5am to 11pm and for every major international flight.

Time -- Local time in Fiji is 12 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time from March 1 to October 31. Daylight saving time is in effect from November 1 to February 28, when local time is 13 hours ahead of GMT. Although the 180° meridian passes through Taveuni, all of Fiji is west of the international date line, so it's one day ahead of the United States and shares the same day with Australia and New Zealand. Translated: When it's 5am on Tuesday in Fiji, it's noon on Monday in New York and 9am on Monday in Los Angeles.

Tipping -- Tipping is discouraged throughout Fiji unless truly exceptional service has been rendered. That's not to say that the porter won't give you that where's-my-money look once he figures out you're an American.

Water -- Except during periods of continuous heavy rain, the tap water in the main towns and at the resorts is safe to drink. The famous "Fiji" and other bottled waters are widely available at shops and hotels.

Weights/Measures -- Fiji uses the metric system.