Although you won't see much of the real Fiji if you spend your entire vacation in Nadi, this area has more activities to keep you busy than any other part of the country. That's because the international airport and a dry climate combine to make it the country's main tourist center. The lagoon off Nadi is usually murky from runoff coming from the area's sugar cane fields, however, so this is not the most ideal place in Fiji for a beach vacation.
Despite the murk, many visitors spend their entire Fiji vacation on pancake-flat Denarau Island, about 7km (4 1/3 miles) to the west of Nadi Town. It's only technically an island, for merely a narrow creek through a mangrove forest separates it from the mainland. Denarau is home to a huge real estate project known in its entirety as Denarau Island Resort Fiji (www.denarau.com). To my mind -- and many local folks' -- it's a generic tropical resort development that could be in Hawaii, Florida, or Australia's Gold Coast. It includes large Sheraton, Westin, and Sofitel resorts, a 150-unit time-share complex, innumerable homes and condos, an 18-hole golf course, and Port Denarau, a marina where most of the area's cruises are based. In addition, big new Hilton and Radisson resorts are expected to open by 2007.
The tourism boom has made Nadi -- as the area around the international airport is known -- the fastest-growing part of Fiji. New homes, stores, shopping centers, and office buildings are popping up along the 9km (5 1/2 miles) of traffic-heavy Queen's Road between the airport and Nadi Town, a 7-block strip lined with handicraft, souvenir, and other shops. The only reason I go into Nadi Town these days is to dine at some of the country's better restaurants.
From Nadi, it's an easy 33km (20-mile) side trip to Lautoka, Fiji's second- largest city. Lautoka offers a genteel contrast to tourist-oriented Nadi Town.
