This January, my husband and I revisited Fiji! We stayed at beautiful Shangri-La Resort and really enjoyed our time exploring the culture and unwinding at the beach. I wanted to put this post together to share a realistic view of what a short resort stay might cost in Fiji when flying from the US, and to share a few tips to save money on a trip like this.
I’ll mention here that we are not extreme budget travelers by any means, and don’t usually stay in hostels or things like that, so depending on your view of “budget travel”, these tips may or may not be helpful for you. Fiji is an incredible destination with a wide range of accommodations for every budget–if you want to spend thousands of dollars per night to stay in an overwater bungalow, you certainly can! We like to balance adventure/new experiences and comfort/relaxation while traveling, and found that this trip was just what we needed for a winter escape.
Luckily, there are a few things about Fiji that help make it a somewhat affordable destination right off the bat. For citizens of most countries, there’s no visa for stays less than four months, so as long as you have a valid passport, you’re good to go! Fiji has no malaria risk, so you won’t have to take anti-malarial meds as you should in much of the tropics, and it might save you money on a pre-trip doctor visit too! Food costs are not too outrageous. On a resort, of course, things will cost a bit more, but we found local restaurants to be quite affordable.
Read on for my best Fiji budget tips, and a breakdown of what we spent!
Flights + Accommodations
1. Travel in the off-season
Peak season in Fiji is dry season, or June to September. It’s also a popular destination over Christmas and New Year’s, so you’ll want to avoid those dates for peak prices. May and October are great shoulder season months, and a happy medium between reliable weather and medium prices. We, of course, went in January, which is definitely low season. It’s wet season–also known as cyclone season–in Fiji. I know, I know, it sounds a little scary, but Fiji on average is only hit with 2-3 tropical cyclones per season (November to April), and generally they are fast-moving enough that the islands are only hit with rain and wind.
We did buy travel insurance, just in case the forecast turned on us before the trip and we needed to cancel. This does add some extra cost as well, but since the pandemic, I pretty much always buy travel insurance just to be safe! As it was, we were lucky and only got sprinkled on a tiny bit on our last day as we were returning to the airport. The rest of the days were warm (70s and 80s), humid, and ranged from cloudy to sunny!
Low season and shoulder season are definitely the best times for an affordable visit to Fiji. There were other benefits too, like not having to make reservations at most of the restaurants, and because the resort was less than full, they upgraded us for free to the adults-only wing, with its daily happy hours, fabulous infinity pool, and private beach. We couldn’t have been happier we went in January!
2. Subscribe to Fiji Airways emails for package deals
Flying to Fiji is generally the most expensive part of a short trip like this–it’s a long flight, so with fuel costs there’s definitely a limit to how cheap you can find tickets. Because we’d been to Fiji once before and knew it would be fun to go back sometime, I subscribed to emails from Fiji Airways. Last June, I happened to see an email about their latest deals and saw packages with flights out of LA and 4-5 nights at a resort for only $1000/traveler. I couldn’t book fast enough! They send out deals like these fairly often for different dates, so if you’re keeping an eye out, you can find a cheap trip for yourself too!
3. Save credit card points for free flights
I hadn’t traveled internationally since April last year, so I had a bit of a stockpile of travel points. I was able to use Chase Ultimate Rewards points to cover the roundtrip flights between MSP and LAX. I did follow the route on Google Flights so I could look for an opportunity when they went a little cheaper too! One of my favorite rewards combinations has been to use my Chase Freedom Unlimited card for everyday purchases and my Chase Sapphire Preferred card for travel purchases. I can transfer points from my Chase Freedom account over to my Chase Sapphire card before booking, because then the points are worth 25% more when used to book travel!
4. If possible, arrive early and leave late
Our Fiji Airways flights worked out so that we arrived very early on Saturday morning, and flew out late on Wednesday night. The trip felt longer than four nights, partially because of travel time on flights and layovers, and partially because we arrived at the resort early on Saturday and had a full day of activities between the resort and Nadi before our late flight Wednesday. The timing also helped us out sleeping-wise, as we could time our overnight sleep on the plane to minimize jet lag in both directions. We were also able to visit the Getty in LA [post coming soon] on our outbound layover, so consider adding to the trip that way as well!
5. Choose the Coral Coast on Viti Levu
Fiji is a nation of over 300 islands, and there are plenty of different ones with five-star resorts in idyllic settings. However, if you’re going for a budget stay, I recommend sticking to the main island of Viti Levu (where Nadi International Airport is located) and choosing a resort along the Coral Coast. Not only will you have multiple affordable options, you’ll very likely save money on transportation, since you can take a bus, cab, or hotel airport transfer from the airport rather than needing to take a plane or a boat to one of the outlying islands.
Food
1. Take advantage of free food
We were able to eat a surprising amount of food for free at the resort. We knew our package included daily breakfast buffet, but we also got a free bottle of wine on arrival, and everyday between 4-5pm there was a free happy hour with canapes and unlimited cocktails in the adults-only wing. Make sure you know what’s included in your stay, and take advantage of anything that’s free to cut down on costs!
2. Consider skipping a meal, or substituting a smaller snack
Between the breakfast buffet, the happy hours, and eating hearty dinners (which were sometimes also buffets) every night, we found we didn’t need to eat lunch everyday. If needed, we would grab a cheaper snack, like ice cream, to fill the gap between meals. Portions are usually quite large on vacation, so look at skipping a meal–whether it be breakfast, lunch or dinner–to help save on the food budget.
3. Bring some snacks with you!
We purchased some snacks from a market en route to the resort, and also bought a few drinks from resort shops to save money versus resort-made cocktails. This is another great way to keep the food costs low while also getting to explore fun snacks from that part of the world–like cassava chips, guava Bundaberg, and chocolate-filled koala cookies!
4. Be sure to account for the money you’re not spending on food at home
Groceries, takeout, and food in general have been getting more expensive at home, so we do think about how much we might have spent at home if we hadn’t traveled. I have not adjusted the final expense here in the article to account for it, but when budgeting, really you could subtract some expense from your budget/savings for meals you would have eaten anyway if at home!
Activities
1. Take it easy, and pack some activities
In general, I’m pretty terrible at slowing down for vacations, and am more likely to jam 10 activities into a day than to spend the whole day lounging at the beach. However, this is Fiji, and “no hurry no worry” (Fiji time) is part of the culture! Therefore on this vacation, we decided to take it slow, and only planned about two major activities per day, while spending as much time as possible in the infinity pool or at the beach. Bringing a few activities from home can also help cut down on costs. We packed a snorkel and mask in our luggage, which enhanced our beach time, and it’s hard to beat reading a book in a hammock by the ocean…
2. Find free activities
If you do a little research ahead of time, you might be surprised how many activities your hotel or resort offers for free! Our first time in Fiji, one of the hotel staff actually took us out snorkeling on his boat as an included activity for our two-night stay! This time around, we kayaked, drank kava, hung out at the beach and different pools, and explored the marine life center, all for free. The resort had many more free activities that we didn’t end up having time for, from traditional weaving demonstrations to aqua aerobics to bike tours of the resort.
3. Prioritize your splurge activities
As you’ll see, we definitely had some higher cost splurge activities on our list! We were strategic about it, however. My #1 activity on this revisit to Fiji was snorkeling, so we splashed out a little on the jet ski snorkel safari. Jet skiing on the open ocean, snorkeling over beautiful reefs full of colorful fish, and having a snack at beautiful Natadola Beach made it all worth it. Our other big splurge was on a traditional lovo feast and fire dance show. I felt that on our last visit we had missed out on seeing fire dancers, and since it also included food and learning more about Fijian culture, I was sold!
But of course, you’ll need to be strategic about which activities you choose to splurge on. Like many destinations with a large focus on tourism, there were a multitude of activities we could have done, like parasailing, jet boating on the Sigatoka river, or a hiking excursion to a waterfall. While they all would have been fun, they would’ve inflated the trip budget significantly and left us with less time for “no hurry no worry” relaxing on the beach!
4. Be as generous as you can afford to be
When it comes to saving money on travel, I try not to cut costs in areas that directly support the local people and their families. While tipping is not expected in Fiji, it is appreciated. Minimum wage in Fiji is about $2 USD/hour. Most likely if you are vacationing in Fiji, a $2 tip here and there is going to mean a lot more to the Fijian workers than it does to you! One night I remember leaving a couple of US dollars as a tip for our tiki bartender. She was so excited, she came over to thank us and said we made her day! I recommend leaving a little wiggle room in the budget so you can properly appreciate those who go above and beyond to make sure you have a great vacation.
Final Spending Breakdown
Grand Total: $3374
Fiji Airways Package – $1969
– roundtrip flights LA to Nadi, 4 nights at Shangri-La Resort, and free breakfast each day
Other flights – free
– roundtrip flights MSP to LA
– used credit card points to book flights through Delta; flights value without points, $735.60
Cab ride from Nadi Airport to Shangri-La Resort – $80
– including a (more generous than we needed to be) tip of $20
Cab ride to Nadi Airport from Shangri-La Resort – $100
– includes tip; a larger fee than the route to the resort because we booked the driver for the day so we could do a couple of activities in Nadi
World Nomads travel insurance – $127
Food – $460
– includes dinner, snacks & drinks at the resort; snacks en route to the resort; our last dinner before the airport; and all tips on restaurant meals
Lovo feast and traditional fire dance – $140
Jet ski snorkel safari – $300
Mini golf – $28
Garden of the Sleeping Giant – $50
Sabeto Hot Spring and Mud Pool Tour – $40
So there you have it! We were able to do a nice 5-day (7-day if including travel days) trip to Fiji for two for just under $3500.
There are certainly ways you could do a similar trip for even cheaper–like taking public transportation to the resort, skipping travel insurance, or selecting fewer splurge activities… Just doing one or two of those could easily get the trip under $3000, or make it cheap enough to do a 5-night/6-day package for a similar cost. I didn’t include souvenirs since everyone’s preferences will be different, but I usually budget an extra 5% of the total trip cost for souvenirs (and sometimes unexpected expenses).
Of course, it might also help to visit Fiji as a brief stopover on your way to destinations like Australia or New Zealand! Trans-Pacific flights aren’t cheap, and on our first visit, we actually found cheaper flights to New Zealand with a stopover in Fiji in between than we could find direct.
I hope this was helpful, and that, if Fiji is a dream destination for you, that you now feel a little more empowered to budget for a trip with a moderate relaxation to adventure ratio! Have you visited Fiji before, or is it on your travel bucket list?