Review: Treasure Island Fiji
Before I forget all the details and this vacation just turns into one of these blurry beautiful memories let’s give a short review off the stay at the Treasure Island Resort on Fiji.
So we got to Nadi (speak Nandi) with Pacifcblue which was by far the cheapest airline from Australia. The resort had arranged a pickup at the airport and a speed boat transfer as we were too late for the catamaran.
The island truely is beautiful. It has about 60 bures and the main
resort facilites plus the staff quarters. All the bures are a few meters (20-30m) from the ocean. (Make sure you don’t get
one too near at the water pump). It takes you about 10 minutes to walk all around the island. The water is awesome! 30°C and cristal clear. You just step a few meters into the water
and you have fish all around you. Just mind the tides and snorkel away for hours. (Better watch out for sunburns!) As a diver I was surprised about the quality of their snorkeling gear.
And they actually provide it for free! There is also a dive shop on that island. Before the start of the season (1st of April) they had a half-price special. I think I ended up paying
about 40 EUR for a two-tank dive! I’ve never payed less for a dive! …and the equipment was good (even including a decent dive computer) ….I just could not find the
catch! (Divesite recommendation: “Supermarket” …lot’s of sharks. I had about 4 (at least!) 2 meter ones around me – awesome!) …what else… For
the ones who really cannot let go for a few days there is also computer at the reception with free internet access! Not the fastest broadband but still dsl. But be aware it’s like
in a sauna in there! Noone should expect long emails from there.
Being more a backpacker kind of guy being at a restort felt really strange. It is one of the smaller ones so it might be not as badly touristy – but still. You always had your entertainment program at dinner time. Dinner was one of the gotchas btw. Being such a small island you naturally have to eat at the resort’s restaurant. The food was definitely not spectacular – but alright. The big catch here – as you probably would expect it’s way too expensive. Dinner just wasn’t worth 25 EUR. When you go for the meal plan it might be a little cheaper. But still! Also watch out when you buy e.g. water. Surprisingly the cheapest you can buy water is through your minibar. Otherwise buy a bottle at the restaurant/bar. Most expensive one seems to be shop. We found out about that at the end of our stay. Another rip-off was the transport back to the airport. Before we came to Treasure I asked them whether I need any cash – they said “no”. In the end they wanted to have 15% surcharge to cash some money we obviously needed to get to the airport. Not cool!
We got a pretty good off-season deal booking direclty on the website. Goind through a travel agent was meant to cost heaps more! So we ended paying about 120 EUR per night (60 EUR per person) …which was alright. (I don’t think it’s worth the full price!) Still I would have expected properly cleaned towels for that amount of money.
In the end it was pretty nice vaction but you would not want to stay on treasure for more than a week. The program and meal plan repeats and the island feels smaller by the day. Although it’s even smaller we should probably have better stayed at Beachcomber Island (which is just a swim away). It has a slighty younger crowd. Treasure is more a family place. But both island are well worth a visit.