There’s no shortage of things to do in Fiji at the Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort & Spa. Like most beach resorts, slothing by the pool will be #1 on most people’s lists but at this resort, there’s so many people there that even if you do manage to secure a lounger, it’s not like you’re going to have a relaxing day by the pool with so many people around.

Snorkelling off the resort is not great, there’s a few areas of coral but it’s pretty disappointing, especially after snorkelling in Komodo (which is one of the best destinations I’ve been to for snorkelling).  You can take a snorkelling tour which in involves a 10 minute boat ride to the reed off the hotel, but that, as are many like it, are just a way for the hotel to make more money. Don’t waste your time doing that as there’s very little fish and not many varieties.  That was the biggest waste of time and money. Actually thinking about that, the snorkelling nearer the shore, just past the water park is not bad. The second time we went out we saw a sea snake and a lion fish and quite a few other fish. It’s just unfortunate there’s not much proper coral, really only small areas and most of the fish tend to congregate around that.

For adults, at the resort, they organise things like touch rugby, cricket, volleyball and of course you have the typical water sports.  You can hire canoes, jetski’s, do stand up paddling, parasailing and pretty much everything you could ask for if you’re into that type of thing.  Most things cost money, it’s not crazy expensive but if you have a boat or do a lot of boating or beach stuff in your home country, you won’d be doing any of those.

There’s also a small golf course at the resort. As with a lot of things at the Shangri-La’s Fijian Resort & Spa, it was a complete cock-up.  Walked down there about a leisurely 10 minutes, asked the usual questions about hiring clubs and green fees and all that, then was told there was a course booking in an hour and half, and that we couldn’t play for even an hour despite the course being empty.  This pretty much summed up our experience of the resort.

Anyway, back to things to do Fiji.  You can do island tours for around $350 per person or you can hire a charter boat for around $1,200 per half day and $1,800 for the whole day.  We thought about it as there’s an island there that you can snorkel with sharks but based on the shit snorkelling at the resort, and the fact that it was extremely busy, we decided against it.  It’s a reef where some sharks swim by and they say you can usually “see up to 6 sharks when you visit there”. For $355 per head, we didn’t think that was worth it.  

There’s also a sandbar at a nearby island where you can have a drink but we’ve already done that in Bohol so didn’t think the time, effort and cost was worth it.  The resort is 65 km from Nadi and all the tours go from here, even charters, so we would have spent an hour getting to the boat, then more time getting to the islands.  And based on what we’d done prior, it didn’t sound like it was going to be that great.

We did head to Kula Wild Adventure Park, you can read more about that in things to do with kids in Fiji, and we also headed to the beach near the Intercontinental.  This is a better beach in all respects than the Shangri-La. When the tides coming in or going out you can surf, and the snorkelling is infinitely better with way more coral. We say quite a few sting rays.  You can also swim across to an Island and apparently see some white and black tip reef sharks. It was a bit far for Grobbler to swim even with fins, and the current was really strong going across so unfortunately we didn’t get there but the snorkelling off the shore was good enough.