Five-star holidays at one-star prices in Fiji

By MICHAEL WALES

You can almost hear Baldrick now: "It's a cunning plan, my Lord", and he'd be right. You can enjoy a five-star holiday in Fiji at a one-star price. True, the great hope of cheap Fiji holidays, the Flight Centre, has been clobbered by the Fijian Government, the 50 per cent shareholder in Air Pacific.

But, fear not, Air Pacific's comfortable duopoly partner, Air New Zealand, has shafted them both by announcing its new Pacific Express fares.

The new fares are only $20 dearer each way from Auckland to Nadi than the cheap fares being provided by Air NZ's fully owned, cut-price subsidiary, Freedom Air, which has just decided to resume its Fiji schedules after dropping out after the May 2000 coup, so Air Pacific has no option but to match them or lose all of its New Zealand market.

But you will need to be clever to get the Pacific Island holiday of your dreams.

It is interesting that at the time of writing - the day after Air NZ announced its new cheap flights to Fiji - Freedom Air's cheapest one-way flight to Fiji on its web page had crept up to $209 from the heavily promoted $199 one-way "smallest fares ever".

Had you been able to take one of the Flight Centre packages, your accommodation would have been at Wests Motor Inn, which has a rack rate of $25 a person in Air NZ's Fiji holiday brochure.

It is hard to imagine the Flight Centre would have got it much cheaper so, on this basis, the Flight Centre's airfare component for its quad-share holidays would have been $224 return a person, compared with Freedom's $418, Air NZ's $458 and Air Pacific's $649.

Of course, they will say you can't make a comparison like this, but it does suggest we should hope the Flight Centre returns to the fray.

Still, the cost of a trip to Fiji is certainly coming down. Based on published data, here's what you would be quoted an adult, plus fees, for a seven-night holiday, departing Auckland on Air New Zealand, and Hamilton on Freedom Air, on April 29, returning May 4, subject to seats being available:

So what do you get for your money? Forget the sandy beaches; none of the properties offered at $399-$599 is anywhere near a beach, and those beaches that were on offer for slightly higher prices are off the end of the flight path of Nadi International.

Freedom has teamed with Holiday Plus to provide seven-night packages, starting from $599 plus fees and taxes, staying at the Skylodge, the property used to overnight crew when aircraft needed to make a refuelling stop. It looked tired when I stayed there a few years ago but it has been refurbished recently by the Tanoa Group.

Only those properties from Crusoe's Retreat down offer a true beach experience, and there your costs will be around $1000 an adult by the time you pay taxes and levies, with food and drink on top.

If you want a real island holiday the cheapest off Nadi is Bounty Island, where the $97 a person a night includes three meals. More iconic resorts, such as Treasure Island, cost $217 a person a night, plus food.

Another way to enjoy a real island experience is to take a day trip to Castaway Island. For $89 an adult and $45 for children aged 5 to 15, you have full use of the island facilities, lunch, snorkelling and transfers from your Nadi hotel. A similar package operates to Beachcomber Island.

Most properties allow children under 12 to stay free, so this helps to push the prices down for families, and children pay less in airfares as well.

Waikato people have advantages taking a Freedom Air flight and negotiating room rates with any of the properties that have lost their Flight Centre contracts, such as Wests Motor Inn.

For Aucklanders and those north of the bridge, the extra costs of getting to Hamilton hardly seem justified, particularly as Pacific Express flights come with a cafe snack and complimentary beverages. Extra parking costs are only $1 a day and that wouldn't cover the petrol to get to Hamilton.

Wests Motor Inn is a basic motel, but it has a pool, the rooms are air-conditioned and it is close to McDonald's. Most Nadi properties offer reasonable rates and an acceptable standard of accommodation. The Dominion International, Capricorn, and Raffles Gateway are similar in standards and amenities.

The Tokatoka has a great pool/waterslide area and is comparable in price to the others.

The Nadi Bay Hotel, which doesn't feature in airline advertising, is a combined budget/backpacker property that offers basic but clean accommodation for couples, families and individuals.

The trick for expanding your one-star property into a five-star holiday is to spend as little time as possible at the hotel. Take the cheap package, then hire a rental car and head for the high life.

Having wheels gives you the chance to eat out at a local cafe or restaurant and to transport yourself to a real beach, such as Natadola, only an hour from Nadi and the best on the mainland, with even some surfing potential.

When it comes to eating, regardless of whether you hire a rental car or not, you must visit Tata's for an authentic Indian curry.

And there's nothing to stop you booking into one of the fine restaurants at one of the five-star resorts on Denarau Island, then nipping back to your budget accommodation to sleep.

The rental also allows you to make a day trip to Suva and explore the rest of the main island. Avis offers Toyota Echos for $68 a day for seven-day hires, but for that price you can just about get a taxi to take you anywhere in the Nadi area and wait until you want to return to your hotel. And non-franchised rental car companies offer cheaper rates.

If you are adventurous, ask the hotel desk about how to catch a local bus to Natadola, or any other destination. As well as being super cheap, it is a genuine Fiji Islands experience. There are multiple services every day along the Queen's Rd to Suva, which is 200km or about 2 1/2 hours' driving time from Nadi.

With the money you have saved travelling by bus you can manage another meal at a five-star restaurant.

* All prices quoted are in New Zealand dollars but you currently get around F$1.10 for every NZ$1, so you need to take that into account when seeking local prices on the internet.