Ray-Bans and a Road Map in Viti Levu, Fiji

“Drive fast on empty streets, with nothing in mind

except falling in love and not getting arrested.”

– Hunter S. Thompson

Fiji’s a funny place. The name is synonymous with exotic escape. If anywhere knew its way around a paper umbrella drink, a grass skirt, and a bonfire on a deserted spit of sand so white, so impeccably smooth that you’d swear you were dancing on God’s own baby butt … it would have to be Fiji, right? Welllll … kinda right. Here’s the catch. Those old Pan Am posters lied to you a bit about where you would be landing on arrival.

The Fijian islands are the stuff of Kava-induced daydreams, but you hit the tarmac at Nadi International Airport on the main island of Viti Levu.

Nadi Town is your welcoming wagon, and the town only contains a few battered strip malls hocking 30-year-old paua shell necklaces and Pan Am’s stopover soliloquy … sans an update in 50 years. The only good beaches on the main island are actually man-made, and while pretty, you aren’t going to get that “Holy shit! i’m in Fiji!” feeling from them.

I knew all this already. I was in Fiji on a one-night stopover 10 years ago, and when I came back in March of this year for a wedding, not one ounce of goat curry had changed about Nadi town.

And, it turns out travel writing, while great, will not pay for the boat (or the necessary, extreme resort reservations) to see the best beaches in Fiji.  Drats!

If you can’t afford to get off the main island of Viti Levu or out of Nadi town by boat either, not to worry. I’ve found a solution.

Rent a car.

Trade your sunscreen in for a paper road map and a pair of Ray-Bans and simply drive. The trip I took was around five hours, circling the western half of the island. I saw a handful of humans, met a group of baby goats, bought spices in a market and explored a rusted, roadside hearse.

Total cost: $60 for the car + $1 for the coffee. Here’s my route if you are headed there yourself. Big stops are Lautoka for the markets, Ba for extra gas and an iced coffee, Tonge for dipping your toes in a pristine river, Navala for ogling cutesy Fijian thatched huts, and Bukuya (not shown, but located just past Navala) for a true slice of rural, Fijian life. Definitely pull off the main road for Bukuya, drive down the hill and get out. The locals are very welcoming and happy to chat.

Here are a few outtakes of my drive. Maybe the third time I go to Fiji will be a charm, and I’ll see one of the outer, famed islands Conde Nast keeps going on about. Or … maybe I’ll just become the world’s foremost expert on Nadi Town. Weirder things have happened.

The market in Lautoka is a solid place to buy Kava. The pounded root produces a relaxed sense of euphoria when brewed in tea.

Buy it from this guy, who is either super excited to see me … or giving me the middle finger while growling. Verdict unknown.

After you get through the last main, tiny town of Ba … you leave civilization behind for epic expanses. Gas up. You won’t find fuel or another car for several hours

See? These people clearly ran out of gas in their hearse.

Rivers are for hot toes. Or low shutter speeds.

It’s moments like this that remind you that the Earth is a spectacular place. And Fiji? It’s not all about beaches. It’s about clouds and grass and gravel and sky, too.