When I was a child, my father worked for an airline. We used to get heavily discounted flights so flying places was a regular occurrence when I was growing up. I always found something soothing about being in an airplane. No matter what problems I had when I got on the airplane, they would be far away when I got off.
These days I don’t have the privilege of cheap flights, but I still fly places for vacation. If you are planing a vacation to Fiji, most likely you are planing to get there by plane. (You could take a cruise… but that takes a whole lot longer.) If you are traveling to a world famous Fijian resort, you are likely flying into Fiji’s Nadi International Airport, as 97% of Fiji’s international visitors fly into here.
Flying into Fiji’s Nadi International Airport reminds one of the influence western civilization has had on these South Pacific islands. Nadi International Airport was first built in 1939 and was expanded in 1942 with the help of The United States of America who used the airport to fly bombing missions against Japanese targets during World War II. As the crossroads of the Pacific, Nadi International Airport handles about 2 million passengers per year.
Flying into Fiji’s Resorts
There are hotels in Nadi, and there are some very nice resorts on Viti Levu (Fiji’s big island that Nadi is on), but if you are looking for a real Fiji experience, you are probably going to stay at a resort on of Fiji’s 300 smaller islands. You can brave the waters of the south pacific and take a 5 hour boat ride from Nadi to the Yasawa island chain and visit one of the amazing resorts there, but as I already mentioned, I have a soft spot for air travel, and I would recommend taking a 30 minute seaplane trip to the same spot.
Turtle Airways offers shuttles from Nadi International Airport to their newly renovated waterfront seaplane terminal. In my opinion, this is where the vacation really starts. Turtle Airways facilities are quiet, comfortable, and very zen.
From here you board a seaplane and take an amazingly scenic low flying flight to your resort. You can soar over soft coral reefs that peak up at you from just below the surface of amazingly blue waters, volcanic islands with peaks and planes that reach from the depths of the ocean, up to the sky, tropical forests teaming with life that is unique to our islands… the views are amazing. Did you bring a camera? Because you are going to need it.
It is only about 30 minutes from Nadi to most resorts in the Yasawa island chain, but you might wish it was longer. When you do arrive at your resort, Turtle Airways seaplanes land right in the waters in front of most resorts. You can disembark and be right on the beach. Is there any better way to start a tropical island vacation then flying into Fiji on seaplane? We don’t know of any.