Namale - The Fiji Islands Resort & Spa

Description:

• Both luxurious and eclectic, this resort is owned by toothy American motivational author and speaker Anthony Robbins, who visits several times a year and conducts some of his get-a-grip seminars here (most participants sleep across the road, but those willing to pay a lot extra stay in the resort). Robbins obviously finds any dull moment distasteful, for he has built an air-conditioned gym with a wall-size TV for watching sports via satellite, an indoor basketball court, an electronic golf simulator, and a full-size bowling alley (I kid you not). These indoor toys will come in handy since the climate here is borderline rainforest, and the pebbly beaches are not reason alone to spend your entire vacation here. Nevertheless, Namale has excellent scuba diving and deep-sea fishing (the only two activities demanding an extra fee), plus windsurfing, horseback riding, and hiking. After all that, you can be pampered in the full-service spa, the most beautiful in Fiji. As my travel-writing friend John ("Johnny Jet") DiScala once wisecracked, this is "the kind of place Americans come when they really don't want to leave home."

  This area has been geologically uplifted, so all buildings are on a shelf 3 to 6m (10-20 ft.) above sea level. The guest quarters are widely scattered in the blooming tropical gardens, thus affording honeymoon-like privacy if not a setting directly beside the lagoon. The crown jewel is the "Dream House," a two-bedroom, two-bathroom minimansion with a kitchen, its own small pool, a whirlpool bathtub, and indoor and outdoor showers. Similarly equipped, the "Bula House" has only one bedroom, but its rental includes the two guest bungalows outside, and it has a Jacuzzi on its deck. Both the Dream and Bula houses have drop-down movie screens with wraparound sound systems. Two more "Grand Villas" have their own pools, separate buildings for sleeping and living, and a treehouselike platform for lounging with sea views. Your children can stay with you in these houses, but only if they're at least 12 years old (they are allowed in the other bungalows only if you rent one just for them).

  Among the bungalows, the deluxe honeymoon bure also has its own swimming pool. Four more honeymoon bures have bathrooms with Jacuzzi tubs, separate showers with indoor and outdoor entrances, and their own ceiling fans. Six older bures are much less spectacular, but they are attractively appointed nonetheless. If you're traveling by yourself, you can stay in one of these, but not in the larger units. You'll have a walkie-talkie instead of a phone.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Very Highly Recommended 2010