July – November, 2015
Anyone who reads this blog will notice we occasionally mention a place called Denarau. This is because it’s part of the Cruiser’s Triangle (a name I just now made up). I call this the Cruiser’s Triangle because those who cruise the west side of Fiji generally make their season’s home base on one of the three corners (Vuda Marina, Musket Cove, or Denarau Marina) and travel frequently between the them.
Cruising isn’t just about the art of sailing and reading charts, it’s also about the art of waiting. The trade winds that are the hallmark of the tropics can create conditions that are uncomfortable and unsafe for being out and about on the water. These are known as “enhanced trades.” What cruisers generally look for is a period of light trades for going island hopping, then return to their hub for any extended period of those dreaded enhanced trades.
A good hub has a marina with slips or secure moorings reasonably close to shore. It will also have a good restaurant, a comfortable bar for hanging out, a cafe for coffee and breakfast, laundry facilities, showers and restrooms, yacht services, a market, and access to transportation to the bigger markets in the cities. Denarau is just such a place.
Denarau is like the Grand Central Station of Fiji: nearly everyone, tourists and boaters alike, passes through here at some point. Tourists end up here because Fiji’s international airport is close by, and this is where they come to both stay and to get their transports to the Mamanuca and Yasawa Islands.
The best way to describe Denarau is to picture a big roundish “island” with a golf course at its center, surrounded by a beautiful tree-lined street. On the other side of this street are the big-gun resorts (Sofitel, Radisson, Westin, Hilton, Sheraton, etc.), plus an area of upscale vacation homes built along waterways.
After the line of resorts is a side street leading to the marina and small outdoor promenade mall. The mall features gift shops, a deli, a little market, and lots of eateries and restaurants whose tables spill out onto the walkway that surrounds the mall. There’s a lot of pedestrian traffic here: buses take people to the resorts and to the city of Nadi about 10 minutes away. Ferries take people to all the islands, and of course there are the day trip and excursion boats. It’s a high energy area, but it’s very well done and a pleasant place to be. (Note: it’s not really an island, it just has a river so you have to drive over a bridge to get here.)
Yachties choose Denarau for a variety of reasons: its proximity to Musket Cove, its variety of restaurants and nice market, its big slips if their boat is too large for Vuda Marina, or they simply prefer it to Vuda Marina and find it a lot more convenient than Musket Cove.
We ended up at Denarau four times during the season, twice by cab to visit friends staying there, and twice by our own boat. While Vuda Marina is still our first choice for a hub, we sure enjoyed visiting Denarau! We love the energy and all the restaurants and found a few favorites, including Lulu’s for breakfast burritos, coffee and sushi, Nadina for outstanding Fijian cuisine, Cardo’s for its evening atmosphere, the Hard Rock Cafe for it’s cheeseburgers, Mamacitas (across the golf course at the Wyndham time-share resort) for tasty Mexican food, and a place called New Zealand Natural for fantastic ice cream. It would be a very easy and pleasant place to spend a season.
Below, a gallery of Denarau pictures, including a few from our walking tour through the resorts, and a few from the night of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, with lots of traditional Indian dress and fireworks. Click to enlarge and scroll.–Cyndi
