[jdevine]

Hi Everyone

My husband and I are planning a trip to Fiji next year with our daughter before i have to return to work. Our daughter will be 10 months old. We are doing a lot of research and are getting a bit overhwelmed! Does anyone have any suggestions on where to stay, we have been looking at the Coral Coast or Mamanucca Islands. Main concerns are ease of transfers with a 10 month old, especially after a flight from Sydney. Also, we are a bit unsure what to do about food for her? She loves her solids and only eats food i prepare at the moment. I have been told to take packet food for her for the entire trip but have also read others who just gave their bubs appropriate food from the hotels.

Any tips greatly appreciated! For us, we just want somewhere to relax, access to a babysitter for the odd meal on own own and somewhere we will all enjoy with nice snorkelling.

Thanks

[Pompol]

We did exactly this with 10mo DS.

Just had private transfers from airport to Sofitel at Denarau, then went onto Shangri La at the Coral Coast the next day, also a private transfer (and the same return). It didn't add much at all to the cost of the trip and our travel agency arranged car seats (as well as portacots and high chairs for the whole trip).

From memory we had the choice of an early flight or a later one, we took the early one and getting the airport in time was painful but we were settled at the resort at Denarau in time for a restful afternoon by the pool, which was awesome.

We just fed DS from the restaurants, but he and I did both get a nasty case of upset tummy. I remember feeling terrible for not being more careful at the time but in hindsight it was probably the paw paw he ate, as even now 2 years later he would eat the stuff until it comes out his ears if I let him but just a few bites gives him an upset tummy.

I did take a bunch of those Rafferty's satchels but he wasn't having a bar of that when DH and I were gorging ourselves on delicious fresh food.

I was most cautious about the water, as our GP suggested we make sure he only drank bottled water. This was easy enough as there was Fiji water everywhere we looked

I have the most amazing photo of DS, asleep in the arms of a young male waiter at dinner, he snuggled up into the man's shoulder and just went out like a light. The staff at both resorts we visited were brilliant with him, he was a little celebrity and lapped it up.

We had a nanny at the Shangri La too, and went out for dinner by ourselves a few times. Our nanny was marvellous. We were embarassed by how poor the hourly rate was, and at the end of the week DH gave her a big tip and some extortionistically expensive choccies from the gift shop. I had done some research and taken with us some Aussie gossip mags even though I don't read them, as they are very pricey at the resort but it's a nice way to get your nanny on side

I can't think of a better place to take a child that age. Enjoy

[shannon31]

WE traveled to Fiji last year when my DS was 9 months, we flew from Sydney & I think the flight was under 4 hours and he had a pretty decent sleep on the plane, I breastfed during take off and we had no problems on the flight. We stayed at Outrigger on the Coral Coast which was about 90 minutes from the airport. I think our flight was 2pm, there is a time difference of 3 hours I think, by the time we got our transfer to the resort a few hours had passed since his nap (customs, luggage etc) and I think he slept again for most of the trip. Going home was a bit harder, we were on a 9am flight so we had to leave the resort pretty early, about 4.30am but I think I managed to get him back to sleep and he had another nap on the flight home. I have heard of some people spending their last night in Denarau so they are closer to the airport.
I wasn't sure about food so I took a stack of pouches but didn't use many at all, mainly used them if we were out of if he was asleep and missed lunch. The resort we stayed at provided all of our food, we always had a high chair at breakfast and dinner which were often buffet type things so he was able to have lots of different types of food and I think we let him feed himself a lot. We used a babysitter for dinner on a few occasions and he was always asleep when we got back. The Fijians are wonderful with children, always very warm and friendly, they always made a huge fuss of everyone's children.
We had a lovely holiday, there is not heaps to in Fiji so you do need to get into relax mode, enjoy the sun, pool, food etc and recharge but there are lots of water sports and various day trips, all of the resorts have lots of activities if that;s your thing. Both of our kids really enjoyed themselves. We chose the Outrigger as I wasn't keen on staying on an island, I thought it would be too restrictive if we wanted to go out. I wanted to stay somewhere that seemed a bit more traditional and I heard that Denarau is quite Westernised, you could be staying anywhere. Also this resort had a kids eat, stay, play free etc offer as as we have 2 kids it seemed better value and we used the kids club occasionally for our older son.
My son actually was unwell when we were away, just a viral infection, not from anything he ate or drank, there was a medical centre at the resort, they were able to see him straight away and I was able to get medicine there for him as well which was fantastic so it might be worth checking if there is any medical assistance where you are staying just in case as some of the resorts are very isolated and a long way from anything. I can't remember about the water but I think we always had several bottles left in our room everyday.