Why Fiji Is the Ultimate Romantic Escape

Of course, Fiji is not just for lovers. But you’d be forgiven for thinking that it might be. Indeed, the South Seas are the perfect backdrop for romance, since there’s nothing between you and your significant other save for verdant vistas and cerulean seas.

Give your island getaway a romantic touch by making time for some of these escapades. As always, check for travel guidelines and closures before planning your trip.

Sunsets with a Twist

The South Seas are synonymous with sunset sailing, but if you’d rather not yacht, try something traditional: a twilight tour via drua, the sail-driven double canoe long used by Fijian mariners. The i Vola Sigavou, run by the Drua Experience, is the only working drua in the world, built in 2016 to current safety standards so as to keep Fiji’s seagoing history alive.

Voyages are intimate: The drua fits 10 people at most, so the crew has time to share with you a bowl of kava while talking about how life in Fiji is intertwined with the sea. Landlubberly lovers can opt for the Fiji Museum, where you can catch the drua Ratu Finau on display.

Love, Lunch and Chocolate

Eager to explore the stomach/heart nexus instead? Try Taste Fiji Kitchen in Nadi on Viti Levu, Fiji’s main island. The casual vibe (the setting is an old embroidery factory) keeps the focus on your better half — and on a delicious farm-to-fork menu featuring Fijian specialties like caramelized pork belly from Vuda.

If your romantic dreams are chocolate driven, try the Vanua Chocolate factory tour and pick up some single-origin bars that are mixed with notes like sea salt or chili and made from cacao sourced from local farmers.

On Horseback, in the Highlands

Many outfitters offer guided horseback tours that traverse the gently sloping volcanic hills of the Nausori Highlands at the heart of Viti Levu. Best seen from the saddle, views run from verdant valleys to glimpses of the far-off Mamanuca and Yasawa archipelagos.

Slowly walking a steed through the landscape makes a person mindful of Fiji’s natural beauty — and of sharing the experience with a partner.

Romantic Strolls and Sensual Spas

Spoil your partner with a five-star experience at the Fiji Marriott Resort Momi Bay, set in Viti Levu’s serene and isolated southwest. Far from the main island’s madding crowd, savor a couples spa treatment, stroll hand in hand along the white sand beach or simply stare at the Pacific from an airy, spacious overwater bure, built along traditional Fijian lines, perched over an azure lagoon.

Repeat the spa/stroll experience, albeit more casually, in nearby Nadi. Soak the toxins from your skin with a mud bath at the naturally heated Sabeto Mud Springs, and then go for a stroll at the neighboring Garden of the Sleeping Giant, an easily accessible and well-manicured botanical garden in the Nausori Highlands. Walk amid lily ponds and thousands of different kinds of orchids whose beauty will rival that of your partner. Almost.

Search for Fiji’s Flower of Love

In legend, the tagimoucia, Fiji’s national flower, sprang from the tears of a princess denied her true love by a cruel father. Searching out this rare romantic blossom is an amorous adventure for intrepid couples.

After a voyage to Taveuni, Fiji’s isolated and sparsely populated garden island, couples must summit a nearly 4,000-foot peak and then trek to Lake Tagimaucia, formed from an extinct volcano’s crater. Amid butterflies and exotic birds, you’ll find the only place on Earth where the flower grows.

A trip to Taveuni, across the Somosomo Strait from Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second-largest isle, is also a chance to explore the untouched rainforest in the Bouma National Heritage Park — and to dive in the spray of the gorgeous Tavoro Waterfalls.