Fiji
Savusavu
Hot springs cook the town's dalo beside anchored yachts and a bay farmed for black pearls.
The springs on the town's edge run near boiling, and locals have used them as a natural cauldron for centuries: lower a pot of dalo in, come back when it's done. Out in the bay, cruising yachts swing at anchor between the pearl lines.
Savusavu curls around a deep, sheltered bay on Vanua Levu, Fiji's second island, its waterfront anchored by the Copra Shed Marina, a restored trading warehouse from the town's copra days. The Nakama springs, close to 100 degrees, steam in a small park where cooking pots still go into the ground. In the bay, J Hunter Pearls cultures black pearls on 200-metre lines a few metres below the surface; glass-bottom boats cross the farm, snorkellers swim over the shell beds, and the harvest comes up in distinctive earthy colours. Above town, KokoMana grows 400 cocoa trees on a two-acre agroforest and turns them into chocolate with two ingredients and no preservatives.
Couple
A harbour town with real daily life, pearl showrooms and evening restaurants rewards a slow multi-day base far from the resort script.
Solo
The yacht crowd, the springs and the pearl and chocolate farms give a lone traveller three distinct worlds to work through on foot and by boat.
Family
Children get springs that cook food in the ground, a glass-bottom boat over a pearl farm and a chocolate tour, all within one small town.
Friends
The marina makes a practical launch point for reef days, waterfall trips and Vanua Levu's interior, with the town's kitchens waiting each evening.
- The Nakama springs run near boiling in the middle of town, and Fijians have cooked dalo and breadfruit in them for centuries.
- J Hunter Pearls farms black pearls in the bay, toured by glass-bottom boat, with snorkelling over the shell beds.
- KokoMana crafts tree-to-bar chocolate from 400 cocoa trees on its two-acre farm.
- The Copra Shed Marina, a restored trading warehouse, is the working heart of the waterfront.
KokoMana's tree-to-bar chocolate is made from its own Savusavu-grown cocoa, two ingredients and nothing else.
Long-running Indo-Fijian kitchens in town serve fish curry with fresh roti and dhal.
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