Pacific Islands

A family holiday at Fiji’s Sheraton Denarau puts others in the shade, writes Greg Bruce

We were a few hours early for check-in at the Sheraton Denarau Villas and our room wasn’t available. When I went over to tell my wife and three children the news, I found the front office manager standing with them by the lobby’s extensive central water feature, holding my 6-month-old son.

In a luxury hotel in any other country, this would have been unusual, but in Fiji I wouldn’t have been surprised had the Minister for Tourism himself turned up to spend some time with our baby.

“Let me see what I can do,” the front office manager said, upon hearing the news that we couldn’t get into our room. She disappeared then was back a few minutes later with a couple of room keys and a man who would drive us to our villa, even though it was only a couple of minutes walk away.

Our ride was on a golf cart or, as our children called it, “a truck”, and it deposited us at our villa, which was a giant, modern, light-filled two-bedroom, twobathroom apartment with a balcony, multiple air conditioners, ceiling fans, a dishwasher, a washing machine, dryer and a bath.

We had just spent four nights on a remote island where our accommodation was excellent but not like this place, which was about the same size as our house and