Fiji

With welcoming settlements, year-round warmth and genuine local hospitality, it’s not for nothing that Vanua Levu and Taveuni are billed as Fiji’s ‘friendly north’. The country’s second- and third-biggest islands, respectively, are clean, green havens languidly trapped in a time before ‘hectic’ was invented: even their epithets – Vanua Levu was once called Sandalwood Island and Taveuni’s nickname is the Garden Island – evoke the scents and sights of a land left wild.

Taveuni is renowned as Fiji’s Garden Island, though its tangled, steamy interior is more reminiscent of a prehistoric jungle than anything that might yield to a hedgetrimmer and set of pruning shears. Hot and often wet, this impossibly green volcanic bump is covered by a riotous quilt of palms, monster ferns and tropical wildflowers, one of which – the tagimaucia – is found nowhere else on earth. Its dense rainforest is a magnet for colourful bird life.

Before you book your tickets, a word of warning: once in Savusavu, there is a very good chance you won’t ever want to leave. Preposterously picturesque and affable beyond all expectations, Savusavu is a swashbuckling throwback to the days of high-seas adventure and tall tales told in rollicking, rickety taverns. The storybook Savusavu Bay was once a gigantic volcano, and boiling springs still bubble up across town, perhaps accounting – at least in part – for the palpable energy that surrounds this enchanted outpost.

Though it’s Fiji’s second-largest island, Vanua Levu (Big Island) is one of the tropics’ best-kept secrets. It’s another world from the bustle of Viti Levu and the more-touristed islands: many roads are little more than rutted dirt tracks, and Labasa, the island’s largest ‘city’, is a one-street strip of shops. To the south, Savusavu entices yachties, divers and dreamers looking for a tropical idyll. The rest of ‘Big Island’ is given over to sugarcane and copra plantations, hideaway villages, mountain passes streaming with waterfalls, endless swaths of forest and an ever-changing coastline forgotten by the world. Take it slow, keep a smile on your face and savour rural Fiji on its grandest scale.

‘Tropical paradise’ might be the most hackneyed cliché in the travel-writing world, but there’s no getting away from it here: the Mamanuca islands tick every box, with brochure-blue seas and beaches so brilliant they’re Hollywood celebrities unto themselves. With romance, relaxation and a disproportional number of fantastic resorts on offer, the Mamanuca group is unsurprisingly one of Fiji’s most popular destinations.

This is where you wish you were right now. Remote and authentic yet easily accessed from Viti Levu and home to comfortable, ecofriendly resorts, Kadavu blends Fiji’s best assets. As your plane lands on a tiny airstrip surrounded by luminescent sea, volcanic peaks and intense forest, you’ll feel like an adventurer. Your flight will be followed by a boat ride to your resort past prehistoric-looking coves, and when you reach your destination you can grab your snorkel or dive gear to get below the waves and explore the incredible Great Astrolabe Reef – the world's fourth-largest barrier reef.

Most travellers go to Nadi (nan-di) twice, whether they like it or not: its indecently warm air slaps you in the face when you first step from the plane, and kicks you up the backside as you board for home.

This small island (2.55 sq km) is laden with fancy resorts manicured to perfection with heavenly pools and designer suites. Although it’s only 6km west of Nadi town, the disparity couldn’t be starker: staying here offers little insight into everyday Fijian life. But to splash some cash, get spoiled and avoid Nadi, then Denarau is the place to go. Be warned – what the resorts don’t advertise is that Denarau is built on reclaimed mangrove mudflats; most of the beach has dark-grey sand and murky water unsuitable for snorkelling.

Leaving the glorious vegetation and hilly passes of Korolevu in its wake, the Queens Road sweeps across a small bridge into Pacific Harbour, the self-labelled ‘Adventure Capital of Fiji’. A range of activities, guaranteed to have hearts racing and knees knocking, backs up the claim.

Sigatoka (sing-a-to-ka) is the largest town on the Coral Coast and serves as the commercial hub for the farming communities that grow sugar cane and vegetables upriver in the fertile swathe of the Sigatoka Valley.