San Francisco to Fiji, Fiji from $628

🌍 About Fiji

Most flights land at Nadi on the main island, Viti Levu, but Nadi itself is a workaday airport town — the postcard Fiji is offshore. The Mamanuca and Yasawa island chains, reached by catamaran from Denarau, are where you get the white sand and the clear water; budget travellers island-hop them on the Yasawa Flyer. Eat kokoda, the local raw fish "cooked" in lime juice and coconut milk, and accept the kava when it's offered — the muddy, lip-numbing drink made from ground yaqona root, shared from a communal bowl, is the real social ritual, not a tourist show. Come in the dry season, May to October: warm days, low humidity, calm seas. November to April is the wet and cyclone season — cheaper fares, but real storm risk and heavy rain.