 After 6 nights staying at The Outrigger on the Lagoon Fiji in 2009 with our son (then one), my wife and I knew we’d be returning. Skip through two years of planning and we set off again, this time for 15 nights with our son, now three and our daughter Hope, one. My wife’s sister joined us having jumped at the chance at experiencing her first overseas trip with family (and we were stoked to have an extra set of hands).
Our flight from Melbourne left at 2am; the benefit from this was both kids fell asleep for the duration of the flight. One thing to remember with early arriving flights, if check in is not until 2pm, depending on distance to your accommodation you may need to organise something to fill your wait time. The Garden of the Sleeping Giant is 15 minutes’ drive from Nadi town and has the largest orchid collection in the South Pacific. It has a great boardwalk throughout and is well worth a visit.
We chose to book a private van to take us direct to the resort. Most resorts and holiday packages will include coach transfers, but the downside to this is that they usually stop at other resorts along the way, increasing your travel time.
On arriving at Outrigger you automatically feel like you are in paradise. We booked interconnecting rooms and had contacted the resort prior to advise them of our daughter’s peanut allergy. Housekeeping made sure to remove any peanut products from both our in-room fridges and we choose to always talk to the restaurant staff at each meal to be at ease with our meal choices.
 We decided against the kids’ club facilities even though it was all-inclusive, as we wanted to have a family holiday spent together. We spent our days collecting shells, being careful of hermit crabs waiting for little fingers, spent hours in the biggest pool in Fiji, kayaking right off the beach and exploring the resort grounds, picking frangipanis, chasing the resident frogs and geckos. Outrigger also runs Village tours, art classes and shopping trips.
The frog and crab races, fire walkers and the dancers at nights are not to be missed. They also had an outside cinema set up for kids.
We made a special trip to Kula Eco Park which is a 10 minute walk across the road. Here the kids held a python (eek!), Ben and Gwen the banded iguanas and Fred, a Fijian crested iguana. We also timed our visit to feed the turtles there, which are in a program to be released in the wild. You could spend a full day there taking your time to explore the birds and gardens.
After seven nights at Outrigger we headed to Denaru marina for a two-hour boat transfer to Castaway Island. With white sandy beaches and crystal-clear water it’s a diver’s dream and the kids loved the viewing boards they could lie on and look though. The kids’ buffet runs earlier than the adult meal times, this is a great idea, as is getting a bure with a divider so naps can be easily managed. While set in pristine surroundings, we found activities for younger children not in kids club slightly limited; we will save returning until they are old enough to join us in all the water sports offered.
For us Outrigger was the whole package and plan to return to spend two weeks there next time, with kids under 12 eating and staying free (four nights minimum), lots of activities for kids and parents (Bebe Spa and Ivi restaurant are must dos), you really can’t go wrong. | 
