The Fiji Orchid

RedwoodGeorge10 months ago

The website photos makes this look like a luxe stay but the bures have a tired, worn-out feel and need a lot of maintenance. I suspect the pictures were taken fifteen years ago when the resort opened and not much upkeep has been done since. The floors are faded and scratched - a simple refinishing would go a long way. The structure has apparently settled as there are gaps in the joints and the bathroom ceiling sags. Speaking of the bathroom, the shower head has corroded out in a few places and delivers a seriously inconsistent spray.||||Design-wise, the water closet is too small: everything is based on one-meter squares and it's smaller than an airplane toilet. (I hit my head on the door every time I sat down on the toilet). The water heater for our bure is much too small (probably 100 litres) and running out of hot water was the norm. Also no showers back-to-back, the heater needs recovery time.||||While the photos show all of these wide-open doors to let the outside in, when we suggested it the staff said it was a bad idea because of all the mosquitos. They also helpfully suggested that we don't take a walk to the beach down the road as a number of guests have been robbed while walking down the road.||||I'm not sure how the website can claim that the bures are 860 square feet; the interior space is 4x8 meters (344 sq feet) and including the outside verandah, the size is 52 sq meters (560 sq feet). Maybe the footprint of the canvas roof is 860 square feet but claiming that as the size of the bure is quite a stretch.||||On the positive side: The grounds are beautiful, the staff was very helpful and the food was quite good. If the owners had just taken six months of the COVID shutdown to perform some routine maintenance, and if the grounds were in a safer location, this would have been an easy recommendation. As it is, we wouldn't return and I wouldn't recommend it to friends...