The Fiji Islands, Everyone's Favorite Pacific Country!
Here's why, according to well-known travel writer David Stanley:
Once notorious as the "Cannibal Isles", Fiji is now the colorful crossroads of the Pacific. Of the 322 islands that make up the Fiji Group, over 100 are inhabited by a rich mixture of vibrant, exuberant Melanesians, East Indians, Polynesians, Micronesians, Chinese and Europeans, each with a cuisine and culture of their own.  Here Melanesia mixes with Polynesia, ancient India with the Pacific, and tradition with the modern world in a unique blend.
Fiji preserves an amazing variety of traditional customs and crafts such as kava or yaqona (pronounced "yanggona") drinking, the presentation of the whale's tooth, firewalking, fish driving, turtle calling, tapa beating, and pottery making. Alongside this fascinating human history is a dramatic diversity of landforms and seascapes, all concentrated in a relatively small area. Fiji's sun-drenched beaches, blue lagoons, panoramic open hillsides, lush rainforests, and dazzling reefs are truly magnificent. Africa has such diversity, but there you'd have to travel weeks or months to see what you can see in Fiji in days.
 Fiji offers posh resorts, good food and accommodations, nightlife, historic sights, outer-island living, hiking, kayaking, camping, surfing, snorkeling, and scuba diving. Traveling is easy by small plane, interisland ferry, copra boat, outboard canoe, open-sided bus, and air-conditioned coach. Even with a month at your disposal you'd barely scratch the surface of all there is to see and do.
Best of all, Fiji is a hassle-free country with uncrowded, inexpensive facilities available almost everywhere. You'll love the super-friendly people whose knowledge of English makes communicating a breeze. In a word, Fiji is a traveler's country par excellence, and whatever your budget, Fiji gives you good value for your money and plenty of ways to spend it. Bula (Mbula), welcome to Fiji, everyone's favorite South Pacific country.
Excerpt from the Moon Handbooks Fiji (7th Ed) by David Stanley, Avalon Travel Publishing, ©2006. Used by permission of David Stanley and Moon Handbooks. To order your own copy of the Moon Handbooks Fiji, or the South Pacific Handbook (also by David Stanley), please visit our CyberBookshop.
A brief chronology of the Fiji Islands
excerpt from the 7th edition of the Moon Handbooks: Fiji by David Stanley, published by Avalon Travel Publishing, ©2006
| 1500 | BC | Polynesians reach Fiji |
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| 500 | BC | Melanesians reach Fiji |
| 1643 | AD | Abel Tasman sights Taveuni |
| 1774 | Captain Cook visits southern Lau |
| 1789 | Bligh and crew paddle past Yasawas |
| 1800 | Sandalwood discovered on Vanua Levu |
| 1820 | Beche-de-mer trade begins |
| 1830 | Tahitian missionaries in southern Lau |
| 1835 | Methodist missionaries arrive at Lakeba |
| 1840 | American exploring expedition visits Fiji |
| 1847 | Tongan invasion of Lau led by Enele Ma'afu |
| 1849 | Home of John Brown Williams burns |
| 1851 | First visit by hostile American gunboats |
| 1854 | Chief Cakobau accepts Christianity |
| 1855 | Cakobau puts down the Rewa revolt |
| 1858 | First British consul arrives in Fiji |
| 1860 | Founding of the town of Levuka |
| 1862 | Britain refuses to annex Fiji |
| 1865 | Confederacy of Fijian chiefs formed |
| 1867 | American warship threatens to shell Levuka |
| 1868 | Polynesia Company granted the site of Suva |
| 1871 | Cakobau and Thurston form a government |
| 1874 | Fiji becomes a British colony |
| 1875 | Measles epidemic kills a third of Fijians |
| 1879 | First indentured Indian laborers arrive |
| 1881 | First large sugar mill built at Nausori |
| 1881 | Rotuma annexed to Fiji |
| 1882 | Capital moved from Levuka to Suva |
| 1904 | First elected Legislative Council |
| 1916 | Indian immigration ends |
| 1920 | Indenture system terminated |
| 1928 | First flight from Hawaii lands at Suva |
| 1939 | Nadi Airport built |
| 1940 | Native Land Trust Board established |
| 1951 | Fiji Airways (later Air Pacific) formed |
| 1953 | Queen Elizabeth II visits Fiji |
| 1965 | Constitutional Convention held in London |
| 1966 | Internal self-government achieved |
| 1968 | University of the South Pacific established |
| 1970 | Fiji's first constitution adopted |
| 1970 | Fiji becomes independent |
| 1973 | Sugar industry nationalized |
| 1977 | Governor-General overturns election results
| | 1978 | Fijian peacekeeping troops sent to Lebanon |
| 1981 | Fijian troops sent to the Sinai |
| 1987 | Labor defeats Alliance Party |
| 1987 | Two military coups led by Lt. Colonel Rabuka |
| 1987 | Rabuka declares Fiji a republic |
| 1987 | Fiji expelled from Commonwealth |
| 1990 | Racially-weighted constitution promulgated |
| 1997 | Fiji readmitted to the Commonwealth |
| 1998 | Revised constitution comes into effect |
| 1999 | Labor Party under Mahendra Chaudary elected |
| 2000 | Civil coup in May topples government |
| 2001 | Fiji elects a new government headed by Laisenia Qarase of the SDL
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