White sand beaches, sparkling turquoise waters and palm trees swaying in the breeze are just the beginning at Six Senses Fiji. We splurged on five nights at Six Senses Fiji for our honeymoon, and haven’t stopped dreaming about it since. Located on Malolo Island in Fiji’s Mamanucas island chain, Six Senses Fiji is one of a kind. Balancing sustainability, wellness and local responsibility, Six Senses delivers what they call “barefoot luxury” with an effortlessness that makes running a five star resort feel like the most natural thing in the world.
It was our first trip to Fiji, but my second trip to the South Pacific – I visited New Caledonia and Vanuatu with my highschool bestie, nearly ten years ago. This post is a glowing review, so I want to make it clear that we paid in full for our entire experience – this was not a hosted trip (in my dreams!).
Why Six Senses Fiji?
Sustainable Luxury
Six Senses is, in my mind, the perfect luxury hotel brand. The brand is built around passions for wellness, sustainability, local sensitivity, and out-of-the-ordinary experiences.
You could be as indulgent as you wanted here, and do nothing but flop between your bed, the beach and the pool, but you could also use your stay as a health retreat. From the beautiful meals, to the spa & wellness centre, visiting practitioners and activities available, it would be hard to leave Six Senses without a renewed outlook on life.
Six Senses has a genuine commitment to sustainability and to the communities that they work in. Six Senses Fiji is 100% solar powered, including using solar to power the desalination of seawater, for use as fresh drinking water. They’ve restored 7800 square metres of habitat around the island by planting native plants, including 600 mangroves to provide shelter for marine life and protect the shoreline. The resort’s forested area is home to 39 critically endangered crested iguanas, which are under the resort’s protection. When the started the Iguana Reserve, there were only 17 on the island, so their efforts are working!
Six Senses Fiji also actively engages with and supports the local community. They work with Rise Beyond the Reef, an NGO which works with women in remote communities to alleviate poverty, support local traditional cottage industries and have worked wiith Solevu Village to provide essentials such as new water tanks for the community and local schools.
Warm in October
We got married in October in Brisbane, and wanted to go on our honeymoon right away. Some couples opt to wait 3-9 months to have a summer holiday in Europe, but I’m glad we went on our honeymoon while we were still in the newlywed bubble. Especially as I’ve never needed a holiday more in my life, than in the days after the wedding! After a year of frantic planning and organising, five days relaxing at Six Senses was the perfect retreat.
I love a busy, adventurous holiday itinerary usually (like our recent Europe trip), but for our honeymoon we wanted to have as few plans as possible. It was a different style of travel for me, but in this case it was perfect.
Small & tranquil
We spent a lot of time researching destinations and resorts. We didn’t want to stay somewhere too big & crowded. We wanted somewhere with villas or rooms large enough to want to spend time in, and somewhere with a range of activities, particularly for snorkelling and sailing. Six Senses blew the competition out of the water!
Getting to Six Senses Fiji
Six Senses Fiji is located on Malolo Island, in the Mamanucas island chain. We flew from Brisbane to Nadi with Fiji Airways, and then stayed overnight in Port Denarau on the mainland before transferring to Malolo Island the next morning.
If we’d transferred on the same day we arrived, we wouldn’t arrive to our room until 8 or 9pm, which seemed like a waste of a night’s accommodation. You can also book a direct transfer, via private car & the speedboat, from the airport or you can get a transfer by helicopter. Our return transfer was busier, and bumpier!
We stayed at the Sheraton in Port Denarau, which was a lovely, and very large hotel. We only had enough time there for a swim, dinner & breakfast, but it was a nice resort. It’s one of the many large luxury resorts surrounding the golf course at Port Denarau, which is a popular family holiday and conference destination. I think it would be perfect for either occasion, but was glad we had somewhere a bit quieter for our honeymoon.
Six Senses arranged the 45-minute speedboat transfer from Port Denarau to the resort. By chance, we were the only guests on the boat that morning so we had the deck to ourselves. On arrival, we were greeted with a warm welcome song by the Six Senses team, a tradition that we’d hear regularly during our stay.
We were greeted by the General Manager, Mark, who was the perfect host. We often saw him around the resort, chatting with guests – he remembered everyone by name. He let us know that we didn’t need to worry about making too many plans during our stay, and that we could play it by ear. After a year of wedding planning, this was music to my ears!
On arrival, we were assigned to a Guest Experience Maker – a GEM. We had two GEMs during our stay, who were both so lovely. You can text your GEM via Whats App for anything you need during your stay, including bookings, any questions or requests.
The Resort
The heart of the resort is in a large bure, with Tovolea restaurant & bar, the reception desk and the pool deck. It all faces onto the white sand beach and turquoise waters of Vunabaka Bay, which is the resort’s private beach. Because Six Senses is a small resort, the pool deck was never crowded.
We swam & snorkelled off the beach here, but the best snorkelling is farther offshore – we booked a day trip to do this. We also hired stand up paddle boards, and went out for a brief paddle on our last morning. The wind picked up very quickly, so we didn’t last long for fear of getting blown out to sea!
Our villa was a short walk away, but buggies were also available for getting around the island – we hopped on one to get to dinner at Rara one night, which is at the marina. Alongside the restaurant, the marina is home to the watersports bure, a small shop & the ice creamery. We were lucky we didn’t stay closer to the marina, as ice cream is included in your stay!
The Villa
We stayed in a Hideaway Pool Suite, which is a spacious 1600 square foot villa with a private garden, plunge pool, outdoor shower & bath tub (& indoor shower), and a separate living room. I think the beachfront pool suites were already booked out when we booked, but I was really happy with the total seclusion and privacy of the Hideaway suite. We spent so much time on the deck or in the pool, I didn’t want to leave!
The villas are built inside traditional, thatch-roofed bures. There are just 24 villas and suites, and a handful of larger residences for families and groups.
Dining at Six Senses Fiji
The restaurants & dining options at Six Senses Fiji are incredible. All of the restaurants at Six Senses Fiji use organic, locally produced and sourced ingredients as much as possible, and offer creative and ever-changing menus.
Tovolea
Tovolea is the main restaurant at Six Senses, at the heart of the resort overlooking the pool deck and the beach. Tovolea is an open-air restaurant, covered by a permanent roof but with enormous open windows, that make the most of the spectacular view and the ocean breezes. The menu is fresh and seasonal, with a South Pacific flair.
Breakfast is included, and it’s the best hotel breakfast I’ve ever had. It’s an a la carte breakfast, that changes daily, and a beautiful buffet of fresh juices, pastries and other items. I loved that the a la carte dishes were moderately sized, rather than the giant meals you tend to get at restaurants. They were so healthy, and so delicious, and was the perfect light start to the day.
We ate at Tovolea for dinner a few times and also got lunch delivered to our villa one day. The food was so good, you could easily eat there every day.
Tovolea is also home to the bar, which has an extensive cocktail menu, which includes some more healthful “living cocktails” and non alcoholic options, alongside full strength signatures and classics.
I had to include the pic below, because the view from the restaurant was so gorgeous! It was completely light and bright inside, my iPhone just couldn’t capture the view & the restaurant at the same time.
Rara
We also had dinner at Rara, the second restaurant which overlooks the marina. Rara offers themed dinners, and the night we visited it was serving Asian cuisine with a Fijian twist. The food was beautiful, and so original.
The Beach Dinner
The best dining experience we had at Six Senses Fiji was the Beach Dinner. We booked this in advance with our GEM. The Beach Dinner is a seafood feast, set up at a private table on the sand.
Activities at Six Senses Fiji
We barely scratched the surface of activities at Six Senses Fiji. Throughout the week you can learn to surf and scuba dive, speak Fijian, how to make your bath products, how to cook Fijian cuisine, and so much more!
Sunset Sail Cruise
Fiji has spectacular sunsets, and one of the best ways to enjoy them is from the water. The Sunset Sail is an evening cruise on a catamaran, during golden hour. It was my first time on a catamaran, I loved kicking back on the trampoline!
Snorkelling & The Sand Bar Picnic
In a week of amazing experiences, this one takes the cake. We booked a private half-day boat trip, which included amazing snorkelling, visiting Modriki Island and having the most incredible picnic on a deserted sandbar.
The boat was a little zodiac, and captained by a local, George. The itinerary was flexible, but we left our plans in George’s capable hands. We started with a stop at Modriki Island, an uninhabited island famous for being the filming location of Castaway, the 2000 film starring Tom Hanks.
Our next two stops were in the ocean, so I don’t have precise locations, but George recommended them both as great snorkelling spots. We couldn’t see another boat, let alone another person, in the water where we went snorkelling, so we had entire reefs to ourselves.
It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I wish I had an underwater camera, and I will definitely get one before I go snorkelling again!
Underwater, the ocean glowed a bright, deep blue. There was a rainbow of colourful coral and plantlife, and schools of brightly coloured fish. We kept an eye out for reef sharks, which are supposedly harmless but I was very keen to avoid them anyway. We didn’t see any. We saw plenty of clownfish, and even a Parrotfish, which is a beautiful, luminescent fish with a pearly pink and purple and silver sheen.
The second snorkelling stop was amazing, with a wall of coral against a steep drop off. It was a little bit scary not being able to see the bottom, but it was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.
Our final stop was the ultimate picnic destination, on a tiny sandbar. We were dropped off with a picnic lunch and bottle of rose, packed by the Six Senses team. Apart from one other European couple at the other end of the sandbar, who seemed to be spending the day there, there were no other people on the sandbar. Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime picnic!
Wellness & Spa at Six Senses
Spa
The spa at Six Senses Fiji is spread across a series of thatched roof bures, nestled into forested hills. We got massages, and I got a hot clam shell massage which left me in a total dream state. The spa is one thing you will need to book in advance, as it books up!
The spa has two cold plunge pools, so cold that we couldn’t stand to dip in more than our toes, but I wish I’d given this another shot.
Ayurveda
We didn’t book a class at the alchemy bar, but I was able to drop into a session with Dr Aju, an ayurvedic doctor visiting from Kerala. I’ve long been interested in ayurvedic approaches to wellness, and was curious to see whether I’d correctly guessed both my & David’s doshas (I had!). After a brief questionnaire and assessment, he gave us both some sage advice to take home. I can’t say I’ve followed his advice to take more ginger (I hate it – and he was right, I don’t consume enough of it), but his recommendation to do more grounding is easier for us to follow.
Tree Top Yoga
On our last morning, I did an early hatha yoga class led by Dr Aju in the treetop yoga pavilion. If only every yoga studio had these views!
When to visit Fiji
Fiji’s dry season runs from May-October, we so we made it just in time! On the morning we left, wild weather was on the way, so we were very lucky with timing.
Six Senses Around the World
Six Senses has a number of locations around the world. There are 13 in Asia, 7 in Europe and 4 in the Middle East. From Ibiza to Rome, to Istanbul, Vietnam, the Seychelles and Courcheval, there are Six Senses resorts in some of the most beautiful corners of the world. A girl can dream!
