“Best family holiday ever. Amazing staff and management”

Castaway was the best family holiday we’ve ever had. We live in Fiji and have been to lots of resorts but this is our absolute favourite. Steven is so great - such an asset and he manages the resort superbly. Other staff went out of their way to help us organise fabulous outings and activities and … more

Castaway was the best family holiday we’ve ever had. We live in Fiji and have been to lots of resorts but this is our absolute favourite. Steven is so great - such an asset and he manages the resort superbly. Other staff went out of their way to help us organise fabulous outings and activities and were just delightful and remembered our names. Nothing was too much trouble. Thanks Steven, Pau and team - we’re so grateful for such a wonderful holiday we’ll remember forever!

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“A lovely week at Castaway”

Castaway Island Family of 4 stayed at Castaway Island at end of September/beginning October 2024. This is a lovely place. Getting to Castaway from Sydney is relatively painless. A short flight (4 hrs there) from Sydney, a 30 minute transfer to the Port, and another 30-40 mins on a fast boat, wi… more

Castaway Island Family of 4 stayed at Castaway Island at end of September/beginning October 2024. This is a lovely place. Getting to Castaway from Sydney is relatively painless. A short flight (4 hrs there) from Sydney, a 30 minute transfer to the Port, and another 30-40 mins on a fast boat, will see you arrive to crystal clear waters, beautiful golden sandy beach, and Castaways biggest selling point - lovely Fijian hosts singing you onto the beach and island. There is a lot to love about Castaway and only a few criticisms. Let’s deal with the good stuff first: 1. The people. Literally every person that works on the island is a smiling, warm, friendly face. Everywhere you go you are greeted with ‘bula!’, hand shakes, hugs and even the odd kiss. These are truly a special group of people. Speaking to a number of the staff, it is clear they are treated well working on the island and it is one of the better resorts to do so for a local. 2. The beach and water: Castaway Island is surrounded by pristine sand. The water is some of the best I have ever had the fortune to snorkel in and dive in (more on that in a minute). 20-30 metres off of the beach, across some soft grass, is a vast coral reef, only a few feet from the surface. The water quality is excellent and so the visibility is brilliant. My family and I greatly enjoyed our daily snorkel, seeing abundant sea-life, shoals of fish, the odd stingray, and more. What a wonderful experience. 3. The main restaurant sits next to the beach. The views from breakfast might be the best Ive ever had. The hosts are welcoming and friendly. 4. The food is good. It is varied and - as part of the all inclusive food package - we had the choice of ordering from the various menus - of which there are several - or attending the buffet which changed daily. The food was perfectly acceptable and some was excellent. Was it as good as Club Med Maldives’ buffet - no - but it was good for the family and perfectly nice. 5. The 2 swimming pools were of a good size so we never felt crowded in. We rarely had a difficulty getting a couple of sun-loungers which we could use throughout the day. The swim-up bar was nice. The kids pool was fine - felt a bit less special - but had a lovely bar restaurant attached to it from which we ate most lunch times. 6. Kids club - our youngest really enjoyed it. It was more of a mixed bag for our oldest, but the staff were very welcoming and friendly. They seemed happy enough. Every evening they’d do games and a movie which gave the parents an hour to have dinner as well. 7. Diving -I’ve dived in a lot of places around the world, but this was something special. Not because I saw something I hadn’t seen before. No. Rather, the quality of the water was so breathtakingly clear that even at reasonable depths, I could see so much. The water was also warm - there’s nothing like diving for 45 mins or so, not having to wear a wetsuit, and not feeling cold. The dive sites I went to were also only 30 mins from the resort, so every morning a small group of 4-6 of us would go out at 7.30am, do a great dive, and be back by 10ish. Wonderful stuff. Sea life was abundant and I could have done one dive multiple times. My hat’s off to Paul - the dive master - who was superb. Very fun and jovial, but a wonderful calm dive master underwater with a great ability to spot and point out things. It was a pleasure having him as a dive buddy. 8. Our room was perfectly nice - a reasonable size for 4 - again, not as good as Club Med’s interconnecting rooms - but we never felt squashed. But because you all share one bure, there was no privacy/separation really between kids and parents. The rooms were cleaned daily and they were nice and quiet so we were not disturbed by people outside. 9. Music - Castaway has 3-4 fabulous guitarists, who are playing virtually all day, including over dinner. They are very talented with great singing voices and dont mind the guests joining in. The music is never intrusive. We need to call out some people who made the trip particularly special: 1. I’ve mentioned Paul the dive master above. He was excellent. 2. Dave and Max at the swim-up bar were great guys and made lovely cocktails. 3. The restaurant staff were lovely - Sami at front of house, Alisi, Leesi, Mariah (who sung to me daily), Ate, all made our dining experience excellent. I’ve missed a number of others - the attendees at the restaurant by the kids swimming pool were fab. The chefs - Nit and others - were all really welcoming and good at what they did. 4. The cleaning staff and laundry room people were always so friendly. 5. The kids club staff were lovely. “Mickey Mouse” was a great guy - so smiley and friendly and good with the kids. 6. Sam on the guitar was talented, kind and patient with the kids. 7. Paula the resort manager was a lovely person who always wanted to help. 8. Finally, even the guys who scaled the trees to cut down coconuts were smiling. What would I improve? 1. The 2 single worst things at Castaway have to be the lack of all-inclusive drinks packages, and the consequent methodology for ordering drinks. Everything - from juice, to mocktails, to coffee, to alcoholic drinks goes through this silly slow system of staff needing to write up a docket for you to sign with your name and room number. You even have to do this for food (even though food was included). It sounds like nothing, but when you do 10-20 of these every day, it’s painful. It also takes away from the whole experience. And reconciling all this on your final bill caused problems. 2. There could have been more organised beach activities and other things for the guests. How about some pool activities as well?! Club Med has mastered this without interrupting everyone else’s fun in the pools at the same time. 3. The food in the restaurant needs more variety and flavour. It all got a bit samey after a while. 4. The rooms need more division for families. A proper wall and door to close off sound would be good. 5. Wifi/internet - be warned, it is very spotty and very limited. So if you are hoping to do any work, surf facebook or do anything that requires photos or video online, forget it. The odd email is possible but not much more. We were told when we arrived that Castaway is meant to be a place where you disconnect! The problem with this ideology, is it means (i) if there is anything urgent you need to do with family or work off of the island, you are going to struggle; and (ii) more practically, you can use your phone to communicate with kids club or your family. Trying to find your wife, or be told by kids club to come and collect a child are all important things that would be aided by some wifi. We have found in past resorts that knowing the staff can WhatsApp us to tell us if something is wrong with our kids actually gives us great peace of mind. I understand it’s a trade-off, but not necessarily one I agree with - we could have slow wifi that did not allow proper work etc but still allowed text messaging/whatsapp. All in all - the kids and us had a very good time. It was an extremely picturesque place with lovely people and perfect water. No wonder people go back year after year for decades on end!

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“Outrigger needs to invest in more sunlounges to relax when the tides are out”

The resort is in desperate need of a quiet pool. The current set up is essentially a baby pool next to a family pool. If like me you are travelling with a child that is a young adult, please don't expect there will be a pool area to relax. We wouldn't have minded so much that the quiet pool was … more

The resort is in desperate need of a quiet pool. The current set up is essentially a baby pool next to a family pool. If like me you are travelling with a child that is a young adult, please don't expect there will be a pool area to relax. We wouldn't have minded so much that the quiet pool was full of young children, had there been ample sun lounges for everyone to share. Same with the beach. Our main desire was to snorkel and swim in the ocean, but nature clearly dictates when this is possible due to the changing tides. During these times I anticipated that we would be spoilt for choice for which tree or umbrella to relax under. Plenty of sun lounges should be a given. Disappointingly not the case on Castaway (as much as they tell you they do) Likewise with the adult restaurant 1808. Its closed Wed & Sat. We arrived Sunday and told it was being renovated, same story Monday? Tue closed due to wind, Thur and Friday closed - not sure why as the weather was good and absolutely no sign of renovation? There are plenty of Fiji island options. My recommendation is to reconsider Castaway if you are not travelling with kinder or primary school aged children. If you'd like the option of an adult pool & restaurant that really DOES exit, Castaway sadly might not be the best choice.

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“Pool situation ruined it for me”

The resort was lovely and the people were super nice but there is a problem with a family orientated resort where you keep “getting in trouble” for your kids being in the pool! They have this half baked idea that there is an adults pool but it’s not actually an adults only pool. In fact it is one o… more

The resort was lovely and the people were super nice but there is a problem with a family orientated resort where you keep “getting in trouble” for your kids being in the pool! They have this half baked idea that there is an adults pool but it’s not actually an adults only pool. In fact it is one of only two pools and the other one is basically a baby pool. Very shallow and my 4 and 6 year old did not want to be in the baby pool. Fair enough, so we spent time in the main pool but we did not feel welcome by the pool bar staff at all. Even at times when all the guests there were families with kids, we kept being told off when our kids jumped in the pool … um what were we there for again? To have a family holiday. It was just strange and being constantly side-eyed by the pool bar tender and told off for kids being kids really tainted what was otherwise a lovely resort. They need to build an adults only pool if they feel they need that dedicated adult space and stop trying to police the kids having fun at main pool.

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