Tokoriki Fiji
Shirley and I always argue over which islands are our favorites French Polynesia vs Fiji. It's a very hard choice.
We have visited Tokoriki twice. Once for 2 weeks and the 2nd time 2 years later for a full month. We broke the resort record the longest stay! The people of Fiji are some of the nicest most welcoming people you will ever meet. Tokoriki is a very small island with literally nothing but 2 resorts; the Sheraton where we stayed and the Tokoriki Resort which we visited for dinner. You can get to and from the island via ferry or our favorite way via helicopter from Nadi.
The back side of the island is deserted except for a few occasionally visiting Fijians. You can take a short hike there and have the entire beach to yourself. The snorkeling around the islands is amazing with the Sandbar being our favorite location. The Sandbar is literally a sand only island that appears in the middle of the ocean when the tide is low enough. We also had the chance to visit Tom Hanks Island from Castaway which you can see from the resort. For Survivor fans Tokoriki is located n the Manamuca islands where the show is filmed.
We had a wonderful experience on a private snorkeling trip from the resort. After several snorkeling stops our guide and captain took us to a remote uninhabited island for a picnic lunch. He had to ask the chief of the island, who was there fishing with some of his men, for permission for us to use the island. He agreed and we had a great lunch that the resort had packed for us. They had sent so much food that we had way more than we could consume so we offered some to the chief and his men. As we were about to leave the island the chief came up to our skiff and offered us a couple of fresh fish as gift that his men had just caught. We happily thanked him and the resort cooked the fish for us and a few other guests we had befriended that evening for one of most memorable dining experiences on the island.
Another wonderful dining experience happened when the staff found out that we were celebrating my birthday and our anniversary during our stay. They setup a romantic dining room on our oceanfront deck and brought course after course of food while serenading us with songs.
The nice thing about staying so long is that you become a local. In the early morning the grounds staff each day would come to the beach to rake the seaweed that had washed up on shore overnight. After a few weeks Shirley was feeling like the resort was home and asked if she could help rake. They said no you're a guest. The next day she asked again and they reluctantly agreed. Shirley raked, I watched, and then after she was done the head grounds keeper sent 2 coconuts over to our Bure (oceanfront cabin) as a "payment" for work well done. For the next few weeks we would wake up and the first thing I would tell Shirley was to get up and go rake the beach. I wanted my daily coconut. She did, and the coconuts kept coming.
Cant wait to return again.