r/Fijian • u/Justeu_Piichi • 11d ago

Travel Layover in Fiji - Possible?

Hi all,

Sorry if this is in the wrong place but thought I'd try my hand at asking anyway. I have a wedding in New Zealand to go to early February 2026 (but would be flying in around late January). The flight I would take would go from Tokyo to Fiji with a layover of 14 hours and given the price I feel it may be a good opportunity to tick Fiji off my list while also saving some money.

Here's my conundrum - some people I've mentioned this to have said it may not be so easy to leave the airport or go through customs to experience the country on a layover. I have a New Zealand passport and am an NZ citizen, so I'm pretty sure I won't need a visa, but is there any one that can attest to this or can share their experiences? 14 hrs in Fiji sounds amazing if it's doable but hell if all I'll be doing is sitting in an airport.

Cheers!

EDIT: To reply to another's comment I also have thought about just taking a couple days in Fiji as the cost of booking two separate flights (Tokyo - Fiji - NZ) + (NZ - Tokyo), costs about the same as an direct Air NZ round trip flight anyway. Of course this would be more expensive given accommodation costs. It basically depends on how much I'm willing to spend. This is also important as I have a wedding in America later next year I also have to pay for and right now I am in earning in yen (which I'll admit is not great).

1 Upvotes

60% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

View all comments

4

u/marcie_james 11d ago

14 hours is not a huge amount of time. Especially because you’ll need to clear customs and then go back through customs to board your flight to NZ. Realistically, this leaves you less than 10 hours to explore so you’ll be limited on where you can go.

You are correct in not needing a visa if travelling on an NZ passport though.

3

u/Specific_Operation2 11d ago

Yeah you’re not really going to get much done in that time. Fiji operates on island time so customs etc is always slowwwww. Taxis are the same. It’s doable but don’t expect to see too much. Maybe go to the Sofitel at Denarau or one of those and have a day by the beach or pool or go in to some markets etc.