Mr & Mrs Smith

Qamea Resort & Spa

Fiji Islands, Fiji

Rustic Qamea Resort & Spa hotel is all about getting back to nature, with trad thatched bures, a tree-top spa and classic Fijian styling. Set on palm-peppered Qamea Island in Fiji's lush north-east, this beach-blessed bolthole works for romantic or sporty escapes, with sublime snorkelling and diving.

Need to know

• Rooms 17, including the two-bedroom Royal Beach House.
• Rates Double rooms from AU$592.44 ($550), excluding tax at 20 per cent.
  The price shown represents the lowest nightly rate for a double room available at this hotel over the next 21 days. Any price conversions from the hotel's local currency ($550) have been conducted using today's exchange rates from xe.com.
• More details Rates cover Continental breakfast, use of a 12-foot Calypso catamaran, snorkel gear and thrice-weekly guided snorkelling trips, non-motorised watersports and village visits.
• Facilities Jungle Spa, dive shop, watersports, gym, volleyball court, giant outdoor chess set, library, boutique, guest computer, WiFi throughout (FJ$30 a day, or FJ$150 a week, with data limits), gardens. In rooms: minibar, local toiletries, beach bag. Flatscreen TV, DVD/CD player with CDs and DVDs in select upper-tier rooms. Honeymoon Bures and Royal Beach Houses sport outdoor heated plunge pools with decks.
• Poolside Qamea's compact but curvy oval outdoor pool looks like a small lagoon, with a lounger-dotted circular deck beside it for kicking back with a pageturner. The knock-out, white-sand beach and seductive turquoise waves are so tempting though, it's hard for the pool to compete.
• Check-out 10am; check-in, 1pm, but both are flexible subject to availability.
• Children Children are only welcome aged 15 or over, as Qamea is more of a romantic couples' escape.
• Also A minimum three-night stay applies. Smoking is allowed outdoors only; pets are not permitted.

Food and drink at Qamea Resort & Spa

• Hotel restaurant

  Listen up for the lali, the Fijian drum that heralds your three-course lunch or dinner at Qamea (luckily, there's no drum beat at breakfast, to allow you to snooze in peace). All meals are served in the large, circular Bure Kalau, a dark-wood, traditional space hung with tribal artifacts. South Pacific Rim-style meals tend to be fairly light, healthy and organic, in keeping with the tropical setting, with local fish and seafood making regular cameo appearances. Think vanilla-poached fish on a coconut and lime salad, or lobster coooked in banana leaves. Buy one of the hotel's dining plans or just go à la carte. 

• Dress code Casually tropical. Locals aren't shy about donning vibrant florals, and that's just the guys. A frangipani tucked behind the ear won't go amiss (wear it on the right to show you're taken, the left if you're looking!).
• Top table Snaffle one of the airy, lighter tables for two at the sea-view front of the dining space, or request private dining on your bure deck or by the beach. Light those candles...
• Last orders Dinner is dished up at 7.45pm. The bar bubbles along until 10pm, or whenever the last guest stumbles back to their bure.
• Room service Despite the drum-beat meal deadlines, you can choose to eat at any time, so just keep the staff posted. Drinks or snacks can be brought to you by the beach, the pool or in your bure, so just ask.
• Hotel bar

  Occupying one half of the dining bure, the hotel bar is a sultry, high-roofed space, with trad Fijian styling and a flock of comfy couches and coffeetables for sociable lolling. Free hors d'oeuvres are served with your pre-dinner drinks each evening, and Qamea's Band Boys play every night, except Sundays, when a gratis weekly wine tasting is hosted here. Rush hour, if you can all it that on Fiji Time, is from 5pm until about 7.30pm, when the urge to down cocktails grips even the most sunlounger-inclined. The flamboyant waiters are fab, but  they're outshone by Virgile, the life-size, loin-cloth clad tribal figurine greeting guests at the door. And yes, he is pleased to see you...

Qamea Resort & Spa Qamea Island, Qamea Island, Fiji Islands