Wananavu Beach

Wananavu is the Fiji a lot of couples never reach, and that is exactly its charm. It sits on a headland near Rakiraki on the Sun Coast, the dry northern tip of Viti Levu, two hours up the Kings Road from Nadi and well off the day trip map. There are no catamarans unloading crowds and no strip of bars, just a small resort on a green point, the Pacific wrapping around it on three sides, and a horizon that goes on forever. For two people who want to feel like they have slipped away from the holiday machine, this is one of the most secluded easy to reach corners in the country.

The real reason to come is underwater. The seas off Rakiraki and out into the Bligh Water are world renowned, a playground of walls and pinnacles dressed in the soft corals that earned Fiji its reputation, with dozens of sites within reach and a dive centre on hand. A couple who dives can build whole days around it, a morning down on the reef and an afternoon doing very little, and the seclusion that can feel quiet to some is precisely what divers want. Above the water, the headland gives you the other gift, a sunset with nothing in the way, the light running gold and then rose across the sea while the resort settles into evening and you have the point more or less to yourselves.

The honest catch, and we would rather you hear it from us, is the beach itself. Wananavu is a diving base and a seclusion retreat, not a powder sand showpiece. The private beach is modest, fringed by reef that shallows at low tide, so the swimming is tide dependent and the pool earns its keep. If your idea of romance is a long flat sweep of white sand and a glassy lagoon to wade into at any hour, you will be happier out on the Mamanuca or Yasawa islands, or down at Natadola on the Coral Coast. But if you dive, or you simply want to be far from everyone with a sunset and each other, Wananavu rewards the drive. Rates are to be confirmed.