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Who's been to Suva???

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Greensteam

Greensteam

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Re Suva..beware ! I recollect on my last visit to Suva in 2007 on Regal Princess. On leaving the port gate we were approached by a smart looking bloke wearing a brown suit with some sort of govt ID displayed. He bailed us up and said he was from the tourist bureau and was going to 'look after us.' Well he pestered us, wanted to take us to a good jewellery shop, a good mens suit shop..'Get your suit made in two hours sir.' I got sick of this pest and said to him. 'Can you take me to Police HQ, I am one of those in Australia, I would like a tour of the police station.' Well he just looked horrified and did the bolt. So beware of SCAMMERS like this. A fraud he was of course.

 

During the day I did go to the police station at Suva Police HQ for a look around and was told by one of the officers there are plenty of scammers around the port waiting for cruise pax and purporting to be officials, like the one I encountered, just after their commissions at the various businesses.

 

We had a similar experience in Suva recently during our Pacific Jewel stopover.

My wife and I were out walking the town doing some window shopping when we were approached by a rather large Fijian, well dressed, saying he was from the Tourist Bureau and he was displaying a photo ID card on a lanyard. He offered to take us to a local market for buying trinkets, wood art etc, to support the local village industries and not the larger Indian based stores. My wife agreed and I can't believe I actually fell for it. It wasn't until we got to the stalls that I woke up to what I'd let us get into. We were led into a small stall amongst some markets with the Fijian guy blocking our exit. That's when the high pressure sales pitch started forcing wares that I wasn't interested in under our noses. Every time I tried to get us out, my exit was blocked. In the end, I bought a wooden crab that I threw away, and was forced to give the Fijian $10 for what he said was "a beer for him since he'd saved us money". We left very disgruntled and headed straight back to the ship.

It seems we weren't the only ones getting the rough end of the Fijian pineapple that day as there were many complaints from passengers to the ship. Our Tour Director told us at our next port briefing that the ship had written off an email to head office to raise their concerns with the Fijian tourism people about what incidents had happened.

There were two rumours getting around where one girl was accosted in McDonalds and robbed of her meal, and another group were led into a side street by a "tourist representative" and robbed.

I've been to Suva a few times in the past and never had problems, albiet many years ago during the 70's. I've never had problems like this but thought it better just to go with the flow instead of causing an incident which may put my wife off travelling overseas forever.

My advice ..... by all means go ashore, stick to the main streets and stores and treat everyone with suspicion. Never get led off the main streets.

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yeah-its-us

yeah-its-us

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Re Suva..beware ! I recollect on my last visit to Suva in 2007 on Regal Princess. On leaving the port gate we were approached by a smart looking bloke wearing a brown suit with some sort of govt ID displayed. He bailed us up and said he was from the tourist bureau and was going to 'look after us.' Well he pestered us, wanted to take us to a good jewellery shop, a good mens suit shop..'Get your suit made in two hours sir.' I got sick of this pest and said to him. 'Can you take me to Police HQ, I am one of those in Australia, I would like a tour of the police station.' Well he just looked horrified and did the bolt. So beware of SCAMMERS like this. A fraud he was of course.

 

During the day I did go to the police station at Suva Police HQ for a look around and was told by one of the officers there are plenty of scammers around the port waiting for cruise pax and purporting to be officials, like the one I encountered, just after their commissions at the various businesses.

 

We had a similar experience except in our case it was an older gentleman who was going to show us the best places to buy, personally I get rather wary of these sorts of people, after the 3rd shop, we did the bolt.....it's a shame they couldn't relocate those hanging power lines...looks really daggy, would make a difference to the place....otherwise it's a nice enough place to take your time and wander at your leisure.....be careful with the wooden souvenirs at the markets though... I 'm not sure if they all use treated timber....

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Widebay

Widebay

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Suva, is a good shopping precinct, if you know where to go. Lots of new modern shopping centres. Dear Wife & I have been there 3 times now, on various cruise ships. We like the National Museum, in the gardens (the timber from the Bounty is on show there, even, the shoe of the last white man to be eaten by the natives, years ago.

 

The Grand Pacific Hotel, is still in its finishing stages, it should be a wonderful place to call into for a meal or drink. It dates back to Queen Elizabeth 2nd day when she visited it many, many years ago.

 

On each visit to Suva, my wife & I have visited the clothing stores, and bought some great clothing, for our next cruise somewhere in this big planet.

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Oz_Steve

Oz_Steve

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Yes. I would recommend looking at the Bula Shirts they are quite cheap and good quality if you look around a bit. A tip to try is when they ask if you are off the ship say 'No, I live here'. When they ask where say 'Up Tamavua, Mead road near the super fresh'. That will sound credible as many expats live in that area and it may get you the local price rather than the tourist price. Most shops are set prices but markets are a little different.

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rabbit1971

rabbit1971

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Hi,

My family were there in october last year, we had pre booked a tour with great sights Fiji ( also booked them at port denaru) and found them to be excellent, i noticed that they also had representatives hawking their tours at the warf, so you could book as you get off the ship.

For your query eiselef, the larger ships dock at the container port and it would be quite a hike into the town and not sure how safe it would be.

We visited the local market with our fijian guide which was a great help and my daughter and mother in law tried some kava and we ate some local fruit ( the pineapple is the best i have ever tried), we went to the museum, drove past the white house and the parliament, but if you can book a tour to take you out of the city i would do it.

We never felt threatened or unsafe at any time, but we did have our own driver and guide with us.

Hope this helps

Cheers maree

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Kiwi Kruzer

Kiwi Kruzer

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Suva, is a good shopping precinct, if you know where to go. Lots of new modern shopping centres. Dear Wife & I have been there 3 times now, on various cruise ships. We like the National Museum, in the gardens (the timber from the Bounty is on show there, even, the shoe of the last white man to be eaten by the natives, years ago.

 

The Grand Pacific Hotel, is still in its finishing stages, it should be a wonderful place to call into for a meal or drink. It dates back to Queen Elizabeth 2nd day when she visited it many, many years ago.

On each visit to Suva, my wife & I have visited the clothing stores, and bought some great clothing, for our next cruise somewhere in this big planet.

 

 

The Grand Hotel should become a tourist attraction in itself. I am looking forward to seeing the completed renovation and restoration work.

When we visited Suva in 1984 on Canberra , we followed the crew to the Hotel and had a swim in the pool. Even then it was showing its age and starting to look a bit run down but you could see very easily what a grand and elegant hotel it must have been.

 

 

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taninaus

taninaus

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if you are wanting to get some spa treatment/massage while in Suva, Pure Fiji have a spa in the business district. we went there on a tour last visit and this visit we will go and have a treatment as we did the villages last time. this is much better pricing than the spa on the ship and we will go to the shops after.

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Oz_Steve

Oz_Steve

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Oz_Steve I wish I know you where from Suva, as I would have picked you mind for ideas on what to do there :D :)

 

If you see the Sun Princess, give it a wave :D , as I will be on here :cool:

 

When are you here? Bring your golf clubs, I am always looking for golf partners

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