Monday March 23rd, 2026 Queen Anne, Suva, Fiji
- Neil Wylie
- Feb 10
- 5 min read
On our last visit to Suva we had a great lunch at the Grand Pacific Hotel, or GPH as the locals call it – back in 2023 we found it by accident and ate in the Steamship Bar, the food was spot on. We also had a good look around the city last time and so for our visit today we are having a very low key outing; just going to the GPH for lunch.
Unlike most of the other small countries we’ve visited on this trip, in Fiji there is a bit of a reluctance for vendors to accept USD. I didn’t want to have to hunt down an ATM machine, so we tried our luck with USD to get a taxi to the hotel. As we disembarked the ship and walked through the port the dark clouds that had been assembling over the past hour finally decided to relieve themselves of their moisture and as we scurried from taxi to taxi trying to procure a ride, we began to get a bit wet. The problem was not the currency (yet) but rather that the journey to the hotel was too short to entice a driver to take our fare. I spotted an overhang on one of the port buildings and we quickly retreated and took cover while the rain passed. Most of the time when you see a tented booth in the dock area of a cruise port it is housing a vendor trying to sell you something; in Suva we were surprised to find a small group of local “advisors” set up specifically to help passengers with their questions. A very kind and helpful lady offered to get us a taxi, she was very persistent with the taxi drivers who responded to her summons and soon we had a ride – I had told the lady I would pay 10 USD for the taxi, and she exchanged my money for the local currency and paid the driver.
I wrote about Suva in my blog from our last visit, so I won’t spend too much time on it here. As the official capital of Fiji, Suva hosts many embassies and a UN building, and as we headed south along the broad Victoria Parade, we could see many of these official residences facing out to sea. In only about 10 minutes we were pulling up to the beautiful GPH opposite Victoria Park where a local rugby team were practicing.
A steamship company from New Zealand had the Grand Pacific Hotel built as a stop off point for their passengers on the transpacific route. It was completed in 1914 in a colonial style with rooms to resemble the first class staterooms on a ship to give the passengers a feeling of continuity – they even had hot and cold salt water in the bathrooms. The hotel went through many ups and downs and even closed down for a while in the 1990s, but following investment from the government of Fiji, and other sources, the hotel was restored to its former glory and reopened in 2014. The main lobby of the GPH is simply spectacular; with hardwood floors covered with huge rugs, white plaster columns support an upper balcony with a wrought iron railing - wicker chairs perfectly complement the setting. Entering from the porticoed main doors the long lobby leads right out to the patioed rear overlooking the pool and the harbor beyond.
The ambience of the beautiful hotel and the joy of being in an historic setting were completely offset by the really bad lunch; it was so disappointing, especially after our great experience back in 2023. There is a fine line between being on “island time” and just plain crappy service and we were way over it. Having been sat at our nice table on the rear verandah facing the pool and harbor we waited 40 minutes before I had to ask for menus, and then it was another 20 minutes before anyone blessed us with their presence to take our order. It was a good job I’d brought a half finished beer with me from the bar as I was beginning to melt a bit, even under the shade of the overhanging roofline. It took another half hour for the food to arrive on a trolley from some distant kitchen. I had ordered the panko battered “catch of the day” – I should have asked on which day it had been caught; it was tough and dry, I’ve eaten a lot of different fish around the world, but I have no idea what this particular species was. To cap it all it was coated in a thick layer of floured batter, maybe this is what passes for panko in Fiji? Sandra’s tandoori wrap had obviously been sitting around for a while as the supposedly fresh, crisp veggies and lettuce inside the tortilla had seriously wilted, and she had a hard time finding the tiny bits of over-cooked dried chicken hiding amongst the mushy mess. It got worse. Given how long everything was taking, I had ordered a second beer when we ordered the food and after waiting all that time for the food to arrive there was still no sign of the beer. After repeated requests to passing staff I’d finally had enough and stormed into the bar to find the barman leaning against the bar reading a newspaper. I asked if he needed any help and he just looked at me like I was from another planet, but eventually I got him to pour me another beer. It was such a pity that we had a terrible experience as we’d been looking forward to this lunch for a long time.
Before leaving we wandered down to the shore and took in the beautiful view of the harbor and hills of the island. The doorman managed to get us a taxi and this time we had no problem with the currency or the distance, even though we stopped short of the port and did a bit of shopping in the town before walking the short distance back to the ship.
Sailing out of Suva harbor must require some very careful maneuvering due the presence of a gigantic reef that covers most of the entrance. As we sailed out under the setting sun I stood on our balcony and took in the views; storm clouds were gathering and the distance silhouetted hills provided a beautiful backdrop for our picturesque sail away. I observed multiple boats that had been wrecked on the reef, which likely served as a clear warning to our captain regarding the risks associated with deviating from the designated route in these hazardous waters.
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