Fiji: volcanic islands, villages and coral reefs

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This itinerary covers Fiji in eleven days, blending the ancestral iTaukei culture with the most pristine beaches of the South Pacific. It starts in Nadi, the gateway to the archipelago of 333 islands, with the Sri Siva Subramaniya Hindu temple — the largest in the southern hemisphere, testimony to the Indo-Fijian community that makes up 38% of the population. The Garden of the Sleeping Giant at Sabeto displays endemic tropical flora. On the Coral Coast, tribal villages keep up the kava ceremony, where the pepper root is pounded and drunk as a welcome ritual. Sigatoka, Fiji's salad bowl, holds the Sand Dunes national park, where 2,600-year-old archaeological sites reveal the Lapita pottery of the Pacific's first navigators. Suva, the capital, has the Fiji Museum with cannibal artefacts and the municipal market with exotic fruits. The Yasawa Islands — a volcanic chain of 20 islets to the northwest — offer swimmable Blue Lagoon caves, traditional villages with no electricity and snorkelling with manta rays. The Mamanucas close the route around Malolo Island, where the coral reefs host more than 1,500 species of fish.