I wanted to treat my daughter to a restful holiday before she returned to work from maternity leave. It needed to be at a place that was good for a very young family with a 7 month old baby and two year old toddler. I selected this four-to-five star property as it had received great reviews in articles I had read about places suitable for parents with babies and toddlers. I'm sorry to say that it wasn't really suitable and certainly not worth the amount paid.
The positives:
- One piece of advice I got from my research is that if you are travelling with very small children, it is wise to stay near the airport so you aren't adding to an already long journey when you arrive. The Ramada is only 10-15 minutes away from Nadi Airport and provides an excellent, shuttle service.
- The staff were absolutely wonderful, especially with the children. They were a highlight and probably the only reason I would consider staying here again.
- The suite was well equipped with many of the things we needed such as a washing machine, clothes horse and dryer. It had a lovely balcony overlooking the pool, deck and outdoor restaurant area. The kitchenette had some good features but also some problems (see below).
- The suite was clean and the beds were comfortable. There were some cockroaches running around but we assumed that this is likely to be an ongoing issue and we know it doesn't reflect on the cleanliness of the property.
- It is on the beach.
- Checking in and out is easy and efficient.
- We appreciated the help we received from the concierges, especially with luggage.
The negatives:
- The property isn't as impressive as it looks in the photos (to be expected perhaps).
- It was far too noisy in the evenings and at night. The worst noise was in the second bedroom which didn't have a glass window, just wooden slats and a fly screen. We could hear all the planes coming and going from Nadi airport, everything in the street, bar noise and music from the beachside of the property and the noise from neighbouring properties. A function held next door during our stay was so loud that is was like being inside the marquee with the guests. We had trouble settling the children and also sleeping ourselves.
- The pools weren't as good as expected in function or appearance. The kids pool was under cover (which was good) but it was a tiny rectangle and the water was too cold. The larger pool only varied from 1.4 metres to 1.5 metres so it was too deep for shorter adults like me at the shallowest end and it was also cold, albeit not freezing like the kids pool. We couldn't take the children in there as a alternative to the kids pool as I couldn't stand safely with them in my arms due to the depth.
- The play area (listed as a playground on some sites) is really barely a swing set. There is a swing, a set of monkey bars and a rather steep slide reached by climbing a wall. It is outdated and not as safe as it should be. It wasn't really suitable for our toddler.
- There were three particular maintenance issues with the room, including the dripping a/c in the master bedroom that kept my daughter awake at night and also created pools of water on the floor that we had to mop up with our towels. Getting it fixed was a slow process and the first attempt failed. Then, even though I had reported the three issues more than once and taken down a written list to reception, I was astonished to receive a call two days before we left asking if everything was okay with our suite. I repeated the issues I had reported which seemed to come as news to the caller. That day the a/c was fixed and we were also offered the chance to move to another suite. It was a difficult decision to make but, as the toddler in particular was now settled and familiar with the one we were in, we decided that the disruption would be worse than putting up with the other issues for less than 48 hours.
- The microwave was on a shelf above the fridge making it impossible to use without standing on a chair.
- The kitchenette was missing some basic items to enable cooking such as kitchen scissors, a spatula, chopping board, large jug, large bowl and tongs. There were two blunt knives and one of them was bent.
- Only two bottles of water were provided for the whole of our stay. For what we paid it would've been reasonable to receive at least two daily and bought what we needed beyond that from the local supermarket.
- The baby cot was one of the old metal ones and our little one kept banging and hurting his head on the rails so we stopped using it.
The 'just okay' aspects were not the responsibility of the property but relevant to choosing a location in which to holiday:
- Unlike depicted in the the photos, the beach is brown in colour. Of course this is likely down to nature and it didn't matter in a practical sense but the problem was that it made us feel as though the images we saw in promotional material didn't match the reality.
- It was disappointing to see more rubbish on the beach and in the water than I've seen at other beaches in other countries. I'm not referring to natural debris. One again, this isn't down to the property but obviously something to take into consideration when choosing a location on the beach.
- The area itself around the property isn't very nice. Again, this is not down to the property. The roads and pavements need a lot of work, and there was lots of rubbish lying around the street. Perhaps it is unfair to point this out but I haven't been anywhere else in Fiji to know whether this is to be expected because isn't a wealthy country
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