Fly to Nadi International Airport (NAN) on Fiji with Air Pacific, with connecting flights to the other surrounding islands. airpacific.com; fijiseaplanes.com
Stay at the Vatulele Island Resort, which has nearly 20 deluxe beach bures & two oversized villas: the Vale Viqi pink honeymoon bure and the Point, a two-story house. Aside from a handful of local villages, there's no other major development on the island, sixsenses.com. Turtle Island's beachside cottages are built by local craftsmen using natural products from around the island. Through an intensive reforestation program, over 500,000 trees have been planted here in the past 30 years. Join resident marine biologists as they survey reefs and coral life. Inscribe a message (in biofriendly paint) on a rescued turtle's shell, rendering it almost worthless to poachers. Enjoy organic produce from the gardens, turtlefiji.com. At Matangi Private Island Resort, Fiji's only treehouses put the privacy literally over the top. matangiisland.com
Live on Vanua Levu. Tropical rainforests caw with life; warm seas are filled with coral-reef kingdoms; and kind, generous local people know how to enjoy a good laugh. islands.com/live
Relax at the Koro Sun Rainforest Spa at Koro Sun Resort. Among many highlights, it features homegrown treatments like papaya, aloe and cucumber. korosunresort.com
Try to make tapa cloth, one of the traditional arts in Polynesia. The cloth is actually pounded bark from the mulberry tree, and you can watch locals paint it with dye derived from various seeds and clay from the island. If you have a hankering to do it yourself, the resort will demonstrate the process and help you make bark cloth with your traveling companion so you can write tapa love letters to each other.
Teach on Malolo Island. You can oversee 25 toothbrushing 8-year- olds or hunker down in an open-air breezeway to practice reading with the afternoon catch-up group. Malolo District School in Solevu Village welcomes visiting educators & business professionals anxious to spend a day or two of their resort vacation co-teaching in the classroom, assisting with life-skills lessons or offering professional development to staff. The connection, made possible through the village's relationships with Likuliku Lagoon Resort and Malolo Island Resort, adds altruism to your island getaway and brings enrichment to teachers and kids who learn more about the world every time a volunteer wades ashore. likulikulagoon.com; maloloisland.com
Learn more at bulafiji.com.
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