Sheraton Tokoriki
Beachfront Retreat - King
Tokoriki Island, Manumaca Islands, Fiji
Based on research, it was recommended to stay in the outer islands (off the main island) when visiting Fiji. Although most of the resorts in Nadi are around Denarau, Denarau is man made and the beaches are not very spectacular.
This Sheraton resort was badly damaged in Cyclone Winston, which occurred in 2014. It’s taken the team about 3 years to clean up the resort as it was permanently closed for about 2 1/2 years. It has had a 25 million dollar upgrade and renovation since then.
We met our driver (booked through the hotel) who took us directly to the Denarau marina. There was a bit of confusion here as the hotel websites suggest arriving to the mainland Sheraton Denarau that handles check ins on behalf of the Sheraton Tokoriki. We ended up just going straight to the marina, figuring we would sort it out when we arrived to the Sheraton Tokoriki.
When we arrived to the Denarau Marina about about 7:30 AM, it was a much more developed facility than I had expected. There was a grocery store, several take away places and even a Hard Rock restaurant. We took in a breakfast on the shore at the
Lulu Bar and Restaurant while we waited for South Seas Cruises to open up business for the day.
We departed on the 9:15 AM scheduled boat to Tokoriki. On check in, they asked for a voucher that we were never provided. I had some printed emails saved from the hotel that seemed to satisfy them. There was supposed to be separate boats headed to different Manumaca Island groups but we were combined into two and ended up having a 2 stop trip to the Sheraton Tokoriki. There were some nice views and despite wanting to get there and shower, it was great to get in some scenery on our way. It wasn’t the best weather on our arrival day and it was mostly cloudy for the better part of the day.
On arrival to the Sheraton Tokoriki, we transferred from the catamaran to a shore tender and had a wet landing on the beach. I wasn’t really prepared for that as I was in street shoes but I just rolled up my pants and made a great time of it. Our bags were tendered to shore on a separate boat.
We were lei’d on arrival and us, and had the lovely experience of another singing trio on our arrival. We were checked in, along with our other guests (about 7 other groups) were processed. An orange welcome drink was provided.
I had applied Suite Night Awards to this booking and they had cleared at the 5 day mark into a Tokoriki Beachfront Retreat Room- the highest available room category on the island. The Suite Night Award pool at the time of our visit consisted of the Tokoriki Beachfront Retreat Rooms and the Tokoriki Ocean View Retreats rooms in both king and two single bed configurations.
During the check in, I had asked for a 4 PM check out and they asked us to remind them the night before to guarantee. We took the SPG Platinum Breakfast Benefit in lieu of the 500 points or the local amenity. The property does not participate in “Make a Green Choice” The receiving check in host indicated that the property was at about 60% occupancy.
We identified our bags and were led on foot by a member of the reception team to room 111. I was still barefoot from the water landing in my dress pants but I didn’t really get any opportunity to change.
The Beachfront Retreat Room is a 450 sq foot duplex that sits almost immediately above the beach. The room was a little compact but was completely brand new after the renovation and had very little wear and tear. The room had fresh flowers sprinkled all over the room for our arrival.
The sea side of the room had wide open windows and a sliding door that led to am medium sized out door deck. There was a small plunge pool on the deck, in addition to a private outdoor lounger.
The bathroom was massive and had lots of room for two, almost at the expense of the other living space areas. There was no bathtub – a stand up Westin type rain shower and shower wand only with natural light views to the outside.
I grabbed this photo for other travelers as I found the room categories at the room quite confusing on the website. It shows the difference between the categories of room and how far apart you would be.
In summary, there aren’t many properties that allow the use of a Suite Night Award into the highest available room category. I thought this was a great use of one of these certificates and made the stay all that more comfortable.
Property.
The property itself was quite small in format for a Sheraton resort hotel. This was both an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantages were that it was always easy to get a lounge chair and the sun decks were practically deserted for most of the time. There was also a unconfirmed rumor floating around the property that the upcoming Survivor Fiji was using this place as “sequester – ville” for those contestants voted off the show early and had to stay in place until the end of the filming of the series. I don’t follow the show so I can’t say I recognized any stars in the making.
The disadvantages were that there were limited things to do other than lie at the beach. Although there were water sports available, most of the days on our visit, the sea was too rough to kayak or snorkel. You can only make so many visits to the spa and the gym, which was tiny.
Aside from this, we enjoyed several days by the pool when the weather co-operated. In a design flaw, there aren’t any sun tanning areas other than the grass at the villas (the villa decks are tiny), so we ended up at the main pool deck most days.
The beach itself was nice, although we didn’t spend much time on the beach itself. There were no lounge chairs down there so we opted for views from the deck instead. The views are looking South Westerly over some of the other nearby islands.
There are views of Tom Hank’s Castaway island from the resort; it’s the flat topped cone shaped island in the photo below.
There also did not appear to be many walking trails around the island. I ran up to the helipad about three times during our visit just to get some exercise and to take photographs.
This was the sole thatched roof on the villas. I am guessing at some time after they are finished with the hurricane refurbishment, all the white roofs will be recovered.
Food
The food at the property was upscale but not super fancy. The SPG Platinum Breakfast was more than reasonable, and thankfully free. The dinners were a bit over the top- in that there were very few simple dishes available to order. The usual casual options of North American comfort food such as hamburgers and pizzas were totally absent at dinner time. All the dining here was high end with entrees starting at about $36 AUD. There were no pizzas or other light fare available, which were missed by us on our arrival day after an overnight flight when some comfort food would have hit the spot nicely. The Flying Fish version was nice – we steered clear of the meats which were starting at $46 AUD for lamb two ways and stuck close to the Fijian Chicken Curry; one of the only ethnic dishes available that showcased the local food culture. I think we had cheaper food in the Maldives looking back at it. I was on the lookout for other seafood dishes, but didn’t have any on the menu that were regularily showcased. The Platinum Breakfast Buffet is featured below. There was no up charge for hot items.
This is what two versions of $36 AUD pasta looks like. They were both quite heavy on the tastes… Fresh tasting but also quite strong.
We had several days of doing nothing. With days of relaxing to keep us entertained, we had several great sunsets from our ocean front room. You can see how small the villa deck's are from these photos; there is almost nowhere to sun bathe here unless you move to the lawn.
Weather
We were a bit unlucky with the very windy and rough weather during our visit. We were informed that it was not seasonally normal. We were lucky to have a few hours of sunny skis each day but we also had a fair amount of cloudy skies.
House reef.
I brought my snorkling equipment and found the house reef to be quite mossy. The corals themselves were in reasonable but not excellent condition. The fish themselves were a bit hunt and seek; there weren't that many of them from where I was. It wasn't a plentiful experience. I did see some angel fish, some similar to angel fish (not quite sure what they were) and some eels.
The seas were also quite rough on our visit. It wasn’t worth me going out again so I’d mark this as an added bonus and not a destination to visit for snorkeling itself.
We didn't take the snorkling trip offered by the property so I can't comment on the other reefs in the area.
Departure:
On the day of our departure, the resort was nice enough to extend us a late check out until 4 PM so that we could have our room until the afternoon boat back to the mainland. We enjoyed the last of the room, including a glass of wine on our patio savouring the last of the views.
Our tender was prepared and we set off to catch the catamaran for the South Sea Cruises. We had a guitar song send off with the traditional Fijian departure song.
We had a much larger boat this time around for the way back. We didn’t get the helicopter transfer which we saw from the neighboring Tokoriki resort that shared the island with the Sheraton.
On the ride back, we past by the Tom Hanks Castaway island. The sun was on the wrong side of the island for photographs but I took some anyway.
It was straight back to the Denarau Port where we boarded an included transfer bus over to the Westin Denarau. The Denarau Port Marina was actually a much nicer place than I had originally anticipated as it had a number of waterfront restaurants for tourists.
We actually checked into our hotel at the Westin and came back here for dinner at Lulu’s Bar where a live band was playing on the promenade.
In summary:
In summary, the Sheraton Tokoriki was a great place to visit for a few days. The ability to use a Suite Night Award to upgrade into the nicest possible room was the best feature of this property. The property was isolated, which was both a good and bad thing. The isolation did not make it feel super exclusive like properties in the Maldives as the lodging arrangements were duplexes and during the course of the stay, you'd see other guests on a regular basis. The food was "just okay" and priced a bit dear; probably because everything needs to be shipped in. Ultimately, the property was nice but it just didn't wow me they way that I expected. Having said that, I would easily return as a repeat guest if I was in the area for a few days.