Some people collect destinations. Others find one place and stick with it for decades. Castaway Island, a resort in Fiji's Mamanuca Islands marking 60 years this year, belongs firmly to the second category — it has guests who've visited more than 50 times since the 1970s.
Take Ian Branddock, first a guest in 1970, back when the trip meant a four-hour sail from Lautoka and guests reportedly jumped overboard to swim the final stretch to the beach. He's booked again later this year. Graeme Field, another veteran with 40-plus visits since 1980, still gets corrected about the old dinner rule — "no sulu, no dinner" — after once being told to swap his jeans for the traditional Fijian wrap behind the bar.
What keeps them coming back isn't polish. The 70-hectare "barefoot island", now run by Outrigger Resorts & Hotels, has deliberately resisted the glitzy rebranding of its sister properties. It started in 1966 with just four bures for visiting fishermen; today there are 65 freestanding, recently renovated bures scattered among dense tropical gardens, complete with Masi-print vaulted ceilings and air-conditioning. The vibe is relaxed and slightly scruffy — in a good way.
The real glue is the staff, many of them second- and third-generation employees whose relationships with guests go decades deep. One regular was best man material at an Australian wedding and later attended the staff member's funeral in Fiji. The writer of the source piece watched a returning guest borrow the general manager mid-interview because his father, who has dementia, had been asking to see him all morning.
Families are the core audience. There's a kids' pool steps from the adult one, four dining options including a sushi grill and an adults-only Fijian-Asian beach restaurant, and easy wins like wood-fired takeaway pizza eaten on the sand at sunset. Snorkelling straight off the south-side bures is surprisingly rich — giant clams, blue starfish, defensive clownfish. The resort's newest draw is a coral gene bank built with non-profit Counting Coral: five truck-sized steel domes offshore holding 500 "parent" corals, already drawing schools of fish.
Getting there is simple now: South Sea Cruises runs catamarans from Port Denarau in about 90 minutes. Rates for 2027 start from FJ$1,159 (about A$737) a night plus 17.5 per cent tax, with meals sometimes included depending on dates.
If you're the type who measures a holiday by how little you end up doing, Castaway makes a strong case that going back to the same place can be the point rather than a failure of imagination.
