I have been to Lautoka twice, two years apart, once in November 2015, and once December 2017. Both times I did very similar things as I enjoyed it so much the first time.

I booked a tour pier side in Suva with Moana Tours both times and arranged it for myself and friends to go out with the following day in Lautoka. I booked the mud baths tour. The first time, we visited the mud baths, and peeked in at the entrance of the Garden of the Sleeping Giant, but didn’t go in as we were pushed for time.

The mud baths were a most enjoyable experience. Both times I went bringing a group of crew friends with me, managing to wangle a very good deal for our group, since there was a lot of us, and being crew, and promising to tell others of the good experience, which I have done, they in turn gave me a good deal. We paid $30 USD pp for the mud baths, including entry to the baths, and they also took us to the gardens the second time around as we had a little more time.

When you arrive at the mud baths, you are given a tour around of how it all works. A very friendly local lady called Buna showed us the ropes, learning the names and nationalities of all 16 of our total group in the meantime. Buna showed us the main hot string reserve, a small 3 meter in diameter, round pool which has had the underground thermals tapped into it, with temperatures of around 800 degrees Celcius inside. The venue siphons off the way-hotter-than-boiling water along pipes into the various pools around the site to provide the complete mud bath and hot springs experience. There are rest rooms and changing rooms if you’re not already in your bathing suit, then the real fun begins at the mud pots. Large almost a meter high pots filled to the brim of cool, liquid almost black thick mud is there for you to slather all over your body from head to toe. (See my Karen’s Quick Guide to Lautoka below to watch the action). We began lathering and slathering to the sounds of giggles and squeals from around the group. I started with my arms, then legs, being the easiest places to cover. While I was preparing a layer for my face and debating if I’d put any on my hair or not, my friend Lorna splatted a large dollop of mud right on top of my head. Ok, decision made, the hair was getting muddy. We all continued in this fashion “helping” each other get muddied until a group of veritable mud monsters were walked out of the preparation area. Buna invited us to peruse the local stalls while we waited for the mud to dry. There were local handicrafts, necklaces, plates, bracelets, trinkets, magnets and key chains on offer at reasonable prices with some local ladies, and Buna’s own stall too. The obligatory ‘mud monster photo session’ ensued with our group of 14 different nationalities, aged between 24 to 59, and jobs as varied as dancer, spa worker, jewelery specialist and musicians to Staff Captain, all reverted to being fun loving children, giggling as we pranced about for the amusement of each other and their cameras.

This second visit was quite cloudy and not too hot (it had bee on my first trip here), so the mud wasn’t going to dry fully without having an extra hour or two to spare, as we’d all put thick layers of it on our skin. So, after around 20 minutes of posing and laughing, we emerged ourselves in the first warm cleaning pool to take off the mud. The bottom of this pool was filled with a thick layer of mud that went all the way up to your knees at points. The bulk of the mid was washed off here and we lay around with most people enjoying the feeling of the squishy mud beneath their toes, before leaving for pool number two. The second pool was a little more watery and little less muddy, and hotter version of the first. There was still some mud on the floor of it to squish your toes in, but it was only about ankle high at the deepest mud points. Here we took of the rest of the mud, relaxed in the larger, grass surrounded mud pool, before moving on the the next part. Before entering pool number three, there is a hose – and gentleman there to hose you – in case you have any further mud left on your person. Pool four is in a swimming pool structure and is filled with cool spring water and is the refreshing one. With an underwater bench all around the tiled sides of it, and a cool temperature to contrast with the previous hot string, this pool became my favourite. The fourth and final pool is another small swimming pool affair with tiled underwater benches at all sides, and feels like walking into an uncomfortably hot bath, the temperature being akin to the temperature that a mum pours, and it takes a few minutes to get used to it. This one I could only stand for around five minutes, then came out to cool off and enjoyed the coolness of pool number three for a few minutes more before our group all dried off and prepared to get going. If you have time here, there are also massages on offer, which a few friends took advantage of and spoke very highly of. $10 USD gets you ten minutes of thorough back and shoulder pummeling and kneading. Thirty minutes for $25 if you have a little more time. We all tipped the helpful kind Buna before heading out in the mini van. Once i made it back to the ship and had showered off properly, I could feel the benefits the mud had done to my skin on my body and face. I am writing this the morning after this experience and my skin is still soft as a baby’s bottom, and is glowing with health, so the mud definitely has health benefits.

The second Lautoka trip, I also visited the Gardens, having half an hour to take in the sights and scents of their 200 plus types of orchids. The entrance fee seems to vary depending on what it loks like you’ll pay, as we were told $8 AUS (about $6 USD) in the van on the way over, which changed to $8 USD, $12 AUD, $15 NZD or $18 Fijian dollars once we arrived (which all don’t even equate to each other). Being money conscious crewmembers, we did ask if they gave a crewmember or group discount, or discount as we only had thirty minutes total to spend viewing the gardens. They did not, but once we went in and started walking around, I didn’t mind at all and felt a little bad for even asking, as the gardens are stunning and really worth seeing. It is home to over 200 species of orchid and does not disappoint. The whole place looks and smells divine with flowers, plants, banyan trees, ferns, lily ponds, orchids, bugs and bees everywhere you look. If you have time, allow at least an hour to experience the gardens as they are really something. However, those of you popular as mosquito lunch, be warned, this is prime mossie territory, so take an anti-histamine at least half an hour before entering the gardens, as well as spraying yourself with a healthy dose of bug spray. If you are prone to mosquito bites, take vitamin B12 from at least two weeks before coming to Fiji, and take it every day while there, and a week after leaving too, to assist in deterring the little blighters.

Once the tour came back to the port, the other friends tipped our guide and left, and Nick and myself decided to try some local food before leaving. The driver took us to the nearest local Indian restaurant, Mudaliar’s Curry House, situated in the firs main street on the left once you hit the start of town from the ship. We had fish curry, and roti with chicken curry which we ate back on the ship. See Food & Drink section for the full details.