Hey there, Travellers,

Katy's taking a (well-deserved) break after a flurry of non-stop travel shows, so I find myself at the helm again this week!

Unlike Katy, I've been in a bit of a lockdown after burning myself out with full-time travel. I'm now in the proverbial burn unit, i.e., settling into my new town, where I'm relearning how not to travel full-time. I love it here, but the jitters are definitely setting in.

I mostly miss my long drives through the desert (enough to write about it down below) but there are also plenty of perks to not living out of motels. I own a shelf now, so suffice it to say that I'm thriving!

But... if you have any tips for keeping the travel bug at bay, I'd still love to hear them in the comments :-)

Happy travels and safe landings,

Olivia - Sub-Editor of the Detour

By Larissa

Larissa is an Aussie expat from Sydney who only sometimes misses the beach. Currently based in London, she’s now working on ticking as many European cities off her travel list as possible. When she's not busy checking for brunch spots in her next destination, she's writing about flight deals for Jack's Flight Club.

Ticking Fiji off my ‘countries to travel to’ bingo card wasn’t really in my 2025 plan. I had already bagged a trip to Japan in February, filling my ‘long haul’ quota for the year. And unlike many other Australians, I’d never had a family trip there during my childhood. I had no nostalgic memories of all-inclusives and endless beaches. It had just never been on my radar. 

That was until my dad decided to celebrate his 60th birthday with a week-long trip at the Radisson Blu in Denarau Island. I was (in theory) excited to see my family, but it was a long way to go. I wasn’t jazzed about the looming extreme travel and jet lag combo, knowing I’d have to turn back around and get back to London after 6 days. And if I’m being radically honest, Fiji has never been high on my list.

But after a hop via San Francisco to what is almost the exact antipode of London, I landed in NAN for what would become a really transformative family trip. And one I’m so, so thankful to have made the journey for. 

Being part of quite an adventurous family (paddleboarding, bike riding, camping, sailing—if it’s ‘outdoorsy,’ my family does it), I knew we wouldn’t just be hanging out by the swim-up bar or posted up on a sun lounger on the beach. Don’t get me wrong, I love a relaxing holiday, but Fiji is one of those countries that I knew I wanted to see beyond the resort. I knew next to nothing about life there, and I wanted to see it for myself. 

Arriving in NAN airport - that’s my plane!

After 21 hours of flying, we landed in Nadi on the western side of the island. The rest of my family got away with a 4-hour flight from Sydney…lucky! This is the main international airport for holidaymakers, with the popular resorts of Denarau Island a 30-minute taxi ride away.  

Unsurprisingly, the airport is small. We deplaned on the tarmac, allowing the humidity and heat to hit me immediately. In case you’ve never experienced this before (clearly you’re not from Australia), it’s similar to the whoosh of heat you get when you open the oven door. And even though it was a cheery 5am, the heaviness in the air buzzed with an excitement (or maybe that was just my sleep deprivation being overtaken by adrenaline). 

After a little bit of difficulty getting Fijian dollars out of the airport ATMs, I took a taxi to the resort. 

Sidenote: I have a bone to pick with whoever decided to only put Westpac ATMs in Nadi airport. Yes, it was 100% my fault that I only took 1 bank card to Fiji (lesson learned), but the sheer panic I felt as I tried several ATMs in the terminal and they all rejected my card... cruel! I had no cash (lesson learned x2), so I was at the mercy of a very nice taxi driver. I told him my dilemma, and he drove me to an ANZ ATM on the way to the hotel with the assurance that it should work. Thankfully, it did!

Running around Denarau Island

I took advantage of my severe jet lag on day 2 to go for a run around Denarau Island. To give you a bit of context, Denarau is where almost all the major resorts are, with hotels like the Hilton, Radisson Blu and Sheraton standing side-by-side along the beach. As you’d expect, the restaurants, bars, cafes, and shops in this part of the island are absolutely geared towards tourists, and it felt extremely safe for me to run by myself at 7am. 

I ran up to the Hilton and back, and this photo was taken facing back down the beach towards my hotel. It’s easy to access the beach from most of the hotels (no one will check that you’re a guest if you just walk through the lobby, trust me — I was unsure at first when I ran up the stairs of the Hilton, but I kept my gaze straight ahead, and the confidence clearly paid off as no one stopped me. Maybe it’s athleisure privilege?) and it was interesting to see the differences between the spaces. 

One thing that I remember vividly was the HEAT, even at that time in the morning. You needed a hat and sunscreen; otherwise, you’d be getting sunburned even before you hit the pool.

DIY trip to Koroyanitu National Park

While there are plenty of tours for loads of different activities across the island (and beyond, but we’ll get there later), my family decided to organise a DIY tour out to Koroyanitu National Park. The park is 35 square kms, and includes the third-highest mountain in Fiji: Mt. Batilamu. It’s around an hour’s drive (45 km) from Denarau Island to the national park entrance. 

We organised a taxi there and back (the driver waited for us at Abaca Village, at the entrance of the park), which cost just over $100 AUD — around $150 FJD. This photo was taken on the way to the park, and you can see the coast and the ocean beyond the trees. 

For those who don’t want to worry about the logistics, tours from the hotels in Denarau are plenty and typically cost around $200 USD/$450 FJD (with lunch included). 

Spoiler alert: this walk was one of my favourite points in the whole trip, mostly because I was doing it with my two younger siblings. I’ve been living outside Australia for 6 years, and in that time they’ve both grown up into actual adults (wow!). This walk was one of the first times on the trip we were able to get to know each other better on the same level. These conversations about their lives, learning the names of their best friends, and just idle chit-chat about how they spend their days have really helped us reconnect. We now make an effort to send regular voice notes back and forth (the preferred communication style of Gen Z), and it’s hands down my favourite souvenir from the trip, even though it doesn’t quite fit in my bag. 

Entrance to the park

The entrance to the park is in Abaca Village (where you can also stay if you’d like the experience of a traditional Fijian village). From here, it took about 15-20 minutes to walk into the park proper. It is a little hilly, but you don’t need to be an experienced trekker to go there. 

There is an entrance fee (25 FJD for tourists), and they’ll give you a map and directions on how to get where you want to go. There are 3 trails, one of which is the 4-hour round trip to climb Mt. Batilamu. We modified one of the trails and only did a 40-minute hike round trip. 

Getting to the waterfall

The staff at the entrance office gave us instructions on how to get to the closest waterfall. It wasn’t too complicated, with the path being marked. Once we got to the turnoff on the main path, it was a quick descent to the waterfall. As you can see here, the waterfall isn’t very steep at this point and is very safe/easy to cross. 

You’ll also notice another thing about my pictures from this hike — there wasn’t another soul in sight, apart from my family. Our group had this whole part of the park to ourselves — not something you’d be able to say if you paid for an organised tour! We think they must take them to another waterfall in the park.

Keep reading...

By Olivia

A San Diego native, Olivia left home three years ago to live on the road. Since then, she's had homebases everywhere from Quebec to England to New Orleans, but she always ends up back on the West Coast. When she's not hiking through the desert or the woods, she can usually be found exploring her current city and scoping out the best bars and coffee shops.

As a Southern Californian and a big fan of road trips, I know pretty much every inch of my state’s desert. It’s one of my favorite regions in the world and it’s far more complex than it looks on a map. When people visit SoCal, they tend to focus on the coastline and treat most of the desert as a wasteland, even though there’s so much worth doing out there.

However, I’m currently up in the Pacific Northwest, experiencing a typically dreary winter that brought me homesickness along with it. So I don’t know about you, but those sun-soaked dusty highways, warm nighttime breezes, and colorful margarita bars are all sounding especially good at the moment. 

If it sounds good to you too, we could fly into Los Angeles, deal with the infamous chaos of LAX, and then make that (frankly god-awful) drive through traffic-filled suburbs and cities until you hit the desert. 

But fortunately, there’s another option. Instead, we could land at an iconic little town near and dear to my heart, surrounded by the best of the SoCal desert: Palm Springs.

Despite being a pretty small city (about 45,000 residents), Palm Springs has an international airport with surprisingly good connections and much cheaper fares than you’d expect. Compared to LA, you might pay $10-$50 more round trip for a domestic flight into town or an extra $100-$250 RT for a transatlantic flight. To be honest, I’d gladly pay that much to skip out on the hassle of LAX.

In fact, a widespread desire to “skip out on the LA hassle” is pretty much how this town became such a hub. Stylish, naturally beautiful, and juuuuuust far enough from the metropolis to feel worlds away, Palm Springs has had a reputation as an oasis since its beginning. Resorts began popping up in the early 20th century, and by the peak of the Old Hollywood era, it was well-known as a getaway spot for the stars. An afternoon stroll in those days might have involved waving “hello” to Frank Sinatra or Marilyn Monroe.

With all those fashionable folks in town, the city developed a very distinctive aesthetic. You might know that Palm Springs is a major hub for Mid-Century Modern design, with its wide glass walls and sleek shapes, but the homes here really take on a specific Californian flair. Think succulent gardens, breezeblocks, and swimming pools lined with (what else?) rows of palm trees. If you watched the movie Don’t Worry Darling, then you get the vibe. These homes were designed to feel like part of the natural landscape.

They also make Palm Springs a lovely place to wander aimlessly. You could easily kill an afternoon just by walking or driving around, admiring the architecture (and the town has a self-guided tour to help). Hop aboard the aerial tramway, and you can get a bird’s-eye view of the whole city.

Along the main thoroughfare, you can shop, grab some Mexican food, or check out the swanky art museum. Most visitors grab a resort reservation and spend most of their time either by the pool or on the golf course, but we’re not here to spend all day lounging. We’re here to take in that magical desert...

…starting with Joshua Tree National Park, which is practically the city’s backyard. This is where Southern Californians go to unwind and soak up some desert scenery. You might recognize it as a favorite backdrop for music videos — those huge granite boulders and titular trees are a dead giveaway. Unlike a lot of national parks, J-Tree is less about long hikes and arduous outdoor excursions and more about hanging out under the stars, clambering around on the boulders, and listening to the wind rustle through the yuccas.