Advantages Great value, very different experience
Disadvantages Not luxurious
Detailed Rating
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| Family Friendly |
We spent a few days in Fiji and the hot springs at Sabeto is one of the experiences we chose to explore.
Unless you are interested in adrenalin seeking activities such as skidoos , banana boats, rafting down a river, swimming with sharks, scuba diving or deep sea fishing then there are limited things to do in the Nadi area. The most obvious experience is to sail and visit some of the smaller islands in either the Mamanuca or Yasawa island groups.We decided we would take a trip to see a couple of the islands in the Mamanuca ( pronounced Mamanutha) group on one day and I’ll write about that in another review.
On another day we explored a few of the local highlights around the Nadi area. We paid the taxi driver who brought us from the airport to give us the ‘tour’ and it cost us $160 Fijian which is about £55 and he took us to a number of different places, waited with us, took photos of us and then returned us to our hotel. His name was Tom and he was quite charming.SABETO HOT SPRINGS
Tom collected us from our hotel at 9am and took us straight to the Sabeto Hot Springs which was perfect as we were the only ones there and by the time we were leaving two other groups arrived. The hot springs are extremely basic, just a spring and a pool in the middle of a field.
After we inspected this pool we were invited to go and get changed in the very basic changing rooms, bring our stuff out in our bags which Tom then looked after. Our good friend , Tom had charge of our camera too and took some great photos of us looking totally ridiculous in the various pools.
And then we will wallow...Drying out.....
We then sat basking in the sun turning until all the mud was dry on us then we made our way back into the murky mud pool to wash it all off. The land the springs were on is owned by a family in a village near the airport. This was their farming land and the young man’s grandfather had discovered the springs in 1952 and since then all sorts of miracle cures have been credited to these warm waters and gloopy mud. So as much of the mud as we could was washed off in the muddy pool and out we clambered again. There were no proper steps just some concrete blocks somewhat askew making a bit of a step into the pool but as you couldn’t see anything and you squelched through quite thick mud it was very tricky keeping upright and even more difficult getting in and out.
A massage a field...
A Fijian massage appears to be given on a mat on the floor. A tarp was put down then a woven mat and then we lay on our towels while two Fijian ladies gave us a very gentle massage. It was quite a novelty but I wouldn’t say it was greatly therapeutic. It certainly didn’t sort my back out like the young Korean guy did in the night market in Cairns when he had his knee in my back!
This was a very different experience and I am so glad we were able to experience this by ourselves rather than with a lot of other people as the changing rooms were not large and were far from luxurious. I would thoroughly recommend a visit as it is a great experience a bit like the mud baths at Dalyan in Turkey which we visited about twenty years ago and they were pretty basic then. It was good fun and although I am not looking ten years younger after my mud bath and massage I did enjoy the whole experience of paddling in the muddy pool and being massaged on a mat in a field!
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Absinthe_Fairy 14/06/2011 11:59
silverstreak 02/02/2011 20:01
My sons have been doing this every week at football! Except that it's freezing cold mud, at that.
hiker 19/12/2010 10:35
frankiecesca 18/12/2010 15:35
pinky50 12/12/2010 21:54