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Fiji isn’t just a beach destination, it’s a choose-your-own-adventure spread across 300+ islands and we’re bringing you a real, on-the-ground trip report straight from the South Pacific. Mark checks in from Fiji while Patrick holds down the studio, and we walk through what it’s like to hotel hop across the Denarau area, the Coral Coast, and a smaller outer island. We compare standout Fiji resorts and share the moments that actually make the trip feel “worth it,” from unreal sunsets and bright blue water to the kind of genuine welcome you feel the second someone says “Bula.”
We also get practical about what to do once you land. We talk marine conservation activities like mangrove planting, why the Sigatoka River jetboat safari is a must for culture and adventure, and why Cloud Nine is surprisingly fun even if you think “floating in the ocean” sounds too simple. If you’re planning Fiji travel for families, couples, or an adults-only escape, we lay out an easy structure: a few days on the main island, then a few nights on a private island with the logistics handled.
Then we shift into travel news and cruise updates you can use right now: a Romania and Transylvania tour deal tied to Dracula’s Castle, a developing Mexico documentation rule for minors that could affect hotels and tour operators, and cruise headlines including Carnival’s dynamic pricing for drink and Wi‑Fi packs plus new ship launch timing. We wrap with a listener question on the easiest way to visit the Amazon and explain how an Amazon cruise can get you all the way to Manaus with less hassle.
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Thank you for taking the time to listen to the show. There are literally thousands of podcasts from which you can choose, yet you listened to this show.
The entire purpose of this podcast is to help people plan and book their next vacation or give listeners ideas of where they might consider going on vacation next. Our goal is to help our listeners live their lives deliberately and intentionally. You only get one shot at life so you might as well make it count. Make memories with those that matter most to you.
TAKE ACTION: Quit talking about going on vacation, just do it. If you want more information about any of the destinations we discussed during the show, or have your own custom vacation in mind, I can help you. Please call, text, or email me.
Explore your world. It's The InsideTravelTalk Podcast and Radio Show. Presented by BluePlanetVacations.com. Call or text The show now. 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. And check out The podcast at Inside TravelTalk.com. And now, here are your hosts, Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo.
Patrick Wiscombe
It is The InsideTravelTalk Podcast Radio Show, The Halloween edition for 2026. Hello there, I'm Patrick Wiscombe, The Vacation Nerd. the entire purpose of this travel podcast radio show is to help you, our listeners, plan and book your next vacation and to give you The latest travel news as well as The best available travel and cruise deals designed to help all of our listeners save money. So we want you to consider this show The must-listen weekly travel briefing if you love to travel or if you want to start traveling. This show is presented by BluePlanetVacations.com, and we are actually doing this show from The island of Fiji. At least Mark is. I'm back in Salt Lake.
Mark Faldmo
It's been pretty nice sitting on The beach when I had time this last week and watching The sunset. Oh, you God.
Patrick Wiscombe
We had to coordinate because The time difference. I know we've been trying to sync this up so we could do this live. And uh what is The difference? About 18 hours? No, it's more than that.
Mark Faldmo
It's eight, it's 18 hours. Is it?
Patrick Wiscombe
Okay.
Mark Faldmo
I think. Yeah. So Friday for you and Saturday for me. Well done. So where are you? Right now I'm in a day room waiting for transportation to The airport a little bit later today. So I am at The Hilton Fiji Resort and Spa, which is in Denral Island, which is one of The main hotel areas on The main island of Fiji.
Patrick Wiscombe
You sound like you're literally in The next room from me. Yeah, that's good. That's The miracle of Wi-Fi today. We have a special guest that wants to come on The show. Lord of The Rings. Are you familiar with Sauron? I am, yeah. So for listeners who don't know, he's The I. So he's The antagonist in Lord of The Rings. He had a travel-related question for you. Sauron, are you there? Oh boy. A lot of people don't know that we do have that connection with Soran.
Let's just talk about Fiji right out of The gate here. I know that you've spent The last week in Fiji. You've stayed at five hotels, you've experienced some new things, and what are some of The favorite parts of this particular trip?
Mark Faldmo
My favorite part of this particular trip was all of The hotels that we visited. These are hotels that I've used a lot. I haven't seen all of them. So we started out at The Shangri La Hotel. It's one of The more famous hotels, kind of on that main island. Then we moved to The Warwick Fiji, which is a very nice high-end hotel. And then to my favorite hotel, The Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort. Oh, yeah. This one's a little bit more economical. It's a great family resort. We stayed here two nights. And then probably The favorite hotel that I stayed in this time was The Sheraton Resort and Spa on Tokariki Island. So we've talked about Fiji, you know, it's more than 300 islands, about 110 of which are inhabited. And then a lot of The small islands just off The coast, they're their own little hotel. So Tokariki Island is one of these. It just has a small 120-room or so resort. You have to take a boat or a helicopter out to The island to get to it. And so that was probably my favorite part of The trip. Then we moved on to The Marriott Resort Momie Bay, which has some over-The-water, they call them bureaues. They're not bungalows, they're bureets. And then right now I'm in The Hilton Fiji Beach Resort just for a day room. So that's six hotels that I visited, five of them. Well, I guess technically all six of them I stayed in because I've I have this room for seven hours. So just great experience. One thing that we did our first day there at The Shangri La Hotel was we did a marine conservation activity where we went out and planted mangroves near The hotel. What are mangroves? Mangrove is a plant. They're a couple different kinds, but they grow kind of at The water level. And they some of them grow in The water, some of them grow outside of The water, and they act as a barrier for storms, and they also act kind of as a fish nursery. Oh, to protect The smaller fish from larger fish. So gobble gobble. Yep. Probably The favorite activity I did, and we've talked about this one before. I think it'll always be my favorite activity in Fiji is a Sigatoka River jetboat safari. Oh, yeah, yeah. Where you take The jet boat up The river, you get off, you go into one of The local villages there where they still live, The traditional culture with The chief and all of The customs that surround that. Just a very interesting excursion. I think that's something everyone should do when they're there.
Patrick Wiscombe
What are some of The other things that you did this week?
Mark Faldmo
And then another thing that I didn't think I would like, but I really liked is they have these kind of floating activity things out in The middle of The ocean. So one that we went to is called Cloud Nine. Um with no beach. You're just floating out in The middle of The water. Wow. And you know, they have snorkeling, you can jump off The platform into The water, swimming, they have food, they have drinks, just a nice little day activity to really get immersed into kind of that ocean lifestyle.
Patrick Wiscombe
No pun intended.
Mark Faldmo
Correct. Yeah.
Patrick Wiscombe
Fiji is one of your favorite places. What uh cultural hospitality things did you do? Assuming you did some.
Mark Faldmo
We talked about The maingrove that we did, which was a a nice thing to do, but to really experience authentic Fijian culture is amazing. the Fijian people are so nice and friendly. You go into these villages where they're still living The traditional Fijian way. A lot of those South Pacific Islands have kind of lost their cultures, but Fiji really has tried to preserve this. You go to cultural performances, a kava ceremony, which is interesting. You go through The whole ceremony of them preparing it for you, and then when you drink it and your lips and tongue and throat get a little bit numb. You wonder what you drank, but it's very interesting. And so just experience that Fijian culture makes The trip worth it.
Patrick Wiscombe
So I should say boula to you.
Mark Faldmo
Yeah, which means it's it's like aloha in Hawaii. So it it's hello, kind of expresses that welcoming spirit of Fiji.
Patrick Wiscombe
You've experienced much Bula this past week for sure. Yeah. One of The things that always fascinates me is you're literally in The middle of The ocean. And by The way, you did say something that I didn't know is that uh Fiji, I always think of like an island, maybe two or three, but you said that there was a how many? Three? No, a hundred islands or a hundred and no three hundred islands.
Mark Faldmo
Yeah, over three hundred islands, about a hundred and ten of which are inhabited.
unknown
Wow.
Patrick Wiscombe
Are you always kind of amazed when you land? You're like, we're in The middle of The ocean here. We're in The middle of uh and there's some massive hotels here. Well, maybe not massive, but a lot of hotels.
Mark Faldmo
But there's a lot of hotels. And you know, that's one thing I like about Fiji. They do have, like where I'm at now on Denrao Island, it's actually an island that was created by an old landfill. There are hotels here. There's about 10 of them, but they would kind of consider this their hotel zone. So when you compare that to other destinations like Cancun or Honolulu that have 70, 80, 100 hotels, their main hotel area only has about 10. Then they have other hotels spread out every five to 30 miles down along The Coral Coast and other areas, and then lots of hotels that are just on their own little private island. My favorite one, and we've talked about this before is Castaway Island in Fiji. It's a small, I think, 60-room-ish hotel where you arrive by boat. It's The most welcoming experience you've ever had. And then you just get a really relax.
Patrick Wiscombe
Is that a wet landing on that one? Where you take it? It is a wet landing.
Mark Faldmo
Yeah, most of most of there are a few that have docks, but most of The time The boat just pulls up and you wait ashore and then let The locals carry your bags ashore so that they don't get wet.
Patrick Wiscombe
Oh wow. What an adventure. How much time did you send on The spend on The beach? Any? Or was it mostly just moving from place to place?
Mark Faldmo
Uh we did a lot of moving, but I did get an hour or two each day to just sit on The beach or enjoy The area that I was at.
Patrick Wiscombe
If you have just one thing to talk about Fiji, how would you summarize it for listeners who've never been there?
Mark Faldmo
the one thing that makes Fiji special, I think, is that The vacation can be whatever kind of vacation you want. Fiji really caters to families, to adults only. There's beautiful beaches. We've often talked about The blue water when we're in The Bahamas on cruise ships, The private islands. It's even better in Fiji. the sunsets in Fiji are amazing. And so it's a place that really has genuine hospitality that makes you feel welcome. And it's a unique experience compared to I think anywhere else in The world.
Patrick Wiscombe
Are you kind of bummed to be coming home a little bit? Or are you ready to come home?
Mark Faldmo
No, I I would like to just go out on one of those private islands and spend a week doing nothing, but unfortunately, that doesn't work within its schedules and commitments, but I I would love it. Oh yeah.
Since today is Halloween, we wanted to talk about an update to a travel deal that we did. Was this one or two weeks ago? the uh Romania. Okay, so this is for Romania and Transylvania. What update do we have for listeners?
Mark Faldmo
This is The tour we talked about of Romania that visits Bren Castle, which is The inspiration for Dracula's Castle. We talked about two weeks ago that it was up to 60% off. They've upped that. So if you book through Blue Planet Vacations, that Romania and Transylvania tour is now up to an additional 70% off if you book by The end of November.
Patrick Wiscombe
Really?
Mark Faldmo
So that does have to be booked through Blue Planet Vacations. And that is date specific. So some dates might only be 50% off, some might be 30% off. It it just depends. Uh The 70% off is probably more in The off times. Like you probably could get that next October, for instance, which would be a great time to go there around Halloween time. Uh just an update to that deal, and that's through Exotica. I'll post again The link to that tour in The show notes on Blue Planet Vacations with a link directly to that tour.
Patrick Wiscombe
Can they also call you for that one?
Mark Faldmo
They can call me for that as well.
Patrick Wiscombe
All right, let me just give out The number just while we're here. 888-718-7717-888-718-7717.
We're kind of doing everything in reverse here. We are. I want to talk about Fiji and then update that travel deal. So I saw this news story that traveling with children to Mexico, there's some important updates. What'd you learn?
Mark Faldmo
There is. And so this is something we don't know a lot about right now. First, I should just say if you're traveling with minors and they're not your children, um, you do have to travel with a notarized copy saying that you have authority to take those children out of The country. Oh, wow. That's something that's pretty standard around The world. You should always travel with that. Or if you have an adopted child that has a different last name, you need to prove that. But Mexico is now taking this a step further, and we don't really know how it's going to take effect or what it's going to mean. About two weeks ago, The Senate in Mexico voted is actually The vote was 104 to zero to amend its general tourism law that states if you're traveling with minor children, you have to show official proof and documents proving your relationship to The child.
Patrick Wiscombe
Oh boy.
Mark Faldmo
Which again, we don't know when this is going to start, how they're going to enforce it, what documents are going to be needed. But The law would state that any hotel, lodging rental, tour operators, transportation providers, restaurants, and other tourism businesses will have to verify this proof before they'll serve you. Oh, good great. So hopefully they'll make this easy or they will decide to change this law. Until official guidance is released. We always recommend, along with The passport, to travel with The child's birth certificate, because that'll list The parents or any other document showing custody or guardianship, a notarized letter of consent from any parent or guardian who is not traveling. This will matter because there are a lot of grandparents that take their grandchildren trips. And so this will affect those types of trip. We'll keep our audience updated of this. In fact, this is interesting because I didn't really get this information through official channels. I haven't seen it a lot in The trade press. This actually came from my lawyer who specializes in travel law, and he posted it in his group. And so it's something that we have to watch. We'll keep you updated of that.
Patrick Wiscombe
So in this segment, we've got The travel news headlines, we've got The cruise news headlines, we've got The uh cruise deal of The week. This is a combo platter because is it today that you're taking off to come back to The US?
unknown
Yes.
Patrick Wiscombe
Or is it tomorrow?
Mark Faldmo
So in about six hours, um I'll be uh taking off to come home, unfortunately.
Patrick Wiscombe
Carnival is shifting drinks and Wi-Fi packages to what they call dynamic pricing. Basically, it's demand pricing, a lot of demand, you're gonna pay more.
these fun packs, and so they're they're changing how they do their drink packages. And they actually do have a set price on those. So they have a Kickstarter package that's $25 per person per day. This is for kids three to 17 years old, and that's basically what we would have called The soda package, and then for adults, that same kind of soda alcohol-free packages, it also comes with Wi-Fi as part of this, is $50 per person per day. And then they go up from there. They have The Epic Fun Pack, which is everything, which is $99 per person per day. the one thing a lot of cruise lines started going to is if one person in your cabin gets this, everyone has to get it. I couldn't buy one package and Heather not have a package, or I couldn't buy one of The other packages and have another person buy a different package. Everyone has to buy The same package in The cabin. So, and that's been a hard thing to deal with. I I've actually just given up on drink packages overall for that reason. I don't drink a lot of soda anymore, but I found what I was spending on soda packages. If I was just to buy it, I still didn't spend as much as The drink packages were.
Patrick Wiscombe
Norwegian's Aura and Royal's Hero of The Seas are going to debut, is it sooner than expected?
Mark Faldmo
You don't get this a lot in construction and shipbuilding. So Norwegian's new ship, The Norwegian Aura, will actually enter service 19 days earlier than proposed. So they're gonna have some new sailings that are gonna come out on that, and Royal Caribbean's Hero of The Seas will launch 10 days ahead of schedule.
Patrick Wiscombe
So is Hero of The Seas that's Icon of The Seas part four, I think.
Mark Faldmo
Part four, yeah. Wow. And so that one will now launch on August 1st of next year, and Norwegians Cruise Line Aura will launch on May 2nd, both in 2027.
Patrick Wiscombe
If you have travel-related questions for The show, whether we're on The air or if it's during The week, you can text your travel-related question to 801-649-3700. 801-649-3700. This is from Laura. She says, I want to visit Amazon. That is not what I meant to say. I want to visit The Amazon. What is The easiest way
to visit The Amazon? Not The stuff that comes to your door.
Mark Faldmo
If you do want to experience The Amazon River, probably a cruise is a really easy way to do it. And Holland America actually has a round trip cruise from Fort Lauderdale. It's a 28-day voyage that goes down, stops in basically a lot of The eastern, southern Caribbean islands like St. Martin, St. Kitts, Barbados, Dominica, and then it goes all The way down to The Amazon River and cruises all The way up to Manaus in The Amazon. You don't have a long flight, you don't have a lot of The issues that come with actually getting to and experiencing The Amazon River. It's all done on The cruise ship. This one starts January 6th of 2028. This starts at $6,200 per person, just under that. A great way to experience that. Another thing, and this one's a little bit further away, but Princess just announced, and this is January of 2029. This one is not even on sale yet. I think it goes on sale next week, but they introduced full circumnavigation of South America. So really you're doing The whole thing. Yeah, this is also round trip Fort Lauderdale. It's 64 days. So it goes down some Caribbean ports. You do a full transit of The Panama Canal, then you go down to places in Peru, places in Chile. It also includes scenic Antarctica cruising. So you get down and cruise Antarctica, then it comes up, does Amazon River cruising. Before you get to The Amazon, you'll stop in Argentina, Rio, I believe, is on this, and then up to The Amazon River, and then back and end in Fort Lauderdale. So six 64 days. 64 days. I and I don't have The price because it's not out on sale yet. It was just announced. And so I'll try and post that if I actually get The information on that. But that is another way to see The Amazon. Plus, you would get The Panama Canal and Antarctica on The same cruise. Amazing. That's like three bucket list things in one cruise.
Patrick Wiscombe
So those will be The cruise deals of The week. I don't think we've talked about a hot travel deal of The week.
Mark Faldmo
Not yet. Yeah, we've kind of done this show not in our regular order, but we can certainly get to The hot travel
deal of The week now. I'm assuming it has something to do with Fiji. Round trip airfare from Los Angeles or San Francisco to Fiji, starting at $879 per person. That is about $200 to $300 per person lower than The normal fare. So that's a pretty good price for The airfare. And then I would just love to help people plan a vacation. You know, I'd recommend three to five days on The mainland and then three to five days or three to four days on one of those smaller private islands. You know, I can help with all of The logistics and transportation, plus also get you set up on The Sigatoka Riverboat Safari that we talked about, or go out to Cloud Nine and spend The afternoon floating in The ocean.
Patrick Wiscombe
Just floating in The uh The ocean. I know that you have to go catch your plane here pretty quick, or at least you need to get on your way. Yeah. Yeah, we'll be leaving in about an hour. Take advantage of those offers, The hot travel deal of The week, and of course The cruise deals
of The week. Call Mark 888-718-7717-888-718-7717. And he's also going to post all of this information on BluePlanetVacations.com. We are done. That's it. We've done our job, and now it's your turn to get out and see The world. Life is short. Book a trip. Quit talking about doing stuff. Just get out and do it. And Mark will help you get there. That's where he comes in. Thank you so much for taking your time to stop and listen to this award-nominated travel show. We truly appreciate all of you for joining us. We don't have a podcast, we don't have a radio show, we don't have a business without you. You, our listeners, make all of this possible. So for Mark Faldmo, my name is Patrick Wiscombe, The Vacation Nerd. Thank you so much for listening. Make it a fantastic week, and we will talk to you again next weekend. And to you, Mark, I say Bula.
Todd Carlson
That's it. That's The end of The show. You've been listening to The InsideTravelTalk Podcast and Radio Show with Patrick Wiscombe and Mark Faldmo. Presented by BluePlanetVacations.com. Book your adventure right now. Call 888-718-7717. That's (888) 718-7717. Thanks for listening. Have a great week.
