Guided Walking Tours, Suva

Angelique booked this tour over 6 months ago, vinaka na recommendation Talanoa Treks🙌🏽❤️

Weekend tours, vinaka Jim Raiwalui Urunakairewa

With 4 tours on today, we are at full capacity and loving it, as I finished my morning tour I tried to find a quiet place so I could have some late breakfast and get some downtime before the afternoon tours and found myself at Palm Court Bistro - Since 1960 in the 90s before the ROC Cafe and Kahawa the first proper coffee shops in Suva, there was this place. Palm Court was super fancy in that pre-cafe era of Suva, they've always had great food and are probably the oldest sandwich bar in Suva. A $6 sandwich in the 90s was pricy but I always found myself here pretending to be fancy and usually with a book that I used to use as a prop.

This bistro has been open since the '60s, I have known women here for over 20 years, and there are two old staff left that are still working. Apo the lady in the middle has been working here since 1987 during the first coup and still here today. Mokura is the barista I have known from my cafe days at the ROC Cafe.

I am happy I came here this morning, to reminisce with these ladies and talk about the old Suva days, before the internet and fancy smartphones when our Suva-city world felt smaller and we all kinda knew each other.

This bistro has Suva best kept secret, they make the most gorgeous scones that is never available after 9am, its served fresh and hot that buttered generously with that salty Rewa Butter that's gone as soon as they open, and I was so happy to know that after more then 20 years of coming here it still feels the same, great food and wonderful women with big happy faces.

Pictured is Patricia, Apo and Mokura, I had a $11.60 breakfast of toast, eggs over easy and generous portion of bacon :)

Taufa Soko is a market vendor at the Suva Market, she travels from Tailevu once a week to sell veggies & bu

ManLock Fung is a traveller from HK visiting Fiji for a little over a week, he was interested in an all-day tour starting with a and then a nature walk at Colo-i-Suva with Waisale a park ranger.

Since it was just he and Jim Raiwalui Urunakairewa they did things and took the bus to the park up in Tamavua and back and when I checked in on them they were at the Hibiscus Festival getting some late afternoon food and waiting for the program to begin on the mainstage.

book a tour with us today

While you’re in town to see all the great things at the Miss Hibiscus Festival, why not walk down the road and experience the amazing cultural heritage of Fiji!

There’s something for everyone at your national museum and we look forward to welcoming you when you visit!

Ministry of itaukei Affairs Department of Culture, Heritage & Arts Tokani: Friends of the Fiji Museum Fiji Arts Council National Trust of Fiji Islands The Fiji Times Fiji Sun fijivillage Fiji Traveller

Tee Totoka Cafe is a quintessential Fijian tea shop, and their Suva shop closed due to Yatu Lau closing earlier this year! I was told by a cabbie that they’re now open at Harbour Centre and here I am 🙂

Vinaka Grand Pacific Hotel Suva & Lawhill Fiji for the fantastic Friday night ‘Art, Sip & Savour’

Tours this past couple of days with Jim Raiwalui, book a guided history tour with us soon!

Preparing the resource packs for ‘Art, Sip & Savour’ tonight at the Grand Pacific Hotel Suva

As Jim Raiwalui is hosting a group I was in the market getting fresh veggie supplies and came across these two vendors laughing & eating pawpaw, Suliana rokoura &
Mataki Savenaca are market vendors were on a short giggle & fruit break!

We started with a few cancellations this week due to that storm that came through last night, but this morning I woke up a brand new bookings :) vinaka Jim Raiwalui Urunakairewa for being such a trooper, guests love him :)

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Saturday morning tours with this lovely family visiting Suva for a few days and staying at the Grand Pacific Hotel Suva. I had coffee with them this morning before Jim took them on our

Guided Walking Tours, Suva call us to make a booking

Lazy Beans Cafe early Saturday morning crew, Rupeni, Taina & Naca all fresh and shiny faced ready for their morning shift.

April booked the tour a few days ago, and today was our first midday birdwatching tour, usually, it starts around 6am and according to Tom Verius a wildlife photographer and marine scientist friend told me it is the best time to go birdwatching :)

I live and learn.

She and her husband travelled to Suva by bus from the Shangri La and was met at the bus station by trusty Jim Raiwalui Urunakairewa who took them up to Colo-Suva where this time our guide was Wise, as Vido was out in the field and vinaka to Jake Taoi for recommending him to us, June and her husband had a great time.

Today was Intrepid Travel group that we do monthly through the cool cats at Talanoa Treks and whilst I was finishing up from the kava demonstration at the market Jim Raiwalui Urunakairewa our awesome newbie guide was with this group at the market, we all had a big kaila!!

Tonight, I and Jim are doing a with a bunch of cool cats from the tours today, also can I have please just state here that Jake Taoi is the best and I am in his debt for sorting out a bird guide since our Vido is in the field and cannot do one this weekend ❤

Super happy and super busy and loving life right now

Sherry is the bespeckled lady in the middle, she arrived in Fiji aged 5 in 1962, her father worked for the colonial government and she spent 15 of her life in Fiji, she returned to NZ in her late teens and began her life there. Her daughter Trudie, in front of me, told me that all her life, growing up with her, Fiji was her mother's central story. She grew up eating Fiji curries and great up with a great love for a country she never visited.

They moved into the next door last week and came around asking if I knew about walking tours as they read about it in the Lonely Planet and I screamed & told them I’m the guy🙌🏽😻 we became fast friends and spent the past couple of nights sharing stories and food. Yes, they did a tour with me over the weekend 🙂 she’s spent her time in Suva visiting all her old haunts.

Farewell Fijian lady Sherry, she told me as she was leaving this morning that this might be her last trip home ❤ ... isa

Jim was busy doing tours today, he had a 930am with a Kiwi couple that was staying at GPH and in the afternoon Jacquie and her husband were on our 230pm afternoon tour. Jacquie and her husband are staying on the Coral Coast came into Suva today to do the walking tour and Jim put them on a bus to head out west when they were done at 430pm this afternoon.

On our tour this morning, we went in sneakily and looked at the brand-spanking new Sukuna Park before it opened officially on Monday, we walked in confidently and looked and smiled at everyone but didn't think it was a good idea to get a picture in an unopened park so we got this random picture instead :)

After being closed for the past 4-5 years Ratu Sukuna Park is opening next week🙌🏽❤️

📢Join us for the grand re-opening of Ratu Sukuna Park! 🎉

This event marks the completion of this extensive renovations, and we're excited to unveil Fiji's national heritage to the people of Suva‼️

🗓 Monday, 19th August from 5:00pm - 6:00pm✅️

Edgar Wong is an expat living in Suva, he is Portuguese and has over the past two weeks done two tours, last week with his wife's cousin who was visiting from the States and today his old friend from university days was visiting from his home town Lisbon.

We are back at Grand Pacific Hotel Suva later this month on the 30th for 'Art, Sip and Savor this month. We are working with the Matamosi Sisters on this month's cultural classes again.

Get your tickets through the link to the event below :)

Discover the art of creating the beautiful Fijian floral lei 'Matai Dua Salusalu', a cherished symbol of celebration in Fiji.

Join us for an enchanting evening where our experienced local artists will guide you through the delicate process of lei-making, helping you create your own stunning Fijian floral lei to treasure and take home.

Date: Friday, 30th August 2024 (repeats every month, please follow our channels for dates)
Time: 6.00PM– 8.00PM
Venue: Rara Lounge, Grand Pacific Hotel
Price: $99 per adult (includes free-flow wine, shared cheese board, canapes)

Facilitated by: Peter Sipeli, Guided Walking Tours, Suva

In partnership with Lawhill Fiji

Learn more: https://grandpacifichotel.com.fj/packages/art-sip-savour-august/

For more information, please contact Maria Tauleka on +679 322 000 or mobile +679 922 6172, email [email protected]

Our tours is hosted by Vido, a veteran park ranger & this morning we hosted John Goodin and his wife on an early morning walk through colo-I-Suva nature reserve.

Jim our new guide is in Colo-i-Suva right now and has been since 530am with Vido our bird guide starting a tour.

Look out for some great pictures to come from our tour this morning with Jim and Vido this morning :)

Big vinaka to the New Zealand High Commission, Suva, Fiji for doing a tour with us today, with these NZ MPS From left to right:

Hillary van de Molen
Tim van de Molen MP
Teanau Tuiono MP
Hon Jenny Salesa MP

Who with a larger contingent of NZ MPs in Suva for the Foreign Ministers Meeting at PIFS, and are doing a Pacific region visit. This picture is missing a few MPs on the tour but dashed off before we got this picture.

They were, Tim van de Molen is a National party MP, Teanau Tuiono is a Green Party MP and Hon Jenny Salesa a Labour party MP.

Vinaka to the rep from the Fiji Office was Alex the Deputy High Commissioner, and an old friend of mine from when he served as UNICEF champion in 2009 and stayed in Suva for a short while back then.

Today was Jim Raiwalui first day on the job as a partime guide with us. He is an artist, a musician and an actor that stars in the locally made TV show thats on air right now called 'Suva City' on Fiji Television Limited first ever locally produced drama series.

We had two tours on today, I managed the New Zealand High Commission, Suva, Fiji group of visiting MPs whilst Jim took a group on his very first tour solo.

He did a great job, the group made up of the German Ambassador Andreas and his friends did know this confident, actor and musician guy and now guide was a first timer.

Jim too the group to meet his grandmother who has a stall at the Suva Market, and thus had his own spin to the tours, I think the stories of the guides will make each tour experience different, we cover 12 different landmarks and though we can focus on the history we try and tell the story of the city as our lived experience. How we nagivate and use the city is a core part of how we frame our tour experience.

Look out for more stories from Jim :)

This is little Abby, her parents are visiting from the UK and were recommended to do a walking tour earlier this week through Mel Mackenzie who is a teacher at International School. She did a tour with her class earlier this year. It was a slow easy-going tour and we ate our way through the market and ended up having a coffee halfway through the tour. Little Abby was such a trooper through it all, at only 4 she's a brilliant walker, and eater and didn't complain at all through the full 3 hours of walking through the city!

This is her smashing young coconut flesh after drinking yummy fresh bu juice

Isa, this was written in 2020 :)

Pictured is Senivalati Vido, a forest park ranger for the Ministry of Forestry who hosts tours for us at Colo-i-Suva National Park, he is a veteran ranger and a great birder. Vido as he is known to friends and colleagues knows his stuff, he not only knows the birds but is also a flora and fauna expert and does this wonderful thing that not only does he know the names of most plant species names in Fijian he also talks about its uses in indigenous medicines and foods. He adds that element to our tours.

We have a few birdwatching tours this month and are very happy to work alongside him.

This is Vido with two guests that we took on a birdwatching tour earlier this year :)