Unfurl your towel at these palm-fringed sands that are undoubtedly the best beaches in Fiji.

Fiji is festooned with glittering islands of hyperbolic beauty, each offering its own sandy sweep of paradise girt by shimmering waters. Whether you’re looking for a beach that is close to the action on Viti Levu or a lesser-known, further flung bay where you’ll barely encounter another soul, there is a beach that whispers your holiday dreams. From dive sites teeming with marine life, to Hollywood blockbuster locations, vibing beach clubs and sunset-ready shores, these are the best beaches in Fiji.

In short

If you only get to one beach, make it Qalito Island in the Mamanuca Islands. This double-beach beauty is your tropical island screensaver come to life. Spend the day or stay for a few and enjoy the serenity.

1. Blue Lagoon, Yasawa Islands

Best for: Film fans

The star quality Nanuya Lailai’s Blue Lagoon is evident the moment your vessel approaches the tropical dreamscape. As one of the locations for the 1980 movie of the same name, the beach has become a pin-up of Fiji’s coastal beauty and attracts plenty of visitors to slip into the translucent waters. You can cruise here or linger at the Blue Lagoon Resort. If you’re a fan of the film, you can also tick off some other filming locations at the Sawa-i-Lau Cave, where you can dip into a limestone-walled grotto, and on the exclusive Turtle Island. However, the latter requires a more considerable investment.

2. Natadola Beach, Viti Levu

Best for: Mainland swims

Frequently topping the ‘best beach’ lists, Natadola Beach on Fiji’s largest and most populated island of Viti Levu deserves the title not just for its beauty, but for its ease of access. It also has beach culture down to an artform with coconut, cold beer and cocktails pedalled from resort bars along the sand. There are also massages available and handicrafts for purchase and gentle surfing is best out front of the InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort and Spa. While it’s a free and public beach, you can also get day passes from the resort to use their facilities.

3. Malamala Beach Club, Mamanuca Islands

Best for: Easily accessible island vibes

Claiming ownership as the world’s first beach club, there is a reason it all started here at Malamala. This Mamanuca Islands hub has cocktails and cabanas at the ready for the boatloads of day-trippers that come to swan on its white sands and flit in the pristine waters. It’s island perfection just 30 minutes from Port Denarau.

4. Monuriki (Modriki) Beach, Monuriki

Best for: Daytrips from Mamanuca and Yasawa resorts

Another one for movie buffs, this speck of an island is where Cast Away was filmed. While Tom Hanks’ character endured this idyllic isle alone with just a coconut for company, you’re likely to encounter a few boats of tourists coming to live out their own marooned moment. There’s no resort here and you can’t spend the night, but this beauty is well worth the journey

5. Fulaga (Vulaga), Lau

Best for: Intrepid sailors or cruise line passengers

For those who’d happily forgo a resort buffet breakfast for a less path-beaten beach, head to Fulaga in the southernmost Lau group of islands. The lagoons of this horseshoe-shaped island are almost otherworldly with limestone outcrops mushrooming out of the Windex-blue waters. With little access and no formal accommodation on the island, you will need a yacht or a charter to visit this isolated beauty. However, some Seabourn cruises do stop at Lau.

6. Papageno Beach, Kadavu

Best for: Experiencing the real Fiji

A slip of perfect beach on the barely touched island of Kadavu, this far-flung Fijian beauty sits adjacent to the Great Astrolabe Reef, making it an ideal launchpad for dives in this biodiverse marine reserve. The water is clear, the feeling is remote and if you’re keen to get away from the bustle of the big resorts, bunker down at Papageno Resort, an eco-retreat on Malawai Bay.

7. Qalito Island, Mamanuca Islands

 Best for: Classic island beauty

This idyllic island is perhaps better-known as Castaway Island, after the single resort that occupies it. Part of the Mamanuca archipelago, Qalito is verdant with lush jungle and encircled by dazzling waters. The resort, which you can visit on a day trip with South Sea Cruises if you’re not a guest, sits between two of the most jaw-droppingly beautiful beaches you’ll ever have the chance to step barefoot onto. Only 20 non-guests are permitted to enjoy the island each day, so it’s never overrun.

8. Beqa Island, Coral Coast

Best for: Diving with sharks

Set off the Coral Coast, once you land in Nadi, you’ll take a two-and-a-half-hour drive to Pacific Harbour Marina. From here, a boat will transfer you to this untouched island of beauty that is impossible to exaggerate. By the time you disembark, you’ll be wholly disconnected from daily life and ready to reset to island time. While here the beach beckons, but there is also the astonishing Beqa Lagoon, both of which offer some of Fiji’s best dive sites. In the lagoon, shark enthusiasts can take a dedicated shark dive to glimpse around nine species, including whitetip and blacktip reef sharks, tiger sharks, nurse sharks and bull sharks.

9. Liku Beach, Mamanuca Islands

Best for: Sunsets and upscale escapes

This west-facing beach on Tokoriki Island in the Mamanuca archipelago is made for sundowners. When the day ebbs, position yourself with a drink in hand to farewell the tropial sun for the day. Behind you rises a lush wall of rainforest, setting up the cliché for postcard vistas. To experience this stunning spot, you’ll need to stay at the five-star, adults-only Tokoriki Island Resort.

10. Volivoli Beach, Suncoast

Best for: Diving

For those keen for beach action that goes deeper than the surface, head to Volivoli on the Suncoast of the main island’s north coast. This beach has sand as soft as icing sugar, a crystalline lagoon and about 90 dive sites scattered about. The Volivoli Beach Resort presides over this beach and is well-known for its scuba offerings, but if you’re not one to go below, there’s plenty of other action to be had here, from snorkelling to fishing and just flopping on that pure-white sand.