Nadi is where most Fiji trips start and where most budgets die on island transfers. Skip that: the mainland side has free beaches, a FJD $4 bus-stand lunch, thermal mud pools and unfenced war ruins with better views than any resort deck.
Nadi's municipal park sits behind the Main Street shops with rain trees, a war memorial and free benches facing the Nadi River. Locals play touch rugby here from late afternoon. Open dawn to dusk, no gate and no fee.
The Fijian bakery chain on Main Street sells long loaves for around FJD $1.50 and curry-filled buns, samosas and cream buns for under FJD $2 each. Open from 06:00 daily. Two buns and a tea comes in under FJD $5.
Nadi's free public beach, ten minutes from the airport, has grey volcanic sand, shallow flat water and the Mamanuca islands on the horizon. No entry fee and no lounger charge, unlike the Denarau strip a headland away.
The marina boardwalk is public and free to walk even though the resorts behind it are not. Watch the island ferries unload from 17:00, use the free wifi outside the shopfronts, and take sunset over Nadi Bay without paying a resort cover.
Nadi's second market, opposite the Namaka bus stop, is where residents actually shop — dalo, cassava, bele greens, chillies and long beans sold in FJD $1 heaps. Smaller and calmer than the town market, with nobody angling for tourists.
The stalls ringing the bus stand sell the cheapest hot food in Nadi: chop suey, fried rice or dhal-and-roti packs handed over in a takeaway box for FJD $4-6. Busiest from noon when drivers eat between runs.
The corrugated-roof handicraft hall behind the municipal market sells kava bundles, masi barkcloth and carved forks. Ask the price of a half-kilo waka bundle — around FJD $15 — and keep it as sevusevu for a village visit.
A no-frills Indo-Fijian canteen where a thali of dhal, rice, two curries and roti runs about FJD $9. Formica tables, ceiling fans and takeaway containers stacked by the till — no service charge and no tipping expected.
Village-run thermal pools in the Sabeto Valley, twenty minutes inland: pay at the gate, coat yourself in grey mud, bake dry in the sun, then rinse through three pools of rising heat. Cash only, no towels supplied.
Fiji's oldest settlement, where the first Melanesian canoes are said to have landed, sits on the Queens Road between Nadi and Lautoka. Walk the single lane past the Methodist church and the chiefly bure at a slow pace.
Two WWII six-inch naval guns still point at Nadi Bay from a ridge above the Queens Road, installed in 1941 to cover the sea approach. Unfenced, unstaffed and free to climb — the path starts beside the roadside bus shelter.
The yacht basin at Vuda is a dredged circular pool packed with visiting cruisers, and the bar on its rim pours FJD $7 beers to anyone who walks in. Sunset drops straight into the water with the Sabeto range behind you.