Plantation Island Resort — Hotel in Malolo Lailai Island

Plantation has a 5 star location on beautiful Malolo Lai Lai. It's easily accessible via the Malolo Cat service and has great activities for families with small children and a beautiful accessible beach and ocean. Unfortunately, I felt the rooms we stayed in and the amount we paid for food and accessory entertainment was too high and did not match my expectations for value. We stayed at Plantation at the same time as our friends (both young families) and both paid for Ocean front bures. Instead of separate standalone bures it was more like a shared Ocean front duplex i.e. shared wall (thin) between two separate rooms.

Our rooms were clearly dated with a bathroom renovation done in the not too distant past. Some "interesting" wiring and mismatched appliances installed, old noisy ceiling fans that clacked away at night and not-so-sweet-smelling plumbing (granted as it’s on an island). It was also not absolute beach front like some other resorts I have stayed at but very very close to the beach.

Bottled water is provided initially upon check-in, with water bottle refill stations that you can use to refill your supplied water bottles. After a few days they must have re-chlorinated the water supply because it was far too strong to drink & smelled strongly of chlorine so we resorted to purchasing fresh bottles from the shop. Other resorts will resupply you with one of two fresh bottles when you run out or have your room serviced.

Activities: Plenty for kids: beach, playgrounds, jumping castles, trampolines (although some ageing more gracefully than others), inflatable water park, pools, kids club, paddle boards etc. You can see why people with families come back all the time. I wanted to go on a sport fishing trip with my friend and the only option was to hire an entire boat via the charter company for FJD $1100 for 4 hours. Other fishing charters, which I believe are not allowed operate from the island generally share the cost amongst other interested tourists driving the price down per person. If this was an option, it was not advertised. Shared sun-lounges in front of the bures were 'first in best dressed' and there did not seem to be enough to go around some days with some patrons reserving their own personal sun lounges.

On Staff: Some staff were friendly and seemed to enjoy their jobs, but other staff were disconnected, bored and looked like someone had just died which is sad and unusual for Fijian people I have met on my multiple visits to Fiji over the years.

On Food: It was disappointing to not be able to get certain things on certain days at both buffets. Not to act like a spoilt tourist but it would have been nice for example to have little tubs of honey at breakfast (there was butter, jam, marmalade, vegemite, but no honey? a standard condiment) or more variety in the fresh fruit. Bananas seemed to be hard to come by on some days. Kids ice cream also seemed to be a fight, with a strict choice of one alternating flavour per night depending on the luck of the draw and where you were in the line-up and if it had run out. The buffets were always busy, almost chaotic at times with kids and adults trying to dodge each other amongst the bain maries. The cost of drinks is quite exorbitant compared to mainland prices but I expected that being a) on an island and b) in a resort but be prepared and set a budget if you need to. Reception will kindly provide your tally if you ring up for it.

The Black Coral restaurant experience with ala carte menu was much better overall but requires booking and was booked out most nights of our stay.

As a comparison, prior to us having children, a few years ago stayed at the sister resort, Lomani which I felt was much better value and had higher levels of service for the price.

I think PIR needs to dearly put some of the profits back into renovation of existing resort rooms and staff well-being before I'd consider coming back. I look forward to reading the reviews on the new construction when it...

We had a wonderful week at Plantation Island Resort. Overall the resort is nice and the location is beautiful. The beaches are stunning and the water lovely and clear. It is tidal so you have to plan your day around this a bit but there are 4 swimming pools to choose from as well. The Tavola pool is the nicest in my opinion but does seem to be newer than the others. I note that there is a new lagoon pool coming in 2026 :D ||They also look to be planning a new building to house Copra the main restaurant. The current area that houses Copra and the bar is a bit tired so this will be a welcome improvement and lift the overall vibe of the resort. ||We stayed in a Garden room, it had 2 sleeping areas with a bathroom in between which was ideal for our family of 4, giving a little bit of separation so the kids could go off to sleep and not be disturbed by lights on at the other end. Unfortunately we had a bit of construction in front of our room where they are building new rooms, it wasn't noisy at all - they look to be mostly finished - but it wasn't so attractive to look out over. Having said that, we spent very little time in our room so it didn't bother us. ||We really enjoyed snorkeling off the beach, both in the underwater museum they are creating and in the surrounding corals, as well as around the pier. There are loads of fish and we even spotted an octopus which was an exciting discovery! We used resort fins but had brought our own masks and snorkels and the kids had their own gear. The resort fins were fine but everything needs to be returned by 5ish so if you have your own and can fit it in, I would take it. This also ensures you get the right fit and don't miss out. ||The kids enjoyed the inflatable water park and we also used Kayaks a couple of times too. ||We mostly ate at Tavola and Copra. We found Tavola to be better value and felt the buffet is overpriced and not great value for money. The fact that we had 2 kids who 'ate free' meant it was ok as a total but at $75 a head for dinner and $55 for breakfast it's quite pricy for one person. The food was reasonably nice and the selection not too bad but could be better for the price charged. ||For Tavola you do need to book and I feel that this is an area that definitely needs improvement. I had emailed a week ahead to book our first night but had no reply, it was only on enquiry at the resort that I found out we did in fact have a booking that night. They also advised nothing was available until night 4 of our stay to book other nights which seems ridiculous. When eating there were empty tables too so I am not sure why this is, they looked to only use tables once per night and there were often empty tables where bookings had yet to show that could have been used. One night we just turned up without a booking at they were able to accommodate us despite being 'booked out'. ||The other area for improvement was the front of house service. We often found long waits with receiving menus, having orders taken and drinks/food arriving. A couple of times at Copra no one even came to take a drinks order from us until after our meals were eaten. There is a fine line between 'island time' and being inattentive/disorganised and I did feel that unfortunately it was mostly the latter. This was particularly evident at Tavola the first half of the week when the staff seemed disorganised and tbh, a little disinterested. There was a change of staff in the second half of the week and this improved. Overall the staff are friendly though and the service although not always great, wasn't too bad.||Despite the shortcomings described we really did have a very enjoyable holiday and I would stay here again. The resort is very well set up for families and despite the number of rooms, it doesn't feel packed or too noisy either. ||3.5...

Our family just spent 7 nights at Plantation Island Resort (late September 2024) and had the time of our lives. The resort is well laid out, family friendly, has great facilities, friendly and attentive staff, and delicious food. You feel relaxed from the moment you hop off the boat and will still be glowing from the experience well after you leave.

We had a Garden Bure and found it had plenty of room for our family of four. Shower pressure was good, air conditioning managed to cool it down nicely when we were in there, and topping up your bottles with drinking water from the water stations is ridiculously easy. I've seen some people be critical of the rooms for being dated, but it's honestly it's not an issue. Sure, it's not 5 star accommodation, but you're not paying for that either. The rooms are perfectly comfortable and have most of what you'll need during your stay.

Our two boys (6 and 7) ended up loving Coconut Kids Club despite them being a bit nervous about us dropping them off there to begin with. The activities are great and the staff are really attentive and make sure the kids are all having fun.

The one excursion we did was the dolphin safari and it didn't disappoint, with the local pod of dolphins putting on a great show. The reef snorkelling on the way back was also a hit too, with my wife saying it was better than snorkelling and scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef (near Hamilton Island). The free water activities (kayaking, paddle boarding etc) are awesome too as the large netted off area has ample room for everyone and it's just serene out on the water.

Copra's buffet breakfasts were wonderful, and we ended up being so full that we just had snacks we'd brought with us for lunch. The trick is to get there early so you get one of the tables out front overlooking the bay and beach. The dinner buffets are good too, but it'll ultimately depend on whether you like the particular theme for the night. The lamb on the Pacific night was to die for!

The food, atmosphere, and staff at Black Coral were amazing. It's also ideal as there's a playground next to it where your kids will go play while you relax with a glass of wine and you can still see them.

Tavola's breakfast is up there with cafes in New Zealand and Australia, with the barista made coffees hitting the spot. We only had dinner there the once (just because it was busy and was the only booking we could get) and it was the first night of their new menu. There was a small hiccup where they forgot my wife's order, then forgot the bacon that was meant to be in her burger, but that was quickly fixed, and the food was delicious. Think of it being comparable to good pub food from back home but with a far better view!

The Snack Shack (down by the boat shed) does simple snack food like fries/chips, pizzas etc and they hit the spot nicely when you're just wanting something light. Coco Lai Lai (down by Tavola) does great barista coffees and their iced chocolate/mochas were perfect when relaxing on the loungers by the pool.

I also can't say enough about how friendly, helpful, and welcoming all the staff were. We had some great chats with them and it brings the "Welcome home" motto of Fiji to life.

It's also fascinating exploring the island too. I'm an avid runner, so a few days I got out the door at 6am and headed out, including doing a loop past Musket Cove, over the hill, and back round the airport which was a nice 5km loop from our bure. My oldest boy came out a couple of times with me too and loved exploring the island this way too.

We'll looking forward to planning...