Lautoka is the second largest city in Fiji. It is in the west of the island of Viti Levu, north of Nadi, and is capital of the Western Division of Fiji. Lautoka has a population of about 60,000. Lautoka is known as the Sugar City because of its cane belt areas. History says that in Lautoka town there lived two tribes each with a chief. As a result of an disagreement one day, a battle broke out between the two chiefs at a spot which is now known as Farquhar�s poiny. As one chief speared the other he screamed LAU-TOKA meaning spear-hit. And thus the name Lautoka came about. The first sighting of Lautoka by a European was in 1789 when Cap. Bligh of HMS made rough charts of the shores of Lautoka and the mountains in its background while sailing past the west coast of Fiji.
Take a site seeing trip and ride the Coral Coast Railways. It offers and evening sugar train ride with cocktails and Fijian serenades. You can meet Fijian warriors who will guide you to Nayawa Village for a yaqona welcoming ceremony, village tour, and demonstrations in herbal medicine.
Also for the avid site seer take a Cultural River Cruise. Enjoy a daytime pleasure trip cruising from Sigatoka jetty upriver drop in on a long-established Fijian village, pottery making demonstration, then downriver to Sigatoka Sand Dunes to a ancient village of original Fijian ancestors, shopping for Fijian crafts.
And last but not least picnic or walk through the Garden of the Sleeping Giant.� It has a private orchid collection of late American actor, Raymond Burr. Cover every acre of splendid flora at the foot of Sabeto Mountains with a tour guide or by yourself. Then travel for the legendary Viseisei Village, where earliest Fijians are said to have landed 3,500 years ago.
5-11 Naviti Street
Lautoka, Fiji Islands