Filming locations in Fiji

Visiting Fiji: a set-jetting guide. A South Pacific nation of turquoise lagoons and palm-fringed islets, Fiji holds one of cinema's most famous islands of solitude. Cast Away stranded its hero on a tiny uninhabited speck of land here, and that real castaway isle still sits offshore, reached only the way the film imagined, by boat across open water.

The island in question is Monuriki, the uninhabited dot in the Mamanuca group where Chuck washes ashore and survives alone. There is nothing built on it, which is precisely the point: this is the empty, sun-bleached shore of the film, untouched and exposed. The only way there is by boat, on day trips and snorkelling tours that run from Nadi or the nearby Mamanuca resorts, and landings depend entirely on the weather.

Because Monuriki has no facilities of any kind, a visit takes a little planning. You bring everything you need for the day, water and shade and sun protection above all, and you treat the place as the wild, uninhabited island it is. That self-reliance is part of the experience, and it brings you closer to the film's premise than almost any other set-jetting trip could.

The wider Mamanuca group makes the practical base for all this. The islands are a short boat hop from the main island of Viti Levu, so most visitors set up at a Mamanuca resort and take the Monuriki trip from there, folding it into days of snorkelling and lagoon time. The castaway island becomes one highlight in a string of turquoise water.

Let the weather lead and keep your plans loose. Because boat landings on Monuriki are weather-dependent, the smart move is to allow a few days in the Mamanucas and take the trip when conditions are right. Pair it with snorkelling over the reefs, and you get both the Robinson Crusoe fantasy and the postcard Fiji in a single stretch of sea.