Nadi Spice Market in Viti Levu (also known as the Central Market) is a simple covered market where locals come to sell their produce and hang out with their friends and family. This is a great place to get a taste of local culture if you travel to Fiji.
You’ll see tables laden (often sparsely) with just one thing—like pineapples, or coconuts, or eggplants—and many folks display their items on newspaper atop the dirt floor.
A whole section is devoted to kava roots, which are used to make the social drink that is omnipresent here. Some of the roots are packaged nicely to be presented as gifts.
Spices grown in Fiji include cinnamon, ginger, and pepper—you’ll find a vibrantly colored selection that also includes many Indian spices. Handicrafts are found at another market.
Award-winning travel writer Carole Terwilliger Meyers is the author of 18 books, including MILES OF SMILES: 101 GREAT CAR GAMES & ACTIVITIES and 9 editions of WEEKEND ADVENTURES IN SAN FRANCISCO & NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. She is as well a blogger (www.travelswithcarole.blogspot.com), a website developer (www.berkeleyandbeyond.com and www.webcamtraveler.com), and an active freelance writer.
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Do you travel to Fiji and have a great local market to recommend?
I am accepting guest post submissions for my “Markets of the World” feature. I am looking for 3-5 photos of your favorite local market along with a short descriptive narrative detailing the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of said market. Please include a short bio with links to your social media profiles.
Please e-mail submissions to Shanna@thereandbackagaintravel.com
When I travel I always make time to visit the local markets. Love this post. Thank you for presenting to us this lovely market.
This market looks incredible! I really enjoyed this post. Thanks for sharing!
I love markets especially when they are food and local ones, they are the best. It seems like this would be the kind of market I wouldn’t miss.
I love going to local markets! I just visited a great one in Berlin where young Berliners sell their jewelry and design works.
Thanks! That is part of the reason that I started these profiles of different markets, so that I can get my market ‘fix’ when I am unable to travel very far from home.