'I thought I was too good for this kind of holiday. But I was forced to eat my words.'

I'm a cool mum! I'm a cultured mum! I was going to take my son to Korea because he's obsessed with K-pop and, until recently, believed that "K-pop" was a single artist who sang an unusual number of songs. I simply had to put that right, because I am an educational and worldly mum!

But, you guys. I'm also a really tired mum.

Watch for our lifestyle editor's must-pack travel essentials. Post continues below.

My youngest child is two years old. 'Rest' and 'the first two years of a child's life' are, unfortunately, concepts that don't really mesh. I have only just recently started sleeping through the night, for the first time in four years (the age of my eldest child) — a fact that, if you had travelled from the future to inform me of it before I conceived a baby, would have probably put me off the idea entirely.

In short, while I love the idea of jetsetting around a foreign country, I kind of want to… lie down instead.

For years — literally, years — my long-suffering husband has been trying to convince me to go to Fiji with him. He has amazing memories of snorkelling there as a teenager, and he knows it's a great place to take kids.

I resisted, and resisted, until finally, I grew too tired to resist.

"Book it," I told him earlier this year. "I don't care where we stay, as long as the water is blue."

We landed on Malolo Island Resort, a Fijian-family run and owned resort on Malolo Island. I started following them on Instagram, and the resort looked… nice. Okay, it looked unbelievable, but I still wasn't totally ready to commit to Fiji as a concept. Even on the flight on the way over, I was talking about the trip as a one-off — something we'd tick off, then never repeat.

And then we arrived.

Guys, you're not going to believe this. Fiji is beautiful, accessible, and a dream destination for kids. Why didn't anybody tell me! (Every single person I know told me).

From the moment we stepped foot off the last boat — the transport to the resort is a van transfer from the airport, a large ferry for about 45 minutes, and then a speedboat for a couple of minutes — and watched my kids' faces light up in wonder, I started feeling the smug glow of planning a magical holiday. Which was, actually, fairly presumptuous of me, because I barely planned the holiday and in fact had been actively resisting it for years. But moving right along!

Image: Supplied.

I know this is a sweeping generalisation, but the Fijian culture is uniquely great with kids. Everywhere my boys went, they received "bula"s and high-fives. By our second day, most of the staff had learned their names. Although they are, at two and three, a little young for kids club, they participated in activities like iguana hunting, coconut cracking and hermit crab racing with rabid glee. I don't think my oldest child actually left the water for our entire five-night stay.

As a bonus? They were so completely exhausted every night they fell asleep in our bure without any of the usual holiday teething issues.

The food was phenomenal. When I say that, I'm using both an adult-and child-based assessment, which boils down to: I ate fresh reef fish sashimi every day, my children had chicken nuggets and chips every day, and we all had multiple desserts from the dinner buffet every day. Now that's culinary range! For a comparatively small resort, I thought the food options were great: for dinner every night, there was a buffet, a beachfront restaurant where you could order off the menu, and an adults-only fine dining restaurant. We didn't get a chance to dine at the adults-only restaurant due to, erm, having children, but feedback from other guests was very good.

And me? This is the closest I've come to a relaxing holiday with my kids in tow since my oldest was born in February 2022. With so much for them to do, so much supervision on offer and so many other kids around, I experienced long periods of activities that I had almost forgotten existed: lying on a beach chair and reading a book. Taking a solo swim. Drinking a happy hour cocktail (okay, multiple happy hour cocktails — it was two for one, after all).

Image: Supplied.

A trip highlight for me was an island-hopping tour involving a snorkelling trip around the neighbouring islands with the bluest water I've ever seen in person — views that felt too incredible to be real. Watching my older son learn to snorkel in arguably the most beautiful place on Earth was the cherry on top.

Most of the families we spoke to were staying for longer than five nights, and as we prepared to leave (literally dragging my three-year-old kicking and screaming down the jetty), I realised their wisdom. It really did feel like a place you could put roots down and stay for a while; to fully adapt to Fiji time and not be in a hurry to go, well, anywhere

Image: Supplied.

With apologies for publicly humiliating my past self, and expecting many thanks in advance from my future self, I can confidently say: we'll be back.

For more family content, listen to Mamamia's Parenting Out Loud. Post continues below.

Feature image: Supplied.