We stayed at Stoney Creek for 5 days with our three children (aged 5-10). It was a perfect base for day trips around the Nadi area in Fiji and the perfect place to stay as a family.
The hosts Michele and Gary made our family feel totally at home and welcome. The kids loved the freedom to wander around, play with the family dogs, swim in the pool and just do old fashioned things kids love to do! This is more like a guest house than a resort but if you are looking for a more authentic experience in Fiji this is it! The location is divine!!

This resort had mostly positive reviews and very few negative ones. Its location was nice, just outside Nadi, 12 km from the airport, up a dirt road, into the highlands, with beautiful scenery all around the resort, from the driveway, pool, restaurant, and our Bure. We booked online and corresponded by emails with Michelle, one of the owners/manager, and another staff member. Our room was 165 FJD for continental b-fast, private Bure with jacuzzi tub, and a shuttle to the airport. As thanks for staying 3 nights, our taxi from the airport was paid. Michelle was somewhat moody, in that she could be talkative and friendly one minute, and then short and terse the next. The other staff were all friendly and most spoke enough English to hold short conversations.

We checked-in at the bar/front desk in a very dark lobby. On one side was a room with lots of brochures for activities and hotels all over Fiji, along with bikes for use, and on the other side, was the breakfast area, also very dark. Check-in was smooth, altho there wasn't a lot of information for the resort itself or the area around it. Since we were there over Christmas and the weekend, lots of things were closed, and we weren't able to see the Garden of the Sleeping Giant or the Sabeto Hot Springs, both of which were nearby. We did learn that meal times had a 2 hour window, with the bar open for drinks all day.

The continental breakfast included hot/cold cereal, white or wheat toast, butter & jam, fruit juice, fresh fruit, coffee/tea and eggs to order. Lunch and dinner menus changed daily and mains were about 9-15 FJD for lunch and about 11-25 FJD for dinner. The lighter lunch offerings were very sparse; a veggie sandwich consisted of 2 pieces of lettuce, 2 slices of tomato, and the bread, while the veggie salad that same day was the same except had carrot slivers and no bread. Mostly, the portions were larger and sufficed for a meal. Someone used to Denny-sized portions might have had to order two mains. A smoothie I ordered came in an 8 ounce glass for 9.50 FJD, on the steep side for that size, considering other smoothies ordered previously at other places. The cooks did a good job preparing the meals. On Christmas, we had a wonderful Lovo feast, which was was absolutely delicious! Lots of local favorite dishes, with fish, pork, roast beef as the mains, and lots of everything. The owners, Michelle and Gary, ate with us, and we had a very homey meal. A very nice Christmas. The feast started around 2pm and went all day long, so for 25 FJD it was a fantastic deal as it covered lunch and dinner.

Our Bure was down a steep, rather slippery (esp with the rain), path to a grassy area. The front door had a Christmas decoration on it welcoming us. The front room had been a patio now enclosed, and there was a jacuzzi with a shelf for towels and candles above, a fridge and counter area with coffee/tea supplies and an electric pot, plus a small fan, a love seat with worn-out cushions, a twin bed with two soft foam mattresses on top of each other, a mosquito net above it, and a small round table next to it. The former patio was roofed over by a plastic, grooved material that had some cracks and holes in it from time, weather, and man. These cracks and small holes were where the rain and leaves came in, and as it rained everyday in the afternoon, we had some puddles in our living area and leaf debris in our jacuzzi. However, the staff came to clean the puddles up and gave us a basin and extra towels to catch the worst of it. We just kept our belongings away from the water. The walls had louvered windows on two sides which allowed quite a bit of light in, and in the evenings, there was enuff lighting by which to read.

Reviews had noted the darkness of the Bures, but the addition of the light and airy enclosed patio made the Bure a comfortable space to read and relax in during rain storms. The sleeping area, the original Bure space, was still very dark. There were two medium size windows blocked by greenery, there were two good reading lights over the queen sized bed and a light that pointed up to the ceiling. The bed had a fairly firm mattress on wooden slats, upon which we slept well, altho with ear plugs for the crowing local roosters. There were individual lights in the toilet and shower stalls. The shower area also had a very tiny counter and small sink with a faucet so low that washing hands was very difficult without hitting the bottom of the sink. There were no towel racks; we used the “closet” hanging rack, simply a bar right behind the door. Hooks on the door and a towel rack between the stalls would have helped. The shower was a nice sized walk-in, but the water heater work. If the hot was turned on, the water heated up and came out scalding, and turning on the cold simply turned off the heater, so that after about 30 seconds, there was only cold water. This wasn't a big problem when showering later in the day, but washing hair was uncomfortable. The Bure wasn't mosquito proof with holes in the screens and a space between roof and walls. So, the mosquito nets were important. However, until evenings, there weren't many insects disturbing us while enjoying the living area.

From our Bure to the restaurant and pool furniture, it was obvious that maintenance was not kept up. Window screens had holes, the plastic roofs had cracks and holes, the pool furniture was broken or breaking, the tables and chairs in the eating areas were in need of reupholstering and wood finishing, and the airport shuttle was out of commission. There was a miniature golf course being slowly built, the patio of our Bure had been enclosed, and a jacuzzi added within the past 2 years, but needed repairs were not being done. The resort seemed to be run on the premise that new things were exciting, but keeping everything in good condition was not. The pool was in good condition, but there were numerous lounge chairs and seats that couldn't be used b/c their mesh seats were torn, or the plastic frames broken. It would seem that fixing the shuttle to use as a tour bus would bring in additional revenue, and considering the state of the pool furniture, there will be no place to sit or lounge in one year. In addition, the price they charged us was significantly higher than on their own brochure and in the 2009 Lonely Planet Fiji Guide. Originally, the Bure we stayed in was 70 FJD but that was b4 the enclosure and jacuzzi were added, and since the bus was broken, we had to pay for a taxi to the airport, despite having an email confirming our free shuttle.

Overall, we liked the time we spent here, mostly due to the scenery and quiet that it provided. The resort may not last long if repairs continue to be ignored for more exciting things like mini-golf, which would be sad, as this place really has a lot of potential! However, for right now, we can conditionally recommend this place for the next coming year. There is Nadi nearby, plus the Highlands and its attractions, and we found the dirt roads to be quiet enough to enjoy some walking on with the Highlands looking down on us.

The Stoney Creek is a beautiful place situated at the mountains with a bunch of lovely dogs and a few cats keeping you company. The reasons I have ranked it a poor place to stay is based on my experience there, which I will explain in the follwing.

First, summing up the scores in categories:

Location: If you want to get away from everything and relax, this is the place for you. It was a bit too far out of the way for my liking, and nothing is really close by. You would need to get there by taxi which is about FJ7$ from the airport if you can convince the driver - they would be happy to charge you more due to the poor road conditions there. Note that it is 15 FJ$ to get back. The mud pools and orchid gardes are about an hours walk away, so avoid the mid day heat! You are also far away from the beaches.

Rooms: The rooms themselves were beautiful and featured everything you'd want (including a spa -however in 30C+ a hot spa might not be what you are into :) ) Toilet is behind a curtain in th main room, but really for Fiji island standards the rooms are top rank! Plenty of soap etc.

Cleaniness: The room was very neat and seemed resonably well cleaned - however we had a huge problem with big fat cockroaches in the room (read below) which drags the score down!

Sleep quality: was seriously affected by the thought of cockroaches crawling around everywhere. There is a nice fan on the main bed, so the heat was not a problem. Mosquito nets and plenty of mosquito coils ensured that we had no problems with bites during the night. A friendly staff member also handed us some bug spray later (became handy for 'roach hunting).

Service: I have only good things to say of all the staff that we interacted with - EXCEPT the manager herself, who was arrogant, agressive and rude. If you have no problems during your stay (and thus no need to interact with her), I think you will have great service there. However, due to her way of dealing with us in general and especially when we made her aware of the cockroach infestation I have to rank service at an absolute low. After a long travel through the islands and having enjoyed the friendliness and hospitality of the people of Fiji this was quite shocking. Remember, this is just my experience and to others she has appearantly been lovely. Just pray you she is in a good mood or that you have no problems.

Value: If we had not had the cockroach infestation and problems with an arrogant/aggresive manager this would have been good value. It seems like you get a very nice room for the price, the food is good and the main staff is very friendly and helpful.

On the cockroach issue: We had the "pleasure" of sharing our room with plenty of palm sized cockroaches, of which I had kill and flush at least a dozen before we felt "comfortable" going to bed and another handful the next morning. Having traveled a lot, much more primitively and in much wilder areas of the world, a few bugs is common at these latitudes - however at a place like this and with the room being so nice this seemed very out of place. We tucked the mosquito net in tightly and braved the night. During checkout the next morning we notified the manager of the problem. Expecting an apology and maybe an explanation we were instead verbally assaluted and accused of having brought these bugs with us from our previous travels, which appearantly was more common than rare. Having personally re-packed and sealed our bags and dragged them straight on the boat before coming to Stoney Creek, I know this could not have been the case. Also the sheer number and size of the cockroaches could not even have fit into them. We kept up what I believe to be polite appearances but had to leave the place in silent anger. In fact I would not even have considered writing this into the review if she had handled it nicely, however I think it is fair to warn future travelers who will be going there, that it is not common to have that amount of cockroaches roaming in your room and hope that they will confront the manager early if they experience it - and not let themself be bullied like we did.

In conclusions, this place could have been a great stay but ended up being a bad experience; mostly due to the manager and her way of handling the cockroach situation. I don't think that the cockroaches is that common a problem (based on other reviews and other guests during our stay reported that they had only seen a few in their rooms) and I believe you CAN have a great stay here. Based on my experiences, I would not have stayed for another night.

Arrived to find Michelle had prepared food for our 4 boys aged 10mths to 5 years FOC, very welcome after a 5 hr ferry trip from the Yassewa Islands.
Rooms and outdoor areas very clean. Plenty of bugs/mosquitoes outside but no problem in the rooms. A little isolated, but local bus passes front gate only $1.70 into Nadi, a great way to take in local life. Only negative was being greeted by a pack of dogs, who we soon befriended and enjoyed the company of. Michelle has a penchant for rescuing injured/mistreated animals.