Our Guides
Community-Based Tourism
While Rivers Fiji guides come from a variety of backgrounds, most come from the villages and remote outposts along the rivers we float. Most are typically chosen for this job not by the company but through a cooperative, consisting of village elders, traditional landowners, and Rivers Fiji. In going through this thorough process we collectively assure that not only are the most suitable individuals selected but also that the cultural/sociological decision-making processes are maintained and supported.
In addition to our guides’ on-river responsibilities, they also assist the company in conducting tourism impact studies on their villages. The information obtained from these studies combined with the suggestions offered by both the guides and the elders ultimately directs Rivers Fiji in the management of the company and its river trips regarding customs, land use, and culture.
All of our guides are eager to share the knowledge of their culture, river, and landscape in ways only a true Fijian could. Most of the Rivers Fiji guides, having grown up along the rivers we run, possess an enormous amount of knowledge of the areas you will explore on our trips. With a little prompting, you'll be surprised with a depth of knowledge obtained not from books or formal education but from a lifetime of interacting with and living in the environment they call home and we call wild.
In addition to the above, all Rivers Fiji guides have completed our extensive guide training program which includes but is not limited to whitewater navigation, trip leading, first-aid, CPR, minimum impact philosophy, and swift water rescue to name a few.
All in all, we are very proud of our guides and their abilities to lead you safely and enjoyably through some of Fiji's most beautiful, unknown, and exciting countryside.