Fiji and Hawaii are two hugely popular vacation destinations that a lot of people assume are pretty close together.
After all, they both have a very closely connected history and thus share similarities in their culture.
Both also have very similar climates and nature, so they can’t be that far away from each other? Right?
Well, the answer is actually very surprising.
Here we are going to be looking at the distance between Fiji and Hawaii to see how long it would take for you to travel between the two islands.
So, let’s dive in!
How Far Apart Are Fiji And Hawaii?
Despite these two islands having a lot of similarities when it comes to climate and culture, they are actually very, very far apart.
Fiji is to the southwest of Hawaii, approximately -147 degrees from the North. There is a total distance of 3,159 miles between the two islands.
That means that if you were to travel in a straight line from Hawaii to Fiji, you will have to travel 3,159 miles or 5,083 kilometers or 2,745 nautical miles.
That is a huge amount of distance between two islands that are yet so similar.
Both islands can be found in the Pacific Ocean but in very different areas.
While Hawaii is closer to the coast of central America, Fiji is closer to the eastern coast of Australia – but both islands are still hundreds of miles away from their nearest mainland continent.
Hawaii is positioned above the equator while Fiji is under it.
This all means that the two islands are very far apart from one another as the Pacific Ocean is huge and each set of islands are on opposite ends.
This fact can be shocking to a lot of travelers. Many try to tour the Polynesian islands all together at once because they assume they must be close together due to their shared history and culture.
However, this is not the case. If you want to travel from Hawaii to Fiji (or vice versa) then you need to be prepared for a very long trip.
How Long Does It Take To Travel From Hawaii To Fiji By Plane?
Due to the huge stretch of distance between Hawaii and Fiji, flights between the two sets of islands can take hours.
The total average length of a flight from Hawaii to Fiji is 6 hours and 11 minutes – that’s roughly an hour less than it takes to fly from New York to London.
Not only that, but this is the average flight time for a direct flight from Hawaii to Fiji.
Most of the time, flights between Hawaii and Fiji require a stopover in another airport such as Los Angeles International or San Francisco International.
This means that you will most likely spend over 24 hours trying to get from Hawaii to Fiji by plane.
So, if you were planning on a fun vacation hopping from one island to the next in a matter of a few hours of travel, you’re out of luck.
Traveling between Hawaii and Fiji is not always as simple as catching a short flight – you could end up paying hundreds of dollars to jump from one airport to another before you finally land in your island destination.
If you are lucky, then perhaps there will be a rare scheduled flight between the two sets of islands but these are not particularly common.
If you try to book a flight from Hawaii to Fiji, then it’s most likely that you will end up stopping over in another country first!
How Long Does It Take To Travel From Hawaii To Fiji By Boat?
The long estimated length of journey is even longer if you were planning on sailing between the islands too.
Many advanced sailors want to take their boats and visit lots of different tropical islands for their vacation but many underestimate just how far apart these Polynesian islands are.
If your average boat speed is 8 knots, then it will take you roughly 19 days to sail from Fiji to Hawaii (and vice versa) – that’s over two weeks of constant sailing!
If your average boat speed is 15 knots, then the journey will still take you over 10 days of sailing so you will still be spending a week out in the open ocean sailing from one island to the other.
This amazes a lot of people because they assume that people sailed from Fiji to Hawaii hundreds of years ago in very small boats and canoes but the history is far more complex than that.
Native Hawaiian people and people of Fiji are all descended from Austronesians who, over hundreds of years, migrated from island to island in the Pacific Ocean.
At around 1200 BC, the Melansia people landed in Fiji and then moved on to populate the islands of Samoa and Tonga around 800 and 900 BC.
From there, the Polynesian people then traveled to the Cook Islands to Tahiti, to Marquesas and then finally, around 900 AD, Polynesian people settled in Hawaii.
This kind of migration was not a simple sailing vacation – these journeys included massive planning and took years to hundreds of years.
So, the migrators who descended from the Austronesians did not just travel from Fiji to Hawaii in one simple trip.
They settled and prepared for a few hundred years before traveling to another island, staying here, then traveling again and again until they eventually found Hawaii.
Although now, it is possible to do a round trip, it does involve a lot of sailing experience and preparation in order for the trip to be a safe success.
Conclusion
So, despite what you might initially assume, Fiji and Hawaii are actually very, very far apart.
A direct flight between the islands would take at least 6 hours but due to stopovers and delays, you could end up traveling for as little as 19 hours.
And if you want to sail? You better stock up on fresh water and food because you could be sailing for over two weeks!
So, due to the thousands of miles between Fiji and Hawaii, traveling between the two places is no easy trip!
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