Modriki Island Or Monuriki: Which Name Your Day Cruise Uses

Monuriki is a small, uninhabited volcanic island in the Mamanuca group, about 1.15 km long and 600 m wide, with a highest point of 178 m and coral reef on all sides. It sits off the coast of Viti Levu, and it is where the 2000 film "Cast Away" was filmed. Search for a day cruise there, though, and a second spelling soon appears on third-party travel pages. Some sites call the same island Modriki, which can make a booking search feel like it is pointing at two different destinations.

It is not. The operators and the booking pages use one spelling, and the other belongs to older or unofficial usage. This guide sets out which name each kind of page uses, which day cruise actually lands on the island, and how the nearby names Monu Island and Monu Cove fit into the itinerary, so a reader seeing two island names can check they are booking the same trip. Along the way it compares the five Mamanuca day cruises available from Port Denarau, because the name question matters most when money is about to change hands.

Is Modriki Island The Same Place As Monuriki?

Yes, they are two spellings of the same island, and the operator pages and booking listings use Monuriki. Cruisin' Fiji names Monuriki Island as the third stop of its day cruise, and the live booking pages for the Mamanuca day cruises reviewed here all use that spelling. Modriki is an older alternate spelling used by some third-party sites, not the spelling a booking confirmation will carry.

That is the whole of the name-spelling note: one island, one spelling on the pages that sell the trips, one older variant floating around on travel blogs and aggregator pages. The Wikipedia entry for Monuriki records the island as uninhabited, the southernmost of a small group of three islets, and the place where "Cast Away" was filmed. Nothing on that page uses the older variant. The Cruisin' Fiji day cruise page, which is the operator's own itinerary, names Monuriki Island directly as its third stop and calls it the "Cast Away" and "US Survivor" film location.

Why does the older spelling persist? Third-party pages copy from each other, and a spelling that was in circulation years ago keeps resurfacing in search results long after operators standardised. For a traveller the practical risk is small but real: a search under the older variant can surface pages about trips that are not the ones being sold, or prices and details that no live listing carries. The fix is simple. Whatever spelling brought you here, read the itinerary on the live booking page before paying, and look for the words Monuriki Island in the stops. On this site's Monuriki Island Cruises comparison set, exactly one product carries that wording.

The island itself is worth a sentence or two more, because its protected status is part of why access runs through operators. The people of Yanuya village are the custodians of Monuriki, and landing needs the permission of the Yanuya village landowners, which operators arrange. The FIJI Shores and Marinas cruising guide for Monuriki describes the island as a reserve established by the landowners for its wildlife and surrounding marine environment, home to a genetically unique population of the Fijian crested iguana and to wedge-tailed shearwaters that return to breed between October and April. Turtles nest on its beaches. Visitors are asked to restrict their movements to the beach they land on.

Which Day Cruise Actually Lands On The Island?

Only one product in this comparison states a Monuriki stop and landing: the Cruisin' Fiji Monuriki, Mana Sand Bar and Snorkelling Day Cruise, from $136.31 per person, rated 4.9 across 2,736 reviews, with an 8-hour duration. The other four are Mamanuca day cruises whose listings do not mention Monuriki at all.

The Cruisin' Fiji day cruise departs Port Denarau at 9:00 am, with check-in from 8:00 at Booth 6, and runs three stops: Mana Sand Island first, a snorkelling stop at Monu Cove, then Monuriki Island for a traditional lovo lunch on the island, an island tour, swimming and snorkelling, with 2.5 to 3 hours ashore before the boat leaves at about 3:30 to 4 pm and returns about an hour later. Snorkel gear, lunch, bottled water, juice, soft drinks and beer and wine with lunch are included, and the group maximum is 63. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

That itinerary is the reason the name question matters so much in practice. A reader who searched under the older spelling, found a blog describing an island day trip, and then booked a Mamanuca sailing day could end up on a boat that never goes near the film island, purely because both trips sell from the same marina and share the words "Fiji" and "island" in their titles. The booking pages are the deciding evidence, and only one of them names the island.

The other four products each do something different and legitimate, just not this. The South Sea Cruises sailing day with lunch and drinks is a 7-hour sailing experience from Port Denarau, from $128 per person plus a mandatory $5 fuel surcharge per adult and per child aged 5 to 15, rated 4.8 across 217 reviews, with a minimum age of 5. The South Sea Cruises Full Day Castaway Island with Lunch is a 9-hour resort-island day, from $176.42, rated 4.3 across 119 reviews. The Captain Cook Cruises Fiji All Inclusive Island and Reef Day Sail and the Malamala Beach Club full day have no price shown on their booking pages, so the live listings carry the current figures. None of those four mentions Monuriki.

If your goal is the film island specifically, the deeper comparison of options is in the site's guide to where the film was filmed and how to cruise it, and the wider field of boats is laid out in how the Mamanuca day cruises compare. The short version of both: match the itinerary to the island, not the title.

What Do The Cruise Listings Say About The Island's Name?

Every live listing in this comparison uses the spelling Monuriki, and only the Cruisin' Fiji day cruise lists Monuriki Island as a stop. The comparison table below shows what each booking page states about an island landing, the price where one is shown, and the rating and review count beside it.

Here is the full field, with the Monuriki column reading exactly as each booking page allows:

Two entries in that table deserve a plain-language flag. First, prices are USD from-prices exactly as shown, per person, and only three of the five tours carry one; the Captain Cook day sail and the Malamala beach club day show their current price on the live booking page. Second, the South Sea sailing listing adds a mandatory $5 per adult and $5 per child (5 to 15 years) fuel surcharge until further notice, and the Cruisin' Fiji listing states a Denarau Marina passenger departure levy payable at check-in.

The Castaway Island entry carries a second trap worth naming here, because it collides head-on with the name confusion. Castaway Island, also called Qalito, is a resort island in the Mamanucas and a different place from Monuriki entirely. The South Sea Cruises Full Day Castaway Island with Lunch goes to that resort island, with 5 hours ashore, return coach transfers from most Nadi and Denarau hotels, and an optional kids club for ages 3 to 12 at extra cost. It does not go to the island where the film was shot, and its listing does not claim to. A traveller fuzzy on the two names could easily read "Castaway" and picture the film. The site's dedicated piece on the film-island cruise versus the Castaway Island resort day unpacks that choice in full.

The booking mechanics around the Monuriki day cruise are straightforward. Free cancellation with a full refund applies up to 24 hours before the start, per the booking-page wording on all five tours in the table. The operator's own site separately says 48 hours for direct bookings, so it is worth keeping both in mind depending on where the ticket comes from. The cruise needs good weather; if it is cancelled for poor weather, a different date or a full refund is offered. Hotel pickup is included from Denarau Island resorts, with a transport fee for hotels outside Denarau.

How Do Monu Island And Monu Cove Fit Into The Itinerary?

Monu Island and Monu Cove are different places from Monuriki, and the Cruisin' Fiji itinerary names all three. Monu Cove beside Monu Island is the second stop for a deep-cove snorkel, roughly 45 minutes to an hour, and Monuriki Island is the third stop, where the boat lands for lunch and 2.5 to 3 hours ashore.

The sequence on the operator's own page runs like this: depart Port Denarau at about 9:00 am, first stop Mana Sand Island at about 10:00 am for 45 minutes to an hour of swimming and snorkelling, second stop Monu Cove for a deep-sea-cove snorkel with morning tea on board, then Monuriki for the lovo lunch, island tour, swimming, snorkelling and relaxing, leaving at about 3:30 to 4 pm for the roughly one-hour run back. No official crossing time from Port Denarau to any of these islands exists as a standalone figure, so the honest way to plan is around the published schedule of stops, which is what the table below does.

This three-name structure is a second reason the name question comes up so often. A day that includes Mana, Monu and Monuriki gives a reader three similar-looking island names in one paragraph, and the older Modriki variant makes it four. They are not interchangeable. Monuriki is the film island and the only one of the three where this itinerary lands for a long stay. Monu Island is a neighbour, and Monu Cove is the snorkelling water beside it. Mana Sand Island is a sand spit further north, first stop of the day.

The other Mamanuca cruises have their own geography, none of it overlapping with the film island. The Captain Cook day sail is an island and reef day from Port Denarau Marina with a 10:00 am departure, a 100-passenger maximum and an all-inclusive format, and its booking page does not mention Monuriki. The Malamala beach club day runs 8 hours from the Port Denarau Passenger Terminal with snorkel gear included. The site's overview of how to get to Monuriki Island covers the access routes in more depth, including why independent landings are not the simple option they might appear.

For snorkellers weighing the options, the site's comparison of Mamanuca snorkelling cruises sets out what each trip offers in the water. The Cruisin' Fiji day includes snorkel gear and three separate snorkelling windows across its stops, while the South Sea sailing day includes gear and soft drinks and water all day, with beer and house wine from lunchtime for two hours and a bar on consumption beyond that.

Does The Spelling Change What The Trip Costs?

No, the spelling has no effect on price, because there is only one product being sold under the correct name, and its price is set by its listing, not by which spelling a searcher used. Among the three tours with a listed price, the range runs from $128 to $176.42 per person: South Sea sailing $128, Cruisin' Fiji $136.31, Castaway Island $176.42.

Those three figures are from-prices exactly as shown, per person in USD, never rounded or averaged. Beyond them sit two add-ons the listings state: the mandatory $5 per adult and $5 per child fuel surcharge on the South Sea sailing day, and the Denarau Marina departure levy payable at check-in on the Cruisin' Fiji day. Neither is hidden, but both sit outside the headline figure, which is why a per-person budget built only on the from-price will land slightly short at the marina.

The budgeting picture is covered in full in the site's guide to what a Monuriki island cruise costs, including how the departure levy and transfer fees work at check-in. A Tourism Services Tax applies to qualifying tourism operators from 1 September 2026, so it is worth checking whether a quoted price includes taxes before comparing figures across listings.

One pricing note belongs here because name confusion feeds directly into it: pages carrying the older island spelling also tend to carry prices that no live listing supports. If a third-party page quotes a figure for a Monuriki day trip that matches none of the three listed prices above, treat it as stale until the live booking page confirms it. The three real figures, and the two listings that show their own price, are the only ones that can be checked.

Common Mistakes When Checking The Island Name

The most common mistake is treating the two spellings as two islands, or assuming any Mamanuca day cruise visits the film island because the title sounds right. Four of the five day cruises compared here make no mention of Monuriki on their booking pages, and the Castaway Island day goes to a resort island that is a different place altogether. The fix is to read the stops, not the title.

Several specific traps sit inside that general one:

None of these mistakes requires much effort to avoid, and they share one root: reading the itinerary rather than the headline. The stop list on a booking page is a factual statement of where a boat goes. Titles, blog posts and search snippets are marketing or memory, and on this coast they regularly blur three distinct places, Mana, Monu and Monuriki, plus a resort island whose name borrowed from the same film.

Weather is the one factor outside any booking page's control. The wet season runs roughly November to April, with the cooler, drier months May to October, and the Fiji Meteorological Service outlook for the 2026-27 season expects two to three tropical cyclones to pass through Fiji's Exclusive Economic Zone, one to two of them severe, with peak activity usually January to February. The site's piece on the best time for a Monuriki island cruise works through the seasons. All five cruises here offer a different date or a full refund if weather cancels the day.

Which Day Cruise Should You Book Under Either Name?

If the goal is to stand on the film island, book the Cruisin' Fiji Monuriki, Mana Sand Bar and Snorkelling Day Cruise, the only listing that states the Monuriki stop and landing, from $136.31 per person. If a sailing day or a resort-island day suits better, the South Sea sailing day from $128 and the Castaway Island day from $176.42 are honest alternatives that simply visit other places.

Choosing between them comes down to what the day is for. The Cruisin' Fiji trip is the longest single-island stay of the set, 2.5 to 3 hours on Monuriki with a lovo lunch cooked and served ashore, wrapped in two snorkelling stops and a 63-passenger maximum. It suits a traveller whose one non-negotiable is the island itself. The sailing day suits someone who wants the wind and the water more than any particular island, with a 7-hour format, a minimum age of 5 and drinks flowing all day. The Castaway Island day suits families and resort-comfort seekers, with a 9-hour structure, pushchair access and an optional kids club.

The two unpriced options fill different niches again. The Captain Cook all-inclusive day sail runs a 10:00 am departure and up to 100 passengers, a bigger-boat all-in format; the booking page shows its current price. The Malamala Beach Club full day is a beach-club day with snorkel gear included and an 8-hour window at the club. Both are Mamanuca experiences, and neither mentions Monuriki, which under the rules of this comparison is the whole point of checking.

Whichever way the decision goes, the name question resolves the same way every time. One spelling is what the operators and the booking pages use. The other is a leftover from older third-party usage, and it will not appear on a ticket, a check-in board or an itinerary. Match the stop list to the island you want, check the live listing for the current price and the stated extras, and the two names stop mattering entirely.

Common Questions About Modriki Or Monuriki Island Names