Fiji diving versus Caribbean - is it better?

[cbm32]

The Naia is a great operation. Top notch all the way. But it isn't very affordable for most folks and, I believe that, the OP said his wife would not consider a liveaboard.

Naigani Island Resort dives a couple of the sites that the Naia frequents and is located at the head of the Bligh waters. Most of our sites are within a ten to fifteen minute boat ride from the resort and seldom, if ever, sees divers other than ours. Plus you get unlimited shore diving on our house reef that, for a while now and hopefully for the foreseeable future, has had black tips and rays hanging out on it.

There are some really good options for diving in Fiji, but Denarau is not one of them.

 

[mike0479]

I will also agree with everyone and say that Fiji has some incredible dive sites. I spent a few weeks at Naigani last Jan and had an amazing time. As cbm32 stated we saw several reef sharks and rays from the shore dives done at the resort. I also did a night dive and saw some cuddlefish and a spotted ray.
I went on a lot of dives with Las and went to Wakaya. Their local dive sites were within a 10-15min boat ride and were fabulous. Plenty of diverse and incredible marine live to look at. Being close to the dive sites isnt a way for them to save money on fuel it just happens to be that there are that many great dives sites located close by to them. While i was there we never saw any other divers and we saw plenty of reef sharks as well as turtles and many different beautiful things.
Wakaya was great too but a much longer boat ride. I think it was about 2 hours away. Im glad I did it as we did see a Giant Hammerhead and another large green sea turtle. My wife snorkeled above while we dove.
Naigani is a great island close to the main island that has so much charm. Dont let the cheaper prices deter you from chosing them. It isnt a 5 star resort by any means but my wife and I loved the charm of the staff there. We were so sad to have to leave and are planning on going back in 2015. There is no other place we would consider to stay at.

 

[cbm32]

Our newest dive boat is now in service and should cut the travel time over to Wakaya significantly. I dont believe the trip should take more than about an hour on the "Rosi".

mike0479 is completely correct about the bures. Naigani is not a five star resort. If that is what you want/expect you will be disappointed. It is more about a 3 star resort. Large spacious bures that are nice and comfortable but not glamorous.

 

[OnTheSpot]

Diving in Fiji is much better in my opinion. The dive sites around Taveuni are fantastic and that's from somebody who's been spoilt from lots of diving in the coral triangle. Plenty of dive resorts to choose from on Taveuni some with their own house reefs for some nice relaxed diving in between your Somosomo strait day trips. Haven't been to Wananavu, so can't comment on that but from the above posts it sounds excellent.

 

[drbill]

The western Pacific blows the Caribbean out of the water IMHO. Although I enjoy diving almost anywhere, several of the Caribbean destinations I've been to had such low biodiversity compared to Asia and Oceania. Add to that the impact of lionfish in the Caribbean and Atlantic (I saw far more of them in the Bahamas than I did in the Philippines) on the native species.

 

[ColoDale]

Diving Fiji (Taveuni area) is distinctly different than Caribbean (Grand Cayman, Cozumel, St. Lucia, Bahamas) locations I've dived. Soft coral, numbers of fish, and types of sites in Fiji were better than Caribbean in general. All our diving was land based in Fiji.
Fiji at least around Taveuni was significantly less touristy and had great land based opportunities (Bouma Nat'l Park - Tavoro Falls is a must see).

Fiji is worth the money. We priced other places like French Polynesia (which we still want to go) and Fiji is cheaper.

My favorite dive sites in the world are Yellow Wall and Noel's Wall. Great White Wall in the SomoSomo Straights wasn't as good in my opinion but maybe that's just me. Other sites in the SomoSomo Straights were very good. Even diving around Qamea was good.

 

[Shasta_man]

<<it isn't very affordable for most folks>> I'd disagree with that but otherwise agree with the rest. AS for liveaboard, I was thinking they said they had dove Bligh Waters before and wanted more of that, but see now they ruled out liveaboards. Good luck in your quest.