Taveuni? Where to stay?

[klp5]

Hi, I have tried to research through the threads, but am not finding what I want?
We are looking to travel to Fiji this August with our kids. (ages 14,15,17) They are all open water certified and if they all stay healthy will have their ADV certification at the beginning of April.
They are all extremely comfortable in the water and loved the scuba diving so much that we added multiple dives while we were in Hawaii at Christmas. We took our youngest with us to Galapagos a month ago and did a land based tour with diving there. He was fine with drift dives and dealing with rough water entries from the boat. He had no problem doing safety stops and staying at the right depth while drifting either.
We hope to get the other two exposed to a drift dive on our upcoming trip, not sure if it will happen.
My husband and I have done 100+ dives each.
Now to the question, I believe we would like to spend some time on Taveuni, just not sure where? We would like to stay in a more resort type setting, I think. I see several places online, but it is difficult to tell if all of these places dive the same areas or not.
Any recommendations? Paradise Taveuni is not available at the time we would like to go.
We also hope to stay at Beqa for half of the stay (approx 12 days in Fiji.)

Are there other diving places that we are missing in our hunt?
Thanks for any help,
kristy

 

[farsidefan1]

I have stayed at the Garden Island Resort. About like a nice super 8 in the USA except that it is all inclusive and has a pool, spectacular views and a tree with a bunch of fruit bats on site. I enjoyed my stay there. Another factor in it's favor is that it is right out from the Rainbow Reef, which is beautiful. I have heard of a place called Paradise something which had at least one excellent review. Oh, and Taveuni has some cool bird watching. The flame dove is only found on Taveuni but it hangs out high in trees - but in the open so bring some travel binoculars if that interests you. Also Taveuni is the only place where the date line crosses land and they have a nice sign where you can take some fun pictures. It is within walking distance of the Garden Island Resort. I also suggest you hike up to the waterfalls, very scenic. Enjoy!

 

[wader]

My wife and I are going March 17 for 10 days on Taveuni. We are staying at the Garden Island resort. We got a pretty deal we think. $888 for lodging, dives, breakfast and a bunch of other goodies. I will give a report when we return. We have never been to Fiji and are really excited.

 

[shred]

We stayed at Coconut grove which was awesome. If diving was a number 1 concern i think i would have to go with Paradise Taveuni.

 

[klp5]

Thanks for the input, everyone! As far as diving, it is a main concern, but not the number one concern. That is one reason why we want to stay land based.
Paradise looked great, but not available for our dates for a family of 5
Keep the advice coming!!
kristy

 

[fiji_diver]

Hi
Taveuni is a lovely spot with lots of stuff to do other than diving. It is also probably the best location as a dive base. All the Taveuni resorts dive the Somosomo straight which houses the Rainbow Reef and White Wall. Your offspring should get their drift dive there!
You can also get out to the Namena Marine Reserve - although not all resorts offer this trip as it is about a 1 hour boat trip. It is worth asking about as I rate it as one of Fiji's best wall dives with loads of big reef fish.

Garden Island Resort is a good bet and they do offer very good deals. It's close to the Somosomo straight so shorter boat trips than some resorts. There are several cheaper options and a couple of more expensive ones. At the bargain end have a look at Dolphin Bay Divers and for pampering you can try Taveuni Island Resort. Coconut Grove might be a bit small for 3 teenagers, but it is a pretty place and good value.

Beqa diving is good but not as spectacular as Taveuni. Take out the Shark Feeding Dive and I figure 3 days and you will have seen the best of it. Golden Arches, Side Street and Fantasea are probably the best sites there, but also worth going to dive the Frigates Reef. I suggest 4 days Beqa and 7 Taveuni bearing in mind flying after diving. You rally need to book your internal flights as soon as you can as they are small planes and get full easily.
Air Pacific (Pacific Sun domestically )is the only carrier. They are very flexible on baggage allowance for tourists.
You can also get the overnight ferry from Taveuni to Suva and tourist bus to Nadi from there if you wanted to avoid flying internally and get an extra dive in Bit of a long way around though.
Overnight if required before you fly, have a look at Raffles Gateway which is right opposite the airport.

Do let me know if you want any more info. I live and dive here but am not associated with any specific resort.

Cheers
Greg

 

[klp5]

Hi Greg, Thanks for your input! Garden Island is a thought, my husband(and I!) really enjoys being in a more resort type place. We may end up at Garden Isle though, hard to find a place for 5, 3 of whom are teenagers! Just found out that Matangi does not take teenagers
Size of resort not really an issue for the kids. We will be keeping them busy with diving and hiking. The rest of the time they can get some reading in and hanging out at the beach.
Again, thanks for taking the time for the ideas!
kristy

 

[klp5]

How are Taveuni Dive as an operation? I have not figured out the search function to give me results only on the combo of words. It gives me all the words I enter, which leaves a lot of wading through irrelevant posts!

 

[shred]

How are Taveuni Dive as an operation? I have not figured out the search function to give me results only on the combo of words. It gives me all the words I enter, which leaves a lot of wading through irrelevant posts!

That's who i dove with and I think they did a great job.
https://picasaweb.google.com/sderenne/FijiVacation?feat=directlink

 

[fiji_diver]

Hi
I have to admit to never having dived with them, but they get a good rep locally and have been around a long time, so they get my vote. Which makes me think I really should get up there this year.
I think Coconut Grove use them as they don;t have their own dive operation.
Greg