birdman27
Contributor
My wife and I recently returned from a trip with our LDS to Beqa Lagoon Resort (BLR) and since I have enjoyed reading others reviews, I thought I would add one of my own. This was our first strictly diving trip, though we have dove a day or two on other vacations.
Why Fiji? We chose Fiji for a couple reasons. First, it popped up on the LDS calendar at a good time and was easy to schedule. All we had to do was get ourselves to LAX and everything else was taken care of. Second, I have wanted to go back to Fiji ever since my first trip there 5 years ago, which was pre-diving (and pre-wife). I still maintain it was the best snorkeling I have ever experienced, so I was interested in seeing what the diving would be like.
Arrival: Arrival was easy. Customs and immigration in Fiji flow nicely and the airport in Nadi has had a lot of work done on it recently to improve conditions (work continues). The redeye from LAX arrives at 6AM, so if you can get some sleep on the flight you will have a full day on arrival to do stuff! The bus to Pacific Harbor was waiting when we arrived and had good AC (so good most people were putting on jackets!). The drive was nice and uneventful, however they do stop in Sigatoka (about half way) at a touristy shop and encourage you to buy things. I could have done without that (they do it on the way back too). However, you can buy a case of beer for less than half the price you would pay at the resort, so think about that. Every room has a fridge. Once in PH, they transferred the bags to the boat for us and we were off on about a 45 minute ride to Beqa. The boat was slow, but it was a nice ride. When you get to BLR you have to take a smaller skiff to shore and jump out into knee deep water, which caught some off guard. The water is nice and warm however.
The Resort: The grounds are beautiful. The staff is friendly and attentive. Filo is amazing and made sure to take care of everything. She made the stay wonderful. The rooms are all very nice and it seems like some have been redone recently. Some in our group (18 total) had issues with the AC not being very good, but we had no issues in our room. The food is plentiful, if sometimes overly ambitious.
The Diving: The dive shop was a bit disorganized; I attribute this to the new management. (A note on the manager: he has been in the industry a long time, but he either doesnt mind lying or actually believe some of the stuff he says that is patently false. I dont know what is worse) The staff worked hard to make sure everything went well. It took a couple of days for the DMs to warm up to us, but once they did we had a great time. My DMs through the week were Net, Papa and Bill and I would dive with any of them again. They are pretty laid back, pointing out a few things of interest, but otherwise cruising and letting the divers do their thing. The resort only has 4 tanks larger than an AL80. I had emailed in advance to ask to use them, but once others heard of this they asked to use them which lead to 4 of us each getting to use one each. This was the most equitable, but kinds sucked. However, it turned out as the week went on that my consumption rate was actually pretty good and I could get through a full dive with my wife on an AL80 without any issues, so I gave up my big tank to another guy who needed it more. The actual dive sites, with minor exceptions (too much current and horrible vis on Pearl Rock), were wonderful. We dove: Three Sisters, Turtle Head, Carpet Cove, Shark Reef, Pearl Rock, Fantasy (X2), Golden Arch, Beetle Reef, John's Tunnel, Ridge Reef and Cathedral (X4; shark dive). We also did a check-up dive on our first day on the house reef, as well as a night dive on the house reef. Average depth was about 65ft and time was anywhere from 45-60 minutes, though we often came back with plenty of air to spare. Some highlights for me on the dives were seeing my first shark while diving (a white tip reef shark on the first day shore dive), the electric clams, all the different nudibranchs, the pipefish and seahorse we saw on the way in from our last dive, and feeling like I was diving in an aquarium because of all the fish and color! I really enjoyed the swim through on John's Tunnel. Afterwards we did lunch moored off Yanuca Island in one of the most beautiful spots I have ever seen. Below are just a couple of my favorite pictures.
The Shark Dives: One of the draws of BLR is their house shark dive. They dive a different site than the mainland operators. It is called Cathedral. Depth is 65 feet and the duration of the feeding is 30 minutes. The natural wall is at your back and they have built about a 2 ft tall artificial reef that you sit behind. 3 guys handle the feeding and another 3-4 DMs keep any sharks from harming the divers. While at any time there could be 7 different species of shark, I can only confirm I saw 3: tawny nurse, bull and tiger. The tigers are the big draw, but unfortunately we only saw 1 on the very first (of 4) dives. Our shark dives got a bit derailed by management. We were supposed to go on Wednesday, but as we were waiting to go we found out they had used our boat to take some students to the mainland to compete in a track competition. Then apparently the boat broke down. We were supposed to go out at 9, but didnt actually get out until noon. The sharks were noticeably not very active. The first dive was pretty good, with the bulls doing their thing, the tiger showing up and a big ole grouper controlling the feed. The vis got bad on the second dive and not many sharks showed up. Given all of this, we were able to talk them into taking some of us on the Friday shark dive with another group. The other group wasnt happy about this, but we wanted our shark dives. On Friday, the first dive had horrible vis, but it was clearing up at the end. The other group wanted to thumb the second dive and go back to the resort, but as it was our last dive, we said we wanted to dive (all but 2 of them ended up getting back in the water when it got down to it). I am really glad we did the second dive; the vis had nearly tripled and the sharks came out in force. At any point we had 8-10 bull sharks chasing the food. A big nurse shark (6-7ft) came right over the wall and into my face, which was awesome. A bull came at me, but the DMs made sure nothing bad happened. It was 25 minutes of non-stop action. 10/10 I would do it again! Afterwards, Papa gave my wife 3 shark teeth he had found (which my wife then shared with the group).
Conclusion: I hope the management issues get figured out, because the diving and the people deserve it. The island is beautiful, the grounds lovely, the rooms very nice and the people happy. I probably wont go back any time soon, but that is mostly because I have so many other places to go!
Why Fiji? We chose Fiji for a couple reasons. First, it popped up on the LDS calendar at a good time and was easy to schedule. All we had to do was get ourselves to LAX and everything else was taken care of. Second, I have wanted to go back to Fiji ever since my first trip there 5 years ago, which was pre-diving (and pre-wife). I still maintain it was the best snorkeling I have ever experienced, so I was interested in seeing what the diving would be like.
Arrival: Arrival was easy. Customs and immigration in Fiji flow nicely and the airport in Nadi has had a lot of work done on it recently to improve conditions (work continues). The redeye from LAX arrives at 6AM, so if you can get some sleep on the flight you will have a full day on arrival to do stuff! The bus to Pacific Harbor was waiting when we arrived and had good AC (so good most people were putting on jackets!). The drive was nice and uneventful, however they do stop in Sigatoka (about half way) at a touristy shop and encourage you to buy things. I could have done without that (they do it on the way back too). However, you can buy a case of beer for less than half the price you would pay at the resort, so think about that. Every room has a fridge. Once in PH, they transferred the bags to the boat for us and we were off on about a 45 minute ride to Beqa. The boat was slow, but it was a nice ride. When you get to BLR you have to take a smaller skiff to shore and jump out into knee deep water, which caught some off guard. The water is nice and warm however.
The Resort: The grounds are beautiful. The staff is friendly and attentive. Filo is amazing and made sure to take care of everything. She made the stay wonderful. The rooms are all very nice and it seems like some have been redone recently. Some in our group (18 total) had issues with the AC not being very good, but we had no issues in our room. The food is plentiful, if sometimes overly ambitious.
The Diving: The dive shop was a bit disorganized; I attribute this to the new management. (A note on the manager: he has been in the industry a long time, but he either doesnt mind lying or actually believe some of the stuff he says that is patently false. I dont know what is worse) The staff worked hard to make sure everything went well. It took a couple of days for the DMs to warm up to us, but once they did we had a great time. My DMs through the week were Net, Papa and Bill and I would dive with any of them again. They are pretty laid back, pointing out a few things of interest, but otherwise cruising and letting the divers do their thing. The resort only has 4 tanks larger than an AL80. I had emailed in advance to ask to use them, but once others heard of this they asked to use them which lead to 4 of us each getting to use one each. This was the most equitable, but kinds sucked. However, it turned out as the week went on that my consumption rate was actually pretty good and I could get through a full dive with my wife on an AL80 without any issues, so I gave up my big tank to another guy who needed it more. The actual dive sites, with minor exceptions (too much current and horrible vis on Pearl Rock), were wonderful. We dove: Three Sisters, Turtle Head, Carpet Cove, Shark Reef, Pearl Rock, Fantasy (X2), Golden Arch, Beetle Reef, John's Tunnel, Ridge Reef and Cathedral (X4; shark dive). We also did a check-up dive on our first day on the house reef, as well as a night dive on the house reef. Average depth was about 65ft and time was anywhere from 45-60 minutes, though we often came back with plenty of air to spare. Some highlights for me on the dives were seeing my first shark while diving (a white tip reef shark on the first day shore dive), the electric clams, all the different nudibranchs, the pipefish and seahorse we saw on the way in from our last dive, and feeling like I was diving in an aquarium because of all the fish and color! I really enjoyed the swim through on John's Tunnel. Afterwards we did lunch moored off Yanuca Island in one of the most beautiful spots I have ever seen. Below are just a couple of my favorite pictures.
The Shark Dives: One of the draws of BLR is their house shark dive. They dive a different site than the mainland operators. It is called Cathedral. Depth is 65 feet and the duration of the feeding is 30 minutes. The natural wall is at your back and they have built about a 2 ft tall artificial reef that you sit behind. 3 guys handle the feeding and another 3-4 DMs keep any sharks from harming the divers. While at any time there could be 7 different species of shark, I can only confirm I saw 3: tawny nurse, bull and tiger. The tigers are the big draw, but unfortunately we only saw 1 on the very first (of 4) dives. Our shark dives got a bit derailed by management. We were supposed to go on Wednesday, but as we were waiting to go we found out they had used our boat to take some students to the mainland to compete in a track competition. Then apparently the boat broke down. We were supposed to go out at 9, but didnt actually get out until noon. The sharks were noticeably not very active. The first dive was pretty good, with the bulls doing their thing, the tiger showing up and a big ole grouper controlling the feed. The vis got bad on the second dive and not many sharks showed up. Given all of this, we were able to talk them into taking some of us on the Friday shark dive with another group. The other group wasnt happy about this, but we wanted our shark dives. On Friday, the first dive had horrible vis, but it was clearing up at the end. The other group wanted to thumb the second dive and go back to the resort, but as it was our last dive, we said we wanted to dive (all but 2 of them ended up getting back in the water when it got down to it). I am really glad we did the second dive; the vis had nearly tripled and the sharks came out in force. At any point we had 8-10 bull sharks chasing the food. A big nurse shark (6-7ft) came right over the wall and into my face, which was awesome. A bull came at me, but the DMs made sure nothing bad happened. It was 25 minutes of non-stop action. 10/10 I would do it again! Afterwards, Papa gave my wife 3 shark teeth he had found (which my wife then shared with the group).
Conclusion: I hope the management issues get figured out, because the diving and the people deserve it. The island is beautiful, the grounds lovely, the rooms very nice and the people happy. I probably wont go back any time soon, but that is mostly because I have so many other places to go!
