How to deal with Fiji in 10 days?

[UKmarcus]

Heading out to Fiji for 10-14 days October/November 2015... Will likely stay on the island that the plane lands on.. lol.. Wondering if there's any "must dos" here? I'm only going for the soft coral to be honest... I want colors, colors, colors - and fish everywhere. All the big sharks, rays etc. would be great too but I'm really hoping this will be the place in the world that gives me what I've been looking for since day one. I want to be blown away for once in my life and feel like I'm in an aquarium... I'm still seeking that "5 star" dive and praying Fiji is the one!~
Thanks for any advice.

 

[JulieM]

I highly recommend Taveuni Ocean Sports and staying at Nakia Eco Resort on Taveuni. It is the soft coral capitol of the world -- White Wall, Purple Wall, etc...we have been there three times. Check the reviews on Tripadvisor. They are spot on accurate. Any questions, please feel free to PM me.

 

[cbm32]

Taveuni is probably your best bet of the places easiest to get to.....but it is not on the island you will initially land on.

If you REALLY want to stick with "the island you land on", Viti Levu, your best bet is to stay on the Raki Raki coast and hope the weather permits getting out to the Bligh Waters. The two choices that come to mind would be Wananavu or Volivoli Beach Resort.

Savusavu on the island of Vanua Levu would be another easy to get to island that would allow you to dive most of the same waters as staying on Taveuni.

 

[ColoDale]

It seems you want to stay on Viti Levu but you say "likely". We stayed on a island near Taveuni so I can't tell you about the diving around Viti Levu. Lots of reports about Viti Levu area diving. We did not see alot of sharks or rays but it could have been the time of year. Many many fish and soft corals tho. Plus blue ribbon eels, frogfish, giant clams, fantastic walls, plus... plus...
Taveuni is fairly easy to get to from the same airport you land at in Nadi however we had a mechanical delay in Nadi to Taveuni and an unscheduled stop in Vanua Levu coming out where we all got off the plane, looked at the scenery and cows next next to the runway for 20-30 minutes. It took us 33 hours all told from our resort to Denverbut and did include a long LAX layover. Those island hopper tribulations could happen anywhere at any destination (and have) .
It was still worth it and we were blown away UW and topside.

From what I have heard, around Viti Levu is where more shark concentrations are to be seen but could be dedicated shark (feed?) sites (e.g. Beqa Lagoon). Our limited ecncounters were with white tip reef and grey reef sharks and were by chance and brief. We did not go to see sharks but fish, corals and walls.

 

[LiquidDivingAdventure]

I have sent some folks to Fiji in the past couple of years as package Matava Eco Resort and Wananavu Resort. They really enjoyed the resort combo and different dives at both resorts.

That said, we recently connected with the owners of Lalati Resort on Bequa Island and they have a slick operation, protected location, access to great dive sites, and easy to get to. This will be our next Pacific destination.

 

[mmmbelows]

I'm only going for the soft coral to be honest... I want colors, colors, colors - and fish everywhere. All the big sharks, rays etc. would be great too but I'm really hoping this will be the place in the world that gives me what I've been looking for since day one. I want to be blown away for once in my life and feel like I'm in an aquarium... I'm still seeking that "5 star" dive and praying Fiji is the one!~

5 star diving off of the main island isn't really easily attainable. The very north Rakiraki area is going to put you the closest you are going to get to "5 star" dive sites that you can get while staying on Viti Levu. You can reach Bligh waters from that area (sometimes) which will be the best diving closest to Viti Levu. Look up Wananavu. Not a 5 star resort but capable of reaching the Bligh water dive sites sometimes. If you don't go there you've guaranteed no chance of what you're expecting and will need to tone down your expectations a notch.

 

[UKmarcus]

So would it be easy to get to these other places from the main island? I really don't mind traveling around if it's cheap and / or easy. I just figured that it wouldn't be, and so planned on staying put. I'm going with a guy who probably won't be diving, so I'm also looking for a place that he might enjoy also. Thanks for your various advice!~

 

[Hutch12]

I would second the vote for Taveuni and also recommend Nakia resort and their dive shop highly.
I have done both shore based diving and LOB in Fiji on separate trips and found Taveuni to give you what you are looking for. Make sure to plan to dive The Great White Wall, have dived this place twice and both dives are in my top 5. Jerry's Jelly, Purple Wall and Fish Factory all stand out.
1 hr flight with Pacific Air, a subsidiary of Fiji Airways, reasonable price but not entirely reliable so suggest to build in buffer days in your itinerary particularly for connecting flights.

The other 5* area is Namena. Not sure if this is only accessible by LOB or not. Simply amazing diving here.

We stayed at Wananavu, mentioned above, as this is close to where we were meeting the LOB. Very nice but very expensive. If going back would likely choose the Voli Voli resort near by.

If you are not massively bothered about sharks, avoid Beqa Lagoon as the shark feed dive is really the only attraction there.

 

[UKmarcus]

Ok sounds like everyone's agreed that Taveuni is the place to go... So that's where I'll go!
Looks like a small island though and I'm going with a friend who probably won't be diving, so I'm wondering if there would be anything for him to do - or is it basically a dive island? Perhaps we could land on Viti and spend a couple of nights there, and then fly to Vanua for a couple of nights, and then on to Taveuni? Would that be feasible? Or is it possible to dive the same waters from the Vanua peninsular as Taveuni? I see that the peninsula almost touches Taveuni, but it might be totally inaccessible.
Thanks again for all the education... I can't wait!~

 

[ColoDale]

Taveuni has better access to Somosomo straights and has Bouma Falls for non-diving. The latter is a great place. You might avoid it during the "free" days for kids though they do know where to jump in to avoid the rock. Upper falls are good also.