Fiji in 2024 suggestions needed

[Tunaman68]

Hey all,

Been reading all I can find about Fiji diving and the associated locations and resorts, but a lot of the info is pre-pandemic.

For those who could give some recent advice, we are very experienced divers (two buddies that have been diving together for 30 years but we are not a couple) and have spent a lot of time diving in California, Cozumel, Caymans, and Hawaii. We both prefer long bottom times and tons of things to see vs deep adventure diving just for the sake of going deep, or crazy ripping currents that make us (God forbid) SWIM too much lol. We like good food and drink, chill people, but are decidedly NOT high end fancy types. We have both been diving in Tahiti back in the good old days but have limited our recent diving trips to things that are a shorter flight away and don't take days away from diving time with travel.

We are considering a Fiji trip in April or May of next year to once again broaden our horizons. I was never seasick as a youth, but the older I get the more sensitive I've become so a live aboard is not super appealing to me (change my mind please!!), but smaller fast boats are totally fine even if the ride is a bit longer.

I'm keen to do the shark dive in Beqa, yes I know that it's baited and not natural shark behaviour and are still interested in doing this dive. I understand we need a few days for this- looking at BLR, but I've seen a few not great reviews so considering other options. However, there seems to only be a couple choices close enough to do the shark dive. Then we are considering heading on to either Volivoli or Paradise Taveuni for a full week. We will be traveling on the Fiji air nonstop from LAX but are aware that there are long driving/flight/boat transfers involved once you hit Nadi regardless.

Any advice on 'prefered itineraries' is welcome.

 

[Joneill]

I was at Paradise Taveuni and Volivoli last August - both were fantastic resorts (but very different). Paradise Taveuni is a really beautiful location with very good food and a great staff.

The diving at Paradise was very good - we hit Rainbow Reef, Vuna Reef and along the coast above Paradise. The house reef is quite good as well.

Volivoli was good as well. It’s not anywhere near as beautiful a spot as Paradise Taveuni - but good food and friendly staff as well.

Unfortunately, due to high winds for ~9 straight days (very unusual for this time of year according to locals), we never made it out to the marine park/Bligh Waters at Volivoli.

Instead, we stayed close to to the resort and it was a bit rough, visibility was pretty bad at times and we had strong currents on a few dives. We still saw good stuff but I plan to return and try it again - hopefully, with better conditions. Folks who stayed a few days longer did get out to the Bligh Waters and their pics looked incredible.

 

[Tunaman68]

I was at Paradise Taveuni and Volivoli last August - both were fantastic resorts (but very different). Paradise Taveuni is a really beautiful location with very good food and a great staff.

The diving at Paradise was very good - we hit Rainbow Reef, Vuna Reef and along the coast above Paradise. The house reef is quite good as well.

Volivoli was good as well. It’s not anywhere near as beautiful a spot as Paradise Taveuni - but good food and friendly staff as well.

Unfortunately, due to high winds for ~9 straight days (very unusual for this time of year according to locals), we never made it out to the marine park/Bligh Waters at Volivoli.

Instead, we stayed close to to the resort and it was a bit rough, visibility was pretty bad at times and we had strong currents on a few dives. We still saw good stuff but I plan to return and try it again - hopefully, with better conditions. Folks who stayed a few days longer did get out to the Bligh Waters and their pics looked incredible.

I had read your post on a previous thread, thank you for the info! Sorry you missed out on Mellow Yellow/Bligh especially since the day you left they got to go! Sound like perhaps Taveuni is a better bet for options if conditions are not ideal. Also interesting that you liked Paradise's house reef since the one at Volivoli isn't supposed to be so great.

 

[ColoDale]

It's been quite some time since we dived Fiji so I can give you general advice on the Taveuni area. We dived the Somosomo straights (3-4 dives) with one at Rainbow Reef on the Vanua Levu side. There can be quite alot of current and some surge depending on the UW landscape. Some were like 3 steps forward and 2 back. At times it was a workout. We stayed on Matangi near Qamea which is on the other side of Taveuni from Paradise. Most of our diving was around Qamea, Matangi and the eastern side of Taveuni. I will say in general that the best diving I have done is in Fiji and the best two walls (Noel's and Yellow). These walls will be a long ride from Paradise on Taveuni even if they are offered.
Since you want no frills (or less frills), then resorts on Taveuni might be better but I haven't checked all resorts/hotels in the area.

Getting to and from Taveuni from Nadi takes awhile. We had a 4 hour mechanical delay going out and an unscheduled stop on Vanua Levu coming back to Nadi. At least they let us off the plane there to stretch and watch the cows on the side of the runway.

April/May is the end of the rainy season and Taveuni is wetter than others. We had good luck with our April trip with quite a bit of sun but it did rain. Much of it was passing rains except for a day or two.

 

[Tunaman68]

It's been quite some time since we dived Fiji so I can give you general advice on the Taveuni area. We dived the Somosomo straights (3-4 dives) with one at Rainbow Reef on the Vanua Levu side. There can be quite alot of current and some surge depending on the UW landscape. Some were like 3 steps forward and 2 back. At times it was a workout. We stayed on Matangi near Qamea which is on the other side of Taveuni from Paradise. Most of our diving was around Qamea, Matangi and the eastern side of Taveuni. I will say in general that the best diving I have done is in Fiji and the best two walls (Noel's and Yellow). These walls will be a long ride from Paradise on Taveuni even if they are offered.
Since you want no frills (or less frills), then resorts on Taveuni might be better but I haven't checked all resorts/hotels in the area.

Getting to and from Taveuni from Nadi takes awhile. We had a 4 hour mechanical delay going out and an unscheduled stop on Vanua Levu coming back to Nadi. At least they let us off the plane there to stretch and watch the cows on the side of the runway.

April/May is the end of the rainy season and Taveuni is wetter than others. We had good luck with our April trip with quite a bit of sun but it did rain. Much of it was passing rains except for a day or two.

I see your location as Coz- can you compare currents between the 'pretty good rip that makes you fly' in Coz vs the currents you are describing in Fiji?? 2 forward 3 back sounds more surge action than ripping current but I guess it's all a workout if you try and fight!! . I've seen some vids where people are hooked in and waving like a kite Palau style, wondering if that's the kind of current you mean??

 

[boulderjohn]

I stayed at Paradise Taveuni a few weeks ago, and I was extremely pleased with it. I then stayed at Beqa Lagoon Resort, and I was not nearly as pleased. It was not just the resort itself. I had dived in Beqa Lagoon more then 20 years ago, and I was shocked by how much the coral had deteriorated in those two decades.

 

[cetacean]

@ColoDale

Noel's Wall won't be offered by anyone not already east of Taveuni. It's a great dive, just a distance a way from almost everybody else (except Laucala & Matagi [the original spelling). The resort used to (also) have a liveaboard (the Princess) many years ago. We did that dive 4-5 times on one trip.

Did you hear who the dive was named after (and why)?

"Taveuni is wetter than others..."

Might be the understatement of the year

 

[stiebs]

I'm keen to do the shark dive in Beqa, yes I know that it's baited and not natural shark behaviour and are still interested in doing this dive. I understand we need a few days for this- looking at BLR, but I've seen a few not great reviews so considering other options.

I can highly recommend Beqa Lagoon Resort. I did a week there in June 2022. A new resort manager was only about 2 months into the job, and a new dive manager (who has been diving in the region for years) had also just started, and both were already making some positive impact.

It's a small resort, with a capacity of only about 60 guests. There are some good dive sites as well as the shark dive. We were lucky enough to be the only couple there amongst 3 club groups, and we never had more than 4 other divers on a boat with us - except for the shark dives.

Other than Cathedral, there was Joe's Best, which featured a large swim through in the reef as well as an intact sizeable wreck sitting in 25m. Scissors (or Caesars?) had spectacular 3-way swim-though, the main one which is about 6-8m long. We did three dives along different spots along Blue Wall, with reef sharks and turtles.

Almost all dive sites had thriving reefs at safety stop depth, and quite a few of my dives included 20 min safety stops while I filled up my memory card.

I (still!) haven't gotten around to editing my GoPro video from that trip, but I have uploaded the raw footage of some of the dives to YouTube.

Joe's Best, at the start of the wreck
Scissors (Caesar's?) swim through
Cathedral shark dive

 

[ColoDale]

I see your location as Coz- can you compare currents between the 'pretty good rip that makes you fly' in Coz vs the currents you are describing in Fiji?? 2 forward 3 back sounds more surge action than ripping current but I guess it's all a workout if you try and fight!! . I've seen some vids where people are hooked in and waving like a kite Palau style, wondering if that's the kind of current you mean??

3 forward and 2 back would be if the the surge and current opposed each other and one wins. I saw this mostly in the Somosomo straits and depends on if how the mount or reef is dived. We were not hooked in and having seen the hook in videos, it's nothing like that. I would have dived it differently but we had to follow the guide. It was more work than normal diving in Cozumel but there are quite alot of tourist divers doing it. You don't have to be a navy seal to dive there (Taveuni).

Not all the diving will be out in the strait. Much of it is along the edges of the islands.

I understand the current changes direction in the strait so it would depend on when you dive them. We had a long boat ride so were locked in to diving it when we got there. The current in Coz is, I think as you know, south to north generally. There are optimal times to dive the Somosomo strait. I found one site which has a Great White Wall dive schedule - Great White Wall Schedule — Taveuni Dive Resort. I can say I have dived in faster current in Cozumel but I would think the currents can be ripping in the strait and depends on when you do it. I am not as familiar with Fiji/Taveuni diving as I am with Cozumel where I live.

If you dive around the island edges (Fiji/Taveuni), they tended to have repeated shallow coves. Sort of like tongue and groove under water. We had to kick a bit to get around the "ridge" to the next cove where the current was less. And these were mostly around Qamea.

 

[ColoDale]

@ColoDale

Noel's Wall won't be offered by anyone not already east of Taveuni. It's a great dive, just a distance a way from almost everybody else (except Laucala & Matagi [the original spelling). The resort used to (also) have a liveaboard (the Princess) many years ago. We did that dive 4-5 times on one trip.

Did you hear who the dive was named after (and why)?

"Taveuni is wetter than others..."

Might be the understatement of the year

Noel Douglas is what I heard. His family owns Matangi. I use the "n". I think they did it for english speakers.

You could be right about not offering to go there from the west side of Taveuni however we did go to the west side of Taveuni from Matangi. It was time consuming and not cheap. Can't hurt to ask. After the pandemic some might be willing to bring in (more) revenue.