Looking for a Dive Resort in Fiji

[Frosty]

around 40 minutes. But by gosh it takes so much stress out of everything. No making sure you get through customs and catch the coach etc.
For us it adds a full day to our time out on the island.

 

[fiji_diver]

Hmmm a little confusion here I think.

a) Beqa lagoon v Taveuni. Different. Beqa offers Shark feeding dives and fairly relaxed soft coral dives. Taveuni has classic wall dives with drifts. Better chance of big fish. Beqa is reached by tourist transfer bus or taxi from Nadi - about 3 hours. Taveuni is reached, usually by internal flight from Nadi. no water taxi's required Both offer a range of accommodation from 5* down to backpackers. Let me know if you want specific suggestions for a budget.
b) The water Taxis stuff operates in the Mamanuca and Yasawa islands from Denerau marina. Not usually a divers first choice but not too bad in places.

I hope that helps :-0
Cheers
Greg

 

[weitodive]

Terri on taveuni can take care of your flight to taveuni. I would say do a few days in taveuni and then do 2 days at beqa. The diving was much better in taveuni compared with beqa. The flight from nadi to taveuni could cost you extra luggage fees. I think we paid 25 usd a bag. There is not much around the beqa area.

 

[farsidefan1]

The internal flight to Taveuni takes about an hour and 20 minutes. Another guest asked how long the ferry took and the response was something like 12 hours. He sounded like he was estimating but if it takes over an hour by plane.../ I'm guessing the ferry takes forever. If you travel via air pacific you can buy (for $100) a waiver for and extra bag for the round trip including internal flight to Taveuni. MEMO make 3 copies of your receipt. The airport in nandi took ours and promised to return it. They didn't but we had a copy which we absolutely needed on the return trip. my wife and I each checked a bag plus the "sport bag" extra. plus our carry ons. Yes, I took some heavy photo gear too. We did not end up paying anything extra (except of course the $100. ). This extra baggage idea was put to us by Paradise Taveuni but we had a heck of a time finding anyone at air pacific that would acknowledge it. Finally we had PADI buy our tickets and they got it for us (along with a second traveler at half price deal which again, none of the air pacific folks could find. Oh, on the return flight from Taveuni they told us the carryons could not be over some weight. 7 kilos or something (they must just pull these numbers out of a hat and try them on different passengers) but my wifes was lighter so they let my 10 kilos go, possibly helped by our showing them our $100. extra weight provision receipt. They try to show it as an absolute rule but when you call them on it it seems they find a way to say, whatever, just go.

 

[02HOG]

Thanks Farsidefan1 for the inside scoop. Would it be ok to ask which PADI travel agent helped you out?

 

[LiquidDivingAdventure]

Good info on that $100 bag waiver. I book airfare with a number of consolidators and you have to be very careful on fare class as each have restrictions. I will check with Air Pacific through my wholesalers and see what they have on that $100 waiver. I have found the second traveler 50% fare and those special fares often go fast when offered. I would not recommend the inter-island ferry for the jaunt to Taveuni. Liquid Diving Adventures

---------- Post added at 09:26 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:19 AM ----------

Cali_divergirl - if you are looking at LOB in Indonesia, plan ahead. I book the Arenui and 2012 is mostly sold out and we are booking 2013 and 2014 trips. The Arenui is first class. We had some deals on the Dancer fleet to Komodo. As an FYI, Aggressor also has some "family weeks," but not in Fiji. We do have availability on some other boats but they fill fast. Liquid Diving Adventures

 

[farsidefan1]

Lori. She got us the bag deal and the second flyer for 1/2 price.

 

[bennoyoel]

Hello, if you still have interest dive in wakatobi, there is a dive center that called tomia dive center in tomia island, cool! You can check the detail in their website www.tomiadivecenter.com

 

[yellowfish]

We stayed at Matava for a week last early July (2011). We had pretty disappointing weather the whole time we were there, rain, wind, really lousy visibility. What you could see of the coral made us realize it could look amazing with great visibility. But we never had that. Also, the water was quite rough when we went for the Manta dive, and we also did not see anything...no mantas, no fish to even speak of. Just know if you are going in June or July, that is what they will tell you it is like ONCE YOU ARE THERE! Not a great time to go there I guess.

 

[fiji_diver]

Tomia island is not technically in Fiji - more like Indonesia, but it does look nice