samsonlee
Registered
I stayed at this resort for a week with my family(2 kids 9 and 5). I appreciate all of the trip reports on Scubaboard which help me make a decision, so hopefully this will help someone else.
Location: Wanavanu beach resort is a 2.5 hour ride from the airport. The ride is easy and comfortable. Of course the road is a little bumpy, but its fine. The resort is in the NE corner of the island which makes it in prime location to access the dive sites of the Bligh Waters. Our main focus was diving so this was a great location. The resort itself is on the side of a hill with the beach and dive resort at the bottom and some of the bures and restaurant at the top, making the top have spectacular views. If youre older and have bad knees then it might be an issue, but its not much different to me then other resorts Ive been to.
Accommodations: Our room was a two bedroom so that our kids could sleep in a separate room. The room was nice, spacious enough. The bathroom was big enough and for us it was great to have nice water pressure and piping hot water, sometimes understandably you dont get that in remote locations. The room was clean and had a nice small porch. There is air conditioning that works well(the unit is not too loud, which can also be an issue sometimes), fans are available too. There is a small fridge. The pool is very nice which is salt water with a fountain and a very shallow area for little kids and a deeper area. There are nice chairs and sitting areas for the pool. The beach is also very nice and big with hammocks and the water is calm for kids to splash around. Snorkeling is possible around the beach and dive dock which is not bad, saw tons of pipefish and nice coral there although the visibility is lower. Wifi is available and has a good signal throughout the resort, although its slow, but usable. I believe you can shore dive, but I did not ask.
Food: The food was very good with enough choices that for a weeks stay youre not repeating too much. Breakfast is pretty much the same thing day after day with a small buffet and choice of entree. We were on the meal plan which was good. Drinks also were good although expensive. Food is much better then average compared to a lot of dive resorts Ive been to. We also appreciated that dinner was served early at 6-630, some of the dive resort dont serve dinner until much later which is hard when youve been diving all day and just want to eat and sleep or have kids who are hungry.
Staff: We had a babysitter watch our young ones while we went diving in the morning and she was wonderful. All of the staff are friendly warm and inviting. Both dive and house staff. No issues at all and they live to the friendly Fijian reputation. Our last day out our flight left late at night and they were nice enough to allow us to be in another bure to shower since ours was going to be occupied.
Diving: This is the main reason we pick a resort, and the diving is very dependent on wind and weather according to the dive shop. Ive been diving everywhere and so I feel I have a decent body of work to compare it too. If its too choppy then you cant get out to the best sites. Well you could, but your stomach probably wouldn't agree with you. The first day I arrived I wanted to get in the water but it was windy and so we did a site close by, and I'm glad we didn't go further as it was rough. We were able to go out to Bligh Waters(further sites) there 3 out of the 5 days. One of the days was a 3 tank dive with lunch on the boat. Generally they can anchor the boat to the reef and you're facing the wind so it's fairly stable and not too uncomfortable a surface interval. The sites closer to the resort are nowhere near as good in my opinion as the ones out farther (Mount Mutiny, E6, Mello Yellow, Black Magic Mountain, etc.), so hopefully you have good weather when you go. Visibility varied mostly I feel due to current, when there was more current the visibility was better, so at its peak it was around 80 feet and low of 40 feet. The current was never enough to need a reef hook. Soft corals are the prettiest Ive seen anywhere, lots of hard corals as well. Sharks on most dives, didnt see any rays. Impressive healthy schools of small fish, regularly we would see schools of hundreds if not thousands on some dive sites of anthias, and various other small fish. Black Magic Mountain was incredible how many fish there were. I thought it was even more then Palaus Blue Corner. I also dove at Taveuni (Great white wall, etc) previously and I would say the Bligh Water sites are better. The dive boats are fast and have plenty of room, as long as there arent a lot of divers which there never were while we were there. The most was 7, the average was 4-5. The boat crew and guides were great. There are two boats, the bigger one is more comfortable, but the small one is fine for a few divers. I wouldn't want to be on the small boat in rough seas. I would definitely come back to the resort or a live aboard to experience these dive sites again. The staff pick up your gear, change it and maintain it, and wash it for you when you leave. There are no individual places at the shop to store the gear, they leave it on the boat overnight. They let you dive and arent overbearing, but if you need help they will help you. 60 minute profile was appreciated since others might go through air quicker, but you can stay down if you have enough air. Nitrox is also available which is nice and I used, air felt clean, tanks were well maintained. As far as diving goes I would definitely come back someday and might consider a live aboard or the resort again. I liked it better then Taveuni. Indonesia is still way better for macro, but for soft corals and schools of small fish it was very good. Fiji beats anywhere in the Caribbean in my opinion, although visibility isn't as good as Cayman and Cozumel, but there is way more fish and coral.
Overall: Great resort, one of the better ones weve been to. It is reasonably priced with meal and dive plans. I had no real complaints and I definitely would come back again once Ive crossed all of the places off of my bucket list.
Location: Wanavanu beach resort is a 2.5 hour ride from the airport. The ride is easy and comfortable. Of course the road is a little bumpy, but its fine. The resort is in the NE corner of the island which makes it in prime location to access the dive sites of the Bligh Waters. Our main focus was diving so this was a great location. The resort itself is on the side of a hill with the beach and dive resort at the bottom and some of the bures and restaurant at the top, making the top have spectacular views. If youre older and have bad knees then it might be an issue, but its not much different to me then other resorts Ive been to.
Accommodations: Our room was a two bedroom so that our kids could sleep in a separate room. The room was nice, spacious enough. The bathroom was big enough and for us it was great to have nice water pressure and piping hot water, sometimes understandably you dont get that in remote locations. The room was clean and had a nice small porch. There is air conditioning that works well(the unit is not too loud, which can also be an issue sometimes), fans are available too. There is a small fridge. The pool is very nice which is salt water with a fountain and a very shallow area for little kids and a deeper area. There are nice chairs and sitting areas for the pool. The beach is also very nice and big with hammocks and the water is calm for kids to splash around. Snorkeling is possible around the beach and dive dock which is not bad, saw tons of pipefish and nice coral there although the visibility is lower. Wifi is available and has a good signal throughout the resort, although its slow, but usable. I believe you can shore dive, but I did not ask.
Food: The food was very good with enough choices that for a weeks stay youre not repeating too much. Breakfast is pretty much the same thing day after day with a small buffet and choice of entree. We were on the meal plan which was good. Drinks also were good although expensive. Food is much better then average compared to a lot of dive resorts Ive been to. We also appreciated that dinner was served early at 6-630, some of the dive resort dont serve dinner until much later which is hard when youve been diving all day and just want to eat and sleep or have kids who are hungry.
Staff: We had a babysitter watch our young ones while we went diving in the morning and she was wonderful. All of the staff are friendly warm and inviting. Both dive and house staff. No issues at all and they live to the friendly Fijian reputation. Our last day out our flight left late at night and they were nice enough to allow us to be in another bure to shower since ours was going to be occupied.
Diving: This is the main reason we pick a resort, and the diving is very dependent on wind and weather according to the dive shop. Ive been diving everywhere and so I feel I have a decent body of work to compare it too. If its too choppy then you cant get out to the best sites. Well you could, but your stomach probably wouldn't agree with you. The first day I arrived I wanted to get in the water but it was windy and so we did a site close by, and I'm glad we didn't go further as it was rough. We were able to go out to Bligh Waters(further sites) there 3 out of the 5 days. One of the days was a 3 tank dive with lunch on the boat. Generally they can anchor the boat to the reef and you're facing the wind so it's fairly stable and not too uncomfortable a surface interval. The sites closer to the resort are nowhere near as good in my opinion as the ones out farther (Mount Mutiny, E6, Mello Yellow, Black Magic Mountain, etc.), so hopefully you have good weather when you go. Visibility varied mostly I feel due to current, when there was more current the visibility was better, so at its peak it was around 80 feet and low of 40 feet. The current was never enough to need a reef hook. Soft corals are the prettiest Ive seen anywhere, lots of hard corals as well. Sharks on most dives, didnt see any rays. Impressive healthy schools of small fish, regularly we would see schools of hundreds if not thousands on some dive sites of anthias, and various other small fish. Black Magic Mountain was incredible how many fish there were. I thought it was even more then Palaus Blue Corner. I also dove at Taveuni (Great white wall, etc) previously and I would say the Bligh Water sites are better. The dive boats are fast and have plenty of room, as long as there arent a lot of divers which there never were while we were there. The most was 7, the average was 4-5. The boat crew and guides were great. There are two boats, the bigger one is more comfortable, but the small one is fine for a few divers. I wouldn't want to be on the small boat in rough seas. I would definitely come back to the resort or a live aboard to experience these dive sites again. The staff pick up your gear, change it and maintain it, and wash it for you when you leave. There are no individual places at the shop to store the gear, they leave it on the boat overnight. They let you dive and arent overbearing, but if you need help they will help you. 60 minute profile was appreciated since others might go through air quicker, but you can stay down if you have enough air. Nitrox is also available which is nice and I used, air felt clean, tanks were well maintained. As far as diving goes I would definitely come back someday and might consider a live aboard or the resort again. I liked it better then Taveuni. Indonesia is still way better for macro, but for soft corals and schools of small fish it was very good. Fiji beats anywhere in the Caribbean in my opinion, although visibility isn't as good as Cayman and Cozumel, but there is way more fish and coral.
Overall: Great resort, one of the better ones weve been to. It is reasonably priced with meal and dive plans. I had no real complaints and I definitely would come back again once Ive crossed all of the places off of my bucket list.
