Beqa Lagoon Resort Fiji Help

[pword]

Has anyone been to this resort recently? We are looking at it for a summer trip.

Only one of us is a diver and the other only snorkles. If anyone has been there with a non-diving spouse or friend, please let me know how the snorkeling was around the resort and whether they offered any snorkeling trips. Their Web site says they do but it's rather vague info.

 

[Cavs42]

if you're open to a different resort, Octopus Resort in the Yasawas is incredible with great snorkeling right off the crazy long beach and a in-house dive op. I HIGHLY recommend them. but that depends on if you want to be close to anything... nothing but a small village a 20 min hike away.

 

[pword]

Thanks Cavs42, that place looks awesome on their site. We don't mind being isolated at all. TA hotel reviews for the Octopus has quite a few reviews from people who said their bure roofs leaked while there. Did you experience that problem during your stay? Like the idea of thatched huts but it would suck to get rained on. Ha!

If anyone else has recommendations on resorts that have diving and snorkeling/snorkel trips in Fiji please respond. Thanks.

 

[Bratface]

Beqa Lagoon is on a tiny little island. It is absolute paradise. No cars, no paved roads, no banks, or commercialism. I throughly enjoyed my stay and had plenty to do. I was recovering from an ear injury, and although I was cleared to dive, it caused too much pressure to try to get down past 25 feet. I decided to hang out with my new Fijian friends and had the time of my life. I spent my days learning about Fiji and Fijians from the dive masters and staff. How cool is it to hang out with the High Priest's son and the village Chief's son? One of my new friends taught me all about coconuts and how to get them open. We took walks to the waterfall and a hike to the highest point on the island.

Your snorkeler will have fun. Even though I wasn't diving, I went on the boat every day. There's plenty to see and there's snorkeling during the surface intervals. You can also snorkel right from shore at the resort. We also toured the village and took supplies and little gifts for the school kids. The people are lovely and have a great sense of humor.

I think wherever you go in Fiji you will have a wonderful time.

 

[pword]

Thanks Bratface. Actually I am the snorkeler and my other half the diver. The resort contact has written back to say I can go on the dive boats and snorkel. Apparently most of the profiles have shallow areas for snorkeling so that sounds good to me.

The resort gets good reviews and we're close to making a decision. Thanks for all the tips.

 

[Cavs42]

We stayed in two different accomodations during our stay at Octopus, a Bure and a cheaper Bungalow. The bure was nice, and had the advantage of a private bathroom, but we actually liked the bungalow better even though it had communal washroom facilities with the dorm and the other bungalows. The washroom was always clean. When we go back, we'll be in the bungalows again, and the roofs aren't thatched, so that's not an issue. it didn't rain when we were in the bure, so I can't comment of the waterproofness of the roof.

 

[Hodge Podge]

I and my family have been to BLR twice and it is great. The shore dive area is great for snorkeling. The vis can get bad after heavy rains, but I always found something great like the blue star fish. We did 2 boat dives in the AM and snorkeled or shore dove in the afternoon. We are planning a trip back in July. The house reef splits at the entry point like a V with reef on both sides. You can make it out on Google Earth.

I have made a dive map of Beqa Lagoon Beqa Lagoon Dive Sites at the bottom of the page.

 

[skynscuba]

I've made two trips to Fiji, Beqa Lagoon resort and Matangi. I'd say the
diving is different, but comparably good, in either place, but the snokeling
is probably better in Matangi. Okay, I never snorkeled at Beqa, but I did
scuba dive from shore at the resort maybe 6 times. Snorkeling at Matangi,
we saw a wide variety of creatures, including giant clams, blue spotted
ribbon-tailed rays, reef sharks, lobster, sweet lips, and a host of others.
We also enjoyed the hiking, sailing (hobie cat knockoff), etc. at Matangi.
Food was better (Beqa was very good, Matangi was even better), but pricing
is higher. Most of the resort was occupied by honeymooners, so we
usually had just two of us, and up to 6 of us, on the dive boat.

Lots of choices in Fiji, I'd like to go back and try a few more!

 

[pword]

Thanks for all the responses.

Matangi certainly looks rad. I've asked for a quote from them but I think it's probably out of our budget.

Has anyone has stayed/dove at Lalati Resort, also on Beqa Island up and around the tip from Beqa Lagoon Resort? It is a much smaller resort and has other activities for me, so it may be better suited to our needs.

But the bures do not have AC and that concerns me a little. Although we are told that in June/July temps get cooler at night in Fiji, in upper 60sF so that we may not need AC.

 

[pword]

Holy *#@&! Got a quote back from the Matangi Resort. Ouch! It is way way out of our budget. And the figure didn't even include all the transfers.

Think we'll stick with Beqa Island, where the prices are still reasonable. Thanks for the suggestion though.