I recently returned from a great holiday in Fiji and the Solomon Islands. Ill post two separate trip reports since I dove in two different countries.
I had decided to go to Savusavu after looking at a variety of options (a big thanks to FijiDiiveGuy for his input/advice). Since the main part of my trip was the 2-week liveaboard in the Solomon Islands, I was looking for a relaxing week where I could recover from jetlag and get some diving in as well. I was all over the place in my thinking. One of the main requirements was that I had to be back in Nadi on a certain day so on the following morning I could meet my group and catch the 1x per week flight from Nadi to Honiara. Thus, I needed a place with multiple flights per day in the event a flight was cancelled, etc. That eliminated a couple of options immediately.
I wanted a nice, low-key place to stay, but I didnt want to spend a fortune.
I found a great offer at Daku Resort in Savusavu that included a weeks accommodation and 5 days of diving at the Cousteau resort. (Dakus website -- http://www.dakuresort.com; my review of resort on Trip advisor -- Fantastic Week of Diving and Fijian Culture! - Daku Resort, Savusavu Traveller Reviews - TripAdvisor)
I flew from nonstop from London to LAX. I had about an 8.5 hour layover so I was able to make the Air Pacific flight that evening. I was exhausted by the time I sat down on the AP flight so I went to sleep immediately and managed to get about six hours of shut eye.
I arrived in Nadi about 5:00 and was quickly through customs. My transfer flight to Savusavu was at 15:00 so I went to the Tanoa Hotel (about 5-10 minutes from airport by free shuttle). They had a special day room rate of FJ$55. I was staying there one night before flying to Honiara so I wanted to leave some luggage with them. That was no problem.
I arrived in Savusavu and was picked up by the Daku staff on Monday evening. My dive package started on Thursday morning. The package included the taxi as the Cousteau resort is about 10 minute down the road from Daku. The taxi picked me up at 8:00 so that I was at the dive shop before the 8:30ish departure.
Since I was diving with them for a number of days, I was assigned a locker, and they stored my dive gear until the end of the week.
The dive team was very good. They take care of all of your gear. I like to set up my own stuff and in retrospect would have been more insistent about this if I was doing it over. But not a huge issue. They do all of the gear change over between dives and wash your things at the end of each day.
The dive boat (37ft) is fine and had plenty of space and shade. They take up to 12 divers plus the crew. Most days we had far fewer divers. They have oxygen on board (fortunately no one needed it), radio communication, etc. Entry was a giant stride off the back and a sturdy ladder to get back on board. There was bottled water, cookies and fresh fruit for snacks.
They offer nitrox. I didnt use it. If doing it over, I would have used it on the day we went to Namena. Dives were limited to 60 minutes.
The dive shop is on one side of the resort so I didnt explore much of it. You cant really use the pool, but the restaurant will sell you coffee between dives if you want it. I was told that I could have had lunch (at a price of course) at the resort, but I chose to head back to Daku for lunch. The resort staff at Cousteau were super friendly in typical Fijian style.
The dive guides were all local Fijians and were very good. They had some OW students who were with their own instructor, and the rest of us had our own DM/guide. They have a marine biologist that came along on several dives. He points out and identifies critters throughout the dive on his slate.
Water temp was 25C on every dive. I wore a 5mm and was fine most of the time (chilly a couple of times). We had sun on a few dives, but the skies were often overcast.
Each day (except one) the first dive was at a deeper site on the outside of Light House Reef (10-15 minute boat). These sites had steepish drop-offs (but not an endless wall) so you could dive to the depth you and your buddy chose. We tended to have sharks, turtles and rays on these dives. We found several lionfish on a couple of these dives. Plus there was a school a curious bat/spade fish that we often saw.
We often headed back to the resort for the surface interval. New divers would come for the second dive or some people only did the first dive.
The second dive was at a site inside the lagoon area. My two favorite dives (excluding Namena) were here Alice in Wonderland and Mystery Reef (looks like a wheat field! And had some nice soft coral).
Caveat If Im diving, Im happy. And I havent done that much diving in the Pacific yet (and no other diving in Fiji). -- Overall, I was happy with the dives I did. I know some people with loads of Pacific dives will say that diving around Savusavu is not spectacular. However, I was content with the dives and happy to see some of the Pacific fish I like.
On Thursday I was able to go to Namena. They go 1-2x per week weather permitting. The boat ride out was about 45min. and wasnt very rough that day. We had a gorgeous sunny day, which made it even better. The first dive was at Chimneys which is two side by side bommies. The soft coral was amazing and the fish life excellent. The second site was Grand Central Station which is a drift dive where you get sharks (we had 8-10). The dive ends around a small bommie with lots of life on it.
The quality of the dives at Namena was definitely a notch or two above the local diving, but to dive there on multiple days you need to be on a liveaboard.
In additional to diving, I participated in some of the Fijian cultural activities that Daku had planned. I really enjoyed these.
Savusavu was a nice little town with a local market, a variety of shops and restaurants.
The rain and cloud cover came in on Saturday (my last day of diving). It did impact my flight out as the low cloud cover cancelled the two morning flights from Savusavu (and the corresponding inbound flights from Nadi). Not to worry, the flights were reorganized and diverted to Labasa on the other side of Vanua Levu. Several of us shared a taxi (about 2 hours) over to the airport and were put on the next flight out.
Just a heads-up on luggage issues from Nadi!! Even though I had a ticket including travel to/from the US which has a higher luggage allowance, Air Pacific was picky when I checked in for the flight to Honiara. I finally talked them into only charged for the amount I was over the US (2 bags of 23kg) allowance. It wasnt that expensive FJ$8/kg. However, I was hassled by the airport security about the weight of my rollerboard suitcase. The Air Pacific rep allowed me to take out my reg bag and put some heavier items in it and go through security with an extra piece of hand luggage! Same total weight just split into more containers!
I would definitely go back to Fiji and am keen to explore some of the other dive areas there.
Thanks again to FijiDiveGuy for the help in deciding where to spend my time in Fiji.
I had decided to go to Savusavu after looking at a variety of options (a big thanks to FijiDiiveGuy for his input/advice). Since the main part of my trip was the 2-week liveaboard in the Solomon Islands, I was looking for a relaxing week where I could recover from jetlag and get some diving in as well. I was all over the place in my thinking. One of the main requirements was that I had to be back in Nadi on a certain day so on the following morning I could meet my group and catch the 1x per week flight from Nadi to Honiara. Thus, I needed a place with multiple flights per day in the event a flight was cancelled, etc. That eliminated a couple of options immediately.
I wanted a nice, low-key place to stay, but I didnt want to spend a fortune.
I found a great offer at Daku Resort in Savusavu that included a weeks accommodation and 5 days of diving at the Cousteau resort. (Dakus website -- http://www.dakuresort.com; my review of resort on Trip advisor -- Fantastic Week of Diving and Fijian Culture! - Daku Resort, Savusavu Traveller Reviews - TripAdvisor)
I flew from nonstop from London to LAX. I had about an 8.5 hour layover so I was able to make the Air Pacific flight that evening. I was exhausted by the time I sat down on the AP flight so I went to sleep immediately and managed to get about six hours of shut eye.
I arrived in Nadi about 5:00 and was quickly through customs. My transfer flight to Savusavu was at 15:00 so I went to the Tanoa Hotel (about 5-10 minutes from airport by free shuttle). They had a special day room rate of FJ$55. I was staying there one night before flying to Honiara so I wanted to leave some luggage with them. That was no problem.
I arrived in Savusavu and was picked up by the Daku staff on Monday evening. My dive package started on Thursday morning. The package included the taxi as the Cousteau resort is about 10 minute down the road from Daku. The taxi picked me up at 8:00 so that I was at the dive shop before the 8:30ish departure.
Since I was diving with them for a number of days, I was assigned a locker, and they stored my dive gear until the end of the week.
The dive team was very good. They take care of all of your gear. I like to set up my own stuff and in retrospect would have been more insistent about this if I was doing it over. But not a huge issue. They do all of the gear change over between dives and wash your things at the end of each day.
The dive boat (37ft) is fine and had plenty of space and shade. They take up to 12 divers plus the crew. Most days we had far fewer divers. They have oxygen on board (fortunately no one needed it), radio communication, etc. Entry was a giant stride off the back and a sturdy ladder to get back on board. There was bottled water, cookies and fresh fruit for snacks.
They offer nitrox. I didnt use it. If doing it over, I would have used it on the day we went to Namena. Dives were limited to 60 minutes.
The dive shop is on one side of the resort so I didnt explore much of it. You cant really use the pool, but the restaurant will sell you coffee between dives if you want it. I was told that I could have had lunch (at a price of course) at the resort, but I chose to head back to Daku for lunch. The resort staff at Cousteau were super friendly in typical Fijian style.
The dive guides were all local Fijians and were very good. They had some OW students who were with their own instructor, and the rest of us had our own DM/guide. They have a marine biologist that came along on several dives. He points out and identifies critters throughout the dive on his slate.
Water temp was 25C on every dive. I wore a 5mm and was fine most of the time (chilly a couple of times). We had sun on a few dives, but the skies were often overcast.
Each day (except one) the first dive was at a deeper site on the outside of Light House Reef (10-15 minute boat). These sites had steepish drop-offs (but not an endless wall) so you could dive to the depth you and your buddy chose. We tended to have sharks, turtles and rays on these dives. We found several lionfish on a couple of these dives. Plus there was a school a curious bat/spade fish that we often saw.
We often headed back to the resort for the surface interval. New divers would come for the second dive or some people only did the first dive.
The second dive was at a site inside the lagoon area. My two favorite dives (excluding Namena) were here Alice in Wonderland and Mystery Reef (looks like a wheat field! And had some nice soft coral).
Caveat If Im diving, Im happy. And I havent done that much diving in the Pacific yet (and no other diving in Fiji). -- Overall, I was happy with the dives I did. I know some people with loads of Pacific dives will say that diving around Savusavu is not spectacular. However, I was content with the dives and happy to see some of the Pacific fish I like.
On Thursday I was able to go to Namena. They go 1-2x per week weather permitting. The boat ride out was about 45min. and wasnt very rough that day. We had a gorgeous sunny day, which made it even better. The first dive was at Chimneys which is two side by side bommies. The soft coral was amazing and the fish life excellent. The second site was Grand Central Station which is a drift dive where you get sharks (we had 8-10). The dive ends around a small bommie with lots of life on it.
The quality of the dives at Namena was definitely a notch or two above the local diving, but to dive there on multiple days you need to be on a liveaboard.
In additional to diving, I participated in some of the Fijian cultural activities that Daku had planned. I really enjoyed these.
Savusavu was a nice little town with a local market, a variety of shops and restaurants.
The rain and cloud cover came in on Saturday (my last day of diving). It did impact my flight out as the low cloud cover cancelled the two morning flights from Savusavu (and the corresponding inbound flights from Nadi). Not to worry, the flights were reorganized and diverted to Labasa on the other side of Vanua Levu. Several of us shared a taxi (about 2 hours) over to the airport and were put on the next flight out.
Just a heads-up on luggage issues from Nadi!! Even though I had a ticket including travel to/from the US which has a higher luggage allowance, Air Pacific was picky when I checked in for the flight to Honiara. I finally talked them into only charged for the amount I was over the US (2 bags of 23kg) allowance. It wasnt that expensive FJ$8/kg. However, I was hassled by the airport security about the weight of my rollerboard suitcase. The Air Pacific rep allowed me to take out my reg bag and put some heavier items in it and go through security with an extra piece of hand luggage! Same total weight just split into more containers!
I would definitely go back to Fiji and am keen to explore some of the other dive areas there.
Thanks again to FijiDiveGuy for the help in deciding where to spend my time in Fiji.
