paradise taveuni or garden island

[jbjclj]

Paradise Taveuni or Garden Island. Can't decide

 

[TostitoBandito]

Never heard of garden island resort. Most folks here going to Taveuni are picking between Paradise and Taveuni Dive Resort. Paradise is significantly larger and closer to the water, while TDR is smaller and more private and family-like, and across the street from the beachfront (<5 min walk to beach/jetty). Both have solid dive ops as far as I know. Last I knew Paradise was for sale, so don't know if that's changed.

 

[scoobyluu]

If you're willing to stay at a homestay with less nice furnishings, I would give 100 stars to AeroView homestay on Taveuni. Spent 2 weeks there, and spent most of my time out and about so staying at a nice place didn't matter to me, but the hosts were wonderful and superb (friendly, homecooked meals everyday, chauffeur). Used the money I saved on more tank dives with Taveuni ocean sports.

 

[Trailboss123]

I am a fan of Taveuni Dive Resort. Quality operation, excellent food and accommodations and much closer to the reefs and diving than Paradise Taveuni. 2 or 3 dives a day options. I happen to be here at TDR currently and can't say enough positive.

 

[ACHiPo]

Paradise Taveuni or Garden Island. Can't decide

We spent a week at Paradise Taveuni in May and loved it. Great accommodations, friendly service, ok food, great dive operation with 2-3 dives/day (and night dives some days). They have good AC if that is a factor.

 

[wgw04024]

We spent a week at Paradise Taveuni in May and loved it. Great accommodations, friendly service, ok food, great dive operation with 2-3 dives/day (and night dives some days). They have good AC if that is a factor.

Same here, there in May. I wish the food had been more like coco view. Buffet, lots of options. I don't need waiter service on a dive trip. Really like the operation top to bottom. Great guides, friendly staff, nice rooms, good AC.

 

[PACKRMAN]

I have stayed at Garden Island twice and will be booking a third trip for next summer. Great accommodations, excellent staff, willing to do up to five dives a day, although I am exhausted after four.

 

[wgw04024]

I have stayed at Garden Island twice and will be booking a third trip for next summer. Great accommodations, excellent staff, willing to do up to five dives a day, although I am exhausted after four.

Just a few questions....
1. does it have a house reef? Yes.
2. if so, can you night dive daily on it? No. shore diving ends at 3:00pm wtf? Paradise has a similar policy, what is the deal with this? We ended up being able to night dive daily but it was an added cost having someone 'watch' from the shore, honestly.
3. how is the food. buffet style, variety? Looks like server style like paradise.
4. I assume you don't really have a reason to leave the resort?
5. It says up to 5 dives a day but if you have to end at 3pm I'm not sure how you get those in as the boat 'assumably' doesn't get back till 12 or 1 then lunch?

Edit: Looked at the website.

 

[TostitoBandito]

2. if so, can you night dive daily on it? No. shore diving ends at 3:00pm wtf? Paradise has a similar policy, what is the deal with this? We ended up being able to night dive daily but it was an added cost having someone 'watch' from the shore, honestly.

Speaking for TDR at least, it's a safety issue. The Somosomo strait is extremely tidal with currents flowing almost all the time at most sites. Night diving is tough out in on the main rainbow reef sites because it's very difficult to visually judge current on the surface in the dark, plus the safety issue of keeping a dive group together on a drift dive in the dark, and recovering divers afterwards. What if someone loses a light? Things can go real bad in a hurry. A group of experienced/advanced divers would probably be able to manage it, but resorts like this have divers of all abilities they have to manage, and novice divers in a nighttime variable current situation would not be pretty. Probably just not worth the risk for them. Some resorts may see it differently, but I didn't get the impression that anyone really went diving offshore there at night on the regular.

When we did night dives there they used a shallow collection of coral bommies a few hundred yards off of Taveuni just south of the resort. Sort of a shore dive, max depth of like 40 feet with basically no current in that area, so we could all split up and mill around looking at critters safely for like 90 minutes without the DM's having to babysit everyone.

 

[wgw04024]

Yes, when I said nite dive, I should of specified shore dives at night from the resort itself. My bad.
Yup, nite dives on Rainbow certainly have the chance of being problematic especially with divers who aren't completely self-sufficient.