Where to dive in Fiji - March 2012

[Bugsy_15]

Hi All,

I'm looking at heading to Fiji this March for a couple of weeks to do some diving. I'm looking for somewhere that not only has good diving but has a friendly atmosphere and is easy to meet people (as I'll be travelling alone and am in my early twenties). Any suggestions?

Greatly appreciated

 

[fiji_diver]

Several options, but have a look at Volivoli for a more backpackers, beach bar thing. Great dives especially when they go out to the vatu-i-Ra passage. Not much to do outside of the resort though.
A little more upmarket wolud be Uprising at Pacific Harbour. Lots of activities around here including Beqa Lagoon dives and the Aquatrek shark feeding dive as well as jet skiing and cultural activities off the resort. Another accommodation option at Pacific Harbour is Club Oceanus. There is no beach there but you are fairly close to Uprising and other beaches.

These would be my options for good diving with a lively crowd around. There is better diving, e.g. Taveuni or Kadavu and more lively resorts, like Beachcomer or Mago Bay but not so many with both.

Have a great trip
Greg

 

[1davey]

I stayed with Bequa Lagoon and Matava and liked the staff at both. If you like activities to do Bequa had more of that. If you are looking for more of a main stream dive vacation Bequa lagoon would be the place to stay. IE: Swmming pool, massages, etc. If you are looking at getting off the beaten path then Matava is for you. I truely enjoyed the one on on interaction with the staff there. The food was great. The dining took place in the main Bure around a central table Family style. That way you could talk with the other guests there. It was a great place to meet people from all over . I met people from Austraila, New Zeland, different parts of the U.S.. There were a couple of guys from New Zeland that were there fishing, they were a funny! Maggie is the host there and is absolutly hilarious! It is a smaller operation then Bequa but is more personnel. Last thing, the people of Fiji are the most welcoming culture I have come across hands down. Well I hope this will help you. If you have any questions just drop me a line I check back here often.

 

[Bugsy_15]

A friend of mine suggested the Yasawa Islands as being good for backpacker/island hopping style holidays and also for better (more consistent) diving in the rainy season (which I think includes March). Has anyone had any experience diving in those parts?

 

[farsidefan1]

If you come to paradise resort on Taveuni my wife and I are friendly. In Fiji the locals are world renowned for being friendly people. They live up to and above their reputation. I think the 2 best places to dive in Fiji are the Bligh waters and the somosomo straits (Rainbow reef area off Taveuni).

 

[coldwaterlloyd]

I have been looking at this resort , I am looking for minimum 3 dives a day , do the boats accomadate / is shore diving avaiable , thanks

If you come to paradise resort on Taveuni my wife and I are friendly. In Fiji the locals are world renowned for being friendly people. They live up to and above their reputation. I think the 2 best places to dive in Fiji are the Bligh waters and the somosomo straits (Rainbow reef area off Taveuni).

 

[cbm32]

Bugsy, my wife and I spent 17 days at Blue Lagoon Beach Resort on Nacula at the upper end of the Yasawas. I did three dives a day nearly every day there and realllly enjoyed it. This stay was on the tail end of 9 weeks in Fiji. I dove Naigani, Matava on Kadavu, and with Bega divers while staying in Pacific Harbour. Of those four places I would say that the diving was best on Naigani with Matava, next and then Blue Lagoon Beach Resort and last was Pacific Harbour.

That being said, during the rainy season I would definitely return to Blue Lagoon and not take the chance on the weather on the rainier side of Fiji. The weather was GREAT at Blue Lagoon in late Nov and early Dec. The staff was fantastic, the food was extremely good and the atmosphere was the most fun of any of the places we stayed. Meals everyone eats dinner at the same time at large tables and it is easy to get to know the other people there. There is something going on nearly every night. From crab races, to "Survivor Fiji" competition (the table that wins this is treated to a champagne breakfast on the beach the next morning) a bonfire one night.....just always something fun going on. My wife doesnt dive and she LOVED our time at Blue Lagoon.

The diving at Blue Lagoon is really very good when compared with the non-Fiji places I have dove. It beats Kauai and St. Thomas hands down. The reefs were in very good shape. During the regular dives I saw Christmas tree worms, sharks, barracuda, lobster, sea snakes, turtles, lion fish, a couple of different kinds of large crab, cabbage coral, and the list goes on and on and on. There are a couple of dives sites with excellent canyons and long swim throughs. Twice a week they do shark dives in conjunction with two other resorts and it is a fantastic experience.

Now Blue Lagoon is not first and foremost a dive resort, but they do three dives a day and night diving is also available. Their dive packages are a very good value and they never hesitate to send the boat out, even if there is only one diver that wants to go.

Now if you are going to strictly dive dive dive dive dive and nothing else matters........AND you are not going in the rainy season, I am sure you would be happier with Naigani or Taveuni or Kadavu or some place that dives the Bligh waters. But from what you have said in your posts I think Blue Lagoon would be just the ticket for you. The Yasawas are great for backpackers and island hopping and our experience at Blue Lagoon was top notch. Many of the people we got to know and socialized with in the evenings were singles and many were backpackers.

 

[farsidefan1]

Yes the boats accommodate 3 dives a day (that was one of my first questions too) and they have a very good house reef right out front. Have fun diving.

 

[sipadiver]

Now if you are going to strictly dive dive dive dive dive and nothing else matters........AND you are not going in the rainy season, I am sure you would be happier with Naigani or Taveuni or Kadavu or some place that dives the Bligh waters. But from what you have said in your posts I think Blue Lagoon would be just the ticket for you. The Yasawas are great for backpackers and island hopping and our experience at Blue Lagoon was top notch. Many of the people we got to know and socialized with in the evenings were singles and many were backpackers.

Which month is good to visit Fiji for diving?

 

[feitr]

Yasawas is the place most backpackers head off to do some island hopping, etc. as it is very close to Nadi. I went there for a few days and didn't even consider diving but there are many islands and i only visited a few.

Haven't been to volivoli but heard good things about the vatu-i-ra passage and if i went back to fiji i'd check it out (been twice for about a month total fwiw).

Beqa lagoon to do the shark/coral dives is worth it imo. I've done it with Beqa Adventure Divers but Aqautrek also run essentially the same trip. BAD were fine but they did have a diver fatality in Dec 10- Jan 11 or something on a coral dive (not taht i think there is any appreciable risk but from the way it was reported at least I would personally try to avoid doing business for the principle of it). That said I booked my second trip a bit spur of the moment and dived with them because aqua trek was full and was certainly happy.

Accomm. in pacific harbour is fairly pricey for alot of the resorts so best bet is uprising dorms which have one room for like 20-30 ppl at about FJ30/night and is perfectly fine and the dorms tend to be quite full so easy to meet somebody/cheap when traveling alone. There is also another backpackers there called tsusu or something but it is basically desolate and I only stayed there one night coz of a bit of a mixup with schedules and uprising dorms were full.

Shark dives are cool - you will see plenty of bull sharks but it is a long shot to see the tiger (talked to a couple that have done about 40 shark dive trips and they saw it 5 times. Coral dives are not spectacular but were good (only did 2, don't quote me on that).

I've also done about 10 nights at taveuni and the diving is really good there with very healthy coral. Bit annoying to get there tho as there is only one airline and i had my flight delayed like 3x and had my baggage put on another plane (very important, if you go to taveuni make sure you know that your checked in bag goes in your plan - the planes are very small). Also pretyt expensive (about FJ 200 from suva and 300 from nadi one way) and will cut into your time since you'll ahve to give yourself a window coming back to catch your international fligth (highly likely flights will be delayed).

Well worth it tho but if you just want to stay on the mainland then IMO go down to uprising from nadi, stay a few nights and do at least one shark dive + coral dive. Then keep on driving around and go through suva and up to volivoli and do a few days there. You can get the coral sun bus from nadi to suva for like 20FJ i think (or a few dollars on public transport but i didn't want to do that as i had scuba gear in my luggage) and you cna book that at your hotel. Getting to pacific harbour from nadi is easy - to volivoli from pacific harbour not so much so factor that in (easier than getting to taveuni tho). Can then take a taxi to volivoli or there are probably buses that run (not very often tho i wouldn't imagine). Hiring a car is actually a really good deal in fiji if you wanted to do that route but works much better with more than one of you. If you have some extra money/time/inclination then go to taveuni. Dolphin bay divers is probably the cheapest option for accomm./diving in taveuni (most others are resort resorts).