Dive Review of Oneta Resort in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Ono Island, Kadavu

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Oneta Resort: "Off-the-Beaten Path Resort, Great Diving/Service, Idyllic Setting", May, 2024, by Hugh E Aaron, FL, US ( Top Contributor 30 reports with 30 Helpful votes). Report 12987.
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Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	TRIP OVERVIEW Note: This trip overview is the same for my reviews of both Oneta Resort (this review) and Paradise Taveuni (reviewed separately). The other sections of this review are specific to the particular resort/dive operation being reviewed. We spent about three weeks in Fiji in late April and early May, 2024. We booked all our flights on one ticket, which is easy to do with Fiji Airways. That is important because the more generous international baggage allowances apply to all flights, including all inter-island flights, if the inter-island flights are booked on the same itinerary as the international flights. We initially flew into Nadi (pronounced “Nandi”) on the overnight flight from San Francisco. Nadi is Fiji’s international airport. It is on Viti Levu, the largest of the Fijian islands, which some Fijian’s call the “mainland.” Interestingly, Nadi is not the capital. The capital is Suva, which is on the opposite side of Viti Levu. We spent four days in Nadi at the Platinum Cawa Apartments near the airport. We booked our apartment through Booking.com. The apartments are huge and the location is great for exploring the area. But it is not near the beach. We rented a car and toured Nadi and the surrounding area on our own. Highlights were touring the Garden of the Sleeping Giant, hiking in the Sigatoka Sand Dunes National Park and a guided tour of the Tavuni Hill Fort remains near Sigatoka. Our Verizon Ultimate Unlimited Plan worked fine in Fiji. However, that plan is limited to 10 gb of international data per month. While in Nadi, we visited the Digicel store where we purchased secondary e-Sims for our iPhones. For less than $25 US per phone we each got 225 gb of the fastest data that Digicel offered. After that, we hardly ever connected to wifi anywhere as Digicel generally seemed faster. ONO ISLAND OVERVIEW To reach Ono Island by air, you must first fly into Kadavu Island. Kadavu is south of Viti Levu, the main island. Kadavu is the fourth largest island in Fiji. Ono is a smaller island located about 5 km northwest of Kadavu across the Kadavu Passage. The flight from Nadi to Kadavu takes about 50 minutes. When making your travel plans pay attention to the calendar as some days there are no flights from Nadi to Kadavu on Thursdays and Saturdays. There are about a half dozen villages on Ono that are reached either by boat or on foot. As far as we could tell, Oneta Resort is currently the only tourist infrastructure on the island. Ono has no other commercial services and no roads. For divers, Ono’s location is strategic because the Great Astrolabe Reef runs along the east side of Ono and circles a group of smaller (mostly uninhabited) island just north of Ono. The Great Astrolabe Reef is reported to be one of the largest barrier reefs in the world. The reef is named after the Astrolabe, a French exploration vessel that visited Fiji in the early 19th century. ONETA RESORT OVERVIEW The only way to reach Oneta from Kadavu is to arrange for the resort to send a speedboat to pick you up from the Kadavu airport. The Kadavu airport is across the street from a beach. The resort staff greets you at the airport and escorts you across the road to the beach. There is no pier or jetty so the crew anchors the boat in knee deep water. You wade out to the boat so make sure you are wearing shoes and clothes that can get wet. The resort staff carries your luggage out to the boat. We had the boat to ourselves as we were the only arriving guests that day (the resort is very small). The boat ride from the airport to Oneta takes about an hour and can be lumpy. But the run along the coasts of Kadavu and Ono is quite scenic. The whole area has a remote, off the beaten path feel. Oneta is also on the beach. Upon arrival at the resort, you wade off the boat. The crew offloads your luggage and takes it to your cottage (as is typical in Fiji, the cottage’s are called bures) or villas. Oneta is located on the northeast side of Ono Island directly on the beach. The setting is spectacular with wide open views of the smaller islands to the north and the Astrolabe reef to the east. There is a constant ocean breeze. The resort has a very elegant feel. The grounds are beautifully maintained with lots of coconut trees and other tropical trees and plants. All of the buildings are constructed using natural materials found on the island. There are elevated wooden walkways connecting the dive shop, the bures/villas and the lounge/dining pavilion. There are multiple shaded areas with comfortable chairs for lounging. There is no pool, but we didn’t miss it. When not diving, we spent most our time relaxing in the dining/lounging pavilion. In typical Fijian style, that area has a thatched roof and open sides with nice ocean views and a constant breeze. The owners are an American couple from California. They happened to be onsite for a portion of our stay. It became immediately apparent that, for them, Oneta is as much a passion as it is a business. They are very focused on promoting and preserving Fijian culture and supporting the local villages through their separate Oneta Foundation. The owners also seem to care deeply about the resort’s staff some of whom have worked at Oneta for many years. The resort is completely off the grid which makes sense given that Ono has no grid. They make their own power, mostly using solar with backup batteries and generators. I don’t think the generators are used much. They request that guests try to charge their devices during the day and turn off nonessential electrical devices at night. That worked fine for us. We usually stay at dedicated dive resorts. However, I would not classify Oneta as a dedicated dive resort. Rather, it is an island resort that offers a full service dive operation along with guided fishing trips and other activities. During our stay, at least half of the other guests were not diving. Instead they were snorkeling, fishing, paddling, hiking and doing other activities. But everyone seemed to be having a great time. ACCOMMODATIONS, FOOD AND AMENITIES There are a total of five bures and two villas. Two of the bures are beachfront, one is in the garden behind the beachfront, and two are up a hill (be ready for some stairs) but had gorgeous ocean views. The two villas are on the beach on the opposite end of the resort from the dining/lounging pavilion. All of the accommodation options looked great. We had one of the beachfront bures. It had one large room with a king bed, a desk and some other furniture. There was an attached indoor bathroom with a double sink and a toilet. There was a private outdoor shower connected to the bathroom. There is no air conditioning in the bures, villas or anywhere else in the resort. Prior to our arrival, we were nervous about the lack of air conditioning. We wondered if we would be able to sleep comfortably. Those concerns turned out to be unfounded. The bure windows are equipped with vents that allow the windows to be opened up while still being very private. They allowed a surprising amount of breeze to flow through. Our bure never got hot. In fact, most nights it was so comfortable that we did not turn on our ceiling fan. I even used an extra blanket some nights. The bure was also very dark and quiet at night other than the relaxing sound of the waves lapping on the beach. We slept great. Of course, we were at Oneta in May, which is the Fijian fall. It would probably be warmer over the summer (December through March). Our booking included three meals daily. All meals are cooked to order (with a buffet only on Fiji Night), which is nice. As one might expect at a small, remote resort, the menu options were not extensive. However, the food was very good. I’m a picky eater and once or twice nothing on the menu appealed to me. When I told the staff, they offered some other options, which I enjoyed. For a small resort, the menu, which rotates daily, is fairly extensive. The resort offers a nice selection of non-diving activities. Most of the activities are included except massages and activities that involve involve a power boat. I enjoyed a kayak trip to see a waterfall. Another day, my wife and I went on a guided jungle hike where we saw a lot of beautiful scenery and learned a lot from our guide about his life in the local village on Ono where he lives. My wife also really enjoyed the massages. The special “Fiji Night” event was delightful with a special menu, all the Kava you can drink, music, singing and dancing. Oneta provides free wifi that works in the lounge/dining pavilion. For such a remote location, it was reasonably usable. But I generally found that the Digicel service on my phone was slightly faster than the wifi. DIVING Oneta has a full service dive operation with an onsite dive shop, a compressor, and two custom aluminum dive boats. However, Nitrox is not available. All of the dives are on the Great Astrolabe Reef. Oneta has a large variety of different dive sites. Most dive sites are 45 minutes to an hour away by boat. The dive operation is very personal and flexible. My wife and I mostly dove as a group of two or three divers with our assigned dive guide, a Fijian who everyone calls “Bill Gates.” Bill is great fun. On dive days, we did two tank morning dives. Although had we asked, I’m sure that they would have arranged afternoon or night dives. Again, the service is very personal. The dive boats have outboards and generally had plenty of room, even with snorkelers aboard. Depending on the boat, entry is either by giant stride or back roll. The boarding ladders are well designed and comfortable to use. For the surface intervals, the captain beaches the boat on one of the many small (mostly deserted) islands in the area. Those islands are gorgeous. We really enjoyed the surface intervals. We visited Ono immediately after a ten day stay on Taveuni diving Rainbow Reef. The dives sites on the Astrolabe Reef generally had slightly more interesting geography that the dive sites on Rainbow Reef, with numerous swim throughs, peaks and valleys. As with Rainbow Reef, we saw very little evidence of bleaching but some of the dive sites had some macro algae. The soft coral on the Astrolabe Reef is impressive but not quite as impressive as it is on Rainbow Reef. We hardly ever encountered another dive boat or any other divers anywhere. It feels like you are a thousand miles from civilization. As with Rainbow Reef, we were pleasantly surprised by the variety of nudibranchs on the Astrolabe Reef dive sites. But we were a bit disappointed with the relative scarcity of big fish. Although, we saw sharks on most dives. The Ono area is know for Mantas. The boat crew keeps a sharp eye out for Mantas as the boat travels between Ono and the dive sites on the Astrolabe Reef. When mantas are spotted, usually at a cleaning station, everyone who wants to see them can jump in with their snorkels. We encountered mantas on a few occasions, but one in particular stood out. There were 25+ mantas (more than we could easily count given all the action in the water) flying through the water feeding and doing underwater acrobatics. They swam with us for about 10 minutes before moving on. The water temperature was generally 27 or 28 Celsius on all of our dives. We dove without wetsuits. But I would have at least wanted a vest if it had been even a little cooler. On most dives we experienced only mild current. I don’t recall ever using my reef hook. There is no house reef. One thing too keep in mind is that the resort and the Astrolabe Reef are relatively exposed to the weather. The ability to dive on any given day is weather dependent. We had one day that the staff recommended against going out at all due to the wind and seas. So, if you visit Oneta to dive you need to be prepared for the possibility that the boats may not be able to go out on some days. CONCLUSION Oneta is a special place. It is a beautiful facility in a idyllic setting far away from the crowds and the modern world. The staff are a wonderful group of people who work incredibly hard to make sure that everyone has a fantastic experience. We don’t usually return to a place we have already visited. But Oneta may be an exception.
Websites	Oneta Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Virginia, North Carolina, California, Hawaii, Florida, Abaco, Bimini, Exumas, Culebra, USVI, BVI, Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, Caymans, Dominica, Roatan, Belize, Saba, St, Barths, St Kitts, Nevis, Saint Martin, Bequia, Bonaire, Curacao, Thailand, Australia, Egypt, Bali, Raja Ampat, Maldives, Fiji
Closest Airport	Kadavu	Getting There	Florida > San Fransisco > Nadi, Fiji > Kadavu. Fiji > Speedboat to Ono Island, Fiji
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, cloudy, dry	Seas	calm, choppy, no currents
Water Temp	27-28°C / 81-82°F	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	15-35 M / 49-115 Ft
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Stay with the guide, generally back on the boat within 60 minutes, but flexible and relaxed
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	no
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	Squadrons
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	There are no dedicated facilities for photographers on the boats or on shore. However, upon request, the crew will load a camera rinse bucket on the boats. The crew also knows how to properly handle camera equipment. The bures have a desk which can placed near an electrical outlet. I used a torch for close up work like inspecting my housing o-ring. I was a bit concerned about loading my camera into my housing with no air conditioning. However, I did not experience any fogging.

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Dive Review of Oneta Resort in Fiji and Tuvalu/Ono Island, Kadavu

Oneta Resort: "Off-the-Beaten Path Resort, Great Diving/Service, Idyllic Setting", May, 2024,

Photos Submitted with this Report

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Oneta Resort in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Ono Island, Kadavu