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Dive Review of Wananavu Beach Resort in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Viti Levu

Wananavu Beach Resort: "Great service, boats and diving", Jun, 2016,

by Mae L. Ding, CA, US (Sr. Reviewer Sr. Reviewer 9 reports with 10 Helpful votes). Report 9184 has 4 Helpful votes.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 4 stars Food 3 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 3 stars
Beginners 5 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments Stayed in Ocean View room June 2016 for a week of scuba diving. This part of Fiji had a very bad hurricane earlier this year that destroyed another resort nearby called Voli Voli. However, damage at Wananavu is almost undetectable at this time. The burre we stayed in was in excellent condition with newly remodeled bathroom and new light fixtures. King bed was firm and comfortable. The large room includes stocked minibar, Australian style electrial outlets, plenty of lighting, 2 overhead fans, quiet and effective air conditioning, screened double front glass doors and large picture windows make for fantastic views from your bed, small coffee table and 2 chairs inside, nIce front porch area with 2 chairs and a table, electric tea kettle with instant coffee and tea bags, hair dryer. If you love coffee, we recommend you bring a french press and your favorite coffee in your luggage. The lush landscaping and trees on the property are attractive and well trimmed leaving a great view of both gardens and ocean from all the ocean view rooms. Warning for those who hate walking up hills, the resort is built on a hillside with the dining room at the top and some ocean view rooms at the top, some ocean view rooms and pool in the middle, and the beach front units and boat dock at the bottom. It is about a 5 minute walk from the boat dock to the dining room. Front desk delivers luggage to rooms. Dive shop will pick up your dive gear, clean it, and store it while you are there, and load it onto the boat daily. No need to drag any of your stuff back and forth between room and boat. No safe in room but front desk will store your valuables in their safe. We brought a small travel safe for our money and passports and gave it to the front desk to store. No phones or tv in the rooms. No dresser, but closet has 2 large shelves and a couple of feet of hangar space. Strong wifi signal available in the room with 3G speed. $35 for 1 week of wifi for up to 2 pieces of electronic equipment. Better deal is $13 US for DigiCell sim chip for your unlocked cell phone purchasable at Nadi airport in luggage area which includes 1 week of unlimited local cell service and 4 Gigabytes of data. We booked our room on Hotels.com for about $160/night including breakfast and round trip private transfers from Nadi airport which is about a 2.5 hour drive away.
Dining room is in good condition with exception that all the outdoor dining area fans were torn out. The ocean views from the dining room are fantastic. You have a choice of either indoor or outdoor tables. Very good service in the dining room. Menu selections and food preparation are adequate. Good hot breakfast includes a selection of homemade breads and muffins, eggs, strangely flavored bacon, sausage, pancakes with honey (no maple syrup), french toast, omelettes made to order, fresh cut pineapple and watermelon, fruit juice, decent fresh coffee or tea. Lunch and dinner offers some nice salads (really enjoyed the spicy cajun chicken salad), good battered fish and chips, pizza, burgers, curry of the day, fettucine alfredo, soup of the day. Daily specials included roasted lamb with mashed potato, steak with baked potato, and fresh fish. Desserts include a variety of ice creams and some baked items. Guests can get a complete meal plan or just breakfast included in their room rate. We chose breakfast included with our room and ordered ala carte off the menu which was moderately priced. We stocked up on bottled drinks and snacks in Rakiraki which is the very small town about 10 minute drive from the resort. This saves a lot of money since a can of coke in the minifridge is $3 US. Happy Hour every day from 5:30 to 6:30 with local beer for $3 US, house wine for $4, any mixed cocktail for $8. The resort is in a very isolated location so the resort is your only real option for restaurant.
Wananavu has a very good dive operation on site with 2 dive boats. We used the larger boat which holds up to 15 divers and has lots of shade reaching all the way from the front to the back of the boat, a head on board, a good ladder, and two powerful outboard motors. It is one of the better dive boats that we have been on. Diving is expensive at $140 US for 2 dives in a day, but is not significantly different in price from RA Divers, the other dive operator in the area. Nitrox is available fr $13 US per tank or $100 US for a week of unlimited tanks. The service provided by the dive operation is the best we have ever experienced in our many years of diving in many parts of the world. Some dive sites have experienced great damage from hurricanes and are mainly rubble. However, many of the dive sites appear to have minimal damage and have a large amount of hard corals and some soft corals and lots of fish. During the week we were here, strong currents and moderate winds prevented our going to the famous Bligh Waters for most of the week. This was a great disappointment to us since the best diving is in the Bligh Waters. They allow you to dive your computer. Dive briefings are minimal in nature with no picture drawn of the reef you are diving. Some dive masters do a good job of pointing out critters. Others not so much. Dry towels, water, tea, fresh fruit, and muffins served on the boat. All were very helpful with getting in and out of the water and hooking up tanks.
Hotel charges 3.5% for using credit or debit cards. Currency exchange is offered at bank rates for a 5% fee. This is a better deal than the airport Westpac Bank or Western Union exchange rates even though they do not charge a “fee”. We never really needed Fiji currency since grocery store and resort accepts credit cards.
Websites Wananavu Beach Resort   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 101-250 dives
Where else diving Fiji, Cozumel, Palau, Little Cayment, La Paz, Riviera Maya
Closest Airport Nadi Getting There Fiji Airlines nonstop from Los Angeles, CA. Private taxi round trip from airport to resort included in weekly hotel rate. About a 2 hour drive each way.

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, windy Seas choppy
Water Temp -°F / -°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 20-60 Ft/ 6-18 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles None Whales None
Corals 5 stars Tropical Fish 5 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 2 stars
Large Pelagics 3 stars

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

Subject Matter 5 stars Boat Facilities 3 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 4 stars Shore Facilities 3 stars
UW Photo Comments [None]
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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