Dive Review of Beqa Lagoon Resort in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Beqa Island

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Beqa Lagoon Resort: "Very enjoyable dive trip. Friendliness of staff made the difference.", Jun, 2022, by Katherine Burns, CA, US ( 1 report with 3 Helpful votes). Report 11948 has 3 Helpful votes.
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Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Overall Impression I want to start this report with the conclusion because the final experience was more than the sum of all the parts. We really enjoyed our week at Beqa Lagoon Resort. After not diving for 2+ years, it felt great to be back underwater and a week of easy diving was a great tonic. Everyone at the resort went out of their way to make us feel like family and let us know how much our visit meant for the villages and for them personally. The intangibles of this location and community made this trip special & memorable. Finally, as we booked it as a dive group package, it was surprisingly affordable. Getting There Travel to and from Beqa is straightforward but not easy. First, there is the 11 hour flight from either LAX or SFO on Fiji Airlines. Then a multi-hour bus ride to Pacific Harbor with a stop mid-way. Finally the dive boats transport passengers & luggage from the marina to Beqa Lagoon Resort. Flight Arrangements Because we booked as a group package, our reservations were not accessible online so we had to call the airlines for seat assignments & to pre-pay for an extra bag. It took roughly 30-40 minute of hold time plus 20-30 minutes of service time to complete each of these tasks. In the Air The standard coach seats were fine for me but cramped for my six foot spouse. Because there is a 2-4-2 seating layout, we were able to sit together with window & aisle seats. Dinner & breakfast were served on both flights and were quite edible, with vegetarian choice available. Upon Arrival We boarded the bus for Pacific Harbor. We had to wait for all passengers from both the SFO & LAX flights to arrive before we could depart. Additionally, about 1/3 of the bus was filled with luggage which did not fit anywhere else. The bus ride is long & air-conditioned. There was a lot of road construction, trucks etc. so it takes a long time. At the half-way point (1.5 - 2 hours) there is a rest & shopping stop. Jacks has very good tee-shirt selection and prices, and the coffee stand has inexpensive & good espresso drinks. Once at the Pearl Resort & marina, the dive boats are there to take you to the resort itself. It is a 35 minute -ish ride & exiting the boat is on the beach in ankle deep water. At the resort The entire staff was waiting to great us with their musical instruments etc. One of our group has been to the resort 10 times, so it was a huge welcome back home for her & hubby & big welcome for the rest of us. The resort is very nice but needs a little TLC after the long Covid shutdown. We had a large 2 bedroom on the second floor (4 units total in our building) with fantastic ocean views & private beach. Most of the accommodations were stand alone Bure which sleeps 1 couple or 1 couple with and extra bed for children. Some of the Bure are on an artificial lagoon with a path which leads to the farther accommodations such as ours. The rooms are nice but there are small details missing. Some rooms did not have umbrellas, we did not have a cushion for one of our outside chairs, etc. Shower with solar hot water worked well for us. The power stayed on the entire trip except for a brief (less than 1 minute) outage on the last day. We had no problem charging our electronics in the room. We had a large king size bed and the other room had 2 queens. The pool is nice with a waterfall & good for relaxing after diving or snorkelling. To get between the rooms & the dining hall there are multiple garden paths which are pleasant to stroll. Meals On the boat and each evening afterwards menus for the next day's meals are provided. There is typically one fish choice, one chicken/lamb/beef choice and one vegetarian choice for lunch and dinner. Dessert is provided with dinner. Breakfast is omelets, oatmeal, pancakes or french toast and fresh fruit. Dry cereals, coffee, tea, juice are provided. We ate with a vegan couple and the staff went out of their way to make sure there was food they could eat. The food was good but not extraordinary. The recently hired general manager has plans to revamp & update the menu. I believe the menu repeats with the same choices on the same days every week. Staff I should put a word in here about the staff. They were So friendly and enthusiastic & HAPPY to have us there. They went out of their way to make sure everyone was well taken care of. Most nights there was live music. There was a cultural experience about 1 hour before dinner each day. There was also a kava ceremony one evening. Diving -- Logistics We were assigned a boat, group & divemaster for the entire trip. Each morning we signed in and also did oral roll call. Every dive our depth & bottom times were logged by the divemaster for the boat. We mostly dove as a group of 4 with another couple we were traveling with. Later in the week, 2 other divers from our dive group who were newly certified joined us to make a group of 6. The other divers on the boat & on our trip were a separate group of 12 who dove as 2 groups of 6 except for one day when they were a group of 9. (The rest of the group decided not to dive that day). Transits to the dive sites were typically 30+ minutes and later in the week the water was moderately rough as a rainstorm moved through the region. Some people had seasickness. We had 5 days of 2 tank dives with 1 hour surface intervals. Depths ranged from 45 - 99 feet and bottom times were capped at around 55 minutes. Diving - The Dives The highlight of the week were the 2 shark dives at the cathedrals. We sat on the bottom behind a small fence and there was a large steel bait box filled with tuna heads from the factory on the mainland. The divemasters have hooked poles they use to corral the sharks. We saw all the major species -- black & white tipped reef sharks, bull sharks, tiger sharks & nurse sharks. It was an exhilarating 25 minutes of bottom time. The second dive was returning to the same spot, but the sharks were wilder and more intent on getting into the bait box & getting every last bit of food out of it. I did not feel in danger but did follow the dive guides meticulously. In addition to the pelagics, there was an abundance of reef fish and some larger fish also. The rest of our dives were reef dives although we did visit 2 wrecks. Our group only dove the first one as the second was in 90+ feet of water and a swim from where we descended. Overall, the reefs were a mix of rock, healthy coral, stressed coral and dead coral. There was an abundance of small reef fish. Highlights of my dives were the blue ribbon eel, electric clam and turtle. Others saw octopus, multiple eels and more variety than I was able to identify. We only saw a few nudibranchs. My dives topped out at 75 feet and 57 minutes of bottom time. The other dive group did consistently deeper and longer dives. Current was minor except at the very end of the first dive when I needed to hold on to a sunken beam to stay in place. There was surge at some locations. Once the rain started, the visibility dropped significantly which affected our last two days of diving. Diving -- the dive professionals The ratio of divers: guide was about 6:1. The guides were all locals from the nearby villages and there was one instructor. Our friend who had just gotten certified found his guidance very helpful. Our guide was a genuinely kind person and he kept our group together and pointed out interesting creatures as we went. In general though, the guides had much less information to provide about the reefs, the fish, etc than I have experienced elsewhere. Diving -- boats & rental equipment In this respect, the resort has really suffered during the Covid shutdown and I expect the situation will be much improved in the near future. We are still early in the season with their peak time beginning in July so they are still ramping up. The resort has 2 new boats on order but the shutdown, custom delays & backlog at the boat yards has delayed their arrival. The word was that they are now almost ready. That said, the boat we were on was sub-standard. A lot of things were in disrepair and the boat is slow enough that some sites were inaccessible. And the head on-board was not for the faint-hearted. Similarly, the rental wetsuits had seen better days & desperately need to be replaced. Our guide was diving in an older wetsuit & did not have his own light but was borrowing one of ours. Hopefully these lacks will be remedied in the near future. Diving -- shore dive & snorkeling We did one shore dive at dusk and multiple snorkels on the house reef. The house reef ranges from very shallow (exposed at low tide) to a max of 20 feet. At low tide it is a long walk out to the water line so it is best to go when the tide is in. After swimming over the sea grass near the shore, the reef begins shallow and has a good drop off running parallel to the beach. There are patches of healthy coral and a decent number of fish to be seen. Some divers saw white tip sharks, eels and octopus but I was not that fortunate. All in all, the dive & the snorkeling were enjoyable but due to the shallowness of the reef, it is almost overkill to dive. Beqa Island Hospitality (staff & villages) In addition to the diving, the resort has daily cultural offering and a spa. The masseuses tend to be the mothers of the divemasters, showing the closeness of the entire staff. I partook of the free foot massage and their standard massage & found them to be excellent and well priced. The massage relieved the tightness I had in my back which I am sure came from boarding the boat with my BC & weights earlier in the day. After that I took my BC off in the water and had no more issues with my back. As part of the cultural activities we visited the elementary school for the island. About 200 children from 4 villages attend, including a group from the furthest village who stay in dormitories all week at the school. I felt a bit uncomfortable sitting in chairs while all the kids were on the grass & having them performs songs & skits but they seemed to be having fun. Also it is a way to raise much needed funds for the school and for that reason I was happy to be there. The easy walk through the jungle to/from the school was about 15 minutes & was a good change from the beach and the ocean. Covid Just a word about traveling in 2022. Under current restrictions, we all had to take a covid test the morning after our arrival. These were conducted by a nurse on site in the gift shop. No one was wearing masks and the rapid tests seemed to develop in far less than the 15 minutes it takes me for a home test. For our entry tests, everyone got a negative test and we all relaxed. As seating in the dining hall was assigned and our dive group sat together every night we did not have much mixing with the other dive groups who were there. Nonetheless, there was another group who arrived mid-week and some individual guests who arrived near the end of our stay. To return to the mainland, the resort was obliged to test us again. We did this Saturday morning before boarding the boat. At that point, 5 people from the same dive group tested positive. Immediately everyone pulled out their masks and those who tested positive were separated and would be transferred later in the day to the Pearl resort for their 7 day quarantine. Despite this, one of the group of 6 of us who ate, dove and socialized together was not feeling well for the entire trip home & tested positive when he arrived back home. As far as I know, no new cases have turned up since the trip ended. Leaving /Day Hotel Checkout is at 8:30 am on the last day. It took until about 2:30 pm to make the transfer to the day hotel (Hotel Tanu) near the airport. Since our flight did not depart until 10:15 pm, it was well worth it to have a meal, swim, shower & nap before getting on the 11 hour flight home.
Websites	Beqa Lagoon Resort [same]
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Hawaii, CA, French Polynesia, Costa Rica, Bali Indonesia (live aboard),
Closest Airport	Nadi International Airport (NAN)	Getting There	We took an 11 hour non-stop flight from San Francisco to Nadi International Airport. It was an easy flight with the usual coach seats which do feel cramped when the seats in front are reclined. Dinner & breakfast were served with a vegetarian option for both. If you are seated near the back of the plan, expect the choices to be more limited. Because our airfare was booked as part of a package, we were unable to use our confirmation number (PNR) on the website to get seat assignments.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy, cloudy	Seas	choppy, surge
Water Temp	75-77°F / 24-25°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	30-50 Ft/ 9-15 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Dive profile & time were announced in the dive briefing at the beginning of each dive. Divers were requested to dive as a buddy team & ascend together. Divers were asked to stay with their divemaster. Diving was in groups of 4 - 9 depending on the day.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
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	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	I am not a photographer. There was one person with a large rig and he seemed satisfied with the subject matter & shore facilities.

Report currently has 3 Helpful votes

Subscriber's Comments

By Ed Vaillancourt in NM, US at Aug 04, 2022 17:56 EST

We just got back from this resort, this is a very accurate telling of the good and not so good. We LOVED the staff and shark dives. The coral and fish population not so much. In truth, the shark dives were spectacular (in my 1,700+ dive experience).

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Dive Review of Beqa Lagoon Resort in Fiji and Tuvalu/Beqa Island

Beqa Lagoon Resort: "Very enjoyable dive trip. Friendliness of staff made the difference.", Jun, 2022,

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):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Beqa Lagoon Resort in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Beqa Island