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

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Beqa Lagoon Resort: "Great shark dives, not so great reef dives", Sep, 2019, by Jason Marks, CA, US ( Sr. Reviewer 8 reports with 4 Helpful votes). Report 11165 has 4 Helpful votes.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
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	Three days a week, Beqa Lagoon Resort does a high energy shark feeding dive trip (two dives on the same site) where big bull sharks and even bigger tiger sharks gather for a feast of fish heads. The day we did it, it was well managed, seemed as safe as it could be given the wild predators involved, and was really exciting. We saw four tiger sharks, I think – and reportedly even more show up later in the season. When you are not diving with the sharks, they take the boats to some of the fringing reefs surrounding Beqa Island. Here’s where we were disappointed by the diving. Due to a combination of factors – high winds, engine failures on two of the dive boats, and presence each day of new guests who needed to do check out dives – we never got out to the farther-out reefs where the famous Fijian softcorals can be found. In fact, one of our boat dives was within swimming distance of the resort. Some of the reefs we dove on were pretty vibrant with hardcoral gardens, gorgonians, anemones and lots of small tropical. Others were bleaker, suffering heavily from bleaching and sediment. On four reef dives, I counted three small softcorals. Some of the circumstances that led to poor diving, like weather and sea conditions, are of course outside the dive operation’s control. But I do fault the operation for not maintaining the boats: you can’t have a good reef diving operation if your boat engines are regularly failing. Nitrox was also iffy – the machine was out two of our three dive days – and the nitrox we did get was completely irrelevant given the group diving profile with everyone else on air. The resort itself is quite nice: bures are large and comfortable, food was high quality and the resort staff is friendly, personable and ready to help. The grounds are lush and we enjoyed just hanging out and watching birds. When we left, they accommodated our flight schedule by giving us a ride to the mainland on an afternoon boat – and a taxi back to the airport 3 hours away. That meant we could spend our last morning swimming in the ocean and relaxing by the pool instead of waiting at the airport. I wasn’t as enthusiastic about the general manager: when I politely suggested they change a problematic procedure (they take guests’ C-cards to copy, then leave them for pickup at reception instead of personally returning them), he adamantly rejected the idea on the ground that “we can’t be running after our guests!” He seemed undisturbed by the fact they still had the C-card for an Australian guest who left that morning. My bottom line: if you want to see big sharks feeding and relax at an excellent mid-range resort, head for Beqa Lagoon Resort. But don’t count on great reef diving.
Websites	Beqa Lagoon Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Indonesia, Phillipines, Maldives, French Polynesia, Caribbean, Micronesia.
Closest Airport	Suva	Getting There	We came from Nadi (international airport), but Suva is a lot closer. Resort supplied transport to Pacific Harbor, where their boat picks you up at the Pearl Resort.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, cloudy	Seas	choppy, currents
Water Temp	77-79°F / 25-26°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-80 Ft/ 15-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	The shark feeding dives are of course done as a group. On the reef dives some of the guides were overly demanding for staying with them.
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		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	On one of the boats, cameras were piled together in the rinse bucket. But the next day they were more careful. The dive center has a rinse tank but no set-up or charging area. (However, the bures are so large and well furnished that it doesn't matter.)

Report currently has 4 Helpful votes

Subscriber's Comments

By Alice Ribbens in MN, US at Oct 02, 2019 15:03 EST

This is a bummer to hear. We were at Beqa nearly 2 years ago (Nov. 2017) and the dive op seemed to be in transition then--at that point, they had a new dive op manager after not having had one in nearly a year. Boats were under repair and they had to borrow a boat from another operation. Nitrox was iffy, tanks were out of spec, etc. I had hoped they would get their act together, but apparently not. [I heard rumors when we were there that the GM was talking about disbanding the dive op altogether.]

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

Beqa Lagoon Resort: "Great shark dives, not so great reef dives", Sep, 2019,

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):

Subscriber's Comments

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