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

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Beqa Lagoon Resort: "Beqa Lagoon--lovely resort, dive operations in flux", Nov, 2017, by Alice Ribbens, MN, US ( Contributor 19 reports with 19 Helpful votes). Report 10023 has 4 Helpful votes.
No photos available at this time
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	We were meeting some friends on the Nai'a and decided to go out a week early and do some diving at Beqa. It was very easy to work with the resort via email to arrange a dive package and transfers from the airport to Beqa and then back to where we needed to meet up with the Nai'a. The resort is lovely and our bure (on the Koi Pond) was spacious and very comfortable. Food was great--breakfast is buffet and then at breakfast, you select options for lunch and dinner for that day. They always seemed to have a meat (usually beef or chicken), fish, and vegetarian option. The office staff is quick to jump on any issue that comes up, whether it be a misplaced item or maintenance problem at the bure. (However, I did hear from other guests that some of the beachfront bures had difficulties with their A/C units and that some of these bures had private pools that were not usable during their stay.) The diving was generally very good, but the dive operations are more than a bit discombobulated. Apparently, the dive operations manager has only been there a month or two and there had not been anyone in that position for nearly a year. At least one of the dive boats was not operational while we were there (they were borrowing/renting boats from others). There were a huge number of tanks that needed maintenance and they seemed to have some issues with the nitrox system at the same time. We were told to be at the dive shop at 7:45 am for dive briefings and 8 am departures, but we rarely left before 8:30 and one day it was after 9 before the boats were ready to go. They do "shark dives" (where they feed the sharks) on Mon/Wed/Fri. We were signed up to do the shark dive on Wed, but when we found out that a big group (20+) was also planning on Wed, we asked to do it Fri instead. They said that was fine, but on Wed morning they informed us that we were the only people not signed up for the shark dive and that they didn't have a boat to take us diving. I felt a little bullied into signing up for the shark dive that day, although it worked out in a way--visibility at the shark dive site was bad due to the rain so we did one dive at the shark dive site and then did a wall dive that was probably one of the best we had all week. Some of the Fijian DMs were excellent; others seemed less interested in working with the guests. There were rinse tanks for cameras and other gear near the dive shop as well as ample space for people to hang up wetsuits and other gear to dry. However, this was a little disorganized, too. The last day we were diving, I left a Lavacore top hanging with other wetsuits at the shop in hopes that it would dry before we had to pack to leave. When we got back from diving, lots of wetsuits were there, but my Lavacore top was missing. The office staff and some of the dive staff were quick to help me find it--eventually it was found out on the dive boat. I am still not sure how it ended up out there. I suspect that one of the dive staff grabbed it thinking it was theirs (since they were the only other people I saw wearing Lavacore all week), but they tried to tell me that I must have taken it out to the boat and forgotten about it. Um, no. The other semi-odd thing was that they told us we couldn't wear bright colored fins (e.g. pink or yellow) for the shark dive. They had full foot fins available as an option, but these were basically snorkeling fins. I felt like I had zero ability to swim in current with these fins--I really feel bad for anyone who plans on renting gear and ends up with these fins. They keep your gear in a bin for the week and get those bins on the appropriate dive boat for you. Sometimes they want you to analyze nitrox tanks on the boat and sometimes at the dive shop before gear is loaded, which makes things a little chaotic. We had hoped to shore dive when we were there, but there was so much rain that visibility near shore was not good so we didn't. Visibility was much improved the farther we got from the island. Mosquitos were pretty bad, especially in the dining hall. They had bug spray available, but a lot of people were spraying themselves right next to where everyone was eating and/or right before they got on the dive boats. The other thing that was a little chaotic was the day we were leaving. We were leaving the same day as a big group of 24 that had plans to do some sightseeing on their way back to Nadi before their flight out that night. We were supposed to be back in Nadi by noon to meet up with our transport to the Nai'a. I had told Beqa about this time issue months before we arrived and I verified that they knew about this when we arrived. They told us that the boats back to the mainland would depart at 8:30. At 9:15 when we were all still sitting around, I went to ask the office what was going on since we had a deadline of when we needed to be in Nadi, even if the larger group did not. They told us we'd be leaving on the first boat, but when we got to the boat, only some of our luggage was there, so we had to get someone to go to the other boats to look for the rest of our luggage. Fortunately, they had arranged transport on the other side so we did get back to Nadi in time to meet up with our Nai'a transport in spite of the late departure. I hope they get their maintenance done on the boats and dive equipment and that the dive operation gets its act together. Unfortunately, I also heard from another guest that the resort manager has talked about disbanding the entire dive operation in hopes of turning Beqa into a more upscale resort. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming months.
Websites	Beqa Lagoon Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Komodo, Raja Ampat, Philippines, Maldives, Palau, GBR, Fiji, British Columbia, Monterey, Hawaii, Bonaire, Turks & Caicos, Caymans, Honduras, Belize, Cozumel, Akumal, Sea of Cortez, Lake Superior, Solomon Islands, etc.
Closest Airport	Nadi	Getting There	From US: LAX to Nadi on Fiji Air
Dive Conditions
Weather	rainy	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	80-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	30-75 Ft/ 9-23 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Had to at least sort of follow the group. Dive times were supposed to be an hour, but this was not enforced strictly except for the shark dives, which had different rules.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	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	They had dedicated rinse tanks for cameras on the dive boats and next to the dive shop. Unfortunately, no one made an announcement about the rinse tanks on the boats and several divers were rinsing their masks in the camera tank until I said something. This earned me some nasty looks from those divers, but then the DMs backed me up and reminded people not to put masks in the tanks for cameras.

Report currently has 4 Helpful votes

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

Beqa Lagoon Resort: "Beqa Lagoon--lovely resort, dive operations in flux", Nov, 2017,

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 Beqa Lagoon Resort in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Pac Harbor/Beqa Lagoon