Dive Review of Ra Divers/Volivoli in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Rakiraki, Viti Levu

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Ra Divers/Volivoli: "Volivoli-Beautiful Resort & Soft Corals", Apr, 2024, by Love Sharks, OR, US ( Sr. Reviewer 9 reports with 9 Helpful votes). Report 12994.
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	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	This was the second island of a two-island Fiji dive trip. The first island was Taveuni, and I've posted that review. Leaving Taveuni, I flew from TVU to NAN, roughly 1 ½ hours of flight time in a prop plane on Fiji Link. As part of the dive and stay package, I had a private transfer from Nadi airport to Volivoli. With stops for groceries, water, snacks, it took about three hours. The driver was friendly and spoke English. It was a very enjoyable ride, albeit long. It was hot and humid, and because I'm a mosquito magnet, I used a lot of insect repellent. It did not rain at all during my stay. The staff commented about having all the rain in the previous couple of months had really brought the island back to life with lots of green color to the landscape and that it hadn’t been this green for several years. The water temps were 82-84ⷪ F, with a couple of dives at 86ⷪ and 89ⷪ F. The grounds are beautiful and well manicured. There’s a mangrove forest down the hill as you walk to the dive shop. The resort sits on a multi-tiered hill, which provides for stunning views. The hills are quite steep, so if you’ve got issues with your knees or back, this is something to consider. The least expensive rooms are at the top of the hill. If you’ve been to Roatan when the restaurant was at the top of the hill, that’s the degree of angle of the steps. There’s a brand new golf cart, which had just arrived the week prior to my arrival, and you can get a ride anytime you want. I have a bad knee, so I took advantage of the golf cart quite often, and they were delighted to help me. I was not the only one who took advantage of the ride, especially at the end of your trip when your body is just plain tired. I think next time I’ll bring my collapsible trekking pole. All of the staff was welcoming and friendly. The Fijian hospitality is something I’ll always remember. The target demographic here is serious and well-traveled divers and dive clubs/groups, although, there were some less experienced divers on the boat with about 20 lifetime dives. The only two kids I saw were with nondiving parents, and they were at the resort for a vacation. High-speed wi-fi is available throughout the property, including inside your room. My package came with free wi-fi for two devices, so I don’t know what the fee is if you purchase it on site. My T-Mobile service worked without wi-fi and it connected to the FJ Vodafone network. Coffee, tea, and water are free all day long. All other beverages, including sodas and alcohol are extra. They had very generous happy hours. The food was consistent in good quality and taste, and they have the best desserts I’ve had at a dive resort. The portions were quite sizeable too. The service for breakfast could be a bit slower when all the divers are eating at once. When I was there, there were a couple of big dive groups, 8-10 people per table, so I quickly figured out it was best to get breakfast before they arrived. At breakfast, complimentary juice and cut fruit are available, along with other continental style breakfast items, and you can order a hot breakfast off the menu if you wish. Lunch and dinner are ordered off the menu. On Meke night, there was a BBQ buffet down by the ocean and the dive shop. It’s a good idea to bring your own comfort food, snacks, alcohol, sodas, water, etc. It can add up quickly during your stay if you buy these things from the resort and there is a limited selection. I wasn’t clear on the source of the drinking water, so I brought a LifeStraw water bottle in case I needed filtration. It’s safe to refill only at the restaurant. I was told by the staff that the water from the tap stations around the resort is not safe to drink. The do not provide bottled water. Note that you cannot drink the tap water anywhere on the grounds except from the restaurant and bar. You can shower and brush your teeth safely with the tap water. I made this booking one year in advance. Given my knee issues, I needed to have as few stairs as possible, and the premium ocean view room is at the mid-level point of the hill, the same level as the check-in desk and gift shop. From those rooms, you go downhill to the dive shop, restaurant, and ocean front rooms and uphill for the other category of rooms. I was in the premium ocean view room. The check-in process and the condition of the room was perfect. The clean bed was very comfortable in this spacious accommodation with an L-shaped sofa in the open floor plan living room. It felt like an apartment. The full kitchen had everything but a stovetop; full-size refrigerator, microwave, sink, utensils and dishes. It also had a stackable washer and dryer, and you can buy the laundry soap for $2 FJD from the front desk. The double sink bathroom was also very spacious with adequate storage and countertop and a good size walk-in shower. Water pressure in the shower was very good and no shortage of hot water. You’ll need Australian adapters. There were plenty of plugs in the unit. The A/C was more than adequate, and the room had two ceiling fans. The resort is hooked up to the main power grid of the island, so steady power was not an issue. I was very satisfied with the size and comfort of the room overall. I think I remember seeing five boats total here. Two of the boats didn’t move and stayed anchored out in the water. They used the three other boats to take the divers out. The boats have shade, and there’s an orange jug to refill your water on board. There is a camera bucket on board, but it wasn't big enough for the size and number of cameras. Their biggest and newest boat with two rear ladders is used for the dive groups. During the majority of my stay, one club/group was on that boat. I did join them for the night dive, so it was my only time on that boat. It’s very roomy. The onsite shop is Ra Divers. Here, you can dive your computer. All my dives averaged an hour or more, with the longest being 73 minutes. The groups were well organized by experience level, for which I was grateful. Since I’m a single diver, I’m usually the add-on to a group of four or five divers. Everyone is seated together by group, so you all launch at the same time, front to back of the boat. They were consistently putting the groups out at no more than six divers per guide, and more often than not, it was 4-5 divers per guide. A couple of additions to the resort are a brand new camera room and Nitrox blending machine. The air-conditioned camera room is quite impressive with the individual stations and compressor hoses, and it’s really big compared to what I’ve seen at other dive resorts. The Nitrox fills were consistent at 31%-32% and 3000 to 3100 pounds. The guides were okay, but they seemed to be more of a leader, taking you on a tour, and not really looking hard to point things out. To be fair, though, when we were in the soft coral gardens, I wasn’t looking for the small stuff. I was in awe of the beautiful colors. Divers come here to dive in the Bligh water and the soft coral gardens where the marine park is located. It’s a 45-minute to 1-hour boat ride depending on surface conditions. At times, there was strong current in the park, but it was manageable for me. It was not as easy as the Cozumel currents and not as hard as the Raja Ampat currents. I brought my reef hook but didn’t need it. I was a bit disappointed that I only got to the Bligh water three days out of six diving days, but I was told that the conditions were not good to go out on those other days. One of the days in the Bligh had really poor visibility. It’s all up to Mother Nature. You’re in open ocean with no nearby mountains for protection. The only dive boats are those from Volivoli. On the third day of Bligh water diving and my second-to-last day of the trip, it took an hour and 15 minutes to get there and 90 minutes to get back. The surface swells were a real challenge both for the captain and the divers. There were some divers that were getting a little green around the gills from the wave action. At the end of the second dive of this particular day, I was with two other divers and we were the last three to get back on the boat. The ladder was thrashing up and down and timing it was very difficult. Everyone who wasn’t wearing a full wetsuit had bloodied shins from the ladder. After I made it up, that left the last two divers. As soon as I took my last step onto the boat, the ladder broke off the boat and fell into the water. The weld points just broke loose. After retrieving the ladder, the other two divers had to be dragged into the boat in ripping swells and did a seal-like belly flop onto the deck. Everyone was fine. Now that boat was out of service. I mentioned it was my second-to-last day of the trip, so it didn’t really matter to me how that would affect putting more divers on fewer boats in the coming days. These things do happen on occasion, but everyone lost their third dive of the day. Since I was leaving soon, I asked and was given a night dive to make up for the lost dive. What makes this area so awesome is the soft coral in all the colors of the rainbow. Giant walls of sea fans, soft corals blanketing the ocean floor, and beautiful topography blew my mind! The soft corals are the stars of the show here and you’ll not find the bigger animals, like sharks and rays; at least, I didn’t see any. There were clown fish swimming among the anemones, turtles, bump head parrotfish, lots of nudis, a white ghost pipefish, flatworms, hermit crabs, tiny lobsters, scorpion fish, huge porcupine fish, trumpet fish, needle fish, schools of Moorish idols, odd-looking cucumbers unlike those found in the Caribbean, moray eels, parrotfish with their mouths open getting cleaned, fish mating, and innumerable colorful fish swimming around the reef. The house reef is not worth diving. It’s just a sand spit and there’s nothing to see. I knew this before I came, so I didn’t expect to dive the house reef. Volivoli is an all-around wonderful dive resort. From the accommodation, the staff, the food, the diving, the healthy reefs, and the overall vibe, I will definitely return. The marine life and reefs in the South Pacific are refreshingly healthy and different from the bland and boring Caribbean.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Hawaii, Florida, Mexico, Bahamas, St. Marteen, St. Croix, St. Lucia, St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Grenada, Bonaire, Belize, Honduras, Aruba, Grand Cayman, Curacao, Barbados, St. Eustatius, Turkey, Raja Ampat Indonesia, Australia, French Polynesia
Closest Airport	NAN	Getting There	This is the second part of a 2-island trip. Flew from TVU to NAN.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, dry	Seas	choppy, currents, no currents
Water Temp	82-84°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	20-40 Ft/ 6-12 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	[Unspecified]
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	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	The air-conditioned camera room is quite impressive with the individual stations and compressor hoses, and it’s really big compared to what I’ve seen at other dive resorts. There was a camera bucket on the boat, but it was too small for the size and number of cameras.

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Dive Review of Ra Divers/Volivoli in Fiji and Tuvalu/Rakiraki, Viti Levu

Ra Divers/Volivoli: "Volivoli-Beautiful Resort & Soft Corals", Apr, 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 Ra Divers/Volivoli in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Rakiraki, Viti Levu