Natadola Beach — Attraction in Western

Access to the beach is not as difficult as some would have us believe. Simply take the road signposted to the Yatule Resort (not the Intercontinental). The road is well paved all the way down to the Yatule, no potholes. Drive past the Yatule on the right and then turn right at the end of the road. You can park directly in front of the massage cabanas. There are even signs saying 'park here'! You don't have to use their services, just politely decline.

The beach itself can be divided into two parts, the wilder northern stretch with big waves (not suitable for smaller children and no real shade) and the calmer, lagoon-like section in front of the Intercontinental which is clean, turquoise and tranquil (although there are fun waves if you walk further out). The beach is public all the way around but you cannot enter the hotel unless you are a guest there. There are no facilities at the beach for non-hotel guests, so come prepared.

We were told we would be hassled relentlessly by vendors, but it wasn't like that at all, just the odd coconut seller.

All in all a lovely beach for a family visit, and lacking in the mounds of trash many Fiji beaches...

I have no idea what the hype is about. The color is the water is pretty but the access to public to this beach is crap. Unless you are staying at one of the bougy resorts by this beach its crazy how hard they have made the public access here. The road was under construction and they gave a detour with a rickety old wooden bridge. We struggled to get to the beach and there wasn't any parking area no facilities to use a toilet or anything. There was a very shady guy selling 2 coconuts and he asked us for more money everywhere else it cost 5 bucks n he quoted 20. Also kept pushing us to get a massage from a lady which creeper us out. We didn't stay long cause the beach wasn't clean and had huge waves when heading back,some person had derailed a truck carrying huge construction equipment on the bridge and blocked the way. We had to wait like an hr for the other road to open and that too was filled with mud in a hurry to allow people to pass through. Extreme mismanagement and caused a lot of anxiety. I do not recommend...

The road to get to this beach is not much of a road and it was temporarily blocked by a herd of pigs that were crossing.

Also Google Maps pin is a bit off so you may have to ask locals directions to the beach. We had to ask and the locals were friendly helping us locate the beach.

At the beach, we saw 2 beautiful high end resorts.

In between these resorts there were a large number of massage tents there that were put up by local women. These women were friendly and appeared to be strictly selling only massage services to help make ends meet. Some of them told us that others in their family worked at the resorts but that was not enough to cover their household expenses.

The beach access in between the 2 resorts was beautiful but it was hard to enjoy it for any length of time without someone interrupting us and asking us if we wanted a massage.

We did enjoy a beautiful sunset at this beach but it is surprising that these 2 resorts have to deal with massage services right...