Volivoli Beach Resort — Hotel in Viti Levu

First, my "negatives":|1. The front desk never has any change for Fiji dollars, so if you want to tip the staff it is nearly impossible without getting a $50FD cab into town to break the $50's and $100's the ATM's and money exchanges give you. A minor issue but annoying.|2. Not really anyplace to just go for a swim due to the amount of rocks and shallow shoreline along their beach area; it's really hard to walk out to where it was deep enough (unless you want to wear shoes, which makes it hard to swim". I worked my way out to where I was standing in 5' of water and started swimming, and ran into a submerged rock that was probably 3' tall and cut my hand pretty good.|3. There is nothing here to do besides diving, or taking an excursion. They have two beat up paddleboards and a few old kayaks, but that is it in terms of activities. We did two dives each morning and then either sat at the pool or at the beach area and read. Not necessarily a negative, it forced us to relax I suppose. Read three different books and got a good tan, but a pool table, volleyball, pickleball, bocce, or something else going on in the afternoons would have been more fun. It's very possible they tried this kind of thing in the past and didn't get much participation, I don't know.||All that being said, I understand this is a divers resort. Positives:|1. The people are spectacular. Very friendly, very helpful. I think this is true of Fijians in general, as when I was in town -- getting change! -- even the people there were very friendly.|2. Food is excellent. I ate way too much, and loved all of it.|3. Rooms are clean and sufficient, good water pressure and air conditioning.|4. Diving (and snorkeling) is fantastic. I'm not a hardcore diver, we go diving if we vacation somewhere that has decent diving, but I don't choose the place to vacation based on diving. This was easily the most incredible reef diving I have ever seen, the marine life and coral was just amazing. |5. If you go, take a day to take Soni's tour to the Savulelele waterfall. As much as I loved the diving, the waterfall may have been the highlight of the trip! Worth the hour on the gravel road and the hike to get there. Highly recommended!||Other stuff:|- It's set on a hillside, so definitely some up and down to get around.|- It's very quiet, at least when we were there. There are +/-29 rooms, so in theory there should have been +/-60 people staying there (they told us it was full so figuring around 2 to a room), but I don't ever think we saw more than 20-30 at a time (at breakfast and dinner). There is no late night bar scene, the place is essentially shut down by 9pm or so. They only have about 12 chairs by the pool and another 10-12 at the beach area, and we had our pick of them all day long. I have no idea what everyone was doing all day and night...|- Prices aren't ridiculous. About $15 for a cocktail on regular hours, but they have happy hours running from 3-6pm (half price!) at one of the bars. |- It's about 2.5 hours from the airport. Roads are pretty good so it wasn't a bad ride.|- Try the Kava at your own risk! It's one of those "have to do it" things in Fiji. We were fine but the family we were traveling with had pretty serious gastro issues for a night. Go with "low tide" version (small...

My husband and I spent 9 nights at Volivoli resort in a luxury oceanfront villa, and completed 19 dives over the course of 8 days. Everything about our experience was outstanding. We are already planning a return trip in 2027. ||Our villa was gorgeous... I had thought that it might be too much for one couple, but we ended up using both bathrooms and all the available closet / hanging space. The washing machine was a great perk... we could have brought half the clothing that we had packed, and done more loads of laundry instead.||The best thing about the luxury oceanfront villa (located on the beach) was the fact that we could walk down the beach to the dive shop and the restaurant, without ever having to climb the fairly steep hill that leads to reception, the other villas & rooms. This proved to be a huge advantage for us, as my husband has a bad knee. I did climb the hill once a day to get fresh pool towels from reception, and it was quite a workout. We also used our private pool far more than we would have used the resort pool as it did not involve taking a hike up a hill. ||The restaurant fare was very good, with a wide selection on the menu. The atmosphere is pleasant and there was always a nice breeze (it is open air). The staff were wonderful. There are two restaurants onsite, but we ate mostly at the main restaurant rather than the beach bar & grill. We made sure to arrive for dinner before happy hour ended, as they give a decent discount on bottles of wine (which are otherwise fairly pricy).||Our experience with Ra Divers was exceptional. The boats are well maintained. The crews are knowledgeable, experienced and (most important to me) safety conscious. The crew collect your gear from your accommodation upon arrival, and carry it on and off the boats for you. On the last day of diving, they give your gear a thorough washing and hang it up by the dive shop for you to collect once it is dry. The daily pre-dive briefings are thorough. There is a max of 6 divers per divemaster, though most of the time we only had 4 in our group. They do their best to match divers of similar skill level, which I appreciate. I was happy that they had 63 cubic ft tanks for small divers with good air consumption like myself. They also strive to keep you with the same divemasters throughout your stay (a shout out to Iliesa and Sam, both of whom took great care of us).||We were also happy with the car service that the resort hires for airport transfers. On both trips (3 hours each way), the drivers were friendly & professional, and the cars were clean, air-conditioned and well maintained. ||Regarding the luxury oceanfront villas... I will say that if two couples were splitting this accommodation, they might find the bathroom/closet setup inequitable. The 'upstairs' bathroom is much nicer and more spacious than the 'downstairs' bathroom which ensuite to the separate bedroom. Similarly, the separate bedroom does not have a real closet, just a short bar on the wall with some hangers. We ended up using the 'downstairs' bathroom as a drying room for our clothes, as it was far too humid outside for anything...

VOLIVOLI REVIEW||After leaving PNG, I took the 6 hour flight from Port Moresby to Nadi arriving about 6 PM. After clearing customs and immigration and a 2 1/2+ van ride, arrived at the Volivoli resort after 10 PM. Reception was waiting for our party, and we were quickly checked in.||The rooms at Volivoli are quite spacious with a queen bed, large bath and a large sitting area. My room included a small kitchen, which probably never gets used since the resort is some distance away from any grocery store. The unit has a washing machine but no dryer (interesting). The resort does not offer laundry service. Guests are expected to wash their clothes and to hang them to dry on the outdoor clothes line (and hope that it doesn’t rain). This was a new one on me.||All meals are ordered off a menu that offers a good selection. The food is usually nicely prepared and tasty although often taking a lengthy amount of time to be served. Meals are served both in the main restaurant and the beach cafe.||On Thursday evenings, a seafood buffet is offered at the beach cafe. The food was excellent with some of the best ceviche that I have ever tasted. After dinner, guests are treated to an exhibition of traditional dances by some of the local folks including some of the resort staff. Very entertaining and interesting.||The dive operation was quite busy with probably over 50 divers. Volivoli may be busier than normal due to the extended closure of the neighboring Wananavu Resort. This resort is being greatly expanded with the reopening sometime in 2027.||The dive boats were a bit crowded with 8-12 divers on various sized boats. The dive crew was very friendly and helpful loading most dive gear before the day’s diving. Both 2-tank and 3-tank trips are offered; the latter no return to the resort after the 2nd dive. Lunch is had on the dive boat. The trips to the dive sites varied from 20 to 45 minutes. There was usually no more 3-4 divers per dive guide. ||Unlike PNG, the reefs off the North coast of Viti Levu are in very good shape. The water temperatures were much cooler than PNG at 77 to 80 f. (It is winter in Fiji). I donned an additional 3mm vest and dive beanie. ||The reefs appeared quite healthy, with the tops of the bommies filled with damsels and anthias. However, it seemed that there was minimal marine life that one hopes to encounter for macro photos — nudibranchs, crabs, shrimps, etc. ||I had an enjoyable stay at Volivoli but my next visit to Fiji will be during its winter and at a...