Yasawa Islands Pictures
Fiji Beaches

Fiji's famous Blue Lagoon Beach, Nanuya Lailai Island, with a very pricey and posh Blue Lagoon Cruise ship parked temporarily at the end of the beach.

The Blue Lagoon's sand is incredibly soft and the palm-fringed backdrop perfect, but the thick seaweed takes the colour off the tropical effect, though it does provide a home and larder for fishies, so snorkellers like the waters. The lower part of the beach is reserved for the people using the white Blue Lagoon cruise ship.

There are small resorts on small Nanuya Lailai Island or access to Blue Lagoon Beach from other islands such as Kuata and Waya Lailai by short boat ride is commonplace.

Yasawa Island (note: not Islands plural) hosts a couple of the best beaches in Fiji and possibly in the world, with its northerly beaches coming out on top and visited by the famous and costly Blue Lagoon Cruise ships. Otherwise Yasawa Island is home to an expensive hotel, the Yasawa Island Resort that needs to be reached by plane or via several hours on a water taxi.

Waya Lailai resort is in a particularly stunning location and partly protected from the prevailing winds by the island's lumps so beach going is a comfortable business.

The Yasawa Islands, a chain of a dozen up to four hours from Viti Levu by the Flyer are - with the exception of the furthest, Yasawa Island itself - low cost and low profile places, providing basic services and activities, with snorkelling and kayaking topping the list. The islands are visited daily - (again, not Yasawa Island) by the Yasawa Flyer catamaran, lugging backpackers and flashpackers to and fro, some staying their entire time on one island, others hopping from one to another every couple of days.

For those prone to seasickness the waters around the Yasawa Islands are partly protected and the ride not too bouncy; maximum trip time to/from the furthest island is four hours.

The Yasawas are mostly powered by electricity generators so lighting is limited and air-con nonexistent; islands mostly offer simple thatched bungalows and communal meals. Beaches are generally small and unmanicured but pleasant, with pretty fair coral right near the beach, though these are not by any stretch of the imagination the world's best beaches. However...

Manta Ray is a resort where partying hard is the main event in the evening and swinging in a hammock on the beach is the daytime action, though the off-beach coral is good here and kayaks are popular.

Coral View Resort on Kuata Island

One of the older and more primitive but nevertheless pleasant establishments in the Yasawa Islands, Coral View Resort offers wonky huts and wobbly food but is good value and a reasonable beach.

Cheap but cheerful Coral View's typical budget backpacker massed dining, rush-for-the-buffet meal and filling but definitely mediocre food.

Kuata Island's beach on a not-unusual summer wet-season day. Cloud, rough seas and flotsam. Beware the Ides of March!

Best months to visit Fiji and the Yasawa Islands: May, June, September, October. The South Pacific lies in the tropics so all islands are warm and humid year round. The dry season is climatically best, May to October, with less humidity, cloud cover, rain, wind, rough seas and seaweed on beaches. However, July and August get very crowded with visitors, especially Australians and Kiwis escaping winter back home.

Beware the November to April wet season. Don't believe travel agents who tell you it only rains for an hour a day. Not true! It may rain for an hour, it may rain for days on end, and even when it doesn't cloud cover could spoil the sunshine, winds make boating unpleasant, choppy water makes snorkelling water murky and beaches wear a coat of seaweed. Hurricane force winds (cyclones) may also occasionally make an appearance.

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