Paradise Taveuni Fiji

We stayed at Paradise Resort in Taveuni. This is an amazing scuba diving resort. The staff is extremely nice. We had gorgeous dives such as: rainbow reef with purple soft corals and some scenery was like pieces of art. between all the soft corals colors and little blue or yellow fish. It was absolutely like a beautiful painting. We also were lucky to dive the great white wall with so many white colors a very unique experience. I have discovered so many nudi branch and new fish; like the sweet big lips, and the manta shrimp. Sooo funny creature. We saw a leaf scorpion fish and a skeleton shrimp. Our guide was a rockstar in finding so many new little creatures like the spaghetti worms and so much more nuditbranchs. The best walls ever, the most beautiful landscape ever and of course a reef shark, tootle, eel and the Spanish mackerel. We had the most amazing night dive with a great show of an octopus for 20 minutes. We also saw a Japanese Flathead and a scorpion fish. The Paradise Taveuni staff were sooo welcoming and wanted to ensure we have the best time ever. They organized a Fijian night with songs. We were part of a big family, all ages, all nationalities: it was a really fun community and we had an absolute blast. They also organized a sunset cruise, we were singing and laughing. It was a memorable vacation and it was really thanks to the Paradise Taveuni staff. Thank you Jaime for your recommendation! You chose something very very special for us. We trust you for finding for us very special diving vacation!! We are so grateful!!

This is a resort designed for scuba divers, especially photographers. There is a great air-conditioned room for photographers where everyone gets their own workstation for the week. There is a rinse tank and compressed air to keep everything clean.I found the Rainbow Reef better than the reefs close to the resort. Because the resort is at the far end of the island it is a 30-45 minute boat ride to the Rainbow Reef. Because of this on most days they will do 2 dives and then lunch on a beach close to the Rainbow Reef so they don't have to go back to the resort. They made meals for us to take but we were surprised when they offered us a coke to drink. We later found out when we checked out that we were getting charged for those drinks.The house reef if great. We only did a night dive there but it was one of the best dives of the week. We saw so much stuff and wished we had time to do another one.The staff were a highlight. Everyone is friendly and always smiling. Dive guides were great as well, pointing out everything they saw and making sure everyone had time to see it.The rooms are great. Indoor and outdoor showers and an outdoor tub. They have a farm behind the property where they grow most of the food they serve. There is a menu with a few options and you pick between the options for your meal. The options get repeated throughout the week though so if you're there a week you will have some repeats.There were some non-divers at the resort and they mentioned how through the day it was very quiet and there weren't many people around because the majority of people were divers. They do offer day tours and activities but I found them to be costly.If you want to dive the Great White Wall make sure you check with the resort when booking because there are only certain times of the month when they are able to dive it due to the current.

I traveled to Fiji in October. The first week of my trip was spent at Paradise Taveuni. The owners, Terri and Alan, are wonderful hosts. They endeavor to meet every need of their guests. They live across the road from the resort and take a hands-on approach to everyday operation. Alan dove with us every day and Teri sees the onsite operation. They have an on-site farm to supply the kitchen with fresh produce. We had a meal plan that provided three meals daily, with everything being prepared to order. The menus differed each day with specials available for both lunch and dinner. We found the food to be delicious and abundant.The staff is beyond wonderful. You are always greeted with a big smile and an enthusiastic “bula”. Fijians are the friendliest people on the face of the earth and it shows at Paradise Taveuni. Our bure had an ocean view, with a king-size bed, air conditioning, large bathroom, outdoor stone shower, mini-refrigerator, and coffeemaker. The grounds are well kept and there is a beautiful pool. Tables are set around the grounds to sit and eat or gaze at the ocean. The great room has wifi and a comfortable lounge area.The diving was almost exclusively at the rainbow reef, where the dive sites were exceptional! The dive staff was very attentive and dedicated to safety. They tend to your gear at the end of the day by taking it off the boat, rinsing, and drying. We happened to be there on Fiji Day (independence day) and we joined in the giant celebration with the other guests and all the staff. The resort staff also arranged day excursions for us on non-diving days to nearby villages, waterfalls, natural waterslide, international dateline, and the historic church. We loved this resort and would definitely return.

The resort has been completely rebuilt after Hurricane Winston in 2016. It is family owned and has the perfect personalized feel for all guests. It is the only dive resort in the south of Taveuni and is the perfect dive getaway for couples.The bures are all very well designed with french doors, four poster king beds and a separate living area that an extra bed can be added.Food is excellent as the owner Allan is a chef by trade. If you would like to have a private dinner by the ocean, just ask and they will set up a table for you there. The grounds are very well kept and all the staff are very friendly, accommodating and helpful.Paradise Taveuni provides access to 3 different reefs and a nice variation of diving. The famous Rainbow Reef is a 30 minute boat ride away and has some of the better soft coral reefs in Fiji. Vuna Reef is about 10 minutes away and while it isn't as colorful as rainbow Reef, they do have some dramatic geological formations. The house reef is an easy giant stride from the dock and has many critters like garden eels, leaf scorpionfish and cuttlefish.There is a large dedicated camera room, a stocked dive shop with full rental gear and multiple boats for all group sizes.

My dive buddy and I recently had the opportunity to return to Fiji, so we had some idea of the dive conditions we could expect but were looking forward with anticipation to the accommodations at Paradise Taveuni.Come on. A place called Paradise would be perfect, right? Well...ACCOMMODATIONS: Our bure was beautiful, neat and clean. It came with a grotto-like outdoor shower and spa - the shower was great and romantic. The spa never worked. For a couple with romance as the highest priority I would give this and big, solid "A". For those of us who appreciate romance but are serious divers, the bure could have used a small desk area with good seating and lighting for writing log books or working on some piece of dive or camera equipment. Let me hasten to add that here is a nice area for working and servicing your UW camera attached to the main lodge. There is a double sink camera rinse area just outside the camera room which is nice if there are just two divers. It was something to be negotiated when there were more than two UW photogs returning from an outing. In the camera room there are outlets (240V) and lights at each station and the stations are well laid out and easy to work at. The downer is that although the area has an air conditioner, it was anemic at best and we often found ourselves wiping beads of sweat before they fell in our open housings and exposed cameras equipment .Food at Paradise was pretty bland with an unvarying menu (at least for the week we were there). Portions were such that the bag of salted nuts we kept in the bottom of the travel bag for those airport layover emergencies was pretty well depleted by weeks end. One evening the staff created a four course dinner that was quite good, but for our stay, it was a one-of event.DIVING: In coming to Taveuni, we were quite excited by the prospect of diving Rainbow Reef. The hype and accolades for the site are easily found on any web search. We were well aware that many sites in Fiji are current controlled - that is that at higher current conditions you'll find much better representation of soft corals than at slack tides. But the Dive Masters need to judge the currents carefully so as to experience the best of the soft corals and yet not blow away less experienced divers. It is often a difficult act to handle successfully. The good news is we never lost a diver, the bad is that we never caught Rainbow Reef at its best. Sites like Fish Factory, Rainbow's End, Freeway, Christine's Garden and Great White Wall were interesting, but well below the color and diversity of Bligh Water sites we had dived previously - OK but not breath-taking as often described in the advertising literature. The one site that was interesting was Mini-Cabbage Patch. Very interesting coral structure and fish life made this a site we would have done more than once.Coastal sites along Taveuni were a disappointment - Vanu Reef, Tabua and Coral Garden really were not worth the air to dive them. On one of the trips across the Soma Soma Strait, we came upon a pod of sleeping Pilot Whales but were not allowed to snorkel so we could not take any UW images of the beautiful critters. Actually, we had an immense amount of fun diving the house reef and drop-off. Close, easy, good species diversity (Blue-ribbon morays, leaf scorpion fish, lion fish, puffers, big anemones and the requisite clown fish, octopus and Tridacna clams) and amazing dusk dives kept us pretty happy. A night dive on our own would have been nice, but there were no unguided night dives allowed. The one we went on we were moved along with the herd of newbies and the experience garnered an extra charge.STAFF: First, the dive staff - first rate and willing to bend over backwards to help the guests - A-1! They do the very best with the site they have.The room staff - the ladies who tended our bure everyday were excellent - fastidious and inventive. We would return from dives with welcome messages written in flower petals on the floor- quite nice.The wait staff needed nearly daily reminders regarding certain things (i.e. no bread or flour foods) Had the resort been packed with hoards of people I could understand there might be some confusion, but a full house was not the issue while we were there.AMENITIES: As we were there for the diving we didn't take advantage of most of the amenities that are available to guests, but we did do an hour massage with banana wrap finish that was quite awesome - I would definitely recommend experiencing it.