Beqa Lagoon Resort
This review is for Beqa Lagoon Resort on Beqa Island in Fiji. This is about the resort and its dive operations and will not review the general topside activities available in greater Fiji. Beqa Island is located to the South of Nadi, which is one of the main islands. We flew Fijian Air, formerly Air Pacific from Los Angeles to Nadi International. It was about 13 hours direct. The resort picked us up at the airport and transported us 2 hours south. We stopped about halfway for a bathroom/refreshments/try to sell us tourist goods at Jack’s of Fiji which is a chain of tourist shops. The harbor where we crossed to the island was about an hour from there. We rode the whole way with the wife of the resort manager and she gave us about a 15 minute briefing at the harbor while we waited for our luggage to be loaded which gave the bugs ample time to tear my arms and legs a new one. If you usually get bit, use whatever means necessary to repel the bugs, I used every available option but the lemongrass oil seemed to work well and not result in chemical smell. For people who are scared or freaked out by bugs, this is a tropical environment and the resort is located in a pretty remote area so you will see lots of bugs and some will be in the room but it would prove impossible to avoid that.
Overall the resort is well maintained and the staff is very helpful. We stayed in one of the beachfront Bure (room) and it had a small dip pool, deck, table, chairs, lounge chair, and hammock. It was very large and pretty luxurious as the room had two beds and sitting area. For those wondering, you can purchase liquor at the duty free shop in the airport but the resort does encourage you to drink it privately in your room or deck, which is what we did. The types of meals give you enough variety so I believe it would fit most groups and the various preferences they may have and the food was delicious. They incorporated local food items as well as the items us western folk expect. Topside activities include an opportunity to hike to a waterfall, travel to the capital, fish, travel to a surf spot, or just lounge. We did rent jetski’s a couple times and it was fun just blasting around on those.
The diving. The diving is beautiful and there is a large variety of species to see. Their claim to fame is being the soft coral capital of the world and it’s hard to argue that point from my view. There are two boat dives in the morning and shore diving in the afternoon. Afternoon boat dives are extra and they require at least 4 people to make a boat go. I at first felt bored that the afternoon didn't have organized dives but I slowly let go and started to enjoy the afternoon relaxation more towards the end of my trip. The one thing you must do is the shark dives. The shark dives are organized by another group but they made the whole trip worthwhile. The set up for the dives was well organized and the density of the sharks is pretty overwhelming. There were also GIANT groupers, bigger than the ones I saw in Key West on the Vandenberg.
Overall, if you are looking for lots of diving in a day, I would say Beqa is not for you. If you looking for good diving mixed in with relaxation, then this is a place you want to be. One last thing, stay on the marked paths, coconut’s would sporadically fall from the trees and hearing them thump the ground made me totally believe the statistic that more people are killed by coconuts than sharks.
