By Alice
For those of you who have visited, how did you plan your Fiji snorkeling trip? We had a fantastic snorkeling trip to Curacao last year thanks to this website, and now we are seeking out help for planning our next big adventure.
We are planning to travel to Fiji in July and August 2026 and find the amount of possibilities, islands and resorts rather overwhelming! Does anybody have a recommendation for a (local) travel agent specializing in snorkeling trips?
And generally, what would your recommendations be? On our list we have the Yasawas with Mantaray Island Resort and Barefoot Manta Island, Malolo Island, Beqa Lagoon, Rainbow Reef, and Taveuni. Still, we don’t know if we can do it all, and if we are missing something else.
As we are traveling from Europe, it will probably be our first and only time in Fiji. Any tips would be highly appreciated!
Hi Alice, I’m heading to Bequa Lagoon Resort in Fiji on September 20. I worked with MaryAnne Hines at UltimateFijiVacations.com. She was great, knows the area, and stays on top of things.
We stayed at Waya and Mantamona Resort. I found that the snorkel trips organized daily by the hotels were well worth it. The boat trips organized daily would take you to a good reef. Fiji villages rotate fishing on the reefs to allow fish to recover from the fishing. As a result the reefs are full of fish. We always saw black tip and white tip sharks. The largest number of snorkelers with guide was five, which I found was a good number.
Bring your own mask snorkel and swim buddy. The resorts have good fins. I suggest a blow-up swim buddy when you are snorkeling without a guide on the reefs off the beach. Just safety. I did use it to calmly clear a filled mask, but even then a shark came round to see what was up.
I did quite a bit of research in advance of my upcoming trip to two different Yasawa Island locations in Fiji, including reading posts on this site and on Trip Advisor Forums. Based on that info, I will soon be snorkeling for a week at Barefoot Manta Island Resort followed by a week at Oarsman’s Bay Lodge on a different Yasawa Island. I had considered also heading over to Taveuni and Rainbow Reef but the logistics of flying there and fitting it all into my time frame would have been a little cramped. I will write a report on this site for the locations that I experience in the Yasawas.
Hi Betty, I am heading to Fiji next October and staying at Barefoot Mantra and The Oarsman also. Any hints or tips for me regarding snorkeling from these resorts? My husband and I are going with two other couples. My hubs and I are snorkelers and one couple are divers, the third couple are luxury travelers who dabble in snorkeling. Thanks!
Hi. I stayed a week at Beqa Island Resort, April 26 – May 3, 2025 for a week of snorkeling. I would recommend it – house reef in front, opportunities for boat excursions to special sites (The Aquarium is a must), and cultural activities including walking to villages. Excellent meals. It’s a dive resort, catering to large groups, but there were a few snorkelers. You need to book well in advance, before you make flight arrangements.
I also took a Blue Lagoon cruise to the Yasawa Islands. It was a combo of beach snorkeling and deep water boat snorkeling (e.g. drift snorkels along scenic coral gardens). This was my second time on a Blue Lagoon Cruise, having taken it ten years ago.
IMHO Fiji beats anything in the Caribbean right now, which is where most of my snorkeling has been. I booked both places on my own after doing online research.
I just got back from Fiji last weekend. Start or end at Navini Island Resort – easy to get to – reefs are great. I don’t feel a need to go to another place – too hard to get to other places in my opinion.
Hubby and I have been to Barefoot Manta Island Resort twice, and we love it! The manta rays are spectacular (in season) and the coral is always beautiful. This resort has a full-time marine biologist and they are passionate about reef regeneration and conservation. The resort has three different shore snorkeling accesses, so there is a lot to see. We also love the vibe at the resort with the tent cabins fronting your own stretch of beach. Food is really good, there are lots of activities and best of all, are the people. Take a lovely three hour ferry ride to get there… Bula!
Like Donna, we booked the Blue Lagoon trip through the Yasawa Islands and I thought the snorkeling was fantastic. Manta rays, incredible starfish and healthy reefs. The boat is small enough (60 passengers) to go everywhere and we did one or two snorkel trips every day.
I took a Blue Lagoon four-day cruise in the 80s. Really enjoyed the snorkeling and scenery. But when I considered booking it again about a year ago, there were several negative reviews about the ship being past its prime. Did you find your cruise worth the travel effort and cost versus staying at one of the many island resorts in the Mamanucas?
My husband and I just got back from Fiji – we made all the reservations ourselves (researched via TripAdvisor, Google reviews, mostly looking for underwater photos, and some snorkeling groups on FaceBook). We stayed at Barefoot Manta and Tides Reach on Taveuni.
Barefoot Manta had the best snorkeling we’ve seen (for comparison we’ve done Belize, Roatan, Mexico, French Polynesia, and Thailand). We only saw one manta and it was far away, but the channel and other snorkeling areas were still amazing – lots of fish and very healthy coral. There are three beaches to snorkel from – Sunset, Sunrise and Manta. You can still snorkel from Sunrise Beach at low tide, which was great because the tide times weren’t great while we were there.
We snorkeled along the west coast of Taveuni and went to Honeymoon Island while at Tides Reach. I didn’t have high hopes for snorkeling there, but was pleasantly surprised. There was a wider stretch of grass and dead coral but once you got to the drop-off it was good! Honeymoon Island was a bit underwhelming – we saw some new to us soft corals, but also a lot of die-off.
Have fun!
We went on a Fiji Snorkeling trip organized through Road Scholar last year. We stayed one week on Beqa Island and one week at Volivoli Resort. Because we were a group of snorkelers, they both catered our outings to us rather than to divers. Both were great places to stay.
Hi, Alice, we went to Fiji in September 2024. After many hours, days and months of research, we booked Barefoot Manta and Oarsman’s Bay Resorts. We have snorkeled a lot in Indonesia so are very spoiled, although we always love to see fish and coral anywhere! The snorkeling we were able to do at these resorts was OK to good.
At the Barefoot Manta Resort the mantas were fantastic! We saw three on our first day which was lucky because they didn’t see any more on the days we were there. The resort was great except the food got worse and worse then suddenly got better. I found out from the TripAdvisor forum that the quality of the food depends on when the boat of supplies comes in. Makes sense! Although the Oarsman’s Resort had very good food the whole time, so I’m not sure. The staff at Barefoot Manta were several magnitudes greater than fantastic! Helpful and friendly. We had a cabin on the end of the line on the sunrise side. Not a lot of storage, but comfortable enough.
We took one paid snorkel excursion to “Coral Gardens” and it was very beautiful and pretty fishy. I thought the house reefs were pretty “meh”. But again we are spoiled. It was fun, though. We took the paid night snorkel that was not good. Nothing to see and very unsatisfactory “guide” who didn’t guide us. Your experience may differ.
The Oarsman’s Bay Resort had better quality food. We got a huge cabin with living room and huge open-air bathroom which we enjoyed a lot. The house reef is two sides of the bay and had quite a lot of fish and some different environments. Not a lot of coral where we could snorkel. There was a flat area that was too shallow for us that had more coral. We snorkeled along the edge of this flat area. We went out every day, sometimes twice.
We took a paid snorkel trip to supposedly three islands which was a complete bust. Very bumpy rides to and from (speed boat zipping over the waves and crashing down on the back side) and only two places in the same bay. There was some interesting topography but hardly any fish! And no guide at all. They just sat on the boat. We complained and were offered our money back.
The locations of both resorts are fantastic with beautiful islands and trees and other flora. They are very remote and the ferry is a long, long ride (I think it was 3 1/2 hours to Barefoot and another two to Oarsman’s and 5 1/2 back. We did the Captain’s lounge both ways and was glad for the air-conditioning and the free drinks and snacks. However, the seating in the regular part of the boat was comfortable.
We did not look at going to other parts of Fiji because we were going on to Australia for three weeks afterwards and had a lot of luggage for the different climates we would be going to. The small plane that flies to other parts of Fiji is strict about luggage weight. We stayed at the Gateway the day we came back from the islands because our flight to Australia was in the morning. It was OK, a long wait for food, but a comfortable if oddly laid out room.
I hope I have helped by giving you a summary of our trip. There was good and not so good, but overall we enjoyed it. We didn’t find it a good alternative for Indonesia, as we were hoping it would be.