With its rich and colourful underwater world, abundantly blessed with soft corals, it is no wonder that Jean-Michel Cousteau named Fiji the ‘Soft Coral Capital of the World’. The family-run Volivoli Beach Resort is located at the northern tip of Viti Levu in Rakiraki with direct access to the Bligh Water Passage, where the majority of the dive sites are at a depth between 20m-40m. Besides soft and hard corals, divers can expect to see large gorgonian fans, small caverns, lobster, sepia as well as schools of barracuda and jack fish. At certain times of the year, it is also possible to see hammerhead sharks and eagle rays. At the dive sites closer to the resort, macro critters including the rare ornate ghost pipefish as well as two wrecks offer diversified dives. The PADI and SSI dive centre Ra Divers, directly located in the resort, runs courses up to instructor level.
After hurricane Winston erased a large part of the resort in 2016, the Darling family decided to take this as a chance and upgrade the resort. Along with the renovation, new luxury ocean front villas were introduced, with two bedrooms, a private swimming pool and a spacious outdoor covered living area. In total, Volivoli Beach Resort offers 33 rooms and villas in five different categories.
Local Fijian customs such as Meke (traditional style of dance and singing performance), Lovo (earth-oven prepared food) and Kava (traditional ceremonial drink) are performed weekly, typically on a Thursday night at the Ra Bar in the resort. For further exploration of Fiji’s stunning landscape, nature and culture, guests can choose from a variety of excursions offered at the resort such as a guided cultural village tour, a waterfall adventure tour, regional trekking, and a sunset cruise.
“We are very excited to welcome more guests from Europe in Fiji through our new partnership with Best Boutique Collection. While Fiji is certainly on the bucket list of many divers there, the time difference makes it difficult for us to efficiently communicate with the tour operators. On the consumer level, we need to address the prejudices that a vacation in Fiji is pretty expensive and that it is very tedious to get here,” says owner and General Manager Nick Darling.
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The best travel time for Fiji is between April and December. Fiji is easily accessible from Europe with only one stop in Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, Los Angeles or San Francisco, hence offering multiple options for an interesting city break on the way to paradise. The nearest airport to Volivoli Resort is Nadi International (NAN) and the transfer time from the airport to the resort takes about two-and-a-half hours.
