“Great stay”

The hotel is perfectly set up for diving and exploring the island. There are lots of activities for divers and non divers. The food is good and the staff are exceptionally friendly and helpful. Beds are very comfy too!

“A lovely stay, clean and very friendly staff”

Garden Island Resort was a lovely place to stay while in Taveuni. It was clean, the staff were helpful & friendly (special mention to Angela and Teresa) and the rooms were quite nice. I got the warm and happy Bula from all staff and it was a very relaxing stay. The resort has a lovely pool with l... more

Garden Island Resort was a lovely place to stay while in Taveuni. It was clean, the staff were helpful & friendly (special mention to Angela and Teresa) and the rooms were quite nice. I got the warm and happy Bula from all staff and it was a very relaxing stay. The resort has a lovely pool with lounge chairs, hammocks etc, its own massage Bure & each room has a balcony. The rooms have no tv or wifi (only in the restaurant) and it’s sketchy at best, but I’m yet to find anywhere with good wifi in Fiji. There is a fan and air con in the room although even set at 16° it wasn’t cold and the room was quite stuffy. There are also doors connecting the neighbouring room which meant I heard all the banging, doors closing, phones ringing etc which occasionally woke me up, especially of a morning. The air con and fan kept switching off on my last night there. The staff tried to fix it straight away but when they couldn’t they moved me to a new room next door within the hour. Silver lining, the air con worked much better and there was no adjoining door which meant it was super quiet. I wanted to dive while here, but when I went to see the dive operator at the resort I honestly felt like I was a bit of a hassle being a somewhat inexperienced diver who hadn’t dived for a few years because of covid. The lady there wasn’t forthcoming with information - I had to pry it out of her - and when I’m a solo traveller with only 30 or so dives under my belt I wanted to be assured of everything including my safety. Another slight annoyance was the food as it was just ‘ok’ and they cost around 40FJD, which I thought was expensive for the quality I was getting, although the portions were a good amount. My meal on the last night was good though. There is nowhere really else to eat nearby (there’s a corner shop for snacks) so with set meals at set times I found this difficult. I had this at Beachcomber Is as well though so maybe set meals at set times is a Fijian thing?! On my last day I saw people had pizzas and asked about it. They said they had an all day menu and apologised for not telling me about it. This probably would’ve made all the difference. The pizzas were also much cheaper at around 10FJD. The staff catered for my food allergy which was great, but make sure you tell each person at each meal time. They also have free water refills at the bar to save you buying bottled water everyday. Breakfasts were much nicer than the other meals, which I was told on arrival were free. They gave me a bill for it at the end. There is fruit, muffins, juice and coffee available for free though so perhaps this is what they meant but it was not made clear. As a school teacher I asked one of the ladies to take me to a local school where I was able to see how the schooling system is and I gave them some free school supplies. This was a big highlight, a huge thank you to Angela and Josephine for taking me. On my last day, as my flight was later in the day they offered a late check out at no extra cost. I then went and had one of their pizzas by the pool as a result, which was very nice. I’d be very happy to go back to Garden Island, but I’d be venturing out for meals (or having the pizza).

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“Could be better!”

My dive and travel experience: 2336 dives since certification in 1999 95 weeks of dive travel out of the US Dive instructor I would love to give the Garden Island Resort a better star rating as it did so much very well, but fell short in many categories. I am going to start with the positives an... more

My dive and travel experience: 2336 dives since certification in 1999 95 weeks of dive travel out of the US Dive instructor I would love to give the Garden Island Resort a better star rating as it did so much very well, but fell short in many categories. I am going to start with the positives and list them with explanations. 1. The price was super cheap for what we got. It was approximately $1900.00 per person for a 10 night stay with food, transportation to/from airport, room, taxes and seven days of two tank boat dives as well as one night dive. 2. The staff is super friendly and helpful. They really made our stay better than it should have been. 3. The food was above average to very good. It was mostly a Western menu. However, the portions were a bit small if you are a heavy eater. 4. The view from the hotel was super nice. 5. The bed was firm, which is to my liking and the pillows were good. 6. The diving was good with some pretty reefs and lots of fish. For reef and fish life on the Tropical Pacific scale I give it a B rating. However, The other than fish category such as sea snakes, sharks, turtles, rays, eels, nudibranchs, lobster, crabs and other oddities it would rate a D. Unfortunately, here are the cons. 1. Bats! Yes, fruit bats by the thousands in the trees between the rooms and the ocean. First of all they are super noisy and second they leave a mess under the trees. They were at their noisiest from before the sun rose each morning and early evening. Although I started to get use to the noise as time went on it was still uncomfortable hearing them at times. More about the bat poop later. So, my recommendations is get rid of the bats. Hire a professional if you need to. 2. Our room was not very clean and needed painting. The bottom of the toilet looked like it had never been scrubbed in it's lifetime and the bathroom counter was not cleaned when we checked in. There is a large amount of mildew in the shower and there were a few ledges in the bathroom and bedroom that looked like they had never been dusted. Lastly, the first set of towels we were given felt like sand paper. It did get better later in our stay, but the hotel should consider better towels. I suggest you do a periodic major cleaning on each room and have some sort of inspection system. 3. Several times we ordered items at the restaurant only to find out they were out of that item. In other words it was being offered by the restaurant but they were out of stock of the item. 4. The dive boat was a bit difficult to get onto and off at times based upon their docking system and I would never recommend it for those with a disability or the very old. 5. The dive boat had no camera rinse bucket. 6. The dive staff did not always do the best job of explaining stuff. For example it wasn't until the third day of diving that I realized the crew would switch my tanks for me. That was never explained as many other things were not mentioned. 7. The dive staff did not help us to our seat when we were returning with a tank on our back. This is a safety issue as we are carrying all the extra weight and the boat could be rocking. 8. The transportation to/from the dive boat was problematic at times. Once there were six of us shoved into a vehicle that held five and another time were were made to wait at the dock for over 15 minutes to get picked up. 9. Here are some additional issues we had. The power to the hotel went out one day for over an hour and the water was not working for an extended period one morning when we woke up. Also, we were out of hot water from late afternoon until morning on one occasion. I do understand that things like this happen, but make sure you are prepared for it if you plan to stay here. For the most part everything I listed can be easily remedied by management from the hotel. We were the only visitors that we saw that were staying for 10 nights. Most all others were several day to five night stays. Unfortunately, the island has very little in the realm of attractions and It can all be done in less than two days with a rental car. So, in turn we found our selves spending a lot of time at the resort. Unfortunately, we got very bored. Here are some suggestions from us to the hotel to help people pass the time at the hotel. 1. Add some umbrellas to the lounge chairs at the pool. The way they are currently set up you are either sitting in the sun all day or you must move your chair under a tree. The problem with being under the tree is the bats will poop on you. 2. Place lounge chairs in the grassy area to the front of the rooms with umbrellas (same reasons). The hammocks you currently have are unusable due to falling coconuts and bat poop. 3. Clear out some of the rocks on your two ocean entry points so visitors can get in easier. It is currently super dangerous and hard on the feet on those entries. You have a beautiful reef to the front of the hotel (too shallow for diving), so why not make it more accessible for your guests to do some snorkeling. Same with the kayak entry point. Currently, you are taking your life into your own hands trying to enter at this location. Clear it out and make the entry easier. 4. Have some board games or cards for the guests to check out. Especially for families this can be a game changer for keeping the kids busy. 5. I am not a big promoter of watching TV while on vacation, but the fact that your TV's only get four channels and they are snowy at best, consider adding some sort of video check out with a video player. All of my complaints and suggestions can be fixed with very little money. I really hope the management reads my review and considers what I have written.

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