Hiapo Cockett's 2009 Fiji Trip
Yasawa Island Resort

OK, you are a discerning traveler, you heard great things about Fiji (all true), but you’ve heard about Fiji beaches and how they tend to have a lot of shells, coral bits, lava rock or how the first 10 or 20 yards into the water are “coral flats”, and while many of them are gorgeous, you want it all. There are plenty of soft sandy beaches at several of the resorts, but they do not have it all. Either they are small, or they have the exposed coral at low tide, or THEY JUST AREN’T PERFECT AND DAMMIT, I DESERVE A PERFECT BEACH! Welcome to your dreams at Yasawa Island resort.

Yes, Yasawa Island Resort has more soft, sandy, and golden white beaches than most the others combined. The beach in front of the resort is over 1 kilometer of perfect, soft-like-butter, sink up to your calves sand. But on either side of the island, extending for a 45 minute boat ride in either direction is beach upon beach upon beach of golden deliciousness. And that is just the setting.

Comprising of 18 bures total, the resort has everything you could ask for in a secluded boutique style resort: Tennis, scuba diving (more unmapped dive sights than virtually any resorts has identified ones), kayaking, sailing, snorkeling, soaking in the beachfront horizon edge pool, visits to an underground collection of sea caves (where they shot scenes from the movie “The Blue Lagoon”, and their specialty: private beach picnics. Yasawa Island is home to about a dozen private beached, each with amazing views of the neighboring islands, each with superb snorkeling, and each with so much privacy that you feel like the only couple in the world.

The bures are spread along the beach, each well over 1000 square feet, come with large decks with daybeds, hammock, and palapa covered lounges out front. The insides welcome you with a separate sitting area and one of the more fun bathrooms: twin vanities, a dark stone slate shower with twin shower heads (so she can’t hog all the hot water!), and a hot and cold outdoor shower built into a tree.

The newest addition to Yasawa is their beachfront spa. In addition to two indoor treatment rooms, it also has an outdoor massage area where you can enjoy the breeze, accompanied by the gentle crashing of the surf. On the far end of the spa is a large Jacuzzi enclosed by a wall that opens to reveal the ocean, and beyond that is an outdoor plunge pool for those balmy days.

Service, especially at meal time, is exemplary. Meals are presented with extraordinary attention to presentation as well as taste. Even breakfast is a treat with their famous crab scramble and lobster omelets. Oenophiles have special reasons to celebrate as there are few Fijian resorts with better wine lists.

Yasawa, perfection on a beach.

Hiapo Cockett

[ CLOSE WINDOW ]