FIJI Part 2 - The Yasawas

Welcome back to Fiji tiiiime - we head to the Yasawa islands just north of the Mamanucas. I talk you through 

• The Yasawa Flyer
  
  
• Wayalailai Eco Resort/Haven
  
  
• Korovou resort
  
  
• Manta Ray Island Resort
  
  
• Eloping in Fiji

You can find us on instagram at Shire.Travels and on Youtube, search Shire Travels.

Transcript

Welcome back to shire travels. This is part two of our Fiji adventure. In this one we are heading to the Yasawa islands, and these are the chain of islands that are just north of the Mamanucas. getting round the usaas is fairly easy, quite similar to getting round the Mamanukas. There's a operator that has transfers between all the resorts and that's through awesome adventures Fiji and their boat the Yasawa flyer. Again they have a really easy to navigate website. It tells you all the resorts they stop at, how long it takes to get there and what time they drop off and pick up from there. You can also found the price of getting to and from resorts online. Look, it's not super cheap, but if you were to get a seaplane, for example, it would be far, far more expensive. I also found that the price fluctuates depending on which resort you're going to. Now you're probably thinking yet that's obvious you're going to a far away resort. You're on the boat for longer will be more expensive. Not the case. I actually found that one of the closest resorts Vomo was at the most expensive resort to get to and from. It's a very expensive resort and closest to the mainland, so go figure. Now Vomo is about an hour and a half from the mainland port deal to get up to some of the top islands in theau, it can take 4 1/2 to five hours. If you're heading to one of the resorts which is furthest away, I would recommend upgrading your ticket on the boat to get into the captain's lounge. This is an air conditioned lounge. It's at the top of the boat. It's fully enclosed, and it also includes complementary snacks and drinks, including alcoholic drinks. It just provides you a little bit of extra comfort if you are going to be on the boat for a long time just something to consider. If you're not on the boat for that long or you just don't fancy paying to upgrade, don't worry, you can still buy food and drink and there's plenty of places to sit inside and out on the deck as well. Now while they do have the timetable online to show you when the saflower is meant to get to islands, pick up, drop off, etc., the assail flyers have a little bit of a reputation for turning up late. Now, this could be 10 minutes. This could be an hour or two, depending on what the delay is. Now most of the time that's not a problem. You're stranded on an island for an extra couple of hours not too bad, but if you're waiting to get on the boat to head back to the mainland in order to catch a connecting tour or get on a flight, you should probably look at booking an extra night ofommodation on the mainland. That way, even if the boat is late, you get back to the mainland, you have a night of accommodation and then you've got plenty of time the next day in order to get on your flight or tour, etc. Similar to the process of getting to and from the Mamanuka islands is the same process at the port, you head to the desk, check in, they take your bags, tag them and put them on the boat. Again, you don't have to worry about hauling your bags on and off the boat and putting them on a tender, they will do that for you. They as you tag your bags with some very cute colorful tags, I actually kept mine from our trip that we did the first time, and they were a nice little souvenir and also very handy for when I was planning this podcast and YouTube episode because then I can remember exactly where I'd stayed. Now I'm going to talk you through a few resorts that I've saved out in the Yau. The first one is Wilai Echoaven. Without a doubt this was the most basic accommodation that I stayed at in Fiji, it is a village hospitality type of deal. You are staying in the village in traditional accommodation, so the kind of small wooden hearts was the thatched style roof. The facilities there are very basic, so no pool or anything like that. The showers, for example, very, very basic, communal shower block, very dated, a bit old-fashioned. If you're looking for a luxury resort, this definitely isn't it, it is a very basic traditional village stay. as well as the small huts, they also have dorm accommodation there as well, in terms of food, very similar to other resorts, everyone deats at the same time in one kind of big communal place, and it's kind of buffetàicarte style. They did have plenty of activities there, though. There's a hillalk you can do up to a really nice lookout, lots of swimming in the beautiful reef. There's traditional activities like basket weaving, making jewelry out of coconuts, etc. Plenty to do there. If you're looking to immerse yourself in Ireland life, this is probably the place to do it. The next resort I'm going to talk to you about is Korovu, not to be mistaken for coral view. They are two resorts which are fairly close to each other in the hours. If you're on the ferry and you hear one of them over the tanoy, maybe just double check which resort it is so you don't end up going to the wrong place. This one is again a backpacker resort. I see backpacker resort for anywhere which has got kind of big dorm accommodation. In addition to dorms, though all the places usually have separate beach birds where you can stay as couples or families. Korovu also had a swimming pool as well. Look from memory. It wasn't the most appealing pool to go in. I think it needed a bit of maintenance doing, but still a little bit of a bonus for that kind of resort. It also had a huge deck area with a couple of umbrellas, picnic tables, sun lounges, an area for communal dining and also a bar as well. One thing they did in the evening that a lot of these kind of backpacker budget places offer is evening entertainment, which is whether the staff might do things like traditional dancing and try and get everyone involved. It might be games, it might be crab racing, just some sort of activity to try and bring everyone together. Sometimes it's as simple as a bonfire on the beach and playing a guitar. The next resort is the furthestways resort that I stayed at, and that is Nabua lodge. There's a couple of little resorts on this island. I think blue Lagoon is also located pretty close to here as well. One thing I loved about Nabua lodge compared to other places that I stayed was it was so green and lush. They had beautiful flowers everywhere, plants, palm trees. They had really made an effort to make it really green and lush and tropical. Again, just basic accommodation, they didn't actually have a dorm on this island. Instead, the accommodation was just kind of the wooden huts. If you're traveling by yourself like I was, they usually just put you in groups of the same gender, so I stayed in a room with two other girls, lots of places to relax on the island, lots of sun lounges on the beach, hammocks everywhere, a big communal area for eating dinner and a bar as well. One thing that I really liked about Nabua lodge is well is it's right next to a little tiny cafe called the Traveler's tea room. This is in between a couple of the resorts they have there and is an easy five minute walk from Nabua lodge. It's very basic they just served tea and some homemade cake, but it was a nice little treat. Often what you'll find at these resorts is that you don't really have a choice in what you can eat. Everyone eats together and it's the same sort of food. So in order to be able to get out and have a little sweet tree and just sit somewhere else and enjoy some food was a bit of a treat. The other thing I liked was, as I said before, it's quite close to some other resorts. They're all located on one really long sandy beach and it's actually easy to walk the other resorts, perfectly acceptable. All the resorts are around the same sort of, I guess star rating. It's not as if there's a luxury resort there that you're not allowed to go into. Me and another girl walk to the other end of the beach and had a drink at one of the other resorts and they were very welcoming. I don't remember doing too many activities at this island. I didn't bring snorkeling gear with me, so if I needed to snorkel at any of the resorts, I just had to hire staff. The ocean around Nabua lodge I think from memory, it was really, really windy and the water was quite choppy and shallow, and it just didn't appeal to me. In saying that that could have just been the time of year, those particular couple of days, it could be fine to snorkel him. Again, they also offered some activities at night with dancing and games, which was really good. The final resort I'm going to talk you through is mantary Island resort, which is without a doubt, my favorite resort in the us hours. As far as budgets, style, backpacker accommodation goes, this resort would have to be one of the best. The facilities that they had there, the accommodation, the activities all just a bit nicer than a lot of other places that I stayed. The dorms, for example, really nice big dorm, beautiful clean beds, humanities area as well again, really clean. They kind of thought of everything. There were towel railss everywhere in the dorm and mirrors. They also offered some really nice hillside accommodation and beetront accommodation as well. When Tom and I came back to Manta Ray Island for the second time, that's when we got married. The first time we met in Fiji, we actually traveled to Manta Ray Island separately, but when we spoke about it later, going back to Fiji to get married, we both spoke about Manrie Island and we both really liked the vibe there and thought, yeah, that would be a really cool place to get married. The second time we went back together we opted to get a beach from Bure orer, I don't know if I'm saying it right, and they were really, really nice. They had a beautiful big su deck out the front with the day bed. Inside she had a small seating area, and then up a couple of steps there was the bed, then it had an outdoor bathroom, which was really, really nice, beautiful stone everywhere, even the sink was carved out of stone. The shower was outside and then the sink and toilet the area was kind of undercover. You might be thinking how did that go in the weather? How did that go with bugs? It was absolutely fine. We didn't have any problems when we were over there. It didn't rain at all, and even at night it's really mild. You don't need to worry about being cold. The only problem I did have and I used the word problem very loosely was getting ready for the wedding and drying and straightening my hair in the humidity, I just at the end of the day thought, why did I bother? The beach rent accommodationep, as you might have guessed it. beach run, the ocean was probably about 50 metres from the accommodation and there were sun lounges out the front as well. If you want to see any footage of this or anywhere else I've described in this podcast, make sure you check us out on YouTube, Shah travels. The other thing we loved about mantate was the abundance of activities that you can do there. Make a straw card being swimming with mant. That's right you guessed at. Mantey Island. There's mantaids there. They feed a certain time of year. It's probably a think between May and September they feed in a channel just off the resort. When a manta ray is spotted, a staff member gets a huge shell and blows it like a horn and that signals that it's time to go and swim at the manta rays. Now when you arrive at the island, I'm pretty sure you tell them that that's an activity that you're quite interested in doing and you don't pay in case you don't get to see any mant to raises, you pay afterwards once you've done the swim. Now the swim itself, they put you on a tinny, tender style boat, take you out to the channel and then you literally jump off the boat into the water to swim with them. It's not diving it's just snorkeling for me I'm not the strongest, almost confident swimmer, and I found it was absolutely fine.aff for theres help you along the way. They'll be in the water with you. They'll help you on and off the boat as well. As soon with the mantays was just incredible. They are huge. They are gentle creatures. when they feed they barrel roll in the water and they come really, really close to you. It is amazing to see. In addition to the mantey swimming mantey Island is actually a very popular spot for diving. I'm not a diver myself, but Tom is, and when we went there he did a few different dives. He did a night dive just outside the front of the resort, which we said was incredible. There were so many different sea creatures that came out at night. They also offer shark dives and Tom also did a dive out to a wreck, which was really cool. Now, if you're not until diving, there is plenty of reef around the island that you can snorkel at, you can hirely snorkele gear if you're not bringing your own. There's plenty of coral out there, lots of fish to see and water's very calm, shallow and safe. Some of the other activities they offer there are things like an island hike and a staff member will take you all the way up to the top of the island. It's a really beautiful vantage point to see all the beaches around the island and all the other islands in the distance. There's also some traditional activities like basket weaving, making draw out of coconuts, and one of the ones we really enjoyed was sunset tubing. This is where your put into a tinny and driven around to the other side of the island and there's another tinny that is full of huge rubber rings. They chuck the rubber rings in, you hop on board, float away, and they'll throw you out a beer or cold drink. It is a really fun place to sit and watch the sun set. something very different. I don't think any of the resorts really offer something like this. It wasn't too expensive for memory, maybe 15, 20, Fijian dollars, and it might have included the drink. They also just a couple of boys and ropes out into the water, so you can hold on them in case you're worried about floating away. Stuff will also help you in and out on the boat too. If you're going to Mountory resort, definitely do the sunset tubing. Other activities they have there are hand lime fishing. This is where you head it on a tinny, not too far off the shore, drop a lin in on the reef and see what you can gam. Again, this would have only been about 10,15 Fiji dollars. We did this, caught a couple of very small fish, nothing worth keeping, but it was a good thing to experience. Now all those activities and making you tired not to worry, there are plenty of places on the island to just sit down and relax, lots of sun lounges, hammocks, beautiful places, just lay back and enjoy the beautiful Fijian climate. One really good thing they have just added to Manory Island resort, which I think was completed at the end of 2024 is a pool. From looking on their Instagram, they had a snipper of it in a story. It looks amazing right on the beach front next to a huge deck. Definitely a good sailing point. Now the front section of the resort where the deck and pool is. There's also a bar there and also a pizza slashnack bar. They fire at the pizza river and at about 2 o'clock in the afternoon and do a few different pizzas, either by the slice or whole pizzas. And it's a really nice tree. As I mentioned before, often when you get to these sorts of resorts on the islands that isn't anywhere else to eat. You just have the set meal times and the set menu, so to get a little tree, a little afternoon snack such as pizza is a special treat. Safe to say it was well utilized on the couple of times we stayed ormentory. The bar there is also fantastic, as well as your basic wines, beers, Fiji bitter, bounty rum. They also offer cocktails there. They are worth sampling a couple. Another thing they offer once a week is a cultural display from the staff. This will be dancing, dressing in traditional clothing, traditional songs, really good experience, and I think they now offer a fire on the beach as well. One other thing that Tom and I really loved aboutantry was that all the staff that we came into contact with were amazing. Not to say that any of the staff at any other places that we stayed at  weren't good, but at Manta Ray, they were just really happy, really positive people. Absolutely everyone we came into contact with, whether it was people working in the bar or the staff on the activities desk, or even the people that took Tom out, diving, everyone we came into contact with was just amazing. You can really tell when someone loves their job and the staff at Maney just go above and beyond. As I mentioned before, Tom and I got married on Manta Ray Island and I'm just going to talk to you through a few details with that. Now we chose Manta Ray because we both thought it was a really nice resort and it also wasn't a resort which was too big. Yes, we got the likes of the Hilton and continental and a few other resorts like that, but it just wasn't our vibe. We wanted to stay somewhere that had some modern facilities, but was still at the heart of it authentically Fijian. personally, I just think those bigger resorts are a bit soulless and I thought just for the two of us eloping, it just wasn't the right vibe. I contracted mantey resort and asked if it was something that they would do, letting us elope there. They said absolutely and they were happy to help us out with it. They gave us a prize for a ceremony on the beach. which had a beautiful floor or archway, a bouquet for me and a button hole flower for Tom. They also helped it out with getting a priest to the island. neither Tom or myself are religious, but we needed a priest there in order to sign everything and make it legal. I think from memory the whole setup of the wedding on Manta Ray was maybe about 500 Fiji dollars and then having the priest come over was about $200. Now all of this I organized well in advance before we went there. I also contacted the government office on the mainland to work out exactly what documents we needed to bring in order to get our marriage license. Again, I did this well in advanced, booked the appointment, make sure we had all our ducks in a row before we left Australia. The other thing I did was contact a professional photographer because we were going to be eloping. We just wanted to make sure we really captured the day in order to show friends of family. I found someone who offered a special elopement package and I think it was about $1000 Fuji dollars from memory and then we also had to pay for the boat for the photographer to come up to mantey and back. It was a little bit of money, but in the grand scheme of wedding planning, which I used to work in, that is just a drop in the ocean. I reckon all up our day would have cost about. I reckon all our our wedding day and total will probably cost about $2000 fijian. So we landed on the mainland, we went to the government office, got our marriage license and all the other documents that we needed, headed to Manta Ray, got everything organized. On the day that we got married, Tom went down to the beach and they actually had a couple of staff dressed in their traditional outfits, which are like warrior outfits and they escorted me down to the beach, which was really cool. There were also a couple of the staff who agreed to be our witnesses, which I think they quite enjoy getting dressed up being part of the ceremony. The ceremony itself was really beautiful. It was on the back beach just the two of us. We took lots of fabulous photos. The photographer went back, the priest went back to his island, and we enjoyed a few cocktails on the beach. We were really excited to head back to Fiji next year in order to renew our vows after 10 whole years, and I think we definitely will stay at Manta Ray resort again. I was a little bit hesitant because we have two young kids as to whether there' be enough activities for them. Whilst Manta Ray resort is family friendly, I'd say it really was for older kids. It don't have a kids club there or anything like that, but in saying that now they have the pool, it just provides an extra thing for younger kids to do. So I'm very much looking forward to heading back and recreating some of those photographs. That's a wrap on our Fiji podcast. I amm really excited to head back next year and do another podcast once we've been out there and just go through everything that's changed, everything that's updated. do a bit of a comparison as to what it was like 10 years ago. Again, if you want to see any footage of the trips I've just mentioned, make sure you check out our YouTube channel - Shire Travels, or you can find us on Instagram at shire.travels. I'll see you in the next one.