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
Outstanding
45 Reviews