We spent a week at this lovely resort and loved every minute. It's a small and personalized place with beautiful contemporary architecture. We stayed in one suite while our daughter was in the adjoining suite. Both suites were huge and comfortable, with a living room, bedroom, huge bathroom, big porch with drop-dead views of the ocean, and more inside space, too. When we were in our suites, it was private and quiet and perfect for reading a book while sipping something from the minibar. But just a quick walk down the beach and we were at the warm swimming pool, dining room, library, and reception desk. The food was spectacular, with the menu changing from meal to meal and always surprising us: "How do they make that taste so good?!?!?!" The staff were warm and welcoming, and our trip to the nearby town taught us why: there is a beautiful synergy between the resort and the local community that benefits everyone. It's worth a visit to the town just to meet the great folks who live there and to see their way of life. The snorkeling and boat rides were terrific, and the beaches were beautiful and relaxing. Our only disappointment was that we could not stay longer - our stay at a second resort elsewhere in Fiji was just fine, but not up to the level of Yasawa Island Resort.

My wife and I stumbled across YIR and couldn't be more impressed. A massage on the open deck right on the ocean front was amazing. The rooms enormous and the service superb. The managers Pete & Jojo could not be better hosts.
The other impressive feature is the food. The chefs attention to detail and quality is second to none.
Great to see the ideal location backed up with a great resort.
Can't wait to come back especially when Pete & Jojo complete their planned improvements.
See you again soon. Alan & Yvette

It has been 4 months since our stay in YIR. I will just write bullet points as a long and detailed opinion might be just boring. However, if anyone needs more info and has questions about our stay, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Before I will say why I would not return, let me be fair and say the positive things:
- The location is superb. Great views, perfect for walks on the beach. Especially the private beaches it offers are fantastic.
- The local staff (besides Joe) was always very helpful, smiling and nice.

Negative things:
- The rooms are not worth the price. Yes they are clean and nice but nothing more, which you would expect from a place like this. During our stay a couple had to be moved from their bungalow since there was a rat, which ate their soap and some other things.
- The diving equipment is not that good; nevertheless, the worst things are the boats. They had one good one, which was under repair for half of our stay and they would only take it out when the group of people was large or they needed to go further out the sea. The divers were left with a crappy, old and not adjusted for diving boat. There was a large lady diving with my husband and the hustle all of them had to go through to get her in was just ridiculous.
- Spa was ok. Nothing special. Just as the rooms- you would expect much more for the price.
- The food was normal. As we talked to other gusts we were all surprised that being at the seaside the availability and diversification was low. I totally understand that this is a remote island, far from everything but they do hay a couple of planes coming daily, which means they could expand the menu and not limit it. Also, I was negatively surprised when ion my return I checked out their facebook page and it said “lobster for dinner…just another day in paradise”. I did not see the lobster that day. What a lie. I did see lobster omelets (which were very good) two days before but no fancy lobster dinner in the week we were there. Hate deceiving advertisement.

Apart from the above mentioned, general comments, we did have TWO extremely unpleasant incident with the management of the so called paradise (let me laugh!).
1. The night before our arrival we were staying at the Hilton hotel in Denarau. We had been informed that the plane to Yasawa was leaving at 2PM. By coincidence (there was another couple in the hotel also going there) we found out that it was at 1:30. NOBODY HAD INFORMED US ABOUT THE TIME CHANGE. By confusion we had been informed that somebody would pick us up and when it turned out to be different we had contacted the resort and had been told to grab a taxi to the airport and had been assured they will wait for us. We arrived at 13:40 and the plane had just left. Mind you that it is a chartered plane so it is the Resort who decides when it leaves. ALTHOUGH WE HAD BEEN TOLD THEY WOULD WAIT FOR US, THEY COULD NOT EVEN WAIT 10 MINUTES!!! We did not fly until 3PM. The only excuse we got was “sorry”, with no further explanation.
2. On our return, we arrived to the airstrip with 2 other couples. My husband had his bagpack with him and when the team started loading the place Joe took it with him. When we were in the plane already and my husband did not localized the bag he asked Joe who assured him THE BAGSACK WAS LOADED TO THE PLANE. You can imagine our concern when on arrival it turned out it was not and when we called the YIR Joe told us that by mistake it was taken back to the resort along with the language of the new arriving guests. To make a very long story short, we were forced to pay from our own pocket an enormous amount of money to charter a flight to go back to the resort for our belonging (our money and passports were there and we had a connecting flight). The owner James did not take responsibility at any time for the acting of his team member. THIS IS NOT A BEHAVIOUR I WOULD EXPECT FROM A PLACE IT CALLS ITSELF AN “EXCLUSSIVE RETREAT”. You have lots to learn about customer care.

If it had not been for the other incidents would we have recommended the place? NO, the price is way too high for what it offers. It was lovely but we would prefer to spend that amount on other places in Fiji. Two of the other couples that were there with us told us they had been before in the other resort on the island and said it was much better. Can’t say, haven’t been but here I would never return.


My contact details: Joana Sanchez
sanchezklosinska@yahoo.com

Patsy (Martje) and I spend 7 wonderfull days at the Island, could not foult anything, the staff was excelent, JOJO and Peter (Managers) perfect host, the food AAA+++, the fish we cought in the morning was cooked for us at lunch. the fishing team made sure we cought some fish. All in all I do recommend it to any one. This was our 5th visit to FIJI
And we made many friends, especialy the Rusian group.
Yours Andrew