Alright, this review is predominantly for surfers but there are pertinent points that can apply to anyone seeking to stay at this resort. Firstly, although this resort is promoted as a surfing destination, it does not receive any consistent or quality swell to support this claim. Have a look at its location in relation to the islands of Santa Isabel and Malaita, and you will immediately release that the breaks in this area are blocked from most of the swell. We left the resort after 3 days and travelled to Malaita, where we surfed perfect 6ft turquoise barrels all day. The also resort wanted to charge us $50/hr for the boat to scope the breaks, which is more expensive than surfing anywhere else in the south pacific. When we tried to bargain down the price, we were abused by a racist European bloke claiming to be a brother of the owner and there to put "systems" in place.
Now for a some points about the resort itself. As a surfer, I am perfectly happy to "rough" it, sleeping in a board regularly. When you are paying good coin to stay in a resort, however, there are few things you expect. Firstly, some degree of customer service. When we arrived we were not pointed to our rooms, and kinda figured it out for ourselves. We enquired to the staff about the surf breaks, but no one really knew or gave the impression of caring.
Secondly, is the location of the resort itself on the island. The rear of the resort is actually a swamp, and is under a foot of briny dirty water during every high tide. Guests in the rear bungalows have to walk through this water when leaving/returning to their huts... unacceptable and a health hazard.
Third, is a level of professionalism. Drunken staff members boozing on Solbrew, yelling, and carrying on till 4am outside our hut is uncool. Staff members sleeping hangovers off on the dining room tables at 7am when we are arriving for breakfast is also uncool.
Fourth, is what happens when you walk 100m outside the resort. We were accosted by other locals who charged us $20 each to "walk on their beach", "surf their break", or snorkel on their reef.... this all happened within sight of the resort! The island and the surrounding reef is indeed gorgeous, but to get stung extra money every day to enjoy it is ridiculous.
Fifth, I believe that the resort is incredibly poorly managed or have a sneaky suspicion that goods intended for guests are being ripped off by the staff. Every day the resort ran out of the bare essentials, despite the boats going on "ressuply runs to Honiara every morning, and there only being 10 guests in the resort. The resort ran out of milk on 2 mornings, soft drink each day we were there (they only bought a single case despite 10 people staying there), toilet paper, and SolBrew. To run out of perishable items is occasionally understandable, but to run out of long live goods that can be stored in a cupboard is unacceptable.
Lastly, I was disgusted by the attempts of the resort manager to back pedal when we informed him we were leaving. He started to provide the service he should have given when we arrived, and when he found out we were going to Malaita he angrily exclaimed, "There are no waves in Malaita, I lived there 7 years and there are no waves". He also offered to show us some nearby surf breaks that he had previously not bothered to mention. It was a pathetic last minute attempt to recover some lost ground and by then we had had enough.
Needless to say, we left, and got perfect, insane waves in Malaita, and stayed in a local village for a fraction of the cost and with far superior hospitality. To anyone intending to stay here, DON'T.