Viwa Island Resort Fiji

70 km northwest of Denarau situated in the Yasawa Island's of Fiji is Viwa Island Resort. 

This island is surrounded by an amazing colourful coral reef and is becoming known as a fantastic location for diving, snorkelling and fishing.

The island has stunning white sandy beaches and crystal clear turquoise water.   The island is a beautiful small boutique resort and caters for honeymooners, couples and adventure seekers and only allows children 16+ years of age.  With only 11 deluxe beachfront bures and a maximum of 28 guests, everyone feels very special at Viwa island Island.

Getting to the island is not easier and can take a bit of time and organizing, however, there are a few options, via high-speed catamaran or seaplane.  If you are booking the boat option then we would recommend staying a night in Denarau as the boats leave early in the morning and if you are taking an international flight in you would struggle to get to the boat in time.

We decided to take the high-speed catamaran as we had been staying with a friend so he was able to drop us off in the morning at the port.  The boat trip took about 4 hours and wasn’t too bad as it stopped along the way dropping guests off at other islands and resorts so a nice way to see the outer-islands of Fiji and enjoy the ride.

Once we arrived at Octopus Resort we were picked up by the Viwa Island staff and taken by speedboat to take us to our resort. The speedboat was pretty rough, to say the least, due to the windy and rough weather and we had been told that the couples who arrived the day before couldn’t even get to Viwa Resort.  But on a calm day, the boat ride will be fine.

Even with me feeling a bit seasick from the rocky boat ride what took my breath away, as we got  closer to the island was the clear and beautiful sparkling water, the white sand beach, the lovely bures dotted along the island, the lovely staff singing and greeting us as we arrived and the feeling that we were pretty much the only people on this remote and stunning island.

The resort has been designed so it blends into the natural surroundings.  There is the main building with a large thatched roof this is where the main restaurant and bar is situated.  A wonderful spot to relax and look at uninterrupted views of the ocean and reef.  You feel like you are the only people on earth. 

The first few days we were there we had crazy wind and as the restaurant is open it got pretty breezy and cold at night, however, the staff did everything they could to make sure we enjoyed our evenings.  Every night starts off with happy hour at the bar, where all guests hang out and chat about there day from sharing stories about their snorkelling or fishing trips or just how lovely it is to just chill and relax with the Viwa band playing music in the background.  All the staff are so lovely and caring feels like family.

You have a choice on Viwa of a meal plan, breakfast was already included for us, though we decided to just opt for dinner and if we felt like some lunch you can just order when you want.  The restaurant serves a variety of options with a particular focus on fresh seafood and locally grown produce grown at the resort.  We loved every meal and loved the fact that it was so fresh. It is not overly cheap, however, you are on an island so we felt what they charged was perfectly fine with the quality, amount and presentation was 5 star.

Every morning while you enjoy your yummy breakfast you can check out the activity board and decide what you would like to do during the day with activities from a school visit, island tour, cooking classes, volleyball, fishing trip, snorkelling trips and paddle boarding or kayaking.

Evening activities included cultural fire dance, crab races (heaps of fun and raising money for the local community), quizzes to an awesome bonfire on the beach on our last night with staff and all the guests. Take some marshmallows as we did and shared them around to cook on the fire, yum yum.

There are so many options to chose from and everything apart from the scuba diving is free which we thought was great.  We love the fact you can do as little as much or as little as you like at Viwa and there is no pressure from staff to book you on a trip or tour. 

We spent most days, waking up for a morning swim before breakfast, relaxing on our own sun loungers (each bure has there own loungers on the beach).

Swimming and snorkelling in the amazing clear blue water, swimming in the pool, kayaking, paddle boarding, reading books, chatting, enjoying cocktails or chatting to the lovely staff.

Note: There is WIFI however very weak and expensive (though this may have changed since we have been) and no TV, so if you can’t switch off from your laptop or social media then this really is not the place for you.

We did a few snorkelling trips when they took groups out diving.  Roy, the head diving instructor really knows the spots to go and you can understand why this place is becoming popular by divers. 

One of our personal highlights was a visit to the local school.  When we go away we love to see if we can do something for the children or local schools.  With Viwa l had read a review that said the local school was short on a few amenities and appreciated tourists bringing things over, so we bought 10 kilos worth of items to take over for the kids and school. Reading books, colouring in books, colouring pens, stickers, toys etc.   It really was a special few hours for us and check out the video of Greg dancing with the local kids and the smile on there faces ‘priceless’. 

So what makes Viwa:

• The amazing and friendly staff – they really do love what they do
• The fun happy hours and lovely singing from the band
• The lovely yummy fresh local food
• Feeling like you are family and not just a guest
• The white sandy beach and the feeling of being the only one on the island
• The amazing clear blue water for snorkelling, swimming and cooling off

We really did love this place and we were sad to leave and certainly could have done a few more nights, however, Greg had a surprise for me he had arranged a seaplane back to the main island, which was a lovely surprise as we got back the mainland in 40min, not 4 hours.

As with every guest the staff gave us a wonderful send-off and when you leave Viwa you really do feel like family and it is hard to say goodbye.

Update since we stayed in 2015 - Viwa Island resort was unfortunately badly damaged during cyclone Winston in February 2016 but thankfully no one was hurt.  The resort was closed for 5 months and a few changes made during the rebuild – the main facility now has a lovely new Fijian style bar, a water feature, a new pool table, library & reading area as well as blinds that we can pull down when it gets windy or rainy. Wifi has been upgraded to Digicel and although we still only offer it in our main facility there is no charge now for using it. The first crop of bananas this year after the cyclone almost killed the trees. Check out there website and reviews to see all the new additions to the resort and what visitors have to say. 

(Note: This review was from our trip in September 2015 and all information is our own opinions and thoughts)

If you would like to stay at Viwa Island Resort, book directly through their website for their special promotions and mention you saw the blog from @cgkjourneys. 

Note, we do not receive any commission this is purely for our followers.

Rather than heading straight home, we had booked 3 nights at Intercontinental Fiji and we were happy we did as we got a very nice upgrade.  Click here to read about our wonderful stay at Intercontinental Fiji Club.

To see more of our journeys follow us on Instagram & Facebook for more travel adventures @cgkjourneys

Until our next journey, talk soon Charlotte and Greg.

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