Dive Review of Nai'a Fiji/Fiji Gateway Hotel in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Viti Levu

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Nai'a Fiji/Fiji Gateway Hotel: "Fiji on Nai'a is Shark-tastic and Manta-tastic", Nov, 2017, by Jeffrey Watkins, NV, US ( Reviewer 3 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 9982 has 2 Helpful votes.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	I had an excellent 10-day trip on Naia. I've done the 7-day trip previously six years ago and I like the longer trip. You get to spend extra time at Gau island and in Namena Marine Reserve. The weather was cloudy for most of the trip with several sunny days at the end. This is the start of the rainy season, so you have to expect that. The boat was in great condition and all the systems worked without fail through the trip. The crew was super-friendly and helpful. The food on naia is really good and plentiful. The dinner plates were even photo worthy. I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy eating. I used a 3mm suit for diving while some guests used 5mm. This time of year the water temperature is trending up from its low point. The diving was excellent on this trip. We did three great shark dives at Nigali Passage at Gau island. Lots of sharks and tons of barracuda and jacks. We moved from Gau to Wakaya where I got lucky and spent ten minutes of quality time with a manta at a cleaning station at the Vatu Vai site. Only two of us got to experience this. I think the manta came after most of the dive group left and the bubble noise lessened. This isn't the place to come for guaranteed manta interaction, that's why I say that I got lucky. We headed on to Namena and had a lot of qood dives. I especially liked the Arch site and its sister site Grand Central Station for the great shark and fish school action. The final dives were at Nananu-I-Ra where we got a chance to see two large octopus in a mating ritual. The two were zooming back and forth over a sunny shallow pinnacle. Truly awesome. There was some moderate current on most dives. That is what brings out the soft coral and interesting fish action. There is almost always a place hide from the current if you don't want to deal with it. We saw a shark on almost every dive. Lots of White Tip and Grey Reef sharks. We saw several turtles and several banded sea kraits. I did three of the four night dives and they were enjoyable as well. The naia travel department helped arrange an extra day before and after the trip at Fiji Gateway Hotel across from the airport. This hotel isn't exactly exotic and exciting, but it is comfortable and the food in the restaurant is good. It is hard to come up with something to complain about as this trip was so good. Two of the night crossings were rough with the boat rolling a lot. I didn't get much sleep on those nights. They were followed by nights at anchor so you can catch up on sleep. There were also night crossings with dead calm water making for easy sleeping.
Websites	Nai'a Fiji Fiji Gateway Hotel
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Fiji, Bonaire, Belize, Turks and Caicos, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Palau, Chuuk.
Closest Airport	Nadi	Getting There	Easy flight from the USA via LAX to NAN.
Dive Conditions
Weather	cloudy	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	79-81°F / 26-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	100-200 Ft/ 30-61 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Moderate current on most dives. A couple of dives had surge. Plankton in the water makes many dives "cloudy" but you can still see a long distance. Restrictions were mostly none; occasional limit on dive time to 60 minutes for logistics.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	I have a sealife snapshot camera that doesn't require me to use the camera facilities, so factor that into how you view my rating. The camera room was large and the crew handled the real underwater cameras with care.

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

Subscriber's Comments

By Howard Kaiser in MO, US at Mar 30, 2019 17:47 EST

We're on the ten day trip in May; thanks for the input.

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Dive Review of Nai'a Fiji/Fiji Gateway Hotel in Fiji and Tuvalu/Viti Levu

Nai'a Fiji/Fiji Gateway Hotel: "Fiji on Nai'a is Shark-tastic and Manta-tastic", Nov, 2017,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Nai'a Fiji/Fiji Gateway Hotel in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Viti Levu