Barefoot Manta Island Resort

Such a cool place with amazing facilities- they have a marine biology research centre which does great talks every day. Food is good and service is so friendly

Ci siamo trovati bene location bella staff caloroso e amichevole Da consigliare

Barefoot Manta was amazing! We spent 5 nights and had the best time. The staff were incredible, especially the resident marine biologist Rob who was a mine of information and enthusiasm. There are 3 different beaches to snorkel from and the snorkelling was the best we have ever seen, it is a protected marine reserve and we participated in coral planting which was great. The Manta Ray trips happened on 3 of our 5 days, it is a bit of an uncontrolled bun fight with various resorts sending their boats to see the mantas but the Barefoot Manta crew were educated and respectful. The resort is beautiful and has a lovely vibe, the staff were so friendly and helpful. We stayed in a double Bure on the sunset side, it was a permanent tent and it was all that we could have wished for, right on the beach. The meal plan is really expensive by our standards, I would have preferred an al a carte option as I have food restrictions and I found that eating salad and rice for almost every meal was boring and repetitive. The staff did try though, however $40 Fijian for salad and rice was a bit on the nose. Bring snacks! It would have been good if they could have made the tea/coffee available all day and maybe had something available for afternoon tea as it is 6 hrs between lunch and dinner. We do recommend this place.

We spent 4 nights at Barefoot and wished we had more time there . The staff were so friendly - the manager Robin ensured he spoke to guests throughout the day and was both warm and personable to everyone , and Matthew at the dive shop was so friendly and informative . And we loved our fancy bure tent right on the beach - natural and private … this place really feels like the Fiji you imagine. The resort was also very clean and my husband and daughter being celiacs, also had their diet catered to with care once we reminded them … after the first day the cooking staff became masters ! We also appreciated how the resort takes such care with protecting and caring the corals and environment - having marine scientists and the leadership of Rob is also very impactful . Hopefully other resorts will take this learning forward !

However very hard to get to, we thoroughly enjoyed our 3 days on the island. It was quiet and safe and we felt very much at peace in our bure, thus the added bonus of its inaccessibility to the noisy public. The Fijian staff are amazingly friendly and welcoming. If there was a negative it would be the food/cooking quality. The breakfasts were outstanding but the buffet-style dinners and lunches were too bland and overcooked and became repetitive!

Overall, we had a lovely experience here, and will definitely be back. Their staff and customer service were great, and the facilities were wonderful. The large oceanfront burres were fantastic, and we would urge everyone to spend the extra money on them. The coral reef here is truly exceptional and is the biggest draw for us. Absolutely stellar destination for snorkeling. We really appreciated that the manager of the facility was always around, and interacted personally with the guests. While we will definitely visit again, there are a few things I hope they will change. First, they were not great about dealing with allergy information - we had to remind them of my wife's allergy at every meal. We would suggest labeling the dishes in the buffet with allergen information, which would make things much easier. Second, while the burres are terrific, they are difficult to live in when the weather is bad. For example, in a downpour, you will get wet trying to use the outdoor bathroom and toilet! At night, you have to find your way to the toilet in the dark, since the switch for the outdoor toilet is in the toilet! In the smaller burre (which were in the first night), in bad weather, you will get wet while using the outdoor toilet, since it is not covered or protected from the rain! Another minor issue we encountered was that we never got hot water in our burre (despite telling them multiple times about this). Just be aware of these issues, and you will have an amazing time here.