Diver's Worst Nightmare!
Stay away from Sonaisali Island Resort!
My wife and two friends, all avid scuba divers, recently made our first trip to Fiji. We were immeasurably impressed with the people of Fiji, but we were met with incredibly disappointing circumstances at one of Fiji's mainland resorts. Upon arriving at Sonaisali Island Resort near Nadi, we were informed that not one, but both dive boats were out of commission. This is after traveling more than 20 hours from the eastern United States to dive.
The staff's best efforts were to call a few other dive shops for us the nearest of which was 45 minutes away. One shop was at least a 2.5 hour drive -- one way. The expectation was that we should willingly and gladly pay between $100-140 per dive plus bear the extra expense of transportation to catch a dive boat at least 45 minutes away. In addition, several of the shops we called were booked, which is not surprising, considering the short notice. Sonaisali Island Resort advertises on its website that "Diving trips operate daily directly from the Resort Marina - with over 25 spectacular dive sites located just 20 minutes away via the Resort Dive boat." If they don't deliver that, it's like saying "Welcome to Disneyworld! Sorry, all the rides are broken."
Incidentally, we couldn't even snorkel at the resort. The visibility was zero. I get the sense it is that way all the time, since Sonaisali is not so much "a true island escape in the beautiful South Pacific Ocean" as they advertise as it is part of an intercoastal waterway.
The major part of the premium price that we paid for their resort was based upon the promise of a dive shop and they could not deliver. We traveled for more than 20 hours from the east coast of the United States to dive at Sonaisali resort in Fiji. We could have paid less at a different resort, but we traveled literally to the other side of the world to scuba dive.
After two days of the runaround, we decided to book the jet skis for Friday morning to go snorkeling. We left the activities desk Wednesday with the promise from another of their staff members that if there were any problems, he would contact us. We heard Thursday morning from an Australian couple that they had booked the jet skis for that day, but they were all out of commission. We waited until Thursday night at 9:30 pm before checking at the activities desk and only then were we informed that the jet skis were still out of commission. In every case, the burden was on us to discover and sort out the problem.
We requested reimbursement, but the resort manager, Ritesh Ram, said, "if our boats were non -operational that is something beyond our control and every effort are put to get boats operational as quickly as possible. In this instance I did explain you; we were waiting for parts from overseas."
Here are three suggestions I made to Sonaisali Island Resort:
"1. The most obvious and common sense step you could have taken would be to contact your clients to let them know of your limitations. If you cannot provide the services you promise, then you lure us under false pretenses.
2. Another option is that you could have rented a dive boat. I find it hard to believe that on all of Vitu Levu and the other 321 islands, you could not find a boat to rent, especially with four paid customers willing to fork out an additional $100 per dive.
3. Presumably, you could have used your fishing boat to take us (unless it was broken, too). The fishing boat was docked every time I walked past during the week."
All of the problems with Sonaisali resort are not coincidence; they are signs of poor management and it was the one stain on our otherwise wonderful trip to Fiji.
I would not recommend this resort to anyone. If you go with plans to do anything other than sit in your room, check first to make sure they offer the services they promise.