We just got back from our 10 days holiday at Blue Banana and we had a unique and wonderful experience! From the moment we arrived we were amazed by the place: my husband's first comment after we were shown our place was: "wow, is it really where we are staying? This looks way nicer than on the pictures!" Initially I thought I would be a little disappointed as the place is not right on the beach and the walk back up a hill is steep: while it is only 400m horizontally it is a 100m vertical climb. However after the first day I found myself falling in love with the place succumbing to its quiet magic. We woke every morning at 6 30 (without any alarm) to the song of birds and the trickling of the of the water in the creek outside our window. Waking up that early was a total novelty to us, but what was even more strange that we felt completely rested and refreshed. Whether it was because the bed was so comfortable, the quiet and peace around us, the fresh air and healthy tiredness from the previous day or the excitement of the adventures of this upcoming day, I don't know. We then sat on a deck enjoying the view, drinking a cup of coffee, eating toast with fresh fruit (pawpaw, pineapples, bananas) either from the market or directly from Tatjana's garden enjoying the view of the bay, reading a book or just sitting and soaking up the moment. The fact the place is up the hill turned to be a blessing in some way as this means there is a gentle breeze and it was not as hot, there were less mosquitoes and the view of course was stunning. Around 8 30 we would finally get our act organized to go do something. We would either
1. slowly meander to town and go to the market. Savusavu is about 5k walk, about an hour, but the walk in itself is a relaxing experience: you get to see a lots of locals and witness their day to day life, the road is unsealed and fairly quiet, and resembles a walk through a forgotten botanical gardens: hibiscus and other flowers are growing wildly between pawpaw, bananas and coconuts and some other trees we didn't know. We thought some days may be we should skip going to market and get fruit directly off the trees, but figured those trees must be owned by someone, there are no fences so it is hard to tell. All along on the left side is the sea, so when we got hot we went for a swim. The market was great: coming from NZ winter where tomatoes are 13 NZD/kg, having tomatoes sold by a "heap" for 1 FJD, along with eggplants, cucumbers, green/yellow beans and chillis (all for a 1dollar a "heap"), was like letting a hungry kid in a candy store! We generally caught a taxi to go back: standard fare is 10 $FJD for a normal car, that would drop you at the bottom of the hill, 15$ FJD for a 4WD that would take you right to the house. Tatjana and Mario have recomended we use Ratnish, and we did: he is a great guy and a ride in taxi was always a fun experience (the sign always joyful on his car is very appropriate) and he only charged 7$ FJD, but we often asked him to etiher leave at the bottom (as he was canning his car going up the hill) or give him a tip.
2. Other days we went snorkelling. Split rock is a famous place and is about 15-20min walk. It is a tower of coral surrounded by sworms of different multicolored friendly fish, some of which even nibbled on us. However it is not very big and only takes a few minutes to swim around it. We wanted more so we generally walked to the entrance of Cousteau resort (20-30min walk from our place). The beach and the ocean in front of it are public property (despite them trying to claim otherwise). On the left side (the ocean side) of the jetty are lots of different corals some are bright blue and some are purple, with lots of different fish of all kinds and sizes! We thought the water was not super clear, but we didn't time our snorkeling trips very well: we had unusual amounts of rain, so the water was draining down the hill and making the bay a little muddy. Also at out-coming tide the water is more dirty is everything from the bay is getting washed out. Mario did recommend we go at incoming tide, but it took us a while to figure it out (we should have listened to Mario right away) . One day we went when the tide was coming in and it was almost high tide. It was stunning: the water was beautiful and there were flocks of amazing fish out feeding on the fresh nutrients, the sun came out and was reflecting on the coral highlighting its different colors, I really felt as if I became part of those "underwater world" movies we see on discovery channel! We decided to take this experience further and give a try to scuba diving. Again Tatjana's and Mario's experience and advice not only were very helpful but it also saved us a lots of money. We were going to go with Cousteau diving, but they recommended we give Koro Sun dive a ring. We did, and we are so glad we did! They picked us up in town (so the fact they are on the other side of peninsula was not a problem at all) and they were really cool. We will put a review on their site, but for the scope of the review on Blue Banana, it is important to say that there is world class, stunning, amazing diving pretty much at the doorstep! So this leads 3. On other days we caught taxi, went in town and went diving, which was awesome! Then we walked back home along the No1 pattern: stopping for swimming stops as we felt like it. Sometimes we ate lunch at captain cafe: they have yummy fish if you feel like spoiling yourself! Some days we packed lunch with us.
In the evening we would cook our dinner and eat it on the deck, lit by citronella candles, we watched the sun go down on the other side of peninsula, the stars and the moon come out, the lights of the boats below in the bay. Feeling completely relaxed, spoiled and utterly lucky to be there.
Overall our experience there put us in an utterly state or relaxation and internal peace.
Tatjana and Mario deserve a special mention too as they were the nicest host we have ever met. Genuine and humble they made all the efforts to make our stay comfortable. Their local knowledge and advice were priceless. They are not a kind of people that great everyone with artificial smile and Bula! like in some resorts, instead you can really tell that they sincerely care for each of their guests and try to accommodate everyone's personal needs.
So in summary, if you are looking to stay on a beach in a resort type setting, having activites organised and food cooked for you, you may not like it here. If you want to experience some of real fiji, have your independecy and complete freedom to do what you want when you want, eat what you feel like when you feel like, YET, feel completely spoiled and stay in luxury at the same time (yes, sounds impossible, but it is actually possibly) then that's the right place! The house itself is stunning, all handcrafted from native timber by Mario and his team. It has everything you need to live comfortably: the shower is great with unlimited hot water. The bed is comfy. All windows have good mosquito nets so no mosquito inside. The wrap around deck is amazing and a view to the bay is magic. The house is set in a peaceful garden type setting and from the house all you see and hear are birds, trees and the bay way below. You hardly see or hear the other guests. It is worth bringing some moquito coils or citronella candles to sit on the deck: the insects are not as bad as at sea level, but there are still some. What was also nice is that Tatjana and Marion have their own artesial spring, so you can drink water directly from the tap and not worry. The house gets cleaned twice a week and even your washing gets done and brought back to you neatly folded. The only downside to the place may be that it is not right on the beach and that the beach at the bottom of the hill may not be one of the nicest in Fiji. However this is easily outweighed by the positives and there are some bonus for being up the hill. And to be fair, for the price you pay (66 USD a night) you could rent a car (Mario and Tatjana can organise a car for you for 80 FJD) so for around 160 FJD you would have a stunning place and car to drive you anywhere (plenty of stunning beaches all around), and it would still be cheaper (and way nicer) anything you can rent right on the beach.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC