Fiji Trip August - Manta Rays

Hello,

Me and my partner booked flights to Fiji in August for 8 nights. Arrive in Nadi early morning (6am-ish). Don't really have any idea about where to stay yet..
I would LOVE to see the Manta Rays and we are pretty much just looking to relax, eat food, snorkel and dive and get a sense of the Fijian culture.
Is the best thing to do to look at accommodation on an island off the mainland of Viti Levu? Like Barefoot Island? Is it too much to do two islands in this time?
Throw some ideas around! :)

Cheers

In the Yasawas there is a resort called Mantaray Resort, where the mantas come really close, just a few minutes boat ride away. Sightings are not guaranteed of course, but if you're not lucky one day you can always go the next.

The resort itself was OK, nothing special and definitely no Fijian culture, as it's a private island. They try to be green, with decomposting toilets (can be a bit smelly) and they have a desalination thing. I didn´t like the dorms there at all though, very cramped and hot, and close to the restaurant (noisy at night), so if you can afford a bungalow I would recommend that. The party-in-your-face-atmosphere was not really my thing, but swimming with the mantas was amazing. The house reef was OK, but difficult to snorkel at low tide. I have seen better ones in the Yasawas.

So all in all I wouldn't recommend staying there the whole time. Octopus Resort and Blue Lagoon Beach Resort are so much better, with nicer house reefs, better dorms and fantastic food. From there they can arrange village trips and they have many other activities. Good atmosphere too. I liked it so much that I went back to both last year. It is advisable to book these two resorts beforehand, as they are very popular.

Hope this helps!

Ditto what #1 said.

2-4 days is good for any one resort, so you could fit in 2-3 places. 5 days is probably the max I'd want to stay at one of the best places.

With 8 nights in the the Mamanucas or the Yasawa Islands, I'd recommend going to more than one island.
You can get a one-week boat pass on the high-speed catamaran, the Yellow Flyer (website: AwesomeFiji.com)
and island-hop. Waya Island is great. Then maybe visit Nacula Island in the outer Yasawa chain. There are
several islands clustered near Nacula which gives you a lot of day-trip options. Two of the higher-rated resorts
on Waya and Nacula are the Octopus Resort and the Blue Lagoon Beach Resort. (OctopusResort.com and
BlueLagoonBeachResort.com

Go for Octopus if you want to do a manta ray trip - Blue Lagoon Beach Resort does not do them. too far away. Remember that they are wild animals and no-one can guarantee that they will be there the same day you are!

Wow. Thanks everyone! You've given me a lot to think about :)