Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

Whatever you do - do not book with Awesome Adventures Fiji

Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Fiji

This is the worst organization ever. Really. I really recommend you not to book with them. They will be a real pain, which is something you definitely don’t want when going to Fiji paradise. Your whole travel can be ruined, while you expected to relax on the beach and go snorkeling whenever you feel like snorkeling. And don’t think everything will sort out afterwards. We are still waiting for a refund which probably will never come.
In our case, we booked a twin island 4-day tour. They would pick us up at our hotel in Nadi, to bring us to the Yasawa Flyer. However, nobody showed up. We were there on time (and even more than half an hour before) and waited for more than two hours. We asked every driver who stopped at the hotel if they were the one who should pick us up but unfortunately, they were always someone else’s driver. When we called the office, they always said that someone was on their way to pick us up. However, nobody showed up. Consequently, we missed our boat and had to wait till the next day. Because Awesome Adventures wants everything to be prepaid (of course), we lost the money of one night at the Blue Lagoon Resort ($300) and we had to book another night in Nadi ($200). We called the organization again and asked why they did not pick us up. Then they started to argue that we were not there (which was totally not the case – we have been there well in advance and well after time, even when the boat left already, and were asking every driver if he was the one to pick us up). They told us they would pick us up the next day. However, the same story again… Really, can you make this mistake a second time? Because we were alarmed due to our experience of the first day, we called a 100 times until they picked us up. Just in time, we arrived 5 minutes before the boat left. And you know what? They even told us to pay for this transfer although our booking said this was all included. We argued again, showed the papers, and managed not to pay (actually just by getting out of the car and by taking our luggage).
We have been e-mailing Awesome Adventures many times about this and asked for a refund. They first ignored us and after sending many reminder e-mails, they finally answered. They said they would investigate this case. In the end, after many e-mails, they admitted that they made a mistake but that they only can give us a letter in order to get a refund by our own travel insurance. Of course, travel insurances only refunds you when you are cancelling the booking due to specific reasons, not when an organization is not giving you what you paid for – and I think their stance is logical. So Awesome adventures admitted their fault but did not compensate us and tried to make others compensate for them. So unprofessional. As a result: we still don’t have our money back (and we think that $550 is a lot of money). The only thing we can still do is to make sure that nobody else experience the same hassle… so please, take this review into account. We are pretty easy going people and will never complain about small issues. And, unfortunately, our story was confirmed by many other people on the island… So don’t think we are one of the exceptions.

Unfortunately sometimes this happens in Fiji - your hotel in Nadi should have tried to sort it out quickly - if not taxis are cheap so if anyone finds the time ticking away and their transfer hasn't turned up in Nadi grab a taxi (usually around $20fj) to Denarau - the Yasawa flyer only runs once a day - I am surprised that they have no competition as that may bring the price down

1

This topic has been automatically locked due to inactivity. Email community@lonelyplanet.com if you would like to add to this topic and we'll unlock it for you.

2