YASAWAS

I recently travelled to the Yasawa Islands for 2 weeks. The latest lonely planet book from 2006 is completely wrong and out of date (sorry guys). however, the beaches are absolutely stunning and only get better the higher up you go. Unfortunelty there was no warning of the fact that there are set times for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and if you miss out, tough. There are no options of snacks, some islands even ran out of water, had no electricity and absolutely no means of communication. There are camping options at a few places, which would be ideal as the rooms were absolute crap. We are not picky travellers, but washrooms with no toilet paper, dorms with missing ripped up flooring, and eating nothing but rice for every meal isnt exactly what they call "modern" and "clean" anyways, a few places to remember if travelling to the yasawas are definelty Manta Ray, which has a younger fun atmosphere, good food (for Fiji anyways) nice beach, good snorkelling. Octopus resort is AMAZING, definetly the best we saw in the yasawas by far, and the Australian owner and his wife are super nice, stay here for at least a few days. AVOID sunset resort as half the island recently burnt down, and its smells terrible, they had no water, beer, and the washrooms were hideous. Beachcomber is nice for party animals, although its not even that crazy..... every place totally depends on who is there, who you meet. some times we had quiet nights, sometimes we didnt.

"there was no warning of the fact that there are set times for breakfast, lunch, and dinner," - this has been "warned" on TT many times, and is , I think, part of the charm. You ARE told up fronmt of meal times, the drums are beaten to call diners too.

"There are no options of snacks, some islands even ran out of water" - again, TTers often advise you to take snacks from the mainland, but I didnt feel the need at my recent stay at Oarsman's. Plenty of water there and also newly added power and hot water too.

I presume that there are some places that are lacking , as you say, but it would be good if you named them here as a warning to others.

I'm inclined to agree with the poster above. Drums are beaten at every meal so I'm not sure what you meant by an additional warning. The beaches are beautiful but I don't think it follows that just because you stay longer on the boat they get better the further you travel. I went to all of the Yasawas – yep every single one – and some of my favourite beaches were the first I encountered. I actually really liked Sunset because of the sand bar connecting the two islands, although this was before the fire that you mentioned. I found the guide book fine too. I guess you must of skipped over the parts that warned about the basic conditions - perhaps one person's idea of basic is different than anothers. In terms of Yasawas - if they say basic, then basic is what it is.

I would like to note that Coconut Bay Resort at Naviti, has no electricity, except from 6:00-10:00pm, which is clear in LP guidebook. What is not clear is that except for these hours that means that there is also no running water, neither in showers nor in toilets, which is a problem.