Matamanoa Island Resort

Overall great trip and incredible island,

The staff is amazing! Gorgeous island and accommodations. Food is wonderful . We truly enjoyed our stay. Thank you!

Stayed here for a few nights on our honeymoon before going to Tokoriki. We heard a lot of good things about the “Fijian hospitality” and were excited to experience that but were disappointed with the service experience at Matamanoa. For example, when you walk into the boutique for a pool towel or help it takes the staff awhile to even acknowledge your presence (even if no one else is in line), we also heard the main manager woman curse a few times shortly after arriving and the staff would seem bothered when you asked for something. One time I had asked for coffee and the woman working at the bar said no and to go make it in my room. I’d recommend they get a new manager and read an inspiring book like “Unreasonable Hospitality.” The food is bad to okay and the ice cream they serve with basically every dessert is freezer burnt. On the positive side, the island is very beautiful and the rooms are pretty nice so we did enjoy relaxing outside our room. We were excited to use the pool attached to the room- but it was pretty cold so didn’t use it at all. The beach is absolutely beautiful and it’s really cool how you can snorkel right off the shore.

L’isola è davvero splendida, un contesto naturale unico che vale il viaggio. Un altro punto positivo è la disponibilità dello chef e della cucina (anche se con menu’ molto limitato): grande attenzione alle intolleranze e alle esigenze personali, con la possibilità di modificare i piatti senza alcun problema. Anche i servizi legati agli sport acquatici sono interessanti e ben organizzati, pur essendo a mio avviso separati dal livello del resort in sé.

Purtroppo la struttura lascia molto a desiderare. Lo stato manutentivo del resort è carente, la pulizia non all’altezza e le camere risultano buie e piuttosto malandate. Il personale, fatta eccezione per lo chef, è apparso spesso scorbutico, in particolare i manager alla reception, poco disponibili e mai realmente propositivi. La piscina e l’area circostante con i lettini sono troppo compresse e danno un’impressione poco accogliente. Inoltre, una parte dell’isola presenta alloggi impraticabili, esposti al vento e con accesso scomodo per via dei sassi. Nel complesso il resort non risponde alle aspettative, sicuramente non lo consiglierei, tantomeno per un viaggio di nozze.

The snokeling off the beach was incredible.

Matamanoa is an idyllic resort. The food was excellent (even the steak which I had two nights). The pancakes (with extra maple syrup) and omelettes were winners at breakfast. I did a snorkelling trip for FJ$103 which took us to two different locations, the first of which was the sandbar where I saw such an amazing lot of colourful fish. It was incredible. We had a gogeous beachside bure which was sunset facing, which I would recommend over the sunrise facing as this side faced where the boats come in and is a bit less private. The singing each night was gorgeous and brought tears to the eyes on more than one occasion. I particularly loved the cultural dancing night, which was a lot of fun and not naff at all - do not miss this for the world! On a less good note, the massage I had in our couples massage was from a girl who might have done a two-day course at best and had no idea about massage at all (I had to get up and go after 10 mins as this sort of thing makes me incredibly creeped out). This was rectified the next day by one of the boss ladies who gave a very good, relaxing massage. Coffees at breakwere an additional charge (very expensive). The orange juice at breakfast was full of sugar but we only managed to get this on the last day. Any other juice was an extra charge. Probably worth it as the pineapple juice was much better. G&Ts were nice and strong. Cocktails poor. Warning - change requests through Expedia were met with obstinance or silence.