Rockwater Resort
Location: Ipak Bay North Tanna Island, Tanna Island, vu
Star Rating: 4 Stars
Property Type: Resorts
About this Property
Private Beach and Landscaped Gardens:
Rockwater Resort, nestled in the serene Ipak Bay, North Tanna, offers a tranquil escape with its private beach and beautifully landscaped gardens.
Dining Options and Recreational Activities:
Indulge in exquisite dining experiences at the interior and exterior restaurants or explore thrilling activities like snorkeling and hiking. For those seeking relaxation, the resort provides the perfect setting to unwind with a good book.
Comfortable Accommodations and Delicious Breakfast:
Each unit at the resort is thoughtfully designed, featuring tea/coffee making facilities, private bathrooms with a bath, and some with a charming patio. The cozy seating areas in the rooms ensure a comfortable stay. Wake up to the delightful aroma of an a la carte hot breakfast at Rockwater Resort.
Experience paradise at Rockwater Resort - book now for an unforgettable getaway.
Important Information
Please inform of your expected arrival time in advance. You can use the Special Requests box when booking, or contact the property directly using the contact details in your confirmation.
Policies
Check-in: 09:00 AM - 04:00 PM
Check-out: 02:00 PM
Amenities & Facilities
- Free beach shuttle
- Offsite parking discounted rates available
- Parking
- Non-smoking rooms
- Swimming pool
- Restaurant
- Room service
- Terrace
- Luggage storage
- Safety deposit box
- Fax/photocopying
- Tour desk
- Ironing service
- Private check-in/check-out
- Board games/puzzles
- Concierge service
- Adult only
- Salt-water pool
- Outdoor furniture
- Coffee Shop on site
- Fruits
- Staff adhere to local safety protocols
- Guest rooms disinfected between stays
- Cleaning standards that are effective against Coronavirus
- Physical distancing rules followed
- Hand sanitizer in guest room and key areas
- Cashless payment available
- First aid kit available
- Sanitized tableware & silverware
- Contactless check-in/check-out
- Invoice provided
- Guests can opt-out any cleaning services during stay
- Shared stationery like menus, pens are removed
- Guest room sealed after cleaning
- Physical distancing in dining areas
- Key access
- Food delivered to guest room
- Face masks for guests available
- 24-hour security
- Delivered food - securely covered
- Free wired internet
- Scuba diving on site
- Snorkeling on site
- Self parking (surcharge)
- Airport transportation - pickup (surcharge)
- Airport transportation - drop-off (surcharge)
- Free beach shuttle
- Beach umbrellas
- Pool sun loungers
- Offsite parking discounted rates available
- Private beach nearby
- Internet access
- Housekeeping on request
- Private picnics
- Wine release events
- Pool waterfall
- Exercise/lap pool
- Japanese garden
- Secured parking
- Free bus station shuttle
- Fishing nearby
- Horse riding nearby
- Swimming nearby
- Water sports equipment
- Beach club nearby (surcharge)
- Beach toys
- Charcoal grill
- Vegetarian menu options available
- Accessible shuttle
- No accessible shuttle
- Accessible train station shuttle
- No accessible train station shuttle
Rooms Available
-
Deluxe King Suite
Boasting a private entrance, this suite also comes with 1 bedroom, a seating area and 1 bathroom with a walk-in shower and a bath. The suite has soundproof walls, a tea and coffee maker, a wardrobe as well as a terrace with sea views. The unit has 1 bed.
Max Occupancy: 2 (2 Adults)
- Coffee/tea maker
- Shower
- Hair dryer
- Refrigerator
- Seating Area
- Fan
- Toilet
- Private bathroom
- Private entrance
- Tile/marble floor
- Electric kettle
- Wardrobe or closet
- Terrace
- Linen
- Outdoor furniture
- Entire unit located on ground floor
- Clothes rack
- Drying rack for clothing
- Toilet paper
- Pool towels
- Trash cans
- Shampoo
- Conditioner
- Body soap
- Socket near the bed
- Key access
- Hand sanitiser
-
Double Room with Sea View
The spacious double room provides a private entrance, soundproof walls, a balcony with sea views as well as a private bathroom featuring a bath. The unit offers 1 bed.
Max Occupancy: 2 (2 Adults)
- Coffee/tea maker
- Shower
- Hair dryer
- Refrigerator
- Seating Area
- Fan
- Toilet
- Private bathroom
- Private entrance
- Tile/marble floor
- Electric kettle
- Wardrobe or closet
- Linen
- Outdoor furniture
- Upper floors accessible by stairs only
- Clothes rack
- Drying rack for clothing
- Toilet paper
- Pool towels
- Trash cans
- Shampoo
- Conditioner
- Body soap
- Socket near the bed
- Key access
- Hand sanitiser
Guest Reviews
- Renan (10/5): Rockwater Resort on Tanna blew me away! - Nothing feels “chain hotel” here. John and Silvana are always there, checking in, helping guests, making sure you’re good. Staff are the same, really kind.
Food is so fresh. You can tell everything’s local. Trips they run are exactly as described online, on the hotel's website, make sure to check it out when booking. And get them to tell you how they built the place... it changes how you see it.
The Garden is amazing. Birds, flowers everywhere. The rooms have these historical coral pieces in them which is such a cool touch. And the reef is literally right there. Rolled out of bed, grabbed my mask, snorkeled without needing a boat. Pool’s perfect too, quiet, refreshing, just what you need mid-afternoon.
This place has soul. So do the people. We hope we can go back soon!
- ciara (9/5): Rockwater setting is beautiful, the staff were next level, food was great! -
- Dorothea (10/5): 2 unforgettable days! - Everything is gorgeous. The location, the service , the setting, the food. And everything with a high ecological consciousness ! Sylvana organised everything for us, tours, transport. We had the best of time. It is incredible what the owners have created there. We loved it! Nothing, it s pure paradise!
- João (10/5): Good food, beautiful place and amazing people. Felt like home but was paradise. - Owners and staff are the best of the experience. By a mile. Everything else is great but they make it work on another level. It’s a beautiful resort but also feels like you are visiting family. Wish we could stay longer.
- Szuren (10/5): Hope that my family members or my friends will visit it one day. - We really enjoyed staying in the RockWater.
The atmosphere was like you met an old friends.
Good, relaxing feeling.
- Catherine (10/5): I wish I had an extra week here! - Genius architecture and grounds, spectacular food, impeccable service and friendly staff Vanuatu airline service (the hotel has no control over this)
- Jiří F. (9/5): Short stay but very intense experience. - A beautiful resort set in a beautifully maintained garden.
The friendliness of the owners and staff was beyond words. Thank you. Weak wifi connection.
- Angela Lisa (10/5): - The grounds are incredible. Simply amazing. The room is great. Clean and nice sized with great views. The food was the best of my trip. The service was outstanding. Nothing. It was amazing
- Lijia (9/5): 非常棒下次还来 - 这家酒店真的非常不错,风景设施都很棒,还有热水!环境非常自然,老板非常有耐心并且好客,各个娱乐设施都有,而且食物都是老板自己种植的 唯一不便利就是wifi还需要改进,因为酒店为了抗地震里面的材料阻碍信号
- David (10/5): Rock water resort is complete with every attention to detail. From organizing excursions to the best snorkeling ever rig - The owners Silvana and John, as well as the staff always gave five star service. My wife who was not feeling well, was attended to by Silvana and she even had medication‘s flown in for the next day. The property is sensational from the lush landscape to the well appointed cave like rooms were enchanting. I have dove and snorkel in many places around the world. Rock Waters marine preserve right off their property equal. The best I have ever been to consider considering cuisine can be a challenge on Tanna Rock water chefs presented every single meal that was absolutely delicious. I cannot say enough about Rock Water resort. Thank you again Jon and Silvana.
- Jp (10/5): A wonderful experience in a fantastic and special place, loved everything! - The location is absolutely fantastic with beautiful views. The garden is really great, beautifully lush. The rooms are incredibly beautifully decorated with an eye for detail, each with a fantastic terrace or a balcony. Privacy for each room is guaranteed by the clever design of the entire accommodation. The grounds with garden and orchard are great to walk through.
There is a path down where you can easily enter the water to go snorkeling in calm water. Such beautiful coral with its even more beautiful fish, you're in a real time aquarium! The restaurant is open and very spacious with absolutely the best food! Every day another menu is really awesome to choose from. The owners/ managers and staff are very friendly and very helpful to arrange everthing you would love to do. At the end of the day the staff made a fire in the firepit to enjoy the sunset with a drink, just before dinner. The managers arranged all the excursions that we wanted to do and took care that everything went according to plan, wow!
To experience the volcano from so close is a super special experience and great that we saw, felt and smelled that. The route to it through the ashplanes was absolutely amazing! Yakel village was also a super special experience with beautiful people. Also a visit to the banyan tree was magical!
A tip I want to give, go to the website to read all the excursions you can do on site in advance. So that you know what you want to do when you get there and can book directly to optimize your stay. We absolutely loved Tanna and loved our stay at the Resort and whished we could have stayed even longer! Nothing!
- Bob (9/5): Superb -
- Yeqing (1/5): Went to more than 30 countries hundreds of hotels, your home is the worst and most black, not called the hotel is just a - What a horrible racist couple! Run! After charging more than the booking price of booking.com, you will also charge more fares, taxes, service fees and the difference in exchange rate, saying that the platform credit card guarantee does not work to let you pay more cash again 8%, will abuse you after checkout, and the male boss will move on you, women should pay attention to safety. There is no hot water for bathing, or even no water. Not only is there no Wi-Fi, there's no cell signal, but our partner's other hotel on the island does. No beach no air conditioning, swimming pool floating parasites are dirty, flowers don't swing every day, there are flies and bugs everywhere, eating mosquitoes will fly into your mouth and fall on the food, wall-to-wall geckos will jump on you, do not do insect repellent every day there will be oversized cockroaches in the bed and bathtub, insecticides don't work, hands are swollen by insects. Staying for four nights without changing towels or giving paper towels, not white bedding towels are dirty, leaving used towels on the ground full of dirt, terrible memories.
The booking says breakfast is included but it's cancelled any minute No, there's no restaurant around and you're hungry. The booking display includes pickup, the boss offered to send you, the 15-minute drive charge 10,000 local currency is very expensive and did not inform the cost of the final written on the bill, the 10,000 local currency and other two guests to share the car waiting for tens of hours, we went to the volcano the previous day for a 2-hour drive, the local driver charged 5,000 local currency. There are no cars around, the address is very remote and difficult to get to, the roads are potholed and unsafe and remote and you won't be able to leave.
Drinks bought from the market will also be booked on the hotel bill, and if we don't check it carefully, we will be overcharged.
- Alison (10/5): What a gem of a location, on an island paradise! - Rockwater Resort is an absolute diamond find! The attention to detail in everything from the guest interactions, the room, the food and the resort itself. I spent three days in this gorgeous place, not only doing the Tanna Island top sights (Mt Yasur volcano, Blue Cave, traditional village tour and the Giant Banyan tree), but simply spending time around the resort by the pool with a book or snorkelling off the front cliffs. Silvana and John are absolutely beautiful hosts with their care and attention for the experience of your own and other guests with the island and Vanuatu as a whole.
- Alex (5/5): Passable - the staff was really nice. location too far
owner sent us to airport 3hrs to aurport before departure. 30min before was enough
no internet
overpriced meals
whitegrass had guests so excursions were much cheaper. was told that they communicated with other resorts which was not the case.
too expensive for what you are getting.
- Yuan (10/5): Very happy living experience!! - The hotel boasts a delightful environment, filled with comfort and a warm atmosphere. The carefully designed interior space and elegant decor create a homely feeling for the guests. Nothing!
- Amy (9/5): Superb - It we just absolutely stunning! You were made to feel so welcome. The ladies working at the restaurant were the sweetest Nothing, hard to fault!
- Naman (1/5): What a Horrible Racist couple - Good thing is that they will decide if they want to serve you in room or not, everyday the old lady makes a random decision that will decide if you're having dinner or not.
Another good thing was that this couple built their heaven away from everything, it they were more accessible. more people will have troubles like these.
for those who like banter, the Male Australian owner is the best when it comes to insulting you and showing that they are superior. he didn't disappoint me, i wasn't even surprised that he was like that and made inappropriate comments and insults as a banter. what a shame to see an old man with no manner and respect for others 1) The behavior of the owners was odd. The owner kept on complaining about booking.com and said that it takes 50% from the profit so we don't get enough profit, you should've booked with us directly and availed 20% discount. He didn't care to stop there and kept talking 15minutes, wasting our vacation time.
2)The moment i used the common washroom near the Kitchen, i saw a cockroach and it did explain quite a lot about the place.
3) Their kitchen closes at 8:30pm which is completely fine and acceptable. One day we asked the lady owner that we want to go out in the town for drinking kava and might be late so we wanted our food to be kept in our room or in the kitchen so that when we're back we can have dinner. she kept pushing us to not be late than 7:30 else we will not get dinner. her reason for not giving food in the room was "it will attract cockroaches, bugs, insects etc" which made sense so we told her ok, we won't have dinner. She didn't care that we would be going to bed hungry and was happy with that conclusion which later became insane...(continued in point 5)
4) They were well aware of my dietary requirements. Everyone at the property knew that I'm a Vegetarian. each and everything i ordered was vegetarian. On the 3rd day of my stay, i ordered a vegetarian pasta which clearly has all vegetarian ingredients listed in the menu. They served me a vegetarian pasta with BACON in it.
5) Thrilled from the situation i called the waiter, complaint and stood from my table and went to the room. Nobody came to talk to me or even say a simple sorry. i cried and seeing it my girl went to talk to them and they offered to not charge and gave us food in the Room. I lost my appetite, shocked that they served food in the room. i wondered if the roaches,insects and bugs were on vacation that day.
- Anonymous (10/5): Exceptional -
- Wang (10/5): Exceptional -
- George (10/5): Wonderful time - One of the best experiences in my entire life!!!
Words can not describe the feelings you get from there! Sylvana and John , the owners , and now parts from our family in Greece!!!
- Richard (10/5): Really enjoyable few days - everything perfect. - Fantastic rooms, excellent food, really friendly helpful staff, tremendous views and great snorkelling. Would have liked to stay longer.
- Gavin (10/5): From the minute we landed at the resort to the day we left it was the most peaceful and relaxing holiday, with incredibl - Rockwater is the most relaxing and comforting resort I have experienced, so seclude and right on the water it offers so much.
Host John and Silvana are so pleasant and forthcoming also. I would go back in a heartbeat. Everything was perfect.
- Benjamin (10/5): Exceptional -
- Michael (10/5): Amazing - Everything about rockwater was amazing. I would definitely stay here again N/A
- Katie (10/5): absolutely impeccable! - Where to even begin which such a uniquely special place! The jewel of the crown is definitely John and Silvana and their gorgeous staff who provide a whole different level of hospitality. They organised everything (and we mean everything- we are useless travellers haha) for us during our stay and are just genuine and down to earth people who care greatly about Tanna. Nawiwa and Mary are also gorgeous and took great care of us. Our experience was totally faultless and truly hope anyone wanting an island getaway go ahead and book Rockwater directly for their next trip! Lots of love from Katie and Ed xx N/A
- Christopher (10/5): A perfect tropical resort to unwind and use as your base to explore the beautiful Tanna Island and its people and their - What an amazing experience from start to finish. John, Silvana and the staff went above a beyond to make us feel welcomed and comfortable throughout our stay, including imparting a wealth of island knowledge and information on Tanna culture and tours. Their property is a manicured tropical oasis on the the beautiful western shores of Tanna Island which has direct access to brilliantly colored coral reefs teeming with all forms of marine life. John and Silvana have created an eco friendly resort which has environmental and community sustainability at the heart of its character. Our room is a testament to their vision - the rock wall was a key feature and the room comprised of all the amenities that are commensurate with this style of resort. As with all photos, they don’t capture the true essence of this extremely special place. We will miss John, Silvana and the staff especially the long yarns with John. We will be back! Chris and Con.
- Martin (8/5): An excellent choice to stay if visiting Tanna. Rockwater's ni-Vanuatu staff are its biggest asset. - Learning two days before our visit that Rockwater was just re-opening on the day of our arrival after two and a half years Covid, I was nervous as to what I would find. But the managers and their team have done a terrific job of getting the resort up and running. The real strength of Rockwater - apart from it's beautiful position - are the ni-Vanuatu staff. Considering that the waitresses, etc, hadn't worked with guests for nearly three years, they gave a level of delightful, friendly service that
was an absolute pleasure to experience. Given the challenges of restarting a remote location resort like this after nearly three years' closure, the two or three minor issues we experienced are not worth commenting on. I am confident that having had them brought to their attention, the Managers will have them promptly sorted out.
The only negative I can really identify is that the state of the access road is not good. But then it is much better than sections of the access road to the volcano, which most visitors to Tanna will experience.
Photos