Blue Lagoon

The Blue Lagoon lies between Nanuya Lailai, Matacawalevu and Tavewa in the Yasawa group, a chain of volcanic islands running north-west from Viti Levu. The lagoon is enclosed, shallow and calm, and the beach on the Nanuya Lailai side is where the boats put in.

The name comes from the 1980 film shot here, and the 1949 one before it. What the Yasawas are actually known for locally is a transport arrangement: a catamaran runs the length of the chain daily from Port Denarau, stopping at each island in turn, and visitors island-hop on a pass rather than booking transfers. It is the closest thing the Pacific has to a bus route, and it is why the Yasawas are reachable on a budget when most of the region is not.

The lagoon is shallow, warm and protected on all sides, with coral on the edges and sand in the middle. Snorkelling is good and the water is calm enough for weak swimmers. The islands are volcanic, steep and dry, with villages holding the land under customary title. Land on Nanuya Lailai is held under customary title like most of Fiji, and the resorts operate under lease from the village that owns the shore.

Development is small resorts and village-run backpacker lodges, most of them a handful of bures with generator power and limited water. Nothing is dense; nothing is luxurious except at one or two properties. The Sawa-i-Lau caves at the northern end of the chain are the other fixture of a Yasawa trip — a limestone chamber entered by swimming under a rock ledge.

A lagoon between three islands, named by a film, reached by a catamaran that runs up the Yasawas like a bus route and is the reason this chain is affordable when the rest of the Pacific is not. Generator power at set hours, bures rather than rooms, and a village that owns the shore.