Diving & Travel Guide to Mamanuca and Yasawa Islands

About Mamanuca and Yasawa Islands

The Mamanuca and Yasawa Islands offer a diverse and accessible diving experience that caters to everyone from beginners to advanced divers seeking world-class shark encounters. Supermarket is the regions headline dive site, a famous baited shark dive where up to 40 bull sharks gather alongside grey reef sharks, lemon sharks, and occasionally tiger sharks, with large groupers and trevally swarming in the background. Gotham City provides a pinnacle dive with batfish, groupers, morays, and dense soft corals, also serving as an excellent shark dive. The B26 Bomber Wreck is a WWII-era aircraft resting at 15 to 20 metres, largely intact and home to glassfish and lionfish. Magic Mountain is an offshore pinnacle near Malolo attracting grey reef sharks, barracuda, and seasonal manta rays. Plantation Pinnacles offers shallow coral gardens ideal for training dives, with turtles, stingrays, and cuttlefish. The Caves at Navula feature limestone caverns and swim-throughs with glassfish and soldierfish. The Yasawa Islands extend the experience further with Nanuyasawa Wall providing drop-off diving with gorgonians and whitetip sharks, Sawa-i-Lau Caves offering a unique limestone lagoon experience, Blue Lagoon delivering calm coral gardens with turtles, and Manta Ray Pass off Drawaqa Island hosting a seasonal manta cleaning station from May to October. Waya Island rounds out the list with walls, sea fans, and large pelagics. The islands are easily reached from Nadi by speedboat, ferry, or seaplane.

Highlights

• ✓Supermarket: Famous baited shark dive with up to 40 bull sharks, grey reef sharks, lemon sharks, and sometimes tiger sharks in one dive.
• ✓B26 Bomber Wreck: WWII-era bomber at 15 to 20 metres, largely intact with glassfish, lionfish, and excellent macro opportunities.
• ✓Manta Ray Pass: Seasonal manta cleaning station off Drawaqa Island in the Yasawas, active from May to October.
• ✓Sawa-i-Lau Caves: Unique limestone caverns with a hidden lagoon, offering snorkelling inside caves and scuba diving around the entrance.

Getting There

International flights arrive at Nadi International Airport (NAN) on Viti Levu, with connections from Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and across the Pacific. Fiji Airways is the national carrier. Domestic flights with Fiji Link connect to Taveuni, Kadavu, Vanua Levu, and the outer islands. Seaplane services reach remote resorts and the Lau Group.