If you’re looking for the best Fiji day trips from The Coral Coast, Pacific Harbour or even Suva then read on for the Yanuca Island Day Trip!
A trip to Yanuca Island is the perfect day trip for those who want to visit a stunning secluded island, enjoy some snorkeling, possibly even do some climbing or just relax on the beach on Fiji time. Whether you’re travelling as a couple, with friends, with children or by yourself, Yanuca Island is the perfect Coral Coast day trip. It is honestly such a tropical paradise island – the water is an incredible turquoise blue colour, you really need to see it to believe it!
What To Do At Yanuca Island
When you get to Yanuca Island you are free to do as you wish. You’ll spend around 3 hours here in this tropical paradise before taking the boat back to the mainland.
I definitely recommend getting in the water first and going for a snorkel in the marine reserve – it’s absolutely incredible, the water is lovely and clear there are so many fish there. You may even see a sea snake like we did!
Make sure you also enjoy time on the beautiful white sand beach. There is a palm tree here that sticks out and makes for some great photos – you can even climb up it if you wish!
If there’s still time you can also go hiking up to the top of the mountain – the views down to the beach and reef are absolutely incredible and totally worth the climb!
You can also ask your guide to get you some fresh coconuts down from the tree and enjoy sipping the coconut water from them!
A traditional Fijian lovo barbecue lunch is included, with chicken, fish, bread, rice, salad, fruit and soft drinks. Love is slow-cooked meat dishes cooked in an underground oven – similar to the Maori hangi in New Zealand)
On your way back if the weather conditions allow you may also stop off at another snorkelling spot out in the ocean (it’s shallow) so you can spot more sealife such as turtles, more fish and possibly even a small reef shark.
How To Get To Yanuca Island
Yanuca Island (pronounced ‘yanutha’) is quite easy to get to from Viti Levu, Fiji’s main island. Yanuca Island is located south of Pacific Harbour and just to the west of Beqa Island and the Beqa Lagoon – which is where you can do the world famous shark dive!
From Fiji Beachouse / Coral Coast
If you’re staying at the iconic Fiji Beachouse – a 45 minute drive west of Pacific Harbour, they do several day trips a week to Yanuca Island (they just need a minimum of 5 people on the trip). This was actually who I travelled with and I had the best time – the staff were very professional, kind, helpful and fun!
The boat ride took around 45 minutes each way on a speed boat.
This was our guide – Koroi from Fiji Beachouse. He is such a fun guy full of energy and is bound to make your trip even more adventurous!
From Pacific Harbour
It takes around 45 minutes to reach Yanuca Island from Pacific Harbour on a catamaran boat.
However it seems since covid-19 the company that used to operate the day trips from Pacific Harbour (Pacific Harbour Ocean & Island Excursions) aren’t currently operating (here is the link).
From Suva
To reach Yanuca Island from Suva you will need to get to Pacific Harbour (1 hour by bus from Suva) or Fiji Beachouse first (almost 2 Horus from Suva) and then join the day trip there.
The timings for this day trip are also great as they coincide with the Princess Cruises, P&O and Celebrity Cruises cruise ship timetable that come into Suva.
When you book through the cruise ship company the transfer from Suva to Pacific Harbour will be included in the price.
Why Visit Yanuca Island?
What’s great is that when you visit Yanuca Island you’ll most likely be the only boat there. And with just the small group, it will feel really private and like you have the desert island to yourself!
There’s nothing worse than turning up to a perfect location and it being totally overrun with tourists to kill the vibe!
You’ll notice these blue bungalows here at Yanuca – this is accommodation that they are trying to make into surfing shacks for people to rent overnight! How amazing would it be to wake up here?!
A couple of locals will be on the island preparing the lovo lunch for you, plus they will have some lovely local artisan jewellery available if you wish to buy (absolutely no pressure – they don’t hassle you at all). These people actually live on the other side of Yanuca Island and walk all the way up and down the mountain just to get here to do the lunch for you, so try and support them by buying something from them if possible!
Is The Yanuca Island Day Trip Worth It?
Compared to how much the day trips from Denarau Island charge, such as Malamala, Seventh Heaven and Cloud 9, or trips out to the Yasawa Islands, the Yanuca day trip is significantly cheaper and you definitely get your moneys worth!
The Yanuca Island Coral Coast excursion was honestly one of the best day trips we did in Fiji and can’t wait to go back! We honestly had a great time in this beautiful paradise and it totally exceeded our expectations!
Things To Bring On The Yanuca Island Day Trip
Make sure you bring:
Swimsuit, towel, hat, sunglasses, camera!
Rash Guard:
As the sun is very strong in Fiji you should consider investing in a long sleeve rash guard to protect yourself from the sun when you are snorkelling. There are lots super trendy ones with really cute designs – this is the one I have and I love it!
Reef Safe sunscreen:
Sadly the chemicals in many sunscreens are contributing to the death of lots of species that live amongst the reef. Therefore if you are going snorkeling it is important to use a reef safe sunscreen made of zinc such as Sunbutter Suncream that is reef safe, palm oil free and Vegan friendly!
Zinc sunscreen sits on the top layer of your skin, as opposed to getting absorbed, so it can make your skin a bit paler than it really is. Luckily the suncream brand WinkiZinc has several different shades of reef safe suncream to suit your skin tone!
Is The Shangri-La Fiji At Yanuca Island?
The Shangri-La Hotel is on Yanuca Island – however it is a different Yanuca Island! That’s right, confusingly there are two islands in Fiji called Yanuca!
The Yanuca Island where The Shangri-La is located is to the west of Sigatoka, which is not the Yanuca Island you visit on this trip.
