Nanuya Island is in the northern part of the Yasawa Islands. I stayed on this island for two nights at the Gold Coast Inn on the eastern coast. The Gold Coast Inn was the simplest stay in my time in the Yasawa’s but I liked that it was in walking distance of the renowned Blue Lagoon.
How to Get to Nanuya Island
Nanuya Island is on the network connected by the Yasawa Flyer, a large catamaran operated by Awesome Adventures. There are a variety of packages and passes available; I am traveling on an 11-day Bula Pass which is essentially a hop-on, hop-off pass to visit the islands. Check out my guide to how to book your own pass here.
The Yasawa Flyer travels each day from Port Denarau in Nadi northwards through all the Manuca and Yasawa Islands before heading home in the evening, picking up and dropping passengers off along the way. At each island, passengers disembark onto a smaller boat that will take them to each island.
It takes about 4 hours from Port Denarau to Nanuya Island. I arrived from Nacula Island, just about fifteen minutes away.
Gold Coast Inn
The Gold Coast Inn was a very simple Fijian stay. Run entirely by a family – a brother and sister and their mother plus plenty of cousins – there is no electricity (save for one charging port in the main building), no light in the rooms and no hot water. Instead you’ve got plenty of beautiful palm trees, the ocean right in front of the bures (accommodation huts) and delicious home-style food.
I enjoyed being close to the famous Blue Lagoon, but otherwise given that I had already done so many nights at simple places (the only outlier being my favourite, the Oarsman’s Bay Lodge on Nacula Island), I felt that I was running out of things to do; there’s only so many hours one can spend lazing by the beach with a book!
Things to Do on Nanuya
Watch the Sunrise
The angle of Nanuya Lodge makes it perfectly positioned to watch the sunrise over the ocean from the beach. The sun comes up around 6:30am so it’s a great start to the day.
Hang Out at the Beach
The tide comes up very high here and you can only access the beach at the main entrance so as to protect the inn from the ocean. There are no hammocks here but there are a few benches for high tide and plenty of sand available at low tide. The water here is a beautiful shade of blue.
Snorkeling at Blue Lagoon
I spent my entire full day at the Blue Lagoon, a half-hour walk across the island on a winding trail that treks from east to west. The Blue Lagoon is a beautiful blue bay with SO MANY fish! I couldn’t believe how many schools of fish I was snorkeling with and many curious ones at that who weren’t afraid to come check me out.
The rest of the day I lounged under a tree in the shade and read an entire book in the warm sand. The lovely staff at Gold Coast Inn had nicely packed my lunch to go so I could spend the day.
Hi! I’m Jana, a British-Dutch-Canadian with a dream of seeing every country in the world. I am a storyteller, photographer and adventurer passionate about documenting and sharing my travels.
