Yasawa Islands

Where they sit. The Yasawas are a chain of roughly twenty volcanic islands running north-west from Lautoka on Viti Levu for more than 80 kilometres, in Fiji's Western Division. Total land area is about 135 square kilometres and the resident population was recorded at 5,136. The six principal islands are Yasawa, Nacula, Yaqeta, Matacawa Levu, Naviti and Waya. Yasawa Island itself, the second largest, is about 22 kilometres long and less than a kilometre wide, with peaks between 250 and 600 metres — a spine of grassy volcanic hills dropping to white beaches, with almost no flat land and, on most of the chain, no roads or vehicles at all.

The story behind them. The islands were long known for their sail mats, which Tongan traders bartered for and sometimes took by force through the 1800s. The United States military used them as communications outposts during the Second World War. The decisive modern fact is administrative: until 1987, Fijian government policy closed the Yasawa Group to land-based tourism entirely, to protect the communal village life of the chain. Cruise ships could visit; hotels could not be built. When the policy changed, development came in the form of village-owned backpacker lodges and a small number of high-end resorts rather than large hotels, and that pattern still holds. Land is held under customary title, so almost every place to stay involves an arrangement with a village.

On screen. The Yasawas gave world cinema one of its most persistent tropical images. The Blue Lagoon, directed by Randal Kleiser and released on 20 June 1980, was filmed on Nanuya Levu, a privately owned island in the chain now generally known as Turtle Island. Néstor Almendros, who had shot Days of Heaven, photographed it, and the lagoon, the beach and the interior waterfall are all Nanuya Levu locations. The film's success did two things: it fixed the phrase "blue lagoon" to this specific stretch of water — the sheltered channel between Nanuya Lailai, Matacawa Levu and Nacula is now marketed under that name — and it turned the island into an exclusive resort, still limited to a small number of couples at a time. The Mamanuca group immediately to the south supplied the island for Cast Away two decades later, so a visitor working north from Nadi passes both.

What you actually see. Sawa-i-Lau, at the northern end, is a limestone island among volcanic ones, with a flooded cave system reached by swimming through a submerged entrance into a domed chamber lit from a hole in the roof; a second chamber requires a short underwater duck-dive and a guide. Off Naviti, the Manta Ray Passage delivers reef manta rays feeding in the channel current between roughly May and October, and boats from the nearby lodges run out when spotters call them. The Blue Lagoon anchorage is exactly as advertised: a shallow sand-bottomed channel in an improbable turquoise, with day moorings for yachts. Village visits are formal occasions — sevusevu, the presentation of kava root to the chief, is the correct way to arrive, shoulders and knees covered, hats off. Waya, at the southern end of the chain, has the best walking: a steep climb over the ridge from Yalobi to Natawa takes about two hours and opens a view down the whole spine of the group.

How the islands work. There is no mains water on much of the chain and electricity is generator or solar. Lodges range from dormitory beds at village-run places on Nacula and Waya to a handful of resorts on private leases. Meals are included almost everywhere because there is nowhere else to eat. Mobile coverage is patchy and internet is slow when it exists at all, which is part of the appeal and a genuine consideration for anyone who needs to work.

Getting there and timing. The Yasawa Flyer catamaran leaves Port Denarau near Nadi each morning and works its way up the chain, dropping passengers to waiting longboats; the full run to the top takes about five hours and an open-dated pass allows island-hopping. Seaplanes and helicopters serve the resorts directly, and Turtle Airways has flown the route for decades. The dry season from May to October brings south-easterly trades, clear water and comfortable nights; November to April is hot, wet and inside the cyclone season. Bring cash — card facilities are rare — and reef shoes, because the beaches shelve onto coral in many places.