Poor value

I’ve travelled a lot, and I’m used to certain things in budget accommodation; dodgy electrics, non-functional plumbing, bad management, etc. Balanced with the remoteness of the location, my expectations were fairly low. However, Safe Landing fell fairly short of my expectations, especially given the price we paid.
To cap it off, the staff never failed to make us feel like an inconvenience in their day.

Arrival:
This was the most tedious part of the trip.
Everyone who transferred from the Yasawa Flyer ferry to the small resort boat was brought into the dining area of the resort and sat down in a circle. A lady completely lacking in enthusiasm, charisma or energy droned on about meal times and wifi costs for a long time. She then proceeded to check everyone’s payment situation in a lengthy and tiresome way while all 10 people waited. When she had finally done this, she began to show people to their rooms.

Accommodation:
The main living space of the Bungalows was not too bad, the bathroom however was not nice and needed a really thorough clean. Despite being advertised as having free toiletries, there was not even soap for the bathroom.
There is no hot water at all, and electricity is only supplied between 6pm-6am every day.
There are no ancillary comforts such as a kettle or fridge in the rooms. The only lighting is ugly fluorescent tubes. The bathroom light did not work properly, so we had to use a torch in the evenings.
There was no key supplied for the room, even when we asked. Other guests had the same experience, good luck claiming on travel insurance if you have anything stolen from an unlocked room… Obviously there’s no room safe available either.

There were no towels in our room when we arrived, when we enquired about this we were told that there weren’t any and we’d have to speak to the manager. When we eventually had a chance to ask the manager, she told us there wouldn’t be any towels available till tomorrow. The next day, we still had no towels in the morning. By the evening, after our 3rd visit to the office, we were given two clean towels. Other guests we spoke to had similar experiences.

Services:
If you care about internet connectivity, you are best buying a local SIM card before you arrive (Vodafone gave good signal), as the resort WiFi is $20 per device, and the range only covers the dining area.
The resort bar also sells a few snacks and bits. The beer was never particularly cold though.

Food:
Pretty average uninspiring stuff. Expensive for what it is.
Unfortunately are no other practical options, there are no fridges in rooms so bringing your own supplies is impossible.
Breakfast is included in the price, but is only served early in the morning (7:30-8:30am), so forget about any lazy lie-ins at this place.
Wes walked out to Blue Lagoon resort (which has quite a range of food on offer) on the island one afternoon, they refused to serve us any food or drinks though as we were not guests at their resort. So much for Fijian friendliness and hospitality.
Other guests told us we could eat at the Nabua Lodge which is only a 10min walk away, much the same cuisine, but at a cheaper price. There is also a little coffee and cake shop 5mins walk away, which gave us a warm welcome although the coffee was only instant stuff, the view was lovely though.
Hot Water is on offer on the chalkboard for $2 FJD, a bit pricey, but we fancied a cup of tea one evening (we had our own cups and tea bags), we were told it wasn’t available till tomorrow.

The Good:
I don’t want to be completely negative about this place, as the setting is gorgeous and there is potential for it to be a really great place to visit. However, we really did not feel this place represented value for money in any way. We spoke to other travellers who also were not enchanted with the place, and some of them showed photos of other similarly priced places on other nearby islands, and we wished we had gone to those places instead!

So maybe you’re still thinking about booking in at Safe Landing?
In that case bring:
-Your own towel
-Your own soap
-A torch
-Plenty of mosquito repellant
-USB battery pack
-A local SIM card
-A travel kettle

We felt like family in the end here, it was wonderful. It’s simple, basic, genuine. The food was really really good, creative, especially for a remote place. The grounds were kept tidy and it felt very peaceful here. Beautiful beach with the best hammocks to lounge away the day with a book. Reasonable out trips to snorkel. Nice activities, lots of free things too should you choose to join in. Our room was big and basic, pretty clean although bugs can still get in and they did. The en-suite bathroom was not super nice, ugly toilet and cold water. Try to get a bungalow on the beach, the ones in the shade looked nice overlooking the beach with a breeze. Our bungalow in the middle of the property was not beeezy, although we used the fan all night and it was fine. The generator is on at night. Bring mosquito spray!! Decent snorkeling, right off the beach.
For the price, it was reasonable and we are glad we stayed here. We were sad to go.