For an easy base on Fiji's garden island. The airstrip is on the doorstep and the reef below the coast road, and the Rainbow Reef and the Bouma waterfalls are both within a day's reach. Places to stay are small and spread out, mostly villas and small resorts, which suits divers and couples looking for quiet.

How do you get to Matei?

By air from Nadi to Taveuni's airstrip at Matei, about an hour and a half in a small domestic plane; there are flights from Suva too. Hotels meet guests at the strip, most a few minutes' drive away. The slower alternative is to fly to Savusavu on Vanua Levu and continue by road and ferry across the Somosomo Strait.

When is the best time to visit Taveuni?

May to October, the drier, cooler months, when seas are calmer and visibility on the Rainbow Reef is usually at its best. November to April is hotter and wetter and brings the cyclone season, though diving carries on between storms. Taveuni is wet in any month, the east side most of all, and rain tends to fall in short, heavy bursts.

Is Taveuni good for diving?

Yes, and the Rainbow Reef is the reason. It runs along the Somosomo Strait between Taveuni and Vanua Levu, where tidal currents feed dense soft corals, and its Great White Wall, a drop-off coated in pale soft coral, is the dive most people come for. Dives are timed to the tides, so some experience helps, but there are gentler reef sites for beginners.

Can you stand on the International Date Line on Taveuni?

In a sense. The 180th meridian crosses Taveuni, and a marker by the road near Waiyevo, on the west coast south of Matei, lets you stand with a foot either side of it. The date line itself bends east around Fiji so that the whole country keeps one calendar day, which means both feet are on the same date.

Boutique Hotels in Matei

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Introducing Matei

Taveuni's airstrip sits at the island's northern tip, and around it lies Matei, a scatter of villas and small resorts along a coast road above the reef. The strip is the island's only one, so most visitors to Taveuni start here. This is the north end of Fiji's garden island, the third largest in the country, where rain falls often enough to keep the forest dense and the waterfalls running through the dry months.

To the west lies the Somosomo Strait, the channel between Taveuni and Vanua Levu, and in it the Rainbow Reef, where tidal currents feed the soft corals that made Fiji's name among divers. The reef's best-known wall is coated in pale soft coral that shows white in a torch beam, and dive boats work the strait from both shores.

On land the island rises steeply to a spine of forested peaks, and on clear mornings Des Voeux Peak, reached by a rough track, looks across the strait to Vanua Levu. The mongoose, brought to Fiji's two largest islands to control rats in the cane fields, never reached Taveuni, and the birdlife it harmed elsewhere survives here, the orange dove among it, its males the colour of a ripe mango.

Browse on Map — Matei

Explore 2 exceptional boutique hotels hand-picked in Matei. Click a pin to discover each property.

Hotels in Matei

Taveuni Palms Resort — Fiji, Matei
Taveuni Palms Luxury Resort
Exclusivity and exceptional service underpin this Fijian dream.
Price for 1 night from
€480.00
4.6 (18)

Fiji, Matei
Raiwasa Grand Villa
A private beachfront hideaway, set in a paradisiacal tropical setting in Fiji.
Price for 1 night from
€3,780.20
4.6 (18)

Matei Guide

Where to stay in Matei

Matei's places to stay are spread along the coast road on either side of the airstrip, most of them on low headlands with the reef below and the strait or the open Pacific beyond. Most are small, and none is more than a short drive from the strip.

Taveuni Palms Luxury Resort sits on a headland, each of its villas on its own beachfront plot with a private pool and its own staff; the founders came from the superyacht world and built the place as the honeymoon they could not find. Its neighbour Raiwasa Grand Villa is a single villa set high above the sea with a wide view across the Somosomo Strait, looked after by its own staff, and members book both at rates we hold for the Club. Both are a few minutes from the airstrip.

What to do from Matei

The Bouma National Heritage Park on the east coast protects the rainforest around the Tavoro falls. The first is a short walk from the park entrance; the higher two are reached by a steeper trail through the forest, and each has a pool to swim in. Further south, the Lavena Coastal Walk follows the shore for about five kilometres to Wainibau falls, where the last stretch is a swim up a narrow gorge.

On the west coast near Waiyevo, Waitavala is a natural waterslide down a stream bed worn smooth by the water. A guided hike to Lake Tagimoucia, a crater lake in the mountains, takes a long day, and the tagimoucia, Fiji's national flower, crimson with a white heart, grows on the slopes around it.

Frequently Asked Questions about Matei

: For an easy base on Fiji's garden island. The airstrip is on the doorstep and the reef below the coast road, and the Rainbow Reef and the Bouma waterfalls are both within a day's reach. Places to stay are small and spread out, mostly villas and small resorts, which suits divers and couples looking for quiet.