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Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin At Turtle Island, a new generation is leading the way forward in Fijian luxury and hospitality, with deep sea fishing, snorkeling, and floating pontoon dinners in The Blue Lagoon (yes, the movie was filmed there). Pristine private beaches, oceanfront “bure” villas with dedicated butler service, traditional kava ceremonies with an entire village of new island friends—Fiji definitely knows how to treat its visitors. “It’s part of the DNA of our culture to host guests and spoil them for the better,” says Richard Evanson, Jr, the manager and second-generation owner of Turtle Island , a renowned private eco-resort in the Yasawa Islands of Fiji.
Evanson’s late father, Richard Sr., who made his fortune in cable TV before living out his tropical island dreams, turned Fiji into an international destination when he opened Turtle Island as a remote getaway in 1980. Now Richard Jr.
is leading Fiji into a new era of sustainable tourism. Although most of us must settle for the armchair escape (fed perhaps by a chilled bottle of Fiji water on the couch at home), Fiji is enjoying something of a visitor boom right now, with new travel options making it more accessible and desirable than ever. A traditional kava ceremony is part of the visitor experience across Fiji.
Why Fiji? Why Now? In December, Fiji Airways, an American Airlines partner, introduces the first ever nonstop flights between Dallas/Fort Worth and Nadi, Fiji. The new 13-hour service will operate three times a week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays – aboard Fiji Airways Airbus A350-900 aircraft, from $999 round trip. This follows the launch of Fiji Airways’ Airbus 350 “bed and breakfast” Business Class service last year from LAX.
All those incoming guests need nests worthy of the long trip, and there’s no shortage of new options for accommodations on the snazzier end. Last May, Crowne Plaza Fiji Nadi Bay Resort & Spa opened 324 guestrooms and suites, seven swimming pools, ten restaurants and bars, and a nightclub with a beach club. Sixteen additional oceanfront suites will be ready by year’s end at the resort located not far from Nadi Airport.
Further out on the Coral Coast, Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort reopened after a major redo last December, with 206 guest rooms and 47 bures—not to mention golf and butler service—in a resort made to look like a traditional Fijian village. Royal Davui Island Fiji Resort accommodates a maximum of 32 guests. For those seeking true desert-island seclusion, the Royal Davui Island Resort is a minuscule adults-only retreat in the glorious Yasawas island chain that keeps a limit at 32 guests for its bungalows and villas with open-air showers, sleeping pavilions and private plunge pools.
Next Generation Fijian Luxury Private sand beaches, turquoise waters and good vibes all day long at Turtle Island. No place captures the experience of Fantasy Island, however, like Turtle Island, right down to “the planes! The planes!”-style arrivals. Most guests float in on vintage Turtle Air seaplanes to the legendary refuge in the heart of the Yasawas.
At just 1.5 miles long and averaging a half-mile wide, Turtle Island is perhaps best known as the shooting location of multiple Blue Lagoon movies. If you came of age, like I did, watching the 1980s version with Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins, this place was instantly your ultimate “someday” beach escape, was it not? I wanted to know more about this bucket-list destination, and the backstory is a doozy.
In 1972, American entrepreneur Evanson bought the uninhabited island, then known as Nanuya Levu, from the Natukani people of Nacula, for a mere $100,000 (“an amount I’d already spent on shrinks trying to find answers,” Evanson writes in his autobiography ). He notes that he felt an emptiness in his business life that only a true calling at the far edge of the globe could fulfill, and he set about rejuvenating the land, planting forests of trees (more than 500,000 over 30 years), and building an oasis for himself, his family, and lucky visitors alongside a support team of local villagers . Turtle Island’s first hotel guests came in 1980 but even as word of the place spread and North American travelers suddenly put Fiji on their travel radar, Evanson committed to sharing paradise with a maximum of 14 couples.
That’s never changed. What’s important isn’t seven-star amenities. It’s seven-star emotion, and that comes from embracing the Fijian way of life — Richard Evanson, Jr.
Richard Evanson, Jr. is the manager and second-generation owner of a resort his father, Richard Sr., opened in 1980.
Evanson died in in Fiji in 2021 after a long illness but Richard, Jr., who is half-Fijian, now runs the place with the same sense of thoughtful stewardship and community involvement he learned from his father—and still guided by the hospitality motto his dad learned at Harvard Business School many decades ago: “Be unique, don’t compete.” “My dad would always tell me, ‘What’s important isn’t seven-star amenities.
It’s seven-star emotion,’ and that comes from embracing the Fijian way of life,” Richard Jr says. Turtle Island employs over 120 Fijian staff , most of whom are from seven surrounding villages. The property was one of the world’s first clean-energy resorts thanks to a solar farm Evanson engineered in 2013.
A community foundation generates funds to support facilities and raise standards at three local schools, and for 70 secondary school scholarships, as well as for improvements in health, transportation, education and the development of cultural activities throughout the villages. One Turtle guest began a twice annual tradition of hosting free dental clinics for the community. For visitors, “escaping is about connecting,” Jr.
says. He invites his guests to plant a tree during their stay, to visit local villages, and to consciously avoid or limit their wi-fi access. Each day, guests can choose to relax on one of Turtle Island’s 12 private beaches (“Private means private—just you and your loved one, with a picnic lunch brought in by your bure mama or bure papa’” Jr.
says, referring to the island’s dedicated butler-like guides). There’s also private horseback rides at dawn and dusk, snorkeling along preserved coral reefs, hiking and sailing, napping and private dining, and frequent serenades by an island choir. Meals and alcohol are all inclusive.
Remarkably, 55% of guests return to the island after their first stay. At night, guests are invited to sit with the entire staff for a traditional taste of kava , a beverage made from water and the ground root of the pepper plant. It can have a mild sedative effect.
“We sing and socialize and make you feel like you are truly visitors in our home,” Jr. says. The future of Turtle Island reflects the future Richard Jr.
wishes for tourism throughout his island nation. Although there’s plenty of gorgeous coastline to develop, Evanson intends to safeguard the environment and the experience by doing very little. Rest assured, there are no golf courses, high rises or water parks in the future for Turtle Island.
“High volume will never be our goal,” says Jr., who is working with famed eco-resort architect Hitesh Mehta to gently refurbish the existing 14 bule villas rather than expanding the resort. “What we aspire to is to immerse guests even more deeply in the spirit of this place.
Fijians love having visitors. If you go to a Fijian village, there’s practically a contest to see who can treat you the best, who can make you laugh the most, who can give you the most memorable experience. By the time you leave, we want you saying, ‘Yeah, that’s a place I really want to come back to.
For so many people who come here, Fiji’s a place that feels like home.’ MORE FROM FORBES Editorial Standards Forbes Accolades Join The Conversation One Community. Many Voices.
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