This review is very late, and should have been written sooner, but oh well. Anyway, my wife and I stayed at the House of Bamboo for the second week of our honeymoon in early October of 2012. We wanted a mix if vacation styles, so the first week we stayed at a resort, and the second we wanted to be on our own. The resort was fun, relaxing at least, but by far the highlight of our trip was staying at the House if Bamboo.
Some people are detail people, planners if you will, that have every second of a trip mapped out. We, however are more seat of the pants sort of people, as in we didn't know how we were going to get to the second island until the night before :). This was mainly because I was fixated on taking a boat, and it was impossible for me to figure out how to book it ahead if time from Colorado. I was told that the resort would help once we got there, but that wasn't exactly true. Regardless Brad and Therese didn't know when or how, we would be arriving until the night before, but even still Brad changed his plans and picked us up from the tiny airport nonetheless. I know that seems like a little thing, but it's not. While my wife is a seasoned traveler, I am not, so having someone pick us up and not only take us to our place, but also show us local spots was great.
As a note, Brad was very cool.
He explained their set up, and that if we needed anything who to call, showed us the house, then left us to marvel.
Let's start with the house. Simply put, it's awesome. The views are spectacular, the pool is really relaxing, and it's spacious and well appointed enough to make you feel right at home.
Next, Suvasuva. The town is just down the road, far enough away to feel secluded but close enough to walk to, or if your slightly lazy like us, get a cab to come out lickidy split. We stocked up on food, wine and beer. (Btw Fiji bitters is very nice). We went to town every day to shop or eat, or just wander and talk to people.
Oh man, let me talk about the people. This is the nicest, most polite place I have ever been. The most striking example of this was one disastrous/amazing trip we took one day around the whole freaking island, trying to find dolphin bay. We rented a car and thinking we had the route figured out, set out on an odyssey fit for a movie. It's too long to tell, but the striking part is how many people helped us. Complete random strangers, all of them, but still took time to try to try to help us. It was amazing, and even though we were lost and super confused, we always felt safe.
I can't say enough good things about this experience. From the time we got there from the time we left was amazing. I can't even begin to describe all the amazing memories.
There was only one, slightly off putting night, and that was completely our fault. One night, the last night, I left the camera outside so I went out and grabbed it, but when I came back I didn't close the door all the way. A few hours later when we were trying to get to sleep, we noticed a multitude of bugs crawling on everything. It was crazy how many! We retreated to the downstairs bedroom, and conceded the upstairs to the bugs and geckos. Oh well, that's tropical life sometimes.
All in all I would recommend to anyone from a couple to a family or group of friends.