Natabe Retreat

There is a category of travel accommodation that resists classification by the standard hotel vocabulary — where the question of amenity lists and star ratings simply does not apply because the experience being offered is not a hotel experience at all. Natabe Retreat, on the western edge of Tavewa Island in the northern Yasawa Islands, is this kind of place. Col and Nicky are the owners, hosts, chefs, guides, and the entire reason to come — a couple whose combined skill in living and in hospitality, in cooking and in island knowledge, has produced an experience that sixty-eight guest accounts, every one rated five stars, describe in terms that guests struggle to keep from sounding like repetition: the best holiday I have ever had, the best food I have eaten anywhere, the best couple, paradise on earth. The specific consistency of those superlatives, across guests of different nationalities arriving at different times from different travel backgrounds, constitutes the most reliable evidence available that Natabe Retreat is not being marketed as exceptional — it simply is.

The island context is part of what makes it so. Tavewa Island is in the northern Yasawa chain, and Col’s extended family owns the entire island — the private tenure that makes the property, and the beach and reef around it, genuinely the guests’ own for the duration of the stay. The home that Col and Nicky have built at the island’s western edge — a glass-and-steel structure of floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding doors, powered entirely by solar energy, with a rainwater collection system that filters through multiple stages to leave hair and skin “silky smooth” — is a specific architectural achievement: the seamless indoor-outdoor tropical living environment whose design captures natural light, channels the trade wind through open living spaces, and positions its multiple outdoor seating areas to face the views that the western aspect of a Yasawa island delivers. The home is also the only accommodation on the island: guests who arrive at Natabe have, in every meaningful sense, the whole thing to themselves.

Natabe Retreat is on the western edge of Tavewa Island, Yasawa Islands, Fiji. Accommodation is in Col and Nicky’s private residence — adults-only, with the entire property exclusively reserved for a single couple or group of guests at a time. The property is solar-powered with rainwater collection and multi-stage filtration. All meals — breakfast, lunch, and dinner — are prepared and served by Nicky, with dishes planned around the day’s activities and dietary preferences. Col guides activities including Sawa-I-Lau Caves, snorkelling, fishing, and kayaking. The 38-foot catamaran Coloma is available for cave trips, remote beach excursions, and fishing. The reef is accessible by snorkelling a few steps from the beach. Access to Tavewa Island is by the Yasawa Flyer catamaran from Port Denarau, Nadi, or by seaplane.

Tavewa Island and the Private Setting

Tavewa Island is a small island in the northern part of the Yasawa chain — positioned where the Yasawa archipelago reaches its most remote and least-developed expression, and where the reef system that runs along the chain’s western edge encounters the open Pacific in conditions that the relative absence of boat traffic and commercial development preserves in a quality that the more accessible southern Yasawa and Mamanuca islands cannot match. The snorkelling a few steps from Natabe’s beach — in the reef that Col’s family’s island ownership keeps in the condition of an uncommercialised reef — delivers the coral and fish density that the northern Yasawas are known for among travellers whose interest extends beyond the standard island-hop circuit.

The island’s private status — owned in its entirety by Col’s extended family — gives the Natabe guest a relationship with the land and sea around the property that the leased land model of commercial resort development cannot replicate. The beach, the reef, the cliffs and coves accessible by kayak, the trails across the island’s terrain — all of it is available to guests without the managed-experience overlay of a resort programme. Col knows every part of his family’s island with the specific knowledge of someone who has lived on it across a lifetime, and the activities he arranges draw directly on that knowledge.

The Home

The house that Col and Nicky have built on Tavewa is described by guests who arrive without particular architectural expectations as remarkable enough to prompt detailed description across multiple independent reviews. The floor-to-ceiling glass walls and sliding doors that open the living areas to the western ocean view create the specific indoor-outdoor living arrangement that a tropical climate and an island position make optimal: the inside and outside exist on a continuum, separated by glass and air when the wind or the rain requires it, and fully continuous when the weather and the mood allow. The light arrives through these windows and doors in the way that island light arrives — with the Pacific brightness and the specific quality of illumination in a setting where there is nothing between the house and the horizon to modify the sun.

The water feature that runs through the interior of the house — a detail that multiple guests mention as one of the home’s most unexpected pleasures — provides the sound of moving water inside the living space: the specific acoustic backdrop of a house whose design brings the natural sound of the island into the domestic environment. The rainwater collection and multi-filtration system that supplies the house’s water — harvested from the roof, processed through a multi-stage filter — is the engineering expression of the off-grid philosophy: producing water whose quality guests describe as noticeably different from the municipal supply, leaving hair and skin in the condition of water whose treatment is designed for the body rather than for compliance.

The outdoor seating areas positioned around the property at different aspects of the island — the west-facing positions for the sunset over the Pacific, the areas that catch the morning light, the covered spaces that allow outdoor time in the rain — are the domestic infrastructure for the specific pleasure of being on a private island with nowhere particular to go.

Nicky’s Cooking

Nicky cooks all three meals — breakfast, lunch, and dinner — every day of every guest’s stay. The accounts that guests provide of the cooking are, across sixty-eight reviews, consistent in their enthusiasm and specific in their praise. “Exceptional chef.” “Heavenly.” “Better than any big name resort.” “More creative, varied and filling than anything I have eaten.” “Hands-down better food than a big name resort we stayed at later in the trip.” One guest with a background in food describes the meals as planned around the day’s activities and the guests’ schedule — light before a dive, substantial after — an arrangement whose daily renegotiation with Nicky’s cooking ability and the fresh ingredients available on the island and from the sea produces the specific pleasure of a meal that has been thought about as well as prepared.

The food itself is described across reviews as fresh, creative, and varied — the daily change of menu reflecting Nicky’s approach of coming up with something new each day rather than cycling through a fixed resort repertoire. Dietary preferences and restrictions are accommodated naturally, as they are in a kitchen run for specific guests rather than a restaurant serving an open menu. The fish that Col catches, the tropical fruit available from the island and the Yasawa communities nearby, and the provisions brought in from the mainland supply the kitchen’s raw material — and Nicky’s skill transforms them into the meals that guests describe, repeatedly and independently, as among the best they have eaten anywhere.

Col’s Knowledge and the Coloma

Col is the island’s guide, the boat’s captain, the host, and the custodian of the local knowledge that the family’s tenure on Tavewa and familiarity with the northern Yasawa waters has accumulated over generations. His guidance covers the reef immediately around the island, the kayak routes along the island’s western coast and its rocky coves, the swimming conditions at the island’s eastern end (accessible by a swim from the main beach), and the further destinations that the Coloma makes available across the wider northern Yasawa island group.

The Coloma — a 38-foot catamaran that Col operates for excursions from the retreat — is the vehicle for the activities that the island’s own beaches and reefs cannot supply. The principal destination is Sawa-I-Lau Caves: the famous limestone caves in the northern Yasawas, accessible from Tavewa by boat. Col’s knowledge of the timing allows him to reach the caves before the tour groups from the southern Yasawa resorts arrive, delivering the specific experience that one guest describes as “an essentially private tour of the back area of the caves” — the swim-through passages, the inner chambers, and the specific light conditions of a cave encounter without other visitors. The opportunity to access one of Fiji’s most visited natural landmarks in near-private conditions is one of Natabe’s most specifically praised experiences, and it depends entirely on Col’s knowledge of the departure timing that makes it possible.

Early morning fishing trips on the Coloma — in the waters of the northern Yasawas before the wind builds — provide the fishing experience that the open-water position of Tavewa’s family island makes particularly productive. Remote beach excursions around the Yasawa chain, accessible by the catamaran’s range and Col’s knowledge of the island group, provide the discovery dimension of a private boat — the specific pleasure of arriving at beaches that the standard tour circuit does not reach.

The Reef and the Water

The reef visible from Natabe’s beach, a few steps into the water, is one of the consistently reported highlights of a stay — described by guests who snorkel it daily as providing the coral and marine life encounters of an undisturbed northern Yasawa reef system. One guest describes snorkelling every single day of their stay. The coral formations accessible from shore, in clear water whose quality the island’s private status and the reef’s distance from commercial boat traffic maintain, produce the specific underwater encounter that the northern Yasawas are capable of in their best-preserved sections.

For guests who want to explore beyond the immediate beachside reef, Col rigs the retreat’s kayaks with anchors for snorkelling in the rocky coves along the island’s western coast — the shallow water of the sheltered coves producing the aquarium conditions that emerge when reef-building coral is protected from wave exposure and harvesting pressure. The swim to the island’s eastern end — possible from the main beach and back — takes the swimmer through the gradient of the reef system that the island’s geography produces: from the sheltered western bay to the more exposed eastern aspect where the current and the exposure deliver the fish density that accompanied the coral structures.

Getting to Natabe

Access to Tavewa Island is by the Yasawa Flyer — the high-speed catamaran that departs from Port Denarau, Nadi, and services the Yasawa Islands chain with daily departures. The journey from Denarau to the northern Yasawas takes approximately five to six hours, depending on the number of stops; Tavewa Island is near the northern end of the standard Yasawa Flyer route. Col and Nicky coordinate the arrival logistics with guests before departure — the boat transfer from the Yasawa Flyer to the shore, and the specifics of the arrival day.

Seaplane transfers from Nadi to the northern Yasawa Islands are also available through Turtle Airways, significantly reducing the journey time for guests who prefer the aerial approach — the forty-five-minute seaplane flight over the Yasawa chain delivering an overview of the island group that the boat journey’s water-level perspective does not provide. Col and Nicky can advise on the specific access arrangements that best fit each guest’s itinerary.

Final Thoughts

Natabe Retreat on Tavewa Island is, by the consistent, unanimous, and specific testimony of every guest who has stayed there across years of operation, one of the genuinely extraordinary places to stay in Fiji — and one of the genuinely extraordinary places to stay anywhere. The combination of Col’s family island, Nicky’s cooking, Col’s knowledge and the Coloma’s range, the reef steps from the door, and the privacy of a private residence on a privately owned Yasawa island produces an experience that has no equivalent in the standard resort landscape. For the couple seeking the most private, most personal, and most genuinely exceptional Fiji experience available, Natabe Retreat is the answer — and the road, as one guest notes with perfect simplicity, is worth it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Natabe Retreat?

On the western edge of Tavewa Island, in the northern Yasawa Islands group. Access is by the Yasawa Flyer catamaran from Port Denarau, Nadi (approximately five to six hours), or by seaplane from Nadi (approximately forty-five minutes). Col and Nicky coordinate arrival logistics with each group.

Is the retreat exclusively private?

Yes — Natabe accommodates one couple or group of guests at a time. The entire property is reserved exclusively for the guests staying, providing a genuinely private island experience in a private home.

Is it adults-only?

Yes — Natabe Retreat is an adults-only property.

Are meals included?

Yes — Nicky prepares all three meals daily (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), with dishes planned around activities and dietary preferences. The meals are consistently among the most praised aspects of the stay. All meals are included in the rate.

What activities are available?

Snorkelling from the beach, kayaking around the island’s coves, guided Sawa-I-Lau Caves trips on the catamaran Coloma (arriving before tour groups), fishing, swimming, and remote beach excursions across the northern Yasawas by boat.

What is the Coloma?

Col’s 38-foot catamaran, used for day trips to Sawa-I-Lau Caves, remote beaches, early morning fishing, and exploration of the wider northern Yasawa island group.

Is the property off-grid?

Yes — the house runs on solar power and rainwater collection with multi-stage filtration. Guests describe the quality of the solar-filtered rainwater as noticeably superior for hair and skin.

Who is the island owned by?

Tavewa Island is privately owned by Col’s extended family — the ancestral family land whose tenure has provided the basis for both the home and the specific relationship with the island’s beach, reef, and terrain that the retreat offers.

By: Sarika Nand