Fatboys Resort

Loved Fatboys resort. Lovely people and excellent diving. Great seafood (lobster and Spanish mackerel especially). Lovely island trips as well. One suggestion would be to start to pick up the plastics that wash ashore so as these islands stay beautiful

March 2025 I was fortunate enough to spend a bit over a week in this fantastic spot. I have visited the Solomon Islands previously and this is my third time to Gizo, but my first time staying at Fatboys. The entire time I was there it went very smooth. I landed at Gizo airport after an overnight in Honiara. The boat transfer from the airport to Fatboys on Mbambanga Island was easy and stress free. Check in was super easy and I was then shown to my bungalow, which had a great view over the restaurant/bar area and over to Kennedy Island. Throughout the day I met other resort guests and spoke with other the resort staff. The days were filled with diving out of the newly built dive store, which is stocked with a great range of dive equipment (masks/fins/BCD's/regs/rash vests/weight belts etc). The dive staff took us to a number of the local dive sites which were all reasonably close by to Fatboys. We dived WW2 wrecks, a US Grumman Hellcat fighter plane and the Japanese wreck of the Tao Maru, as well as numerous wall dives and the amazing Grand Central Station which had a diverse number of aquatic life, large and small. The staff at the new dive operation are friendly and knowledgeable with a number of fast comfortable dive boats to get you to the dive sites. There are also reefs directly out the front of the resort which can be easily snorkelled, or grab a tank, and explore deeper. Fatboys can arrange to get you to a number of the local island attractions. However, I only visited Kennedy Island and a couple of other nearby islands related to the JFK and PT-109 WW2 story. I had a great time there and will be back by end of the year.

We recently stayed at Fatboy's for 11 nights, this was our second visit, our first one 5 years ago. It did not disappoint, as a well travelled family, our children, 21 years, 19 years and 16 years said it was their favourite holiday ever. We loved the snorkelling (highly recommend a trip to Njari Conservation Island - Fatboy's can arrange), scuba diving, the fresh seafood was incredible, with crayfish, mud crabs and bay bugs and fresh fish a plenty. The food cost is on the high side (average meal around $30+ Aus) but considering where you are and the access to fresh food we were more than happy to pay this. The breakfast was great - fresh fruit, toast and cereal and lots of options if you want to pay a little extra. The rooms are fairly basic but comfortable. We stayed in the Honeymoon Bungalow, which had AC which I loved! We were a group of 14 friends and family and everyone enjoyed it. The family caught lots of fish and we spent lots of time in the water. The Staff really do make it special, so many familiar faces from 5 years ago, the front of house team, Leah, Rodrick, Ashley and Calista and the new guy Peter looked after us well. Manoj the Manager as per last time catered to our every need and made our holiday one to remember forever.

The resort maybe comfortable but we came by sailboat for dinner and it was really terrible and the service was practically non existent. Very limited meal choices- that’s fine but then do them well. 3 x crayfish meals in garlic butter, which we had to ask for as the crayfish was so overcooked and dry and when that arrived we had finished eating , no vegetarian options so our friend had rice with the same wilted green veg on our plates. They charge top dollar which is the biggest problem . I feel bad for the guests as there is nowhere else for them to eat.

An absolute dream, we couldn't really believe our eyes when we arrived. It might be a little hard to get to since it requires a boat to/from Gizo town, but it's totally worth it. The surroundings are beautiful. Snorkelling, kayaking gear all are provided free and available to use anytime. Staff are really friendly and helpful, and food was also great. The chef took requests if we had any cravings (though maybe they don't do this if it's busy). There's also a pool table for use, and a small library. The standard bungalows are a little basic but they do the job. Only the overwater bungalow has air con but the others have fans. There's a main restaurant area that is off a long jetty and this is the only area with wifi. Rooms have no wifi, but have phone reception everywhere so you can use your roaming/local sim. They also put a mosquito coil in your room at night if you would like. Just some suggestions for improvement: Laundry took a long time (1.5 days) and one piece came back wet, one piece smelled bad. It would be great to have wifi in the rooms to make private conversations back home when travelling. Replace mosquito nets with holes. Great if you could also have more flexible policies for emergencies. I stayed 2 nights out of 4 as I had to go home early for a family medical emergency and I was only offered a credit for the remaining days (which I will likely have to transfer to someone else) even though our whole party stayed 8 nights in total.

Highlight is the communal area over the water with the view and the snorkelling. Downside is the lack of attention to patrons. The staff are friendly but inattentive: we had to ask for toilet paper in the communal bathroom, we had to ask for more water in our rooms, we had to ask for someone to change the sheets after a few days, we had to ask for the mosquito nets to actually fit the beds (they never did), we had to wait for around 2 hours for our dinner order to be served on two occasions, The rooms are apparently going to be upgraded which will be nice as they are tired.