With Cousteau in its name—Jean-Michel is Jacques Cousteau's son—it's no wonder that this lavish five-star resort on the Fijian island of Vanua Levu has diving at its heart. And not only has the resort been internationally recognized as one of the world's premier dive operations, it has also received multiple awards for its environmental programs, which include the island's first recycling program, a full-time marine biologist who leads educational tours through local ecosystems,

With Cousteau in its name—Jean-Michel is Jacques Cousteau's son—it's no wonder that this lavish five-star resort on the Fijian island of Vanua Levu has diving at its heart. And not only has the resort been internationally recognized as one of the world's premier dive operations, it has also received multiple awards for its environmental programs, which include the island's first recycling program, a full-time marine biologist who leads educational tours through local ecosystems, and participation in conservation programs for the remote Namena Marine Reserve.

Guests stay in 25 traditional, Fijian-style bures spread over the 17-acre property, all immaculately decorated and blissfully secluded. Amenities run the gamut, from spa and massage to a gourmet restaurant with food prepared from the resort's organic garden to children's programs and four swimming pools.

The on-site dive center, L'Aventure, operates from the resort's dock, running half- and full-day trips to the surrounding reefs, and teaches a full roster of PADI dive classes. Nitrox—a nitrogen-oxygen mix, favored for longer dive times, among other things—is available. The dive roster includes some of Fiji's most famous dive sites. When drift diving at Nsonisoni Pass, for example, divers can soar through a deep submarine canyon, bordered on one side by a soft-coral-covered wall; on the other, massive coral heads, called bommies, rise from the depths, circled by schooling barracudas and gray reef sharks. At Shark Alley a Swiss cheese-like network of tunnels meanders through lively reefs that provide refuge for sleeping white-tip reef sharks.

But by far the most impressive diving region is the remote swath of reefs that ring Namena Island about 20 miles south of the resort. This region is most commonly visited by passing live-aboard boats, but Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort is one of only a few land-based dive operators to come out here—a couple times a week, weather permitting. Conserved as a marine protected area, the waters around Namena Island boast deep walls, lush coral bommies, and shallow coral gardens packed to the gills with open-ocean marine life. Vast schools of jacks, reef sharks, and barracudas are common dive companions against a backdrop of purple, red, and yellow soft corals.