Best island for shallow dives in French Polynesia for 3 children (Rangiroa, Fakarava, etc?)

[keptium]

Hi. Can anyone recommend an island that would work for my scuba diving family? I am looking for "shallow" easy dives for my 3 children. They are all open water certified, but I have a 10 year old that has to stay at 12m/40ft so that kind of limits our whole family. All 3 are still beginners with <10 dives under their belt. I read Fakarava has strong currents so am a little worried if we get a little separated as there's only 2 adults and 3 kids. And if you know places/sites I should avoid, that would be helpful as well! Thank you!

 

[Chad1836]

Hi. Can anyone recommend an island that would work for my scuba diving family? I am looking for "shallow" easy dives for my 3 children. They are all open water certified, but I have a 10 year old that has to stay at 12m/40ft so that kind of limits our whole family. All 3 are still beginners with <10 dives under their belt. I read Fakarava has strong currents so am a little worried if we get a little separated as there's only 2 adults and 3 kids. And if you know places/sites I should avoid, that would be helpful as well! Thank you!

Hi Keptium, I'm in a similar situation looking for easier dives for my less experienced kids. Were you able to determine if there is this type of diving in FP? Thanks.

 

[Cali_diver]

Tough one... the best diving is on Fakarava and Rangiroa but their best dives are the passes which are not suitable for young kids... that being said the outer reefs and inside aquarium areas would probably be ok. The passes are usually only running the right way once during the dive day, so diving usually includes the outer reef. You could always snorkel the passes with the kids if the conditions were right (if they are confident swimmers) or dive without them. Bora Bora has some nice shallow dives with mantas, lemon sharks, and eagle rays and Moorea is pretty meh for diving but great for snorkeling with humpbacks at the right time of the year. The reefs are not that great in the Society Islands but nice in the Tuamotus. Sharks (especially black tips and grey reefs) and turtles are pretty much everywhere.

 

[cetacean]

@keptium & @Chad1836

Our kids are now older (so not limited by depth, etc.), however we did take them to FP when they were much younger (twice actually, when only one was diving - as a junior OW diver, and then again when the other got certified as a junior OW diver).

I can state this very clearly;
Fakarava and Rangiroa have no diving 40ft or above that is any different or even worth the extra travel vs, the Society Islands. As mentioned above, you can snorkel the Rangiroa pass (which is a lot of fun) however to go and not dive the pass (as divers) would be almost criminal. Fakarava has a few shallow dives, but you will not experience the Wall of Sharks at limited depth.

Instead- if you want to take your junior divers to FP, look at Manihi (also in the Tuomotus). They will have the chance to see a few sharks, turtles, and likely mantas fairly frequenty. Most of the cleaning stations are shallow enough that your kids will get to experience them. The other dives (along plateaus and sloping reefs) are also good. In addition to Manihi, I highly recommend Huahini and Raiatea. The diving is good (not Rangiroa and Fakarava good, but worth the time). These both have sites that are suitable for junior open water divers. They also both have healthy populations of sharks (you will likely see a few each dive).

One caution here: all dive operators in FP are French. They may advertise they follow PADI standards, however their primary association is through CMAS. The CMAS standards are different than PADI (simple example, although CMAS does have an equivalent of a "child diver" program, the depth limits are ~15 feet. Their One-star divers (the equiv of an Open Water certification) is ~60ft. So your kids (based on their experience) are either going to be kept very shallow, or be allowed to dive slightly deeper than what PADI specifies. In reality, diving in FP (with French DMs) often exceeds the depths initially specified, as DMs will try to get you close to whatever is swimming by. Our 14 year old son spent 10 minutes at 80ft (alongside me and the DM) watchling some (very large) sharks swim in lazy circles in a shark "nursery" in Huahine. Amazing experience, but our son had over 50 dives under his belt by this time, so we felt comfortable with this.

If you are looking for a kid-friendly dive destination that reallly knows how to cater to both new divers (of any age) and advanced divers, take a look at Wakatobi Dive Resort (in Indonesia, east of Bali). This is a world class dive resort, with DMs that have been trained to dive with families, kids, adults, etc. It is a bit more of a haul from the US, but the diving is sooooo much more conducive to families diving together. They have 50+ dive sites within just a few minutes of the resort, they dive in a protected marine park so the fish life is abudant and the coral is some of the healthiest and most prolific anywhere in the world. The house reef can both be snorked and dived from the beach (anytime of day, and also at night), it's full of life - easily one of the best house reefs anywhere in the world.

I am absolutely biased - both our kids were certified there (we chose this resort because of our previous experiences there), and we've been back as family multiple times.

Not going to lie - getting to Bali (from anywhere in the US) takes a full day (and is some cases, potentially a few hours more). However, once you get to Bali it gets very easy. The resort runs their own charter plane from Bali to a private airstrip near the resort, they handle all your luggage and transportation from Bali onwards, and takes care of everything in between. It's also worth mentioning the food is outstanding (both plentiful and varried). Our kids always enjoy the homemade donuts for breakfast - if we let them

We always stop for a day or two in Singapore on the way in, or Bali for an extra day. These experiences have opened our kids' eyes to other people, other cultures, etc. Last - our family visits to Wakatobi opened up dive trips to Raja Ampat, Komodo, Halmahera, and Ambon all before our youngest turned 18. They have learned to travel well internationally, take responsibility for their own packing and posessions, dive safety in all kinds of conditions, etc. (the older one has just completed her DM certification as well), all because we stretched their experiences beyond what was easy, close, etc.

This has absolutely been an $ investment, but we think it has been very worthwhile.

 

[mauimel]

Tough one... the best diving is on Fakarava and Rangiroa but their best dives are the passes which are not suitable for young kids... that being said the outer reefs and inside aquarium areas would probably be ok. The passes are usually only running the right way once during the dive day, so diving usually includes the outer reef. You could always snorkel the passes with the kids if the conditions were right (if they are confident swimmers) or dive without them. Bora Bora has some nice shallow dives with mantas, lemon sharks, and eagle rays and Moorea is pretty meh for diving but great for snorkeling with humpbacks at the right time of the year. The reefs are not that great in the Society Islands but nice in the Tuamotus. Sharks (especially black tips and grey reefs) and turtles are pretty much everywhere.

How can you learn when and where the passes are? Did you go with a guide?

 

[wateraddiction]

@keptium & @Chad1836

Our kids are now older (so not limited by depth, etc.), however we did take them to FP when they were much younger (twice actually, when only one was diving - as a junior OW diver, and then again when the other got certified as a junior OW diver).

I can state this very clearly;
Fakarava and Rangiroa have no diving 40ft or above that is any different or even worth the extra travel vs, the Society Islands. As mentioned above, you can snorkel the Rangiroa pass (which is a lot of fun) however to go and not dive the pass (as divers) would be almost criminal. Fakarava has a few shallow dives, but you will not experience the Wall of Sharks at limited depth.

Instead- if you want to take your junior divers to FP, look at Manihi (also in the Tuomotus). They will have the chance to see a few sharks, turtles, and likely mantas fairly frequenty. Most of the cleaning stations are shallow enough that your kids will get to experience them. The other dives (along plateaus and sloping reefs) are also good. In addition to Manihi, I highly recommend Huahini and Raiatea. The diving is good (not Rangiroa and Fakarava good, but worth the time). These both have sites that are suitable for junior open water divers. They also both have healthy populations of sharks (you will likely see a few each dive).

One caution here: all dive operators in FP are French. They may advertise they follow PADI standards, however their primary association is through CMAS. The CMAS standards are different than PADI (simple example, although CMAS does have an equivalent of a "child diver" program, the depth limits are ~15 feet. Their One-star divers (the equiv of an Open Water certification) is ~60ft. So your kids (based on their experience) are either going to be kept very shallow, or be allowed to dive slightly deeper than what PADI specifies. In reality, diving in FP (with French DMs) often exceeds the depths initially specified, as DMs will try to get you close to whatever is swimming by. Our 14 year old son spent 10 minutes at 80ft (alongside me and the DM) watchling some (very large) sharks swim in lazy circles in a shark "nursery" in Huahine. Amazing experience, but our son had over 50 dives under his belt by this time, so we felt comfortable with this.

If you are looking for a kid-friendly dive destination that reallly knows how to cater to both new divers (of any age) and advanced divers, take a look at Wakatobi Dive Resort (in Indonesia, east of Bali). This is a world class dive resort, with DMs that have been trained to dive with families, kids, adults, etc. It is a bit more of a haul from the US, but the diving is sooooo much more conducive to families diving together. They have 50+ dive sites within just a few minutes of the resort, they dive in a protected marine park so the fish life is abudant and the coral is some of the healthiest and most prolific anywhere in the world. The house reef can both be snorked and dived from the beach (anytime of day, and also at night), it's full of life - easily one of the best house reefs anywhere in the world.

I am absolutely biased - both our kids were certified there (we chose this resort because of our previous experiences there), and we've been back as family multiple times.

Not going to lie - getting to Bali (from anywhere in the US) takes a full day (and is some cases, potentially a few hours more). However, once you get to Bali it gets very easy. The resort runs their own charter plane from Bali to a private airstrip near the resort, they handle all your luggage and transportation from Bali onwards, and takes care of everything in between. It's also worth mentioning the food is outstanding (both plentiful and varried). Our kids always enjoy the homemade donuts for breakfast - if we let them

We always stop for a day or two in Singapore on the way in, or Bali for an extra day. These experiences have opened our kids' eyes to other people, other cultures, etc. Last - our family visits to Wakatobi opened up dive trips to Raja Ampat, Komodo, Halmahera, and Ambon all before our youngest turned 18. They have learned to travel well internationally, take responsibility for their own packing and posessions, dive safety in all kinds of conditions, etc. (the older one has just completed her DM certification as well), all because we stretched their experiences beyond what was easy, close, etc.

This has absolutely been an $ investment, but we think it has been very worthwhile

Our 10 and 11 yos just got certified in Bonaire and I've been thinking about when/how to venture out from our Caribbean comfort zone (which is also the only place I've ever gone diving myself). I've heard about Wakatobi many times but not in the context of Junior divers so this is very useful information. My husband used to work in Singapore so he would love to stop there en route but I just realized that we have NEVER taken our kids on an international trip that wasn't organized around beach/snorkeling/diving. I keep saying one day they will visit S Korea and some of my favorite EU cities but the Caribbean vacations are such an easy (and affordable) default. Coral bleaching, etc. is one of the things that prompted me to think about traveling further to show them what a healthy reef looks like. It's foreboding that I feel like this is a race against time.

 

[cetacean]

@wateraddiction

We found Wakatobi to be absolutely fantastic for our kids when they were junior divers. In addition to easy diving options the other thing we found useful was the private guides (for 4 divers) that were available. We always dove as a family, without worrying about slowing down anyone else, while also being able to plan our own dives (depth, etc.).

Re: biodiversity of the regions - the Carribean has rougly ~65 types of coral for reef building, whereas the Coral Triangle has ~600 types of coral. The difference in biodiversity between the regions is massive. As our kids learned more about the different types of fish and critters that live on & around reefs, they realized (after a couple of trips to the Carribean) that Carribean diving is nice (and often easy), but it's a bit boring. The Caribbean is just very limited in what you can see (vs. the Indo-Pacific region).

The Caribbean is easier to get to (and potentially cheaper, depending on wher you go), but it's a bit like diving in a "bathtub" - we wanted our kids to see what diving elsewhere was like. As a small example of the opportunities this led to, our son used his experience at a Fijian homestay as the basis for one of his college application essays (while doing some volunteer work for a new marine protected area in Fiji).

 

[cetacean]

How can you learn when and where the passes are? Did you go with a guide?

@mauimel

The vast majority of diving in the Tuamotus are through the dive operators in the area - these are all guided dives. They dive these passes every day, understand the tides, drop in spots, etc. Without this local knowledge a number of these dives would be potentially challenging.

Having said this, I've sailed through parts of the Tuamotus (and much of Fr. Polynesia). You can dive on your own if you have the knowledge (or access to someone who does). The passes are all well marked, however without the local knowledge of where (and when) to drop in on an incoming our outgoing tide you have a good chance of missing the best parts of these dives.

We were lucky enough to be sailing with an old dive master who had previously worked extensively in Fr. Polynesia. Without his knowledge we would have easily blown thrown a couple of the passes and seen very little (still managed to do this on a couple of dives).