My wife and I just got back from a two week trip to French Polynesia for our 20th wedding anniversary. It was truly a magical trip and one I would recommend to everyone.
First of all, the entire trip was arranged by Lucien Schmidlin, the owner of Etahiti Travel (www.etahititravel.com). If you ever plan a trip to French Polynesia, I would highly recommend his travel agency. He took care of all of our flights, transfers, accommodations, diving, etc. so we didn’t have to do anything but enjoy ourselves.
The flight to Tahiti from Los Angeles is about 8 hours and we arrived around 10pm. After a short transfer to the Tahiti Intercontinental we went to bed and the next morning it was off to Rangiroa. First word of caution. The international carrier to Tahiti, Air Tahiti Nui, has the same luggage restrictions as other airlines; that is, two pieces of checked luggage, each up to 50 lbs. However, the domestic carrier is Air Tahiti and they only allow 42 lbs of luggage per person TOTAL – that includes your checked and cabin luggage. Divers get another 10 lbs if they show their C-card. However, my camera system alone weighs close to 40 lbs so we were WAY OVER on our luggage. Can you say more than double the allowance? Anyway, if you pay for the roundtrip of all of your inter-island trips they give you a 30% discount. It ended up costing us $297. Oh well, just roll it into the cost of the trip.
Speaking of rolling things into the cost of the trip, we rented an international cell phone from World Cell (www.worldcell.com) for the trip. It’s less than $100 for the couple of weeks and cost a couple of dollars per minute for calls. We didn’t use it much but it was nice to know family could reach us if need be. Of note, French Polynesia uses a GSM 900 MHz system that is not compatible with most (but is with some) US cell phones.
In Rangiroa, we stayed at Kia Ora, a truly 5 star restaurant and dove with Top Dive. Bedrooms are air conditioned which is very nice for sleeping at night. Of note, Kia Ora has their own dive op, but only Top Dive has Nitrox available. Dives are done from inflatables and are not cheap – about $75 per dive, not per two tank trip but per dive. The best diving is at Tiputa and Avatoru passes, both known for “big stuff”. We saw tons of sharks, barracuda, jacks, dolphins, manta rays, turtles, etc along with the usual reef fish. The food at Kia Ora was outstanding as as there are not a lot of options on the island I would recommend going for the full board plan. Wednesday night was a Polynesian Dance show which was a little “cheesy” but a nice tourist thing to do. We also did the free tour of the Pearl Farm which was interesting. Last thing, the hotel has no American 110 volt outlets so you need a converter. They do have them at Kia Ora you could borrow but didn’t in Bora Bora so I’m glad we had our own. For photographers, I would also recommend bringing a power strip to plug into the converter so you can charge batteries, laptop, etc simultaneously.
After several days in Rangiroa, we flew to Bora Bora -- an island that has been called “the most beautiful island in the world”. We stayed at Bora Bora Dive Resort, formerly known as Top Dive resort. It is a small boutique resort with only 9 bungalows, three of which are over-water. Again, the units are air-conditioned. The restaurant is known as “the best table on the island” and we went with the full board plan here as well. The resort is really set up for diving with three boats, nitrox, a very nice rinse tank as you step off the boat, and gear storage for you overnight. They run a two tank morning trip each day. Afternoons are usually for checkout or refresher dives but we did get one “real” afternoon dive trip in. Night dives are available if four people want to go.
Most of the dives were at a “sharky” place called Tapu where there are lots of lemon and black tip reef sharks. They go here once on most days, but it was always a great dive with lots of fish, eels, turtles, sharks, etc. There were also spots known for eagle rays, gray reef sharks, mantas, eagle rays, etc. No spot ever disappointed us. All of the dives were great and the staff at Top Dive were outstanding. All dives, both in Rangiroa and Bora Bora, were guided. All in Rangiroa were drift dives while most in Bora Bora were anchored but several were drift dives as well.
The trip ended all too soon and I can’t wait to go back. Here are some photos from the trip:
Eagle Ray
Anemone Fish
Lemon Sharks “On the Prowl”
Lemon Shark eating a fish
Black Tip Reef Shark
Lots of Butterfly Fish at Tapu, Bora Bora
Moray Eel
Another Moray
Other photos at:
http://debersole.com/layout/0001/gallery_view.cfm?g=88
First of all, the entire trip was arranged by Lucien Schmidlin, the owner of Etahiti Travel (www.etahititravel.com). If you ever plan a trip to French Polynesia, I would highly recommend his travel agency. He took care of all of our flights, transfers, accommodations, diving, etc. so we didn’t have to do anything but enjoy ourselves.
The flight to Tahiti from Los Angeles is about 8 hours and we arrived around 10pm. After a short transfer to the Tahiti Intercontinental we went to bed and the next morning it was off to Rangiroa. First word of caution. The international carrier to Tahiti, Air Tahiti Nui, has the same luggage restrictions as other airlines; that is, two pieces of checked luggage, each up to 50 lbs. However, the domestic carrier is Air Tahiti and they only allow 42 lbs of luggage per person TOTAL – that includes your checked and cabin luggage. Divers get another 10 lbs if they show their C-card. However, my camera system alone weighs close to 40 lbs so we were WAY OVER on our luggage. Can you say more than double the allowance? Anyway, if you pay for the roundtrip of all of your inter-island trips they give you a 30% discount. It ended up costing us $297. Oh well, just roll it into the cost of the trip.
Speaking of rolling things into the cost of the trip, we rented an international cell phone from World Cell (www.worldcell.com) for the trip. It’s less than $100 for the couple of weeks and cost a couple of dollars per minute for calls. We didn’t use it much but it was nice to know family could reach us if need be. Of note, French Polynesia uses a GSM 900 MHz system that is not compatible with most (but is with some) US cell phones.
In Rangiroa, we stayed at Kia Ora, a truly 5 star restaurant and dove with Top Dive. Bedrooms are air conditioned which is very nice for sleeping at night. Of note, Kia Ora has their own dive op, but only Top Dive has Nitrox available. Dives are done from inflatables and are not cheap – about $75 per dive, not per two tank trip but per dive. The best diving is at Tiputa and Avatoru passes, both known for “big stuff”. We saw tons of sharks, barracuda, jacks, dolphins, manta rays, turtles, etc along with the usual reef fish. The food at Kia Ora was outstanding as as there are not a lot of options on the island I would recommend going for the full board plan. Wednesday night was a Polynesian Dance show which was a little “cheesy” but a nice tourist thing to do. We also did the free tour of the Pearl Farm which was interesting. Last thing, the hotel has no American 110 volt outlets so you need a converter. They do have them at Kia Ora you could borrow but didn’t in Bora Bora so I’m glad we had our own. For photographers, I would also recommend bringing a power strip to plug into the converter so you can charge batteries, laptop, etc simultaneously.
After several days in Rangiroa, we flew to Bora Bora -- an island that has been called “the most beautiful island in the world”. We stayed at Bora Bora Dive Resort, formerly known as Top Dive resort. It is a small boutique resort with only 9 bungalows, three of which are over-water. Again, the units are air-conditioned. The restaurant is known as “the best table on the island” and we went with the full board plan here as well. The resort is really set up for diving with three boats, nitrox, a very nice rinse tank as you step off the boat, and gear storage for you overnight. They run a two tank morning trip each day. Afternoons are usually for checkout or refresher dives but we did get one “real” afternoon dive trip in. Night dives are available if four people want to go.
Most of the dives were at a “sharky” place called Tapu where there are lots of lemon and black tip reef sharks. They go here once on most days, but it was always a great dive with lots of fish, eels, turtles, sharks, etc. There were also spots known for eagle rays, gray reef sharks, mantas, eagle rays, etc. No spot ever disappointed us. All of the dives were great and the staff at Top Dive were outstanding. All dives, both in Rangiroa and Bora Bora, were guided. All in Rangiroa were drift dives while most in Bora Bora were anchored but several were drift dives as well.
The trip ended all too soon and I can’t wait to go back. Here are some photos from the trip:
Eagle Ray
Anemone Fish
Lemon Sharks “On the Prowl”
Lemon Shark eating a fish
Black Tip Reef Shark
Lots of Butterfly Fish at Tapu, Bora Bora
Moray Eel
Another Moray
Other photos at:
http://debersole.com/layout/0001/gallery_view.cfm?g=88
