First Trip to Tahiti or Moorea

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Guitarcrazy

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Messages
402
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Location
Montana
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100 - 199
Just booked flight to Tahiti in February. First trip to the area. We are still considering Tahiti or Moorea for lodging, and dive ops depending on where we stay. Any suggestions or local knowledge appreciated.
 
We'll be in Bora Bora first two weeks of November. Never been to FP before but it's my wife's turn to pick a destination. Staying at the Conrad Hilton and I'll be diving with Top Dive. I don't have a lot of high expectations on the quality of diving.........but diving is diving......... so will just have to see how it goes...
 
We went to Moorea and Bora Bora in May. It was our second trip to Bora Bora. This wasn‘t a dive trip but did manage to get in two tank dives on both islands. We definitely liked Moorea. It had a few excellent beaches and you weren’t confined to the resort (Hilton) and could check out local restaurants and bike around the island. Also enjoyed the Jeep tour. If I go back I’ll look into Air BNB.

Booked with Top Dive on both islands though on Moorea they work with another dive shop. They were okay this trip. Seemed like the staff was inexperienced on both islands - probably still recovering from Covid shut down. Had some newly certified divers (same divers in Moorea and Bora) and they kept the dives shallow and short as a result. Saw lots of turtles on Moorea and colorful fish in Bora but no sharks on Moorea and only a few black tips in Bora. Worth doing for a day or two but best to keep your expectations low.

At the shop in Moorea they showed a video of some exceptional things like whales, manta rays, sharks, etc. They said the locations for most of these videos was further off shore. You might inquire about options for diving these sites.
 
We dove with Moorea Fun Dive when we were there about 2 years ago, and they seemed to be a more boutique operation than Top Dive in French Polynesia. It was very professionally run, included all dive gear if you needed it, and we enjoyed excellent visibility and plenty of underwater life.
 
We will dive 5 days if travel and weather all work out as planned. Definitely want to do the sites that are known for sharks. We usually dive Cozumel twice a year and go one other location so this year we decided to venture afar to Tahiti. I have heard great reviews of the diving, and then some not so great. Really hoping we get good encounters during our stay.
 
We'll be in Bora Bora first two weeks of November. Never been to FP before but it's my wife's turn to pick a destination. Staying at the Conrad Hilton and I'll be diving with Top Dive. I don't have a lot of high expectations on the quality of diving.........but diving is diving......... so will just have to see how it goes...
We dove Bora Bora and Rangiroa back in 2006. Back then TopDive had a little boutique hotel with an amazing restaurant. So it was great staying there and diving with them. Two Swiss brothers owned it and we dove with one of them. Don't know why he picked the 2 of us for a personal tour :wink: Anyway, The diving is ok. Lots of sharks and possibility to see massive mantas! Topdive probably still does shark feeding dives if you are into that. Topside is absolutely gorgeous.
crazyeric.jpg
 
We went to Moorea and Bora Bora in May. It was our second trip to Bora Bora. This wasn‘t a dive trip but did manage to get in two tank dives on both islands. We definitely liked Moorea. It had a few excellent beaches and you weren’t confined to the resort (Hilton) and could check out local restaurants and bike around the island. Also enjoyed the Jeep tour. If I go back I’ll look into Air BNB.

Booked with Top Dive on both islands though on Moorea they work with another dive shop. They were okay this trip. Seemed like the staff was inexperienced on both islands - probably still recovering from Covid shut down. Had some newly certified divers (same divers in Moorea and Bora) and they kept the dives shallow and short as a result. Saw lots of turtles on Moorea and colorful fish in Bora but no sharks on Moorea and only a few black tips in Bora. Worth doing for a day or two but best to keep your expectations low.

At the shop in Moorea they showed a video of some exceptional things like whales, manta rays, sharks, etc. They said the locations for most of these videos was further off shore. You might inquire about options for diving these sites.
That's worrisome to hear. I'm planning a trip to FP specifically to see sharks.
 
The sharks on Moorea will mostly be on the outside of the fringing reef not in the lagoon. We did see eagle rays in the lagoon but they could be seasonal (Cozumel they are). Outside the lagoon there were lemon and black tip reef sharks. The lemons were curious but not aggressive.
Bigger tides through the passes and the dive op should be planning. We did not dive the pass in front of Opunohu bay (next to Cooks bay) as there can be quite alot of ship/boat traffic in them though we did drop off to one side in the pass and go over the reef. Bit of surge the closer you get to the reef. A few Hawksbill turtles as well.
We were not land based on Moorea and we did not dive Tahiti but I hear there is good shark diving there.
The scenery on Moorea was spectacular but there is less to do there topside than Tahiti. More than Tuomotus for sure.
Btw - There in 2016/2017. Unless something drastically changed, the diving should be similar.

Moorea Black tip reef shark 010.jpg
Moorea Lemon shark 009.jpg
Moorea Hawksbill Turtle 002.jpg
 
We dove Bora Bora and Rangiroa back in 2006. Back then TopDive had a little boutique hotel with an amazing restaurant. So it was great staying there and diving with them. Two Swiss brothers owned it and we dove with one of them. Don't know why he picked the 2 of us for a personal tour :wink: Anyway, The diving is ok. Lots of sharks and possibility to see massive mantas! Topdive probably still does shark feeding dives if you are into that. Topside is absolutely gorgeous.
Can't see a way to edit my post, but it was referring to Bora Bora regarding the diving. Rangiroa was amazing.
 

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