Headed to Tahiti and want Recommendations

[shasta12399]

please send dive shops, where to go, must visit dive locations, must visit snorkel places etc! we will be there for 14 days and haven't made concrete plans except for bought plane tickets so we are open to whatever you throw at us!! Appreciate the feedback everyone!

 

[ACHiPo]

Post in thread 'Diving in Tikehau'

Sep 14, 2024

I can wholeheartedly recommend Coco Dive. We dove with them all 4 days we were in Tikehau in May, 2023 and it was a fantastic experience. Xavier, the owner and instructor/dive master is fantastic.

Here’s a report I posted last year:
Rangiroa and Tikehau Trip Report

• ACHiPo

Highly recommend Coco Dive in Tikehau, 6 Passengers in Rangiroa. Also dived in Bora Bora and Moorea. All great spots, but my favorite was Tikehau.

 

[jameseg]

Highly recommend Coco Dive in Tikehau, 6 Passengers in Rangiroa. Also dived in Bora Bora and Moorea. All great spots, but my favorite was Tikehau.

Love to hear that, as my wife and I are headed to Tikehau this weekend, after visiting Rangiroa 2 years ago!

shasta12399, we loved Rangiroa and had a great experience diving with Rangiroa Plongee when we were there. We saw dolphins on the majority of our dives and had them come in close to interact with us on four of the 12 dives. Just be advised that it's fairly advanced diving if you want to go through the pass, given the depth and current. As I recall, they require AOW - just a heads up if you don't yet have that.

I will say the snorkeling inside the lagoon right off the Kia Ora Hotel beach wasn't as good as I had hoped. Quite a bit of life around the coral heads, but the sand silts up the water so viz is only 20 or 25 feet. The snorkeling was exceptional at the Aquarium, just inside Tiputa pass, but requires a boat (i.e., paid excursion) to get to.

 

[shasta12399]

this is what i was looking for! keep them coming!! ive been diving for 20 years with a dive master cert so i can do pretty much most dives.

thanks everyone!!

 

[Manuel Sam]

What are you looking to see and what time of the year are you looking to go?

The Tuamotu Archipelago is where you may find arguably the best diving in all of French Polynesia if you are looking for clear waters, lots of fish, and big animals. The two atolls recommended earlier - Tikehau by ACHiPo and Rangiroa by jameseg - are both in the Tuamotus. There is a third atoll in the Tuamotus that is very popular and also offers excellent diving, and that is Fakarava. Within Fakarava, there are two villages - one North and one South - and a pass at each, about 1 1/2-2hr boat ride one one another, and both passes offer excellent diving.

In Tikehau, the best diving is also at the one pass there. In Rangiroa, there are two passes, but Tiputa Pass is the one dived most often and offers the best diving of the two.

That is not to say that the diving is only good in the passes. The outer reef in North Fakarava has almost daily manta sightings at the cleaning stations. Tikehau also has a manta cleaning station (I haven't dived it) but it is inside the lagoon so viz is so-so at best. The outer reef outside of Tiputa Pass in Rangiroa is where I have had my best bottlenose dolphin encounters in French Polynesia.

With 14 days, doing all three of those atolls is possible as long as you don't mind losing parts or all of two days traveling in between. And if you get the Tuamotu Pass from Air Tahiti, the domestic airline, you'll get a slight break on the airfare.

I just did this same itinerary in December but over a span of 19 days.

I've never been to the Marquesas but I hear that the diving there is also very good, except that they do not have the water clarity that the Tuamotus have.

There are seasons for certain species, and that's why I ask about your time of year.

If you want to snorkel with Humpback Whales, that can be done in Moorea, Tahiti, and Rurutu, but that is more seasonal.

Once you come up with a tentative trip itinerary, I can offer lodging and dive operator suggestions in addition to the ones already provided above.

 

[shasta12399]

What are you looking to see and what time of the year are you looking to go?

The Tuamotu Archipelago is where you may find arguably the best diving in all of French Polynesia if you are looking for clear waters, lots of fish, and big animals. The two atolls recommended earlier - Tikehau by ACHiPo and Rangiroa by jameseg - are both in the Tuamotus. There is a third atoll in the Tuamotus that is very popular and also offers excellent diving, and that is Fakarava. Within Fakarava, there are two villages - one North and one South - and a pass at each, about 1 1/2-2hr boat ride one one another, and both passes offer excellent diving.

In Tikehau, the best diving is also at the one pass there. In Rangiroa, there are two passes, but Tiputa Pass is the one dived most often and offers the best diving of the two.

That is not to say that the diving is only good in the passes. The outer reef in North Fakarava has almost daily manta sightings at the cleaning stations. Tikehau also has a manta cleaning station (I haven't dived it) but it is inside the lagoon so viz is so-so at best. The outer reef outside of Tiputa Pass in Rangiroa is where I have had my best bottlenose dolphin encounters in French Polynesia.

With 14 days, doing all three of those atolls is possible as long as you don't mind losing parts or all of two days traveling in between. And if you get the Tuamotu Pass from Air Tahiti, the domestic airline, you'll get a slight break on the airfare.

I just did this same itinerary in December but over a span of 19 days.

I've never been to the Marquesas but I hear that the diving there is also very good, except that they do not have the water clarity that the Tuamotus have.

There are seasons for certain species, and that's why I ask about your time of year.

If you want to snorkel with Humpback Whales, that can be done in Moorea, Tahiti, and Rurutu, but that is more seasonal.

Once you come up with a tentative trip itinerary, I can offer lodging and dive operator suggestions in addition to the ones already provided above.

thanks for the detailed layout the time of year we are going is late june the ONLY things we have on the docket is staying in bora bora for 3 days. The rest of the trip is open and we usually fly by the seat of our pants

 

[Manuel Sam]

There is a unique event that occurs around the full moon of June or July and sometimes both months in South Fakarava. It is mating season for marbled groupers, and if the sight of a "carpet" of these groupers covering an area the size of a soccer field isn't impressive enough, then the number of sharks - Grey Reefs, Silvertips and Oceanic Blacktips - that it attracts is mind-blowing. However, I am not smart enough to tell you which month it will happen on this year or next year. Full moon occurs on June 11 and July 10 this year.

If this sounds appealing to you, my recommendation is to stay in Tetamanu Village in South Fakarava - that's the way I did it. I arrived about 5 days before the full moon and stayed until a day after the full moon. The accomodations there are rustic and basic, it gets supercrowded around that time, and if you look at postings in the Pacific Islands Forum, it gets many negative reviews. However, for the chance of seeing all those groupers and sharks, for the chance of doing the adrenaline-filled night dives, and for the one-in a-google chance of witnessing the actual grouper spawning and the resulting carnage (if that were to appeal to you), I was willing to put up with the lack of creature comfort.

You could instead choose to stay in North Fakarava, where there is a better choice of accomodations and do day trips to the south to see the groupers and sharks, but you would miss out on the night dives and that remote chance of seeing the spawning.

 

[shasta12399]

There is a unique event that occurs around the full moon of June or July and sometimes both months in South Fakarava. It is mating season for marbled groupers, and if the sight of a "carpet" of these groupers covering an area the size of a soccer field isn't impressive enough, then the number of sharks - Grey Reefs, Silvertips and Oceanic Blacktips - that it attracts is mind-blowing. However, I am not smart enough to tell you which month it will happen on this year or next year. Full moon occurs on June 11 and July 10 this year.

If this sounds appealing to you, my recommendation is to stay in Tetamanu Village in South Fakarava - that's the way I did it. I arrived about 5 days before the full moon and stayed until a day after the full moon. The accomodations there are rustic and basic, it gets supercrowded around that time, and if you look at postings in the Pacific Islands Forum, it gets many negative reviews. However, for the chance of seeing all those groupers and sharks, for the chance of doing the adrenaline-filled night dives, and for the one-in a-google chance of witnessing the actual grouper spawning and the resulting carnage (if that were to appeal to you), I was willing to put up with the lack of creature comfort.

You could instead choose to stay in North Fakarava, where there is a better choice of accomodations and do day trips to the south to see the groupers and sharks, but you would miss out on the night dives and that remote chance of seeing the spawning.

stuff like this are my dreams.... june 22-july 6 was our tentative dates we prob could push things back a week to see something like this ....

 

[Manuel Sam]

I recommend spending a few days in Tetamanu in South Fakarava to do the night dive(s) and see the groupers and wall of sharks. From personal experience, do not set your expectations to witness the actual spawning: it occurs just before dawn on the full moon day and again, there are just too many divers wanting to do it

In any case, if you do decide to go to Tetamanu, start looking into reserving this because it is in high demand.

Then plan on spending a few days in the the North before continuing on to Rangiroa and maybe Tikehau.

Check the current Air Tahiti schedule because, if flying to Rangiroa, there had been only one nonstop flight a week, on other days, it may require an overnight in Papeete before continuing to Rangiroa.

Or you could choose to reverse the order.