Planning on taking 1st trip to the South Pacific, help with destination

[EL Pistoffo]

It has been a long time dream of mine to take a vacation to the South Pacific or Asia region for some time now. Having a close relative working in the airlines has made that trip an affordable possibility now. My relative, my wife and I are divers so diving of course is part of the plan. We are looking for a destination that is enjoyable both on land as well as underwater. We are not young bucks anymore so the party scene is not what we are looking for. A beautiful destination with good food, fantastic sights and culture to see and good diving are on the list.

I've considered your usual spots like Tahiti and Fiji but maybe there are other less known gems out there like Palau and such. We would be doing this maybe later this year but most likely next year. My relative has traveled much of Asia, the Pacific and the world for that matter but hasn't done a lot of diving during his travels so he has familiarity with many destinations but not their diving. Frankly, just about anywhere would be a new and fascinating experience for me. If you only had one shot at a trip to Asia or South Pacific, what would be the ONE place to go?

Your thoughts?

 

[Griffo]

Wow. If I had to go to only ONE place.. I can only comment on what i've done previously.

If it's wreck diving, it's hard to go past Vanuatu with the SS President Coolidge. French influence makes food delightfull, and there some decent if limited on-shore sight seeing activities.
If it's sealife, then Uepi in the Solomons is my favourite so far. A country with almost no fishing industry helps keep reefs pristine. Great food. Not so many dry activities.

 

[EL Pistoffo]

I see a lot of Bora Bora mentioned. Hows that for a spot? Looking at some photos the place looks breath taking.

---------- Post added January 29th, 2014 at 08:03 AM ----------

Wow. If I had to go to only ONE place.. I can only comment on what i've done previously.

If it's wreck diving, it's hard to go past Vanuatu with the SS President Coolidge. French influence makes food delightfull, and there some decent if limited on-shore sight seeing activities.
If it's sealife, then Uepi in the Solomons is my favourite so far. A country with almost no fishing industry helps keep reefs pristine. Great food. Not so many dry activities.

Wrecks have always been a hot item for me to see sooner or later, especially historic wrecks but being that I'm not the only diver sealife would be the main focus.

 

[jamesdiving]

Bora Bora is nice. Staggeringly, mind blowingly expensive, but nice. The diving is frankly poor.

I would think there are better places to aim for on a once in a lifetime dive trip. Papua New Guinea? Raja Ampat? Komodo?

 

[Mike]

We did a trip to Bora Bora last year but also split the trip to spend time in Rangiroa. Bora Bora for the absolutely once in a lifetime experience of one of the most beautiful places on the planet and then over to Rangiroa for the amazing diving of the lagoon passes, pretty much the best of both worlds. It was expensive, we pretty much went top shelf for the accomodations with over water bungalows at both places but there are less expensive ways to stay there in what are called "pensions", which are more like small B&Bs on the opposite end of the 5 star resorts that Bora Bora is known for.

 

[Wingy]

Bora Bora is great for topside, abysmal diving...not much to see other than the resident - fed - lemon sharks, dead coral and the odd manta. You get better value if the eagle rays start mating under your bungalow. Head over to Rangiroa and the Tuomoto Archipeligo (Fakarava, Tikehau etc) for GREAT diving.

Papua New Guinea is also amazing...that is world class diving. Check out Kavieng or Walindi plantation or check the schedule for MV Febrina for LOB diving. Milne Bay area is amazing.

 

[TSandM]

We did two weeks in the South Pacific, and I will echo the posts above. The scenery is spectacular just about everywhere, but the diving was uniformly disappointing in most sites. Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Rarotonga (and a couple more whose names escape me) had a lot of dead coral and few fish, and almost everyplace was running shark feeding dives. On the other hand, Rangiroa was utterly magical . . . unspoiled reefs so dense in fish that you almost felt you had to sweep them out of your path. Huge schools of jacks, pods of dolphins, mantas, and a fair number of sharks -- it was the single best place we have dived in the world so far. Horrendously expensive as a land-based experience (and it wasn't cheap off a cruise ship, either!) but if you want breath-taking diving . . .

 

[EL Pistoffo]

I was just thinking of going to more than one destination. Bora Bora and then Rangiroa for some diving sounds like a good idea. The Solomons was another good idea.

Update: Was just checking out the resort prices at Bora Bora and Rangiroa....:shocked2: Insane rates. I can see why celebs frequent this locals but damn, I'm not a millionaire.:depressed: There's gotta be places, destinations to stay that are more reasonable. An exotic locale with out the exotic costs. Komodo's rates seemed more reasonable.

 

[1erCRU]

Rangiroa (and most of the Tuamotus) are close to the top of the list most expensive dive locales. That they are also at the top of incredible diving experiences, makes it worthwhile. There are ways to mitigate the expenses, such as not staying in the overwater resorts, but in local pensiones. Some of these have meal plans or kitchens for your own prep for a meal or two. You get the real South Pacific experience staying with locals. Also a la cart pricing is killer in all of PF, packages are nearly always a better way to go. Check out some dive travel specialists such as Caradonna who do volume in the Pacific.

Having done a bit of sailing over the years in FP, I groan when ever somebody says "lets go to Bora Bora". It's beautiful place, but living off the legend. Sadly its sooo over developed, and chock full of the kind of people you used to see only on the Jersey shore and the people who hustle them. It has little "South Pacific" charm left in it, being now a giant tourist factory. Still it is a bucket list item for lots of people, but not a diver's bucket.

Fiji is the real bargain of good diving in the SP, it has everything from tent accommodations up to complete island rentals; you'll find exceptional diving in every price range. It is also easy to get to other islands during a 10day'er to expand the dive experience, ie shark feeds or Manta diving, or drift, coral walls etc. But do some research not every resort area in Fiji has good diving, even though they SAY SO.

In the Western Pacific, the Philippines, have some real bargain dive resorts and would be a great pick for a value dive trip. The main draw back to most of the WP is the travel expense and time from the US, might take 18 hours or more with multiple time zone and date changes. Can you say "lost days and jet lag"? Tahiti is on the other hand is only 7.5 hours from LAX +another 45mins to the closest of the Tuamotus and only 2 hours off PST. Maybe its the "best diving for the least amount of travel pain that wins"?

 

[Wingy]

You are so right about the pensiones at Rangiroa, I did the OW bungalow thing in BB but chose to avoid hotels and had the best time with Marie at her Pensione. Truly felt great eating with the family and getting to know the real polynesian way of life.