Recommendations for Tahiti diving in October or November?

[ericpratum]

Hopefully, this is the right place and method of posting. Please forgive me if not. I was sent here after a post on reddit.com/r/scuba.

The missus and I are planning a trip in late October or early November. We've been thinking that Tahiti would be nice so that we can maybe do a liveaboard for a bit and then an overwater bungalow for a bit, and after a lot of googling, it looks like a great destination, but I'm still at a loss for places to go/stay, shops and boats to check out, and generally other specifics other than the general location and timeframe.

If anyone has recommendations, I would appreciate that.

For context, we're both advanced, 30+ dives, and have been diving for just over 2 years. We've been wreck diving, deep diving, night diving, shore diving, liveaboard diving, etc and have been diving in The Bahamas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and Thailand. Our preference at the moment is liveaboard diving because we had such a great experience with that in Thailand.

 

[Cali_diver]

I think the only thing close to liveaboard diving in Tahiti area is the Paul Gauguin (PG Cruises), but you only dive 1-2 dives a day. If you want to do a liveaboard maybe you should consider Fiji. The diving is better there anyway.

 

[t-mac]

Really no need to do a liveaboard. Air Tahiti hops to all the islands regularly and they give divers extra weight allowance for gear. The dive spots are close to the islands so its easy to do from land. If your doing the hut over the water, all the resorts have a dive op they associate with. Though, I found that experience a little over-rated - I made the mistake of living "local" prior to moving into the resort and I missed the natives -- everyone at the resort was from home and uninteresting. Anyway, enough digressing. If you are going to dive, I'd definitely hit Rangiroa. Never been, but Fakarava is another really popular one with divers. If you want really fancy plus pretty good diving, Bora Bora is good. Let me know if you want specifics.

 

[ldatchary]

Hi,

I was there last year. You have liveaboard on small catamaran that will take you around but hopping by plane from one island to the other is really easy.
My program was:
- Swimming with whales from Papetee (Between the arrival from LA and the departure to Fakarava)
- 3 days in the south of Fakarava (Diving and lodging with Fakarava hebergement).
Place is remote. You dive in the lagoon entry with hundreds of sharks. Snorkeling the lagoon was also nice.
You have to book in advance, I am afraid it is too late for Tetamanu. You can access the sites from the north (2hour boat ride).
- 4 days in the north of Fakarava (Diving with atoll)
My favorite part of the trip. You have the sharks but also large school of squirrel fishs and other.
Serge is the best divemaster I met and he only takes 4 divers with him. The other club takes 20 (i did one dive with them). But again you need to call them quickly.
- 5 days in Bora Bora.
The honey moon destination.
Not really good for diving (dead corals) except for the manta ray (endless line of rays passing by but not great visibility there).
Everything is super expensive and you don't have the nice food (raw fish, ...) you can get in pension.

You can see some of my pictures at: https://picasaweb.google.com/115404247425934131182/Polynesie2011.

Bon voyage....

 

[Connorc]

Incredible photos!