Tahiti and Morea Advice...

[ppo2_diver]

Bloody Mary's was a tad cheaper for us, we just had a cheesburger and beer. I love that place though. I'd take my shoes off and bury my feet in the sand. The sand was cool while the air was hot. Felt great!

Alfredo's on Moorea (I think) was great. Awesome margueritas! We ate there twice. The owner was a blast telling us about the new PT Cruiser he bought his wife.

 

[12voltman]

I was just in French Polynesia and while in Bora Bora stayed at a relatively new place that I thought I would mention. It's called Rohotu Fare Lodge and it's a small 3 bungalow mountainside property. hopefully this link will work. http://www.boraboralodge.com/

It's a pretty nice place and the guy running it really knows his way around. He can arrange almost any activity you'd like, including diving. He set us up with Bora Diving Center and we had a great time. It's not on the beach, but he gave us bicycles at no charge to tour around the island on, so we could hit the beach and the markets without any problem of adding to what could have been a pretty expensive vacation.

I'll add that if you're going to Bloody Mary's it's a lot cheaper at lunch and you can get a pretty good burger there. There's also a reasonably priced lunch place on the beach at Matira. Can't remember the name, but it's just down the beach from Bora Diving Center.

12v

 

[alexwe]

Do you know anything about the Bora Diving Center?

 

[SterlingDiver]

I just got back from French Polynesia last week. We opted to fly into and out of Tahiti but dove Rangiroa and Bora Bora. Regardless, I would highly recommend Top Dive for your diving. There are shops in Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Rangiroa, and Fakarava. They sell 10 dive packages that can be used on any of the islands which will save you some money. Lucien Schmidlin, who owns Top Dive, is a friend and an avid diver (he's currently on the Sardine Run with Wetpixel's Eric Cheng). He also owns the Bora Bora Dive Resort, and etahiti travel (www.etahititravel.com). He would be a good resource for you. I had him set up my entire vacation -- flights, transfers, lodging, diving, etc. He did a terrific job. As a "local" and a diver he will take care of you.

My trip report is on my website (www.debersole.com) under "News"
(I can't get the direct link to it to work)

Also, here are some photos from the trip:

http://debersole.com/layout/0001/gallery_view.cfm?g=88

My wife and I absolutely loved French Polynesia. You'll have a great time. Lots of sharks (gray reef, silvertip, whitetip reef, blacktip reef, and lemons), mantas, eagle rays, dolphins, turtles, etc. The water in their "winter" in June was 84 degrees with viz consistently over 100 feet.

Doug

Doc,

It looked like you had a great trip. Your pictures look very, very good. You are becoming quite a photographer.

How many days do you need to do French Polynesia, well. I could probally swing the cost, time is my issue right now. It is nearly impossible for me to get away more than 8-10 days at a time. I am guessing you need 14 days to compensate for additional travel time, etc.

Your thoughts and advice?

Dave

 

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

We were gone a total of 12 days but you could do 10 fairly easily. The flight to Tahiti is a little over 8 hours from LA. We overnighted there and then flew to Rangiroa. We snorkelled but didn't dive that day. So we actually dove on days 3-5 in Rangiroa which I thought was plenty. All the diving is around Tiputa Pass or Avatoru Pass. Day 6 was a travel day to Bora Bora (no diving) and then we dove days 7-10 in Bora Bora before beginning the trip home. There are a lot of sites in Bora Bora and each site is know for certain things -- eagle rays, lemon sharks, reef sharks, etc. If you did two dive days in Rangiroa and three in Bora Bora you could probably get away with a 10 day vacation.

Whatever you have to do, I would highly recommend French Polynesia. It was a great trip!

 

[SterlingDiver]

We were gone a total of 12 days but you could do 10 fairly easily. The flight to Tahiti is a little over 8 hours from LA. We overnighted there and then flew to Rangiroa. We snorkelled but didn't dive that day. So we actually dove on days 3-5 in Rangiroa which I thought was plenty. All the diving is around Tiputa Pass or Avatoru Pass. Day 6 was a travel day to Bora Bora (no diving) and then we dove days 7-10 in Bora Bora before beginning the trip home. There are a lot of sites in Bora Bora and each site is know for certain things -- eagle rays, lemon sharks, reef sharks, etc. If you did two dive days in Rangiroa and three in Bora Bora you could probably get away with a 10 day vacation.

Whatever you have to do, I would highly recommend French Polynesia. It was a great trip!

This is great advice and just what I was looking for. With a little planning I can pull off a ten day trip.

French Polynesia just got put on our short list for the wife and I.

Thanks again,

Dave

 

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

Have a great time and post a trip report and pics when you return!

Doug

 

[alexwe]

Did you enjoy the diving more in Bora Bora or Moorea?

 

[JanR]

You're going to love French Polynesia.

My wife and I got our OW certification last August while sailing 14 days on the Paul Guagaun (sp). Yes...absolutely spoiled nearly every dive since...

As our dives were using the ship's dive section, I can not point you to any other dive shops. However, we dove both in Bora Bora and Moorea.

I personally liked Moorea better. Outside of Opahalu (sp) Bay are some great dive spots...the crew called the two spots we dove there Shark Gallery and Ledges. While not shark diving dives, we were almost always surrounded by a dozen black tip sharks and had 1 or 2 larger lemons hanging out in the distance.

Visibility was 100+ feet and the temperatures in August worked out to about 78 degrees (if my conversion to F is correct). We dove in 3 mil shorties which was fine.

Bora Bora's dive sites were nice as well. We dove Tapu and Tabletop. While the corral was not that amazing, the amount of fish was staggering. Our instructor had to keep shooing away the fish in order for us to see his hand signals while we were doing our skills.

Yes, French Polynesia is expensive...however we were fortunate we were dining on the ship (yet, the cruise bill was staggering as well).

Anyway, you're sure to have a great trip. Wish I could be going there with you. But I guess a 50 degree dive into the querry for me this weekend will have to be enough.

v/r

Jan

My wife and I dove using the Radisson's Cruise dive crew so I can not point you ot

 

[Stoney_Creek]

Doug,
I read with interest your comments on the trip you and your wife took to French Polynesia. My husband and I are planning a trip in February (looking for Hammerheads!). We own all our gear (except tanks). Did you take along all your gear, or use some of the gear provided by the dive shops?
Your trip itinerary is exactly the plan we have tentatively. Still working with the agent on Dive shops. Glad to hear your recommendation on Top Dive.
Regards,
Deborah Straughan