Snorkeling in French Polynesia

[Katiekakes]

We will be in French Polynesia in December cruising the islands. Are there areas one can snorkel from shore without taking a shore excursion or hooking up with excursions on shore. I am most interested in Riatea and Bora Bora. Info on other islands would also be helpful. We will be on the Tahitian Princess.

[DANofNORTH]

There are many islands were you can just snorkel from shore & see lots of fish. Rangiora was very good just from the shore. From the pier just go a couple hundred yards (meters) to the left and anywhere there is great. Lots & lots of fish & stingrays. Take a towel & water, sun block & an underwater camera!

 

Most of the other islands we did a Princess excusion or a private one.

 

If you do consider an private excursion I can highly recommend Bruno for his tour. It was the highlite of our cruise. We filled him up with people off of the Tahtian & we all loved it!!!

 

His website is http://www.tahaa.net/?p=32

 

I hope this helps.

[Ron & Kristy]

Almost any of the islands will have good snorkeling from shore. We've made 3 trips to French Polynesia and we spent hours and days snorkeling. I fell in love with snorkeling there. There is a downside though.....you will be forever spoiled for snorkeling anywhere else because nothing compares. I've tried Hawaii and also went to St Lucia in the Caribbean. I was very disappointed in the snorkeling in both places. I found out too late that St Lucia is not the best place to go to snorkel in the Caribbean but it was a beautiful island. One piece of advice, if you have the room, take your own mask and snorkel. We found that the equipment offered in FP is sub-standard at best. It was always old and about to fall apart. We haven't been for a few years so maybe it's gotten better but I'm not sure and personally I don't want a snorkel that's been in hundreds of other mouths. Have a wonderful time.

 

Kristy

[skp4667]

We went to French Polynesia on the Taitian Princess 2 years ago and that was the best cruise we were ever on. We took Cruise Critic member's advice about doing a Motu Picnic on Huaine through Marc's Motu Picnic. You have to book it separately from the cruise line and it was wonderful. We stopped 2 places for snorkeling - one being a drift snorkeling. The picnic was wonderful. I do agree, you need your own snorkeling equipment. If you don't plan on doing much snorkeling after leaving the islands, you can get equipment very reasonable from walmarts. We went to a dive shop and they suggested Walmarts.

 

Enjoy your trip!