Every lagoon day in French Polynesia.
Which Bora Bora boat actually stops where the rays are. Whether the Moorea 4WD is worth the early start. What a day on a motu costs before lunch is added. 582 tours across the islands, reviewed one at a time.
Bora Bora, Moorea, Tahiti: the island decides the day.
Almost nothing here is national. The same snorkel trip is a different morning in Moorea than it is in Bora Bora, and the outer atolls are a separate flight again. Pick the island, then pick the boat.
Bora Bora is a lagoon with a mountain in the middle of it.
All Bora Bora tours →
Nearly every Bora Bora day is the same circuit in a different boat: out through the shallows to the rays, over the coral gardens, lunch on a motu with Otemanu behind you. What changes is the size of the boat, the length of the stop and the price.
A whole day on the water, lunch on a motu
The classic: shark and ray stop first thing, two coral gardens, then a motu with a barbecue on it and the mountain across the water.
Half a day, straight to the coral
For a cruise stop or a spare afternoon. Same water, same fish, back before the light goes flat.
Catamaran, no schedule, low sun
Sails up somewhere off Matira, the lagoon turning from turquoise to gold, and nobody asking you to get in the water.
In these lagoons the rays come to the boat.
Blacktip reef sharks and stingrays gather in waist-deep sand flats off Moorea and Bora Bora, close enough that the guide stands up in the water beside you. It is the thing people fly home talking about, and it is on almost every lagoon boat.
The tours travellers book most in French Polynesia.
Every review →Across every island, these are the days that fill first, and what each one actually gives you for the money.
1
Moorea 6-Hour Snorkeling and Lunch Shared Tour
Swim with rays and black-tip sharks, learn to make poisson cru, and enjoy a barbecue lunch on a tiny motu in Moorea.
From · $138
Read our review →2
Full Day Lagoon Group Tour in Bora Bora with Lunch
from $184
3
5 Hours Tahiti Island Tour – West and East Coast
from $79
4
Reef Discovery Half Day Group Signature Tour
from $143
5
Moorea 4WD Tour Inc. Belvedere, Pineapple Farm, Magic Mountain…
from $70
6
Snorkeling excursion, discovery of the lagoon, small group.
from $118
7
Franckyfranck Tours Moorea – Half day Tours
from $57
8
Half day Snorkeling Shared Boat Tour in Bora Bora
from $130
Moorea fits in a day and never finishes.
Two bays, a ridge road up to the Belvedere, a lagoon shallow enough to read the sand through. The ferry from Papeete takes half an hour, which is why so many people come for the day and then move their flights.
What a day on a Polynesian lagoon costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The islands have a reputation, but the water is the same water from the cheapest shared boat.
Shared snorkel mornings, kayak hours, a seat on somebody else's boat.
The standard island day: full lagoon circuit, motu lunch, 4WD up the valley.
Private boats, whale days with a licensed guide, the atoll flights and the charters.
The three days French Polynesia owns outright.
Reef and beach you can find across the Pacific. Swimming beside a humpback, standing in a ray colony, being dropped alone on a sand island for the afternoon: those are local.
Swimming With Humpbacks
Humpbacks calve in this water between July and November, and French Polynesia is one of the few places where you may get in with them, under licence, in small numbers, with a guide who decides when. Outside those months there is nothing in the bay. Inside them, boats sell out days ahead and the good operators cancel rather than crowd a mother and calf.
- 1Swimming with Whales in Moorea (Half Day tour)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 264 reviews
- 2Whale Tour – Observe and swim with whales★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 257 reviews
- 3Whale Watching Tours in Bora Bora★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 250 reviews
Standing in a Ray Colony
The sand flats inside the reef are barely deeper than a swimming pool, and the stingrays there have been meeting boats for decades. They arrive before the anchor is down. Blacktip reef sharks circle wider out, unbothered. Nothing about it feels like a wildlife excursion; you are standing up, in warm water, and they come to you.
- 1Moorea 6-Hour Snorkeling and Lunch Shared Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,758 reviews
- 2Snorkeling excursion, discovery of the lagoon, small group.★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 861 reviews
- 3Half day Snorkeling Shared Boat Tour in Bora Bora★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 688 reviews
The Motu Afternoon
A motu is one of the small flat islets strung along the reef, most of them uninhabited. The boat leaves you on one with a fire, a fish and a shade tree, and comes back later. Pink sand on the Tuamotu ones, coconut litter, no shop, no power. It is the least engineered thing you can book here.
- 1Full Day Combo ATV & Jet Ski with a Polynesian BBQ on a Motu★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 373 reviews
- 2Private Island Tour ( 5 HOURS)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 216 reviews
- 3Blue Lagoon – PRIVATE ISLAND Pink sand beach and wildlife reserve★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 130 reviews
Tahiti is where the coast road runs out and the valley starts.
Everyone lands here and most people leave the same week. The island deserves better: a crossing of the interior by 4WD to the waterfall basins, the marae at the black sand end of the coast, the Papeete market before six in the morning.
- 15 Hours Tahiti Island Tour – West and East Coastfrom $79
- 2Crossing Island of Tahiti 4×4 Mountain, Waterfall, River, Basinsfrom $138
- 3Moorea Street Food Tourfrom $73
These will not wait until you have landed.
Most of the islands can be arranged from your hotel desk the day before. These cannot. They run on a whale calendar, a domestic flight schedule or a piece of paperwork you have to bring from home.
- 01Swimming with Whales in Moorea (Half Day tour)Humpbacks are in this water from July to November and the licensed boats take small groups. Outside the season there is nothing to swim with.
- 02Blue Lagoon Tiputa Pass Coral Garden Island BirdsThe Tuamotus are a separate flight from Tahiti. The lagoon days out there are sold against that timetable, not against your hotel calendar.
- 03Grand Tour Quad Excursion in Moorea (Single or Two-Seater)Bring the driving licence issued to you at home. The quad operators check it at the desk before they hand over a machine.
- 04Tetiaroa Island Tour by Sailing CatamaranSailing days go out on one boat with a fixed number of seats, and the calm-morning departures are taken first.
A Polynesian squall lasts an hour. Go up the valley instead.
November to April the trade winds push short heavy rain across the islands, usually gone by lunch. The lagoon loses its colour under cloud, so this is the morning for the interior: waterfalls at full flow, the pearl farms, the vanilla drying sheds, a 4WD track that is more interesting wet than dry.
Papeete out to the atolls, one island at a time.
By island — outward from Papeete
Tahiti157 tours
Moorea172 tours
Bora Bora197 tours
Raiatea & the Leewards38 tours
Rangiroa & the Tuamotus9 tours- Every island →
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