The lagoon is the destination. Everything else is the boat ride.
Which Bora Bora lagoon day really stops to swim with the rays. What a morning with the Moorea humpbacks costs. Whether Tahiti earns two nights or five. Reviews of every tour you can book across French Polynesia.
Four days that decide a French Polynesia trip.
One lagoon day on Bora Bora, one snorkel morning on Moorea, one loop of Tahiti, one hour in the water with a humpback. What each costs, and what the people who booked it say.
01The Bora Bora dayFull Day Lagoon Group Tour in Bora Bora with LunchA full day on the lagoon with lunch on a motu, rays and reef sharks in the shallows either side of it.
02The Moorea morningMoorea 6-Hour Snorkeling and Lunch Shared TourSix hours out of Opunohu, three snorkel stops and lunch. The single most booked thing anyone does here.
03The Tahiti loop5 Hours Tahiti Island Tour – West and East CoastFive hours round the west and east coasts, blowholes and black sand, before you catch the ferry across.
04The one with whalesSwimming with Whales in Moorea (Half Day tour)Humpbacks calve in this water between July and November. A morning in it with them is the trip people talk about.
Five islands, five different holidays.
A lagoon with a volcano in the middle of it, a green island half an hour by ferry, the capital and its coast road, a vanilla island in the Leewards, and an atoll that is mostly water. Pick where you sleep, and the day out follows.
Bora Bora: everything good is inside the reef.
Everything in Bora Bora →
The island itself takes an hour to drive. The lagoon takes a lifetime. Boat days run out to the rays and the reef sharks, stop at a motu for lunch, and drop you back before the light goes. The 4x4 track up the old gun emplacements is the one thing worth doing on land.
Lagoon tour with lunch on a motu
The standard Bora Bora day and the reason most people come. Snorkel stops in the coral gardens, time in the shallows with the rays, then grilled fish under the palms on a sand islet.
Half a day in the coral gardens
Same water, fewer hours, and it costs a good deal less. Two or three stops, usually the ray shallows and one drift over the coral, back at the pier by lunch.
Up the mountain track by 4x4
The war-era gun positions above Vaitape give you the whole lagoon at once, which is the view every photograph of this island is taken from. Wear something you do not mind getting dusty.
Moorea is thirty minutes from the capital and nothing like it.
Two deep bays, a pineapple plateau, and a lookout between them that everyone drives to. The water off the north shore is where the snorkelling boats go, and from July the humpbacks come inside the reef to calve.
Every Moorea day out →Full day, half day, or an hour with the rays. Pick the size of your lagoon day.
Nearly everything worth doing here happens inside the reef. Three shapes of boat day, what it costs to get on each one, and which island it suits.
The most booked days in French Polynesia.
Every tour we have reviewed here →More travellers take these than anything else across the islands, and there is usually a reason sitting in the water.
1
Moorea 6-Hour Snorkeling and Lunch Shared Tour
Set out from Moorea at 8:10 a.m. in a traditional Polynesian outrigger canoe with up to 12 people. Guides such as Wilfred, Nolte, Elvis, and Mana lead snorkeling with rays, sharks, turtles, and tropical fish, then serve a barbecue lunch and show you how to prepare poisson cru on a tiny motu.
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
Tahiti is where you land, not where you stop.
Most people give the big island one day and spend it on the coast road: the blowholes at Arahoho, the black sand at Papenoo, the gardens at Vaipahi. The interior is the other option, and it needs a 4x4 and a river crossing or two.
- 15 Hours Tahiti Island Tour – West and East Coastfrom $79
- 2Crossing Island of Tahiti 4×4 Mountain, Waterfall, River, Basinsfrom $138
- 3Découvrez le Mana durant la traversée de Tahiti en 4×4 Safarifrom $140
The other half of these islands starts where the tarmac stops.
Behind every lagoon is a volcano with a track up it. Open 4x4s climb to the Belvedere on Moorea and the gun batteries above Vaitape, and cross Tahiti through the river valleys. Quads do the same ground with you driving.
Jet ski, quad, or both in one day.
The lagoon circuits run right round Bora Bora and Moorea, usually with a stop in the ray shallows and one on a motu. Quad tours take the inland tracks up to the viewpoints. Plenty of operators sell the two of them as a single long day.
Three things this archipelago has and the rest of the Pacific does not.
Warm water and palm trees are everywhere. Humpbacks that calve inside a reef you can swim from, lunch cooked on a sand islet you have to yourself, and a vanilla island reached by boat are not.
Humpbacks Inside the Reef
Humpbacks swim up from Antarctica to calve in this water, and because the reef sits close to shore they end up in the same lagoons the snorkel boats use. Moorea has the strongest season, Tahiti and Bora Bora run trips too. Guides work to a code: small groups, no chasing, and some mornings the whales simply decide otherwise and you get a boat ride instead.
- 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
The Motu Picnic
A motu is one of the small islets strung along the reef, and most lagoon operators own or borrow one. The boat pulls up on the sand, someone grills fish and breadfruit, and the afternoon disappears. It is the part of the day people describe when they get home, and it is usually bundled into the full-day price rather than sold separately.
- 1Full day Lagoon Safari & Lunch on a Motu – ST★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 443 reviews
- 2Combo snorkeling + motu lunch + jet ski group tour full day★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 35 reviews
- 3Luxury Private full day tour & Motu lunch in Bora-Bora★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 21 reviews
Taha’a, the Vanilla Island
Taha’a shares a lagoon with Raiatea and has no airport, so every visit starts on a boat. The draw is vanilla: the plantations here cure most of what French Polynesia exports. Days usually add a pearl farm and a drift snorkel through the coral garden off Motu Tautau, where the current carries you over the reef without a kick.
- 11/2 day Tahaa coral garden – departure Raiatea / ideal for cruise passengers★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 149 reviews
- 2Tahaa Lagoon Tour -Departure Raiatea-Small groups (max 12 p)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 97 reviews
- 3The Vanilla tour of Taha’a in a comfortable outrigger canoe★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 58 reviews
Four bookings here that will not wait for you to arrive.
Islands with one road and a handful of boats run out of seats quickly, and two of the best things in this archipelago only happen for part of the year. These four are worth locking in before the flight.
- 01Swimming with Whales in Moorea (Half Day tour)The humpbacks are here roughly July to November, and boats carry small numbers by law. The good operators are full weeks out in season.
- 02Full Day Lagoon Group Tour in Bora Bora with LunchOne shared boat a day per operator, and it leaves whether or not you made it to the pier. Book the date, not the week.
- 031/2 day Tahaa coral garden – departure Raiatea / ideal for cruise passengersGetting to Taha’a means a crossing from Raiatea, so the day runs to a boat timetable rather than yours.
- 044×4 Safari HEREAKIMANU Tour in the Heart of TahitiThe interior crossing needs a river low enough to drive, so trips move or cancel after heavy rain. Take the earliest date you can.
What a day in French Polynesia actually costs.
This is not a cheap place and the boat days are the reason. Every tour on the site, grouped by price, so the splurge is a choice rather than a surprise.
Kayak hire, a half-day safari, the island circuit, a walk round Papeete market.
The standard full-day lagoon boats with lunch, snorkel cruises and the quad loops.
Whale mornings, private boats and the jet ski days quoted for the whole machine.
By island — Society group and the atolls
Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, and whatever time is left for the Leewards.
The newest French Polynesia tour reviews.
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Private Bora Bora Lagoon Snorkel Cruise with BBQ Picnic
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