The lagoon is the whole point.
Which boat day actually stops where the rays are. What a motu lunch costs. Whether the whale season is worth planning a trip around. Every tour in French Polynesia, reviewed.
The six days a French Polynesia trip is built around.
A lagoon circuit with lunch on a sand motu, a morning in the coral, humpbacks off the reef, a 4x4 climb to the pineapple fields. Six days that decide the shape of a trip, and the best way to book each.
By island — Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora and the atolls
Bora Bora177 tours
Moorea165 tours
Tahiti & Papeete127 tours
Raiatea32 tours
Taha’a18 tours
Rangiroa9 tours- Every island →
By experience — from the ray flats to the pass at Rangiroa
Bora Bora, Moorea, Taha’a: pick your lagoon day.
All lagoon tours →
Every island runs a version: a shallow drift with the rays, a snorkel stop at a coral garden, lunch grilled on a motu. What changes is the boat, the crowd on it and how long you get in the water.
All day around Bora Bora, lunch on a motu
Out through the pass, a drift with the rays, an hour over the coral garden, then grilled fish under the palms while the crew opens coconuts.
Moorea, out with the rays and back by two
Moorea’s lagoon is shallow and calm enough that the stingrays come to standing depth. Boats leave from the ferry side, so it fits the day you arrive.
A motu to yourselves, and nothing to do on it
White sand, a thatched fare for shade and a barbecue on the fire. The reef is twenty metres out and the boat does not leave until you are ready.
Bora Bora is a lagoon with a mountain in it.
Otemanu drops straight into water four shades of blue, and almost everything worth doing happens on a boat: shark and ray stops, a barbecue on a motu, a circuit that ends with the sun behind the peak.
The tours French Polynesia is best at.
Every review →More travellers book these than anything else on the islands — and here is what each one actually gives you for the day.
1
Moorea 6-Hour Snorkeling and Lunch Shared Tour
Review of Moorea’s small-group snorkeling tour with sharks, rays, coral gardens, a motu cooking lesson, barbecue lunch, and local music.
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 is thirty minutes from Papeete and a different country.
The ferry crosses before breakfast and lands under green spires. Rays in the shallows, humpbacks outside the reef from August, and a 4x4 track that climbs through pineapple to the Belvedere.
What a day on the water costs in French Polynesia.
What the whole catalogue costs, in three bands. The islands are expensive to reach and much cheaper to enjoy than the resort rates suggest.
Shared snorkel mornings, ferry hops, quad and scooter half-days, the market and marae walks.
The standard lagoon day: shared boat, snorkel stops, lunch grilled on a motu, back by mid-afternoon.
Private boats, whale-swim mornings with a licensed guide, flights over the reef, a motu to yourselves.
Three things that only happen in a Polynesian lagoon.
Reef and palms exist across the Pacific. Standing chest-deep among blacktips, eating on a motu the boat has to itself, and watching a black pearl come out of an oyster belong to these islands.
Blacktips and Stingrays
On the sand flats off Moorea and Bora Bora the water is warm, clear and barely chest-deep, and the blacktip reef sharks come in with the boats. Guides feed the stingrays, which are unbothered and heavy and will lean against your legs. It is the single most photographed hour in the country and it happens where you can stand up.
- 1Full-Day Bora Bora Lagoon Cruise Including Snorkeling with Sharks and Stingrays★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 630 reviews
- 2Bora Bora Eco Snorkel Cruise Including Snorkeling with Sharks and Stingrays★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 501 reviews
- 3Bora Bora Jet Ski Tour, & Eco Shark / Ray Snorkel Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 376 reviews
The Motu Day
A motu is a low islet on the reef, some of them the size of a tennis court. Crews land the boat, dig the fire and grill mahi mahi while you swim. Some have a thatched fare for shade and nothing else at all, which is the point: no road, no shop, no other boat until yours comes back.
- 1Full day Lagoon Safari & Lunch on a Motu – ST★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 443 reviews
- 2Full Day Combo ATV & Jet Ski with a Polynesian BBQ on a Motu★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 373 reviews
- 3Lagoon Tour + lunch with your feet in the water on a Motu★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 40 reviews
The Black Pearl
Tahitian pearls grow in black-lipped oysters suspended on lines in the lagoons of Taha’a and the Tuamotus, and take about two years. Farm visits show the grafting bench, the drying racks and the sorting tray, and the price difference between a good pearl and a beautiful one stops being mysterious.
- 1Discover the black pearl in Bora Bora★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 243 reviews
- 2Blue Pearl Private Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 65 reviews
- 3Discovering the Tahitian black pearl !★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 21 reviews
Tahiti is where the trip starts, and it deserves a day.
Most people fly into Papeete and leave the next morning, which is a waste of the biggest island. The east coast has black sand and blowholes, the interior has waterfalls you can swim under, and the market is at its best before seven.
- 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
In Polynesia the wind drops at six and the lagoon goes flat.
All sunset sails →
Sunset Cruise : Moorea Sailing on a Catamaran named Taboo
Read our review →
PRIVATE Sunset Cruise : Moorea Sailing on a Catamaran named Taboo
Read our review →
LUXURY Catamaran Bora Bora : The Sunset Escape
Read our review →Book these before you fly to Tahiti.
Most island days can be arranged from the hotel desk the night before. These cannot: they run on a season, a licence, a boat that meets your flight, or a plane with three seats in it.
- 01Humpback whale watching and marine life in MooreaHumpbacks are only in these waters from roughly July to November, and the boats allowed to put swimmers in the water are licensed and few.
- 02Bora Bora Private Arrival Airport to Hotels Boat TransferBora Bora’s airport sits on its own motu. The only way to a hotel is a boat, and it has to be booked against your flight number.
- 03Private Island Tour ( 5 HOURS)One group a day, one boat, one islet. When the date is taken nothing frees up later in the week.
- 04Bora Bora 30-minute Private Flight in a Light AircraftThe aircraft seats three and flies a handful of slots a day, weather permitting. Walk-up seats effectively do not exist.
When the maraamu blows, French Polynesia moves inland.
A hard south-easterly chops the lagoon and the small boats stay in; the wet months from November to April do the same in the afternoons. Everything good does not stop — it moves inland and underwater: the 4x4 tracks to the Belvedere and the waterfall valleys, a vanilla farm on Taha’a, a marae with its stones still standing, a dive where the surface never mattered.
The island-hopping route most French Polynesia trips take.
The newest French Polynesia reviews.
All recent →
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Wholesale Fishing in Poti Marara at Tahiti Teahupoo Peninsula
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Taxi Boat to Watch the Teahupoo International Surfing Competition
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SURF TAHITI Bites & Waves – Surf experience with every bite
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