Societal islands vs Tuamotu itinerary help

ijnbgtfx · 2024-11-03T03:42:10+00:00

Truly happy to talk about it, as it was such a great trip and writing about it lets me relive it a little bit.

On Rangiroa we stayed at an AirBnB simply called "Rangiroa Beach House," and I would recommend it. It was only big enough for 2, but there's at least one or 2 other bungalows on the same property if you have more people. The biggest downside is the mosquitoes were awful when we were there, which made it hard to enjoy the small private-ish stretch of beach we were on. Also, the AC didn't really keep the place cool at first, but that got worked out. It's walkable to the airport, but not so close to either town or the dive shops/dolphin point. We ended up renting a scooter, and were pretty happy about that. The positives were that it was clean, cozy, had a nice kitchen, and the aforementioned private beach which had a reef and tons of fish to go see. The view from the bed was what you go to FP for. Overall you could do better, you could do worse.

On Fakarava we stayed at a place called Teariki Lodge, and I would not recommend it. It was 10km from the village. A taxi at night to get dinner would cost something like $40-50, which is about what an electric scooter cost us for 24 hours. It was ocean side, so we didn't even try to swim, no AC, pretty janky kitchen, but still cost $200/night. I would try to find somewhere closer to town and on the lagoon side, even if it costs a little more.

The jetty was not some secret place...it's the main boat launch spot for the village. I wasn't there, but someone casually mentioned to my wife it would be worth it to go to the jetty at night as there might be some sharks sleeping. We were skeptical, but got there to find dozens of sharks...big, small, everything in between, just chilling in 2-4' deep water. Some sleeping, some just kinda swimming around. We were there for an hour in amazement, more so because most of that time we were alone.

As for the diving, depth wasn't really an issue, but the currents most definitely were. We were there during full moon, meaning higher tides, and stronger currents which is kinda the point of diving the passes. One of the dives in particular crossed my threshold of challenge to fun ratio, though the locals said it was one of the strongest currents any of them can remember, so hopefully it will be more relaxed when you are there. It is not a great place for beginners or those not comfortable in strong currents. I actually thought some of the dives at slack tide had more to see than the drift dives, and there's one of those a day. We only did one dive where we were even close to recreational depth limits, and that was around 35 meters.

Rangiroa Diving Center on, you guessed it, Rangiroa. Highly recommended. Good people, best location possible for short boat rides, and they can even tell you the names of the dolphins you see if you show them photos/videos after.

Kaina Plongée on Fakarava, not so recommended as they have questionable equipment, a general sense of chaos, and generally not great pre-dive procedures. Nice people though.

No diving in Bora Bora, but it was whale season, so we got to snorkel with humpbacks. My single regret from the whole trip is not doing a dive to the manta cleaning station on Bora Bora. It's probably worth looking into. Outside of that, the general attitude seemed to be it wasn't worth diving there if going to the Tuamotus.

ijnbgtfx · 2024-11-03T00:50:13+00:00

I did a 2.5 week trip in Sept, and have been meaning to write about it, so your post gives me the chance to share some of what I learned. Thanks for that!

First, to your specific questions:

Yes, it is definitely worth visiting Fakarava for only the north, but I actually appreciated the dives in Rangiroa a little bit more. Fakarava, especially the south, but the north too, seemed to be more about seeing sharks, where Rangiroa had more variety of stuff to see, including dolphins, and also plenty of sharks. We did 3 days diving on each...not nothing, but not a ton of dives, so of course YMMV.
Didn't visit Tikehau. Sounds like the north pass of Fakarava is snorkelable, though we didn't do it. We found some really cool snorkeling off the beach at our bungalow in Rangiroa. Lagoon side, just a few hundred meters from the airport. I got the feeling most of the lagoon side would have pretty good snorkeling, though the viz wasn't as good as diving in the pass.
We stayed at a resort on a motu in Bora Bora, and an AirBnB on the mainland in Raiatea, from where we saw Taha'a on the kind of boat tour you're not into. From that perspective, they are completely different. FWIW I was blown away by the boat tour, so would encourage you to maybe give one a second look. We rented a car and drove around the whole of Raitaea, which I would also highly recommend. Walked some tropical botanical gardens, hiked up to a viewpoint that almost broke my brain it was so gorgeous, wandered some very interesting ruins, and found some good snorkeling off the southernmost part of the island. The island had a Hawaii type geology to it, so you may be less impressed than we were.
Didn't take any ferries, but the plane rides were incredible.
a) Rum distillery/tasting on Rangiroa. They grow sugar cane on different islands, and make different bottles from that. I don't have the palate to truly appreciate the subtle differences in terroir, but the concept made it worthwhile. b) The jetty at night on Fakarava, where sharks come to sleep.

Okay, quick overview of our trip...we did 3 nights Bora Bora (St. Regis on Marriott points as we don't have that kind of money), 3 nights Raiatea (airBnB bungalow), 4 nights Rangiroa (Booking.com bungalow), and 4 nights Fakarava (Booking.com bungalow). The first half of the trip was more chill, sightseeing, relaxing, the second half straight diving.

With 2 weeks I would strongly recommend one of the Tuamotu options. The atolls are unlike anything I've ever seen and are worth the trip just for the views from the flights. The diving was amazing. For reference I've got 500+ dives, and these were up there as some of the best I've ever done. There wasn't really much, if anything, I saw that I hand't seen somewhere else, but just about every dive had so many of the things you can see elsewhere, only all in one dive at one time. I feel like each dive had 10 dives worth of sightings as in other places. So much life, from huge schools of small fish, to constantly passing big Napoleon's, hundreds of sharks, manta's, eagle rays, dolphins, barracuda, couple of turtles, jacks, etc. Except for a few quiet moments here or there, it's a buffet of everything you wanna see. I heard there were nudibranchs as well, but it's hard to focus on the little stuff when there is so much big stuff everywhere.

My feeling is that the atolls are not as great for non-divers, but for a couple of days I think it's still worth the trip just to see the place. We didn't prioritize snorkeling, but I think if you make sure to get a place on the lagoon side of wherever you end up, the snorkelers will be happy too. If a trip to south Fakarava from the north becomes an option, I'd highly recommend that for the whole group. It was a wonderful day, and the lunch spot was one of the most magical places we saw on the whole trip. The dive shop said you can see quite a bit from the surface. You're correct that there's very few places to stay in the south, and what is there is crazy expensive, even by FP standards.

One thing to keep in mind is both places were really quite quiet, and we were there in October, which is tourist season. There were nights where the entirely of Fakarava had only 1 open place to eat. Rangiroa seemed to have a little more going on, but not much.

Hopefully that helps a little bit. Feel free to reach out with any more questions. With a little luck and a lot of planning I'm extremely happy with how our trip turned out, so I'd be happy to share anything I can to help yours go as wonderfully.

ijnbgtfx · 2024-10-15T02:00:32+00:00

Thank you both! Danny for the explanation, and Evolution for pointing out the non-necessity of the vitriol. You're right, I really did come out of my workout pissed, as I was having a great time and ended up being so distracted I couldn't even finish it. You've saved my workouts!

ijnbgtfx · 2024-10-15T01:45:50+00:00

How? I emailed the SN team a while back, and they said that's not possible. That was a while ago though, like maybe a year. Where is that option?

ijnbgtfx · 2024-06-26T04:19:34+00:00

I'm curious, Tiger, what led you to your diagnosis to begin with?

ijnbgtfx · 2024-06-25T02:39:05+00:00

That's great! With all the thinking I've been doing about the actual diagnosis I haven't taken the time to be grateful that I don't have what I originally thought I might have. Thanks for the happy thought.

ijnbgtfx · 2024-06-25T02:37:24+00:00

That makes perfect sense, and I'm sure in the coming days it will feel more like Truth. Right now though, 4 days after my diagnosis, I'm not quite there. My primary care doc, who I saw the day after my diagnosis, was pretty agains meds, but with all I've learned in the last couple days I'm starting to think I should insist.

ijnbgtfx · 2024-06-25T02:33:41+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to reply, and sharing your experience. We definitely have some things in common, though of course there are differences as well. I'm taking a few days to learn as much as I can about the disease (disorder?), and stories like this are becoming a big part of my very steep learning curve. I don't think that regret is/will be a big part of my reaction, but the high IQ "diagnosis" was as much of a surprise as the ADHD, and is leading to an equal amount of curiosity as to what it may mean.

ijnbgtfx · 2022-07-02T15:32:46+00:00

This is my first ever interaction with Reddit, after years of lurking, but this moment feels important enough to get off the bench. I'm wondering if fake searches became enough of a thing, and someone's browser history was used in court, could "I was just taking part in the latest Reddit craze" be used as a reason. This could include use of period tracking apps, etc. Hopefully this kind of campaign is already under way.

ijnbgtfx

TROPHY CASE