Tour options in Rangiroa

We will be on the Royal Princess this fall and will have a day in Rangiroa. The cruise line just released their tour options and they only offer three tours, none of which "wows" us, so we are looking for some advice.

Can anyone recommend a tour operator in Rangiroa for snorkeling the pass and maybe a visit to a pink sand beach? Also, does anyone know if you can see the manta rays if you are just snorkeling?

Thanks for your help.

Last fall we tried everything to locate a tour operator for snorkeling on Rangiroa, but couldn't find a thing and ended up booking the ships short snorkeling excursion. When we arrived, I did find this dive/snorkeling shop just off the pier when we visited the island. I talked to them and they said that they do arrange tours. I would suggest you try to google them as I have lost their email address. Good Luck!

Hi

I was just going to post a notice about Rangiroa as well - there really isn't much - does any one know anything else to do on this island? Other than the Lagoon By Glassbottom Boat, Lagoon Snorkel or Scuba Dive. What else is there to see?

Ahoy!

A portion of my review regarding a Jan. 2010 port call in Rangiroa:

"RANGIORA, FRENCH POLYNESIA (0800-1700): I had booked a full day Bleu Lagoon tour with Ugo Angely (oviriexcursions@hotmail.fr) with nine other wonderful CC folks for a total of 12 adventurous souls. Unfortunately the day was overcast for the better part of the day but we had a wonderful time regardless.

The snorkeling was great as was the motu lunch and, of course, the company. Ugo actually showed up at the end of the tour to collect the fees ($105/pp). He was in a small outboard boat and I guess he had taken some folks up to the Pink Sands beach for a private tour guided by himself. I would recommend this tour with Ugo’s outfit."

If interested, pictures of the tour are available on the Picasa site linked at the bottom of my signature. Just scroll down to the Rangiroa folder

Have a WONDERFUL CRUISE!

Bob:)

We did the glass bottom boat excursion, and it ended up being a lot of fun. We saw LOTS of fish. The guide was a really fun guy, who also entertained us by singing island songs accompanied by his guitar.

Toto2Kansas, prescottbob and flamomo- Thanks for the feedback. We love all the great information on these boards.

prescottbob - thanks for the link to your pics. We were amazed with your pictures - and actually stayed up way too late last night checking them out. :p We plan to set aside more time to check out the rest of your pics. Would you please share with us what type of camera you used?

The tour sounds wonderful. Ugo Angely (oviriexcursions@hotmail.fr) sounds like a really good fit for us. Thanks again.

Does anone know if his email has changed as I get the email address of oviriexcursions@hotmail.fr as undeliverable.

I am just trying to organise options for out cruise critic group for the 16th october Royal Princess departure when we are in Rangiroa on 20th october.

Thank you all.

Malcolm

Does anone know if his email has changed as I get the email address of oviriexcursions@hotmail.fr as undeliverable.

 

I am just trying to organise options for out cruise critic group for the 16th october Royal Princess departure when we are in Rangiroa on 20th october.

 

Thank you all.

Malcolm

Malcom, we sent an email to prescottbob asking the same question as we also encountered problems with Ugo's email address.

We tried to do an internet search for "Ugo Angely tour in French Polynesia" and the results came back with prescottbob's review :D, but nothing for contacting Ugo.

Received a response from prescottbob (thanks so much). He very kindly shared an additional email address for Ugo. It sounds like Ugo's address was hacked and he had to make a change.

Here is the updated email address: oviri-excursions@hotmail.fr

We sent an information request email to Ugo at the new address. We haven't received an undeliverable response this time so we are keeping our fingers crossed that it went through. We will post the response.

..hacked last Fall and he changed it slightly.

The current one (12/09) I have is as follows:

oviri-excusions@hotmail.fr

The cameras (#2) we used for underwater pix were Cannon D10's.

Have a GREAT CRUISE!

Bon Voyage & Good Health!

Bob:)

Thanks Bob and Gordo for that, I sent an email and it seems to have delivered ok. Let you all know what comes of it in the following days when i get a reponse.

My husband and I (and my parents) went on Tahitian Princess in 2007. We loved Rangioria. The ship tour there only went to the Aquarium so it wasn't a good tour (it's a small ship - 600 passengers and all of us CC not only talk but see the other tours). Also, no need to book any day space anywhere - plenty of "free" beach space everywhere within walking distance of the ship, albiet a long walk. Most of the "free" space actually has snorkeling areas right off of the beach - but if you do that, you are missing the whole point of Rangioria.

You HAVE TO BOOK the Island Excursions Tour - which I THINK is UGO. This is the one that goes to the "Aquarium" and then also goes outside. OK I'm an Engineer but a simple one. Rangiora is like a circle with a break. At the inside of the circle, where the break is, is the Aquarium. Amazing snorkeling and fishing. All of the tours go there... (including the ship tours)

However, if you want to see the coral and the wildlife (dolphins, sharks, eels, etc.) you have to go outside...

Outside of the ring is where all of the coral is - this reef competes with the Great Barrier Reef and is is easy to see why. It is AMAZING. I like the Caribbean but nothing competes. I've NEVER seen anything like this reef on the OUTSIDE. It's deep - but viewable from snorkeling distances.

They call it "drift" snorkeling because the current is supposed to pull you in. However, it's really a power swim. They put light-weight "Summer suits" - as the surfers call them, on you. It's a little dangerous out there because of the drift (current). It was truly a 45-minute power swim to do this with no time to adjust equipment, etc. Out of 20 people (most Cruise critics), less than 1/4 of us finished (most tired or thew up because of sea conditions). We had a bad weather day and the currents were very rough. I wouldn't have missed this for the world and of course, I had my own equipment (which you have to have in FP as no one includes it.) I'm not going to gloat that I was one of the few that finished - I'll just say - I booked this cruise because I wanted to do this tour and I needed help to get onboard (I was so tired that I fell backwards lifting the ship ladder and had to rest first). Ours was an extreme weather condition but I hear it's like that often. However, I wouldn't miss this for the world.

Also, in Boro Bora, book NONO tour period.

I'm tired email me at heathercruzer@aol.com.

It appears now On the Day we are in Rangiroa with the Royal Princesss UGO has all his three boats on charter to Royal Princess for their 1.5 hours snorkel tour.

He suggested the following as a contact rani.excursion@gmail.com . However that email address becomes undeliverable.

I guess I will call a couple of other companies and see what happens.

Thanks to all your help everybody.

Cheers

Malcolm

Malcom - that doesn't bode well for our trip either since we are on the Royal Princess at the end of October. We haven't heard back from Ugo yet but are keeping our fingers crossed. Thanks for sharing your information. Kimberly

I have sent of tour requests with the following companies after some long exhausting research trying to find their email address. Once I hear from them I will report.

PA'ATI EXCURSIONS - revaultleon@mail.pf

RAGI EXCURSIONS - ragi@mail.pf

TE REVA TANE E VAHINE - terevaexcursions@mail.pf

As I am trying to organising a cruise critic excursion for some of us who may be interested on the 20th October when we are in port.

Kimberly are you on the 26th October Royal Princess departure from Papeete I guess that means you will be in port on the 30th october. Feel free to email the above , otherwise I will report once I hear back from them.

However with emailing all these companies I seem to get a 50 / 50 hit and miss.

The people on Bora Bora although are very good and quick at answering emails, always seem to have a response same day.

Only those on Rangiroa, Raiatea and Moorea that seem to be have me waiting a few days even more than a week or never at all.

Cheers

Malcolm

Malcolm - thank you so much for sharing your information. Rangiroa has been a tough one for research and we still have not heard back from Ugo. We will probably send him another email tomorrow and if we don't get a response from that we will try your other options.

While we have not always received responses to our emails as well, we did receive quick responses from Keishi in Bora Bora, Marc in Huahine and Bruno in Raiatea.

Yes, we are on the October 26th sailing. We plan to keep an eye on your October 16th thread as you have a lot of activity and great information.

Kimberly

We heard back from Ugo this morning that he is booked through Princess for our day in port on October 30th. We have asked him if he could refer us to another tour operator and also sent requests to the folks listed by Aussiecruiser.

Will post the responses we receive.

Yeah ! We have heard back from one tour operator for Rangiroa with availability - PA'ATI EXCURSIONS (email posted below). We will respond asking for a few more details regarding what activities take place with each tour and will let you know what we find out.

Ia orana Kimberly and Bill

Thank you for your email. For your information, we offer 2 excursions on the lagoon :

- Reef Islands for the rate of 8,500 XPF per person, including the picnic

- Pink Sands Beach for the rate of 12,000 XPF per person, including the picnic

Departure time is at 8,30am and return at around 4,30pm. For both excursions we need a minimum of 4 persons. We stay at your disposal for any further informations you may require in the nearest future.

Sunny regards,

PA'ATI EXCURSIONS

Léon or Natacha

Tel : (689)96,02,57 or (689) 79,24,63

Léon Révault [revaultleon@mail.pf]

Yeah ! We have heard back from one tour operator for Rangiroa with availability - PA'ATI EXCURSIONS (email posted below). We will respond asking for a few more details regarding what activities take place with each tour and will let you know what we find out.

 

Ia orana Kimberly and Bill

 

Thank you for your email. For your information, we offer 2 excursions on the lagoon :

 

- Reef Islands for the rate of 8,500 XPF per person, including the picnic

 

- Pink Sands Beach for the rate of 12,000 XPF per person, including the picnic

 

Departure time is at 8,30am and return at around 4,30pm. For both excursions we need a minimum of 4 persons. We stay at your disposal for any further informations you may require in the nearest future.

 

Sunny regards,

 

PA'ATI EXCURSIONS

Léon or Natacha

Tel : (689)96,02,57 or (689) 79,24,63

Léon Révault [revaultleon@mail.pf]

Gordo you beat me to it. I just received the same email this morning. So I have placed the option on cruise critic for us. We seem to have a bit of interest for both.

We are considering making Rangiroa a beach day. Has anyone that's been there before just walked off the ship and found a nice beach to relax? Or are there any hotels there that will let us use their beach (and bar)?

Thanks!

There is a beach a short walk to the left of the pier, when you disembark. There were no hotels visible in the immediate area, and only 5 hotels on all of Rangiroa, per the TahitiTourisme website. It's really a pretty isolated place, and simply gorgeous. The lagoon seems endless, once you are in it.

Gordo you beat me to it. I just received the same email this morning. So I have placed the option on cruise critic for us. We seem to have a bit of interest for both.

Malcolm, we have requested additional information for the itinerary and will post when received. We looked in our Jan Prince book on French Polynesia and Leon is mentioned. There really wasn't much said but we felt good seeing his tour option listed. Kimberly

We are considering making Rangiroa a beach day. Has anyone that's been there before just walked off the ship and found a nice beach to relax? Or are there any hotels there that will let us use their beach (and bar)?

 

Thanks!

As said, just to the left and a short walk there is a beach, you just walk along or close to the shore line to get there. Here are some pics we took last fall. But keep in mind, you will need water shoes, as the beach is more or less broken shells and there are plenty of rocks in the water. But the water is clear and delightful.

As said, just to the left and a short walk there is a beach, you just walk along or close to the shore line to get there. Here are some pics we took last fall. But keep in mind, you will need water shoes, as the beach is more or less broken shells and there are plenty of rocks in the water. But the water is clear and delightful.

Toto - thanks for posting this picture. this is exactly what I want to do the day we are there. Question: Was there any place to buy drinks or food?

Thanks

Helen

Toto - thanks for posting this picture. this is exactly what I want to do the day we are there. Question: Was there any place to buy drinks or food?

 

Thanks

 

Helen

Helen, there was a little place right on the dock as you get off the tender to purchase food and drinks. But it is the only place we saw. Outdoor seating under cover of the sun, and many would be sitting there until the last tender back to the ship just enjoying the views. ;)