What are your favorite private tours in Society Islands & Tuomotus?

[Leejnd4]

Hello! My friend Sandy and I are booked on the PG in November for the 10-day Society Islands & Tuomotus itinerary. We're starting to pull together the info we need, and that includes figuring out what we're going to do each day. I would LOVE to hear from PG fans about their favorite private tours they've done on this itinerary!

 

FTR, I know I could ask this in the Pacific Islands forum, but I'm interested specifically in what PGers have to say, as I only want ones that we can actually do based on the PG's unique port schedules. I don't want to hear about fabulous excursions that we can't actually do because the PG tender times don't work, y'know?

 

The islands we need recommendations for are:

 

Huihini

Bora Bora

Moorea

Fakarava

Rangiroa

 

I'm planning on doing some diving, although I haven't figured out exactly which dives I'm going to do. So I'm interested in exploring private tours on all of these stops - even though I might end up going diving, Sandy may want to go on an excursion while I'm out diving. They can be anything - snorkeling, cultural, adventure, whatever. Sandy is mobility challenged (walks with a cane) so it's possible we may end up on different excursions if there's a challenging one I really want to do, and she can find something else that is more appropriate for her.

 

We're certainly not opposed to using the PG excursions but if there are better ones we should investigate, we'd love to hear! Thanks!

 

-- LeeAnne

[EPTCB]

In Huahine, we have enjoyed both Marc's motu picnic and his land / sea combo tour on several prior occasions: https://www.huahinenautique.com/ On our upcoming trip, we are doing a private tour but can't recommend that one specifically just yet as have not yet done the tour. 

 

In Bora Bora, can't go wrong with pure snorkeling / reef discovery. This can be booked through the ship or independently. https://reefdiscovery.com/

 

In Moorea, we have done and enjoyed Moorea Miti tour and ATV tours: https://www.mooreamititours.com/ https://www.atvmooreatours.com/en/

 

In Fakarava, we always try to do blue lagoon or pink sands tour with Ato Lissant: https://www.pensionpaparara.com/activités fakaravaexplorer@hotmail.com

 

In Rangiroa, have done independent snorkel excursion with Six Passengers: https://www.the6passengers.com/en/

Edited April 11, 2023 by EPTCB

[elmaexec]

We did the tour with Ato on Fakarava as recommended above. Frankly the communication wasn’t great and we didn’t know if the tour was confirmed right up to the moment we got off the dock because he needed a total of 8 participants and didn’t get that until the last minute. Also, Ato’s son ran our tour and didn’t have great English. Nevertheless, it was an amazing trip to one of the most breathtaking locations I’ve ever seen. As a diver, you might prefer the South Pass, famous for the wall of sharks but that’s a long boat trip. 
 

In both Bora Bora and Moorea we rented our own boat on one of our two days. No license is needed, prices are very reasonable and it’s lovely to have the freedom to come and go to various snorkel spots on your own time and without anyone crowding you. We used Tip Nautic in Moorea and La Plage in Bora Bora. On our first day in Bora Bora we did a snorkel tour around the island, then rented the boat on the second day. In Moorea, I’d suggest an interior tour on one of the days, seeing the pineapple fields, marae, and Belvedere lookout. 
 

In Huahine, we used Janou with Huahine-private tours. Her price was reasonable for a private tour around the island and you can make your own itinerary. She provides a list of suggestions. 
 

In Rangiroa, drift snorkeling (or diving) one of the passes is a great experience!

[mermaid 285]

Ato's South Pass tour is amazing.  The ship also now offers a South pass tour, either way, I would definitely not want to miss out on seeing the South pass and pink sands.  We saw the most amazing coral, fish life (even without snorkelling) and beach scenery of our lives.  We loved it so much that we are tagging on a stay in Fakarava to our cruise this year.

[EPTCB]

7 hours ago, elmaexec said:

......In Huahine, we used Janou with Huahine-private tours. Her price was reasonable for a private tour around the island and you can make your own itinerary. She provides a list of suggestions.....

We are spending the day with Janou in Huahine for the first time in June (and for the second time in September).

[EPTCB]

6 hours ago, mermaid 285 said:

Ato's South Pass tour is amazing.  The ship also now offers a South pass tour, either way, I would definitely not want to miss out on seeing the South pass and pink sands.  We saw the most amazing coral, fish life (even without snorkelling) and beach scenery of our lives.  We loved it so much that we are tagging on a stay in Fakarava to our cruise this year.

South Pass is very nice but from what I recall the boat ride was 75-90 minutes each way. Blue Lagoon is considerably closer; although the snorkeling is admittedly nowhere near as good.

[elmaexec]

14 minutes ago, EPTCB said:

We are spending the day with Janou in Huahine for the first time in June (and for the second time in September).

Awesome!  She gave us a great tour!

[mermaid 285]

Has anyone tried H2O in Bora Bora? How does this tour compare to Pure Snorkelling?

[Tahitianbigkahuna]

South Pass can be a rough ride, not for those that have a physical problem and should not get bounced around. 

 

Snorkeling in the North Pass is very nice and a much shorter ride. 

 

Blue Lagoon is all about the scenery ...

[Leejnd4]

On 4/10/2023 at 11:32 PM, EPTCB said:

In Moorea, we have done and enjoyed Moorea Miti tour and ATV tours: https://www.mooreamititours.com/ https://www.atvmooreatours.com/en/

 

 

Thank you!  I'm going to book the ATV tour. The PG offers one too, but it's $50 more and this one looks to be more adventurous. 

 

On 4/11/2023 at 9:49 AM, elmaexec said:

In Huahine, we used Janou with Huahine-private tours. Her price was reasonable for a private tour around the island and you can make your own itinerary. She provides a list of suggestions. 

 

Great suggestions! We checked out Janou's web page, and she looks great. We're going to book with her! Hoping we can find another couple to go with us, to bring the price down...but we'll do it even if we can't. It's harder to round up people for private tours these days since Cruise Critic roll calls just don't seem to get the traffic they used to, and I don't know of any other way to connect with people pre-cruise on the PG. Larger mass-market ships often have F-B groups, but not the PG. I've got a roll call started, and one other couple in it, but I see lots of PG roll calls that have little to no traffic. 😞 

 

3 hours ago, mermaid 285 said:

Has anyone tried H2O in Bora Bora? How does this tour compare to Pure Snorkelling?

 

We just booked them! I read a whole bunch of really positive reviews of them in the Pacific Islands forum, and I liked what I saw. Small but comfortable boat, only 6 people total. And I don't need to find the others passengers!

 

I've decided to do all the dives on Rangiroa and Fakarava, so Sandy may or may not do an excursion in those islands. 

 

Thanks again everyone!

[Phantom_Celery]

Does anyone know if Huahine Lagoon is still in business? I haven’t been able to get a response from them. If not, do you know of any other boat rentals sans permis on the island?

[Phantom_Celery]

17 hours ago, Phantom_Celery said:

Does anyone know if Huahine Lagoon is still in business? I haven’t been able to get a response from them. If not, do you know of any other boat rentals sans permis on the island?

I’ve actually just heard back from them so they presumably still operate, but they were surprised that I was contacting them so many months in advance and said they cannot possibly predict anything that far into the future! 😂🏝️ I clearly need to get into the island mindset!

[Leejnd4]

2 hours ago, Phantom_Celery said:

I’ve actually just heard back from them so they presumably still operate, but they were surprised that I was contacting them so many months in advance and said they cannot possibly predict anything that far into the future! 😂🏝️ I clearly need to get into the island mindset!

When is your cruise? I just booked all of my private tours for my cruise, which isn't until November. I like to book very early, because I don't want miss out if they are already booked!

[Phantom_Celery]

10 minutes ago, Leejnd4 said:

When is your cruise? I just booked all of my private tours for my cruise, which isn't until November. I like to book very early, because I don't want miss out if they are already booked!

February 2024. In case you can’t tell from my highly specific questions in this forum, I too like to know and arrange things far in advance!

[Phantom_Celery]

Another Huahine question: Will the car rental places bring cars to Maro’e where the tender docks are? It’s otherwise a bit of a haul to Fare. Whatsinport.com says that the companies will have cars and scooters at the tender pier but that seems optimistic…

[BeachBum 92673]

Is Marc’s moth picnic still operating?

[Leejnd4]

On 5/8/2023 at 2:16 PM, BeachBum 92673 said:

Is Marc’s moth picnic still operating?

I believe it is - I saw someone mention it in a recent PG roll call that I was scanning for ideas.

[Tom Sandra]

@elmaexec @EPTCB @mermaid 285 and anyone else who has toured with Ato,

How did you go about securing the minimum of 8 passengers for the tour? 

 

Our cruise is 3 months away and we have very few people in our roll call. There are two couples (ourselves + one other couple) who want to do Ato's tour. Like elmaexec, communication has been difficult and sparse, so my questions are:

• How did you find the additional passengers?
• If we can't make the 8-person minimum, can those of us in attendance pay the difference? Was he open to this arrangement?
• I'm just hearing about this South Pass & Pink Sands in this thread. It will be the first time to Fakarava for all of us (so far) and we had inquired about the Blue Lagoon and snorkeling. Should we reconsider the South Pass instead? We are all snorkelers (no divers). [And thank you @Tahitianbigkahuna, I did see your comments about the long and rough ride to the South Pass, so we'll consider that also!]

[Tahitianbigkahuna]

4 minutes ago, Tom Sandra said:

@elmaexec @EPTCB @mermaid 285 and anyone else who has toured with Ato,

How did you go about securing the minimum of 8 passengers for the tour? 

 

Our cruise is 3 months away and we have very few people in our roll call. There are two couples (ourselves + one other couple) who want to do Ato's tour. Like elmaexec, communication has been difficult and sparse, so my questions are:

• How did you find the additional passengers?
• If we can't make the 8-person minimum, can those of us in attendance pay the difference? Was he open to this arrangement?
• I'm just hearing about this South Pass & Pink Sands in this thread. It will be the first time to Fakarava for all of us (so far) and we had inquired about the Blue Lagoon and snorkeling. Should we reconsider the South Pass instead? We are all snorkelers (no divers). [And thank you @Tahitianbigkahuna, I did see your comments about the long and rough ride to the South Pass, so we'll consider that also!]

 

Accumulating the numbers is usually left up to you. You could ask Ato if he had any other request from others .... if so ask if he could combine everyone 😉

[mermaid 285]

2 hours ago, Tom Sandra said:

@elmaexec @EPTCB @mermaid 285 and anyone else who has toured with Ato,

How did you go about securing the minimum of 8 passengers for the tour? 

 

Our cruise is 3 months away and we have very few people in our roll call. There are two couples (ourselves + one other couple) who want to do Ato's tour. Like elmaexec, communication has been difficult and sparse, so my questions are:

• How did you find the additional passengers?
• If we can't make the 8-person minimum, can those of us in attendance pay the difference? Was he open to this arrangement?
• I'm just hearing about this South Pass & Pink Sands in this thread. It will be the first time to Fakarava for all of us (so far) and we had inquired about the Blue Lagoon and snorkeling. Should we reconsider the South Pass instead? We are all snorkelers (no divers). [And thank you @Tahitianbigkahuna, I did see your comments about the long and rough ride to the South Pass, so we'll consider that also!]

We just asked on the roll call if anyone wanted to share our tour with us and would have paid for a private tour if necessary. Another couple joined us on the roll call and Ato found 4 more cruise passengers to share the tour. I'm sure it would be acceptable to just pay the difference though if you don't find enough participants.  We went back to Fakarava for a few days last year prior to our 7 day cruise, just so that we could do the South Pass again.  This time we did it through our accommodation.  The ride was not rough at all on either occasion, but maybe that would depend on the time of year. We also did the Blue and Green Lagoon, it was nice enough but few fish and no colourful coral.  The South Pass on the other hand is just out of this world! The snorkelling is the best we've ever experienced, with an abundance of colourful coral and many different colourful fish and sharks.  The Sables Roses are a string of interconnecting motus that you are likely to have to yourself to explore while Ato or whoever takes you prepares lunch. Possibly one the most beautiful places ever and I'm saying that as someone who's been to the Maldives, French Polynesia 6 times, Seychelles and Thailand etc. I'd go back in a heartbeat and our 8-year-old son has already asked us to go back again. He took some amazing photos of small reef sharks. I've attached a couple of photos to give you an idea of the tour. If you want to see any more images check out my instagram account: monistravelgram. If you scroll back to 2018 you can also find some of my earlier photos of the South Pass. In my opinion not to be missed!

[Tom Sandra]

@mermaid 285 WOW!! Thank you so much for all of this info, pics, and detail!! That sounds amazing!! I will inquire about prices, which might make a difference if just 4 of us are paying for the entire tour. Thank you again!! Very much appreciate your help and time.