oira79
Registered
Just got back from 12 days in Fakarava, where the diving is as wonderful as ever. Lots of sharks, dozens on some dives, to the point where you don't consider them special on a dive anymore. We saw a few turtles, some leaf scorpion fish, a manta ray, a devil ray, barracuda, tuna, a beautiful pink and grey stonefish: all sorts of big beautiful stuff.
Visibility was uniformly good: 20 meters on the worst day, 30-40 or more most days. Water temperature was good; we were comfortable in 3 mm full-length wetsuits, though many people wore an undershirt with those.
Some of the best dives have very strong current. Very strong. You might want to bring gloves because the dive guides encourage you to hold onto the coral on the bottom on one of the most popular north-pass dives, and a reef hook is a little problematic because you want to keep your body on the ground. I worry about the long-term sustainability of coral in Ali Baba canyon, where all the dives go, because everyone is always grabbing on the coral. It is a great dive, though.
We dove with Top Dive exclusively but talked with people who dove with Dive Spirit, which seems at the moment to have a better reputation with French divers. I was happy that we were with Top Dive. Dive Spirit sent divers on the 90-minute boat ride to the south pass in an uncovered, uncoverted fishing boat; an uncomfortable ride. The upside of Dive Spirit is that they do 2-tank morning dives every day, whereas Top Dive does a go-out-come-back pattern and often has only one morning dive. I personally prefer go-out-come-back, but to each his own. Top Dive had good equipment and guides. Prices were similar; get the 10-dive package. Top Dive gives free Nitrox but Dive Spirit doesn't have Nitrox, so take that into consideration.
We stayed at White Sand. I can't recommend it and wrote a loooooong report on Trip Advisor, so go there and read that if you're thinking about it. If we ever went back we would stay at Havaiki. Everyone seemed to like it and it's a lot cheaper.
That said, if we ever went back we would try to stay a few days at the south pass, even though accommodations down there are very basic. But the shark diving is top-of-the-world class. So consider that. Don't do the south to the exclusion of the north though; they've both very good, and different.
Question for readers of this post: Where should we go next? French Polynesia, the Maldives and Palau are so far our three favorite places, so we're a little spoiled. What else should be on our list?
Visibility was uniformly good: 20 meters on the worst day, 30-40 or more most days. Water temperature was good; we were comfortable in 3 mm full-length wetsuits, though many people wore an undershirt with those.
Some of the best dives have very strong current. Very strong. You might want to bring gloves because the dive guides encourage you to hold onto the coral on the bottom on one of the most popular north-pass dives, and a reef hook is a little problematic because you want to keep your body on the ground. I worry about the long-term sustainability of coral in Ali Baba canyon, where all the dives go, because everyone is always grabbing on the coral. It is a great dive, though.
We dove with Top Dive exclusively but talked with people who dove with Dive Spirit, which seems at the moment to have a better reputation with French divers. I was happy that we were with Top Dive. Dive Spirit sent divers on the 90-minute boat ride to the south pass in an uncovered, uncoverted fishing boat; an uncomfortable ride. The upside of Dive Spirit is that they do 2-tank morning dives every day, whereas Top Dive does a go-out-come-back pattern and often has only one morning dive. I personally prefer go-out-come-back, but to each his own. Top Dive had good equipment and guides. Prices were similar; get the 10-dive package. Top Dive gives free Nitrox but Dive Spirit doesn't have Nitrox, so take that into consideration.
We stayed at White Sand. I can't recommend it and wrote a loooooong report on Trip Advisor, so go there and read that if you're thinking about it. If we ever went back we would stay at Havaiki. Everyone seemed to like it and it's a lot cheaper.
That said, if we ever went back we would try to stay a few days at the south pass, even though accommodations down there are very basic. But the shark diving is top-of-the-world class. So consider that. Don't do the south to the exclusion of the north though; they've both very good, and different.
Question for readers of this post: Where should we go next? French Polynesia, the Maldives and Palau are so far our three favorite places, so we're a little spoiled. What else should be on our list?
