Trip report for Rangiroa and Fakarava in French Polynesia

[wico6768]

WetPup.....this all sounds very good----ie fewer divers(less crowded boats???)-----cuz I'll be there for diving AND celebrating our 36 year ongoing honeymoon.....Can't beat all this with a stick......

Often we are the only ones on the zodiac in Rangiroa for diving, plus the shop owner and boat driver. Often. And the other shops don't usually have a bunch of people either.

It's a very quiet place, Fakarava is even quieter.

I would say, most from North America do not stay at pensions, they stay at the resort and if you are staying at the resort you are not staying for 250/night, not even close. You are also paying separately for your meals.

Anyway, we love Rangiroa, we go every year and sometimes we add in another atoll or island. We stay at our favorite pension, dive with our favorite shop, and love it.

After we retire, and move internationally, then we will venture to some other places that are further and more expensive to get to for now. getting to FP takes us one day to get to LAX, then the overnight flight, and then the short morning flight to the atoll or island.

That's enough travel time when we consider our amount of available vacation days. We usually stay just over 2 weeks.

We need enough time remaining so we can do a couple of other shorter, closer trips during the year as well.

FP is perfect for us, and the culture there is part of what we enjoy experiencing. We get more of that staying at pensions, and, pensions make it very affordable.

I can also say, I don't know about the other pensions, but the owner of our favorite one told us about 80% of his guests are French, and the average length of stay is 3 nights. He has only a couple of American guests a year, we're one of them. So, maybe on average 1-4 american groups of guests.

I suspect, the rest of the American guests to Rangiroa are at Kia Ora (or most of them anyway)

There has never been another american couple/guest at the pension while we were there. Generally French, but also other european locations, and sometimes australian, and he had a couple from Russia arriving the day we left. It's very international and we meet a lot more people staying there than we would otherwise. Strangely, last time (march) none of the guests were divers but us. I guess they were there as a vacation destination.

We have gone diving there now at least 30 ish dives, and not one has been repetitive. The location is, but the dives have each been different, we do generally see dolphin, and we do generally see lots of shark, rays, giant wrasse, and just throngs of fish.

We cannot imagine getting bored with that. Hate to leave, look forward to return every single time. But when we go, we are not there just to dive, we are also there over our anniversary so for us, it is a vacation spot that has incredible diving, a welcoming and friendly culture, not overrun with tourists, a pension owner who is incredible at what he does, beautiful open air bungalow right on the lagoon, with a real mini refrigerator (not a cooler fridge), beautiful, clear lagoon water, yummy food, relatively inexpensive french wine available, and a unique experience that an atoll always is. If we could figure out a way to make immigration work, and find a small place to rent, we would spend the first year of our retirement in FP. Rangiroa might not be possible, but Moorea may be.

 

[mmmbelows]

Wico - you painted a nice mental picture. Making me want to go back! Sounds like you're diving with The 6 Passengers dive shop. Ugo (hope I'm spelling it right) dived with us almost everyday, quite a character. He told me is is onto something like 10,000 dives on the pass so far.

 

[wico6768]

Wico - you painted a nice mental picture. Making me want to go back! Sounds like you're diving with The 6 Passengers dive shop. Ugo (hope I'm spelling it right) dived with us almost everyday, quite a character. He told me is is onto something like 10,000 dives on the pass so far.

Well, it is our favorite place to be It feels like 'home' to us, home away from home I guess. And it's the entirety of it that we love so much, if that makes sense.

Actually, we dive with Yves of Raie Manta, he and his wife Livia. He's been there forever now, and it's often just us. He does go off and do safaris or excursions (he is also a photographer and helped put together one of the books you'll see in the shops there) but he does have someone run the shop when he is gone, this last time it was Frank (and often the guides move among shops filling in, I know on cruise day Frank helped out Six Passenger). So, if he is gone while we are there next time, I expect we'll go with Yaka Plongee. Yves has a shop on Tikehau and Rurutu as well. He loves to teach and it shows. He also loves FP, which also shows, particularly the atolls.

 

[WetPup]

I understand, and if I lived in Australia I would probably not go anywhere other than Indonesia just like a lot of North Americans just go to Cozumel because it's close and cheap. But from the beginning of this tangent I started has been about the north american perspective, nothing more. As in why don't all these North Americans spending thousands of dollars to do trips to Palau, Indonesia, and on various liveaboards not seem to have Rangiroa & Fakarava on their radar which have arguably as good or better diving for the same price and inconvenience?

I guess Palau does a better marketing job, but it seems strange to me that more people don't know about the FP option given how amazing the diving looks. Watching youtube clips from Fakarava the only thing I've seen that was more impressive from vacation diver footage was deep blue liveaboard trips like Cocos/Galapogos/Socorros.

I find your comments interesting to be honest. Because in all my dive travels around the SW Pacific, Indonesia, and Micronesia? I rarely run into Americans. Most of the time I see SE Asians, Europeans, or other Australians. I'm curious to know why you think Palau/Indo is more frequented by North Americans than FP? I mean aside from the obvious fact that there's a US military presence in Guam, and it's convenient for those based there to dive Micronesia, is there really that much of a difference in tourist numbers?

 

[qwimjim]

I find your comments interesting to be honest. Because in all my dive travels around the SW Pacific, Indonesia, and Micronesia? I rarely run into Americans. Most of the time I see SE Asians, Europeans, or other Australians. I'm curious to know why you think Palau/Indo is more frequented by North Americans than FP? I mean aside from the obvious fact that there's a US military presence in Guam, and it's convenient for those based there to dive Micronesia, is there really that much of a difference in tourist numbers?

Simply because of how often it is mentioned on this forum, hundreds upon hundreds of threads and trip reports, and this forum is almost 60% north american users. You'll see it on everyones bucket list, or list of best places they've been etc.. but so rarely any mention of FP when two appear to have very similar attributes (great vis, lots of current, lots of sharks, etc) but from what people say, FP is even better diving?

 

[WetPup]

Simply because of how often it is mentioned on this forum, hundreds upon hundreds of threads and trip reports, and this forum is almost 60% north american users. You'll see it on everyones bucket list, or list of best places they've been etc.. but so rarely any mention of FP when two appear to have very similar attributes (great vis, lots of current, lots of sharks, etc) but from what people say, FP is even better diving?

Divers on this forum are a very small minority of the larger diving community. And as previously stated, Tahiti (or FP in general) is heavily marketed as a honeymoon destination, not as a diving destination. All of the marketing I've seen for FP has been "go stay in luxurious overwater bungalows and get pampered in the spa". What mention there ever is of snorkelling or diving is aimed at the "discover scuba" market, not at the advanced divers. Whereas Micronesia, Indonesia, other islands in the SW Pacific (Fiji, Solomons, etc.) explicitly market themselves as diving destinations. It's not that FP is any better or worse as a diving destination than anywhere else I've mentioned, it's just that it doesn't market itself as such, so none of the dive travel agents market it or sell trips there, and regular high street travel agents know nothing about the place other than "OMG! You have to stay at the Four Seasons in an overwater bungalow that costs $1500 a night!". Which means organising and booking everything on your own - some people are prepared to put in that effort. Most aren't - which is why most of us rely on booking our dive travel through a professional dive travel company. And those companies appear to get no marketing material from FP, so they don't sell or market trips there.

This whole argument appears to pretty much just come down to a lack of interest in FP of marketing itself as a dive destination. Perhaps they don't want the increased numbers of tourists?

 

[wico6768]

Few, if any, of the pensions market through a travel agent, the resorts do. There is a lot of traffic on trip advisor,however, most of that traffic focuse on bora bora and moorea, with some mention to rangiroa which has a resort, and tikehau, which also has a resort and now a fairly high end pension type place. Most people posting there (in trip advisor) have no interest in pensions, they want the OWB luxury resorts. That is what people think of when they think FP. That is what FP is marketed as. Many of those people will dive, but many of those will do discover dives or have no interest in diving every day. I think, they likely feel that given the average resort prices, they would have little success marketing as a dive destination and more success marketing as a luxury, honeymoon, anniversary, trip of a lifetime destination. They are hurting for tourism, at least places off the main tourist track (so places other than say, bora bora) Even Moorea is hurting.

On trip advisor, people do talk about and discuss diving, and FP does market it some, it is in all their local tourism ads, tourism sites and the local airlines magazine. But they are definitely more expensive, when you talk about resort prices, and since that is what travel agents deal with, that is what most people are talking about (in the US at least, likely Canada and even Australia as well) The French seem to have more information on pensions in general, and travel agents in France, maybe also other european locations, do seem to work with pensions more. The pensions are just not marketed in NOrth America, travel agents do not work with them or even know much at all about them, or want to work with them, and it is very difficult to get details on them at all, other than word of mouth, going there yourself, or asking people who have recently been there. The one we stay at doesn't even have a sign up, because he does not want people just randomly stopping by while on the atoll.

I do have to say, the lesser amounts of tourists is nice (for me, as a tourist who likes remote quiet places), and I don't know what Fakarava would actually do if they were hit with many tourists at once, there just are not that many places to stay. It is nice that there is no resort there. The cruise days are very heavily populated,a nd the village is over run.

And, in Rangiroa, there is one resort, a hotel (that is small) and a quasi pension/hotel, and then many other pensions but pensions are small. They can handle more people, but they are not built up like moorea or bora bora.

We book our own travel now, and before used a french polynesia destination expert, someone who travels there multiple times a year and knows the places. Once there, we learned about the various pensions on our own. Then, we figured out interisland travel to coordinate. And, we figured out which dive shops we liked where, and we book directly with them.

 

[qwimjim]

Divers on this forum are a very small minority of the larger diving community. And as previously stated, Tahiti (or FP in general) is heavily marketed as a honeymoon destination, not as a diving destination. All of the marketing I've seen for FP has been "go stay in luxurious overwater bungalows and get pampered in the spa". What mention there ever is of snorkelling or diving is aimed at the "discover scuba" market, not at the advanced divers. Whereas Micronesia, Indonesia, other islands in the SW Pacific (Fiji, Solomons, etc.) explicitly market themselves as diving destinations. It's not that FP is any better or worse as a diving destination than anywhere else I've mentioned, it's just that it doesn't market itself as such, so none of the dive travel agents market it or sell trips there, and regular high street travel agents know nothing about the place other than "OMG! You have to stay at the Four Seasons in an overwater bungalow that costs $1500 a night!". Which means organising and booking everything on your own - some people are prepared to put in that effort. Most aren't - which is why most of us rely on booking our dive travel through a professional dive travel company. And those companies appear to get no marketing material from FP, so they don't sell or market trips there.

This whole argument appears to pretty much just come down to a lack of interest in FP of marketing itself as a dive destination. Perhaps they don't want the increased numbers of tourists?

Makes sense, my wife and I DIY travellers and former backpackers so it never occurred to me to use a travel agent, or that most people use a travel agent when booking a dive vacation I've always just done everything myself, part of the fun. But still, a place like Palau is on my radar simply because of how often it is mentioned on here. You would think that on somewhere like Scubaboard that the word would get out more about FP? Or perhaps the average user on here is accustomed to a certain level of luxury and pampering that is not found in the pensions and that is a deal breaker.

---------- Post added May 6th, 2015 at 06:39 AM ----------

Few, if any, of the pensions market through a travel agent, the resorts do. There is a lot of traffic on trip advisor,however, most of that traffic focuse on bora bora and moorea, with some mention to rangiroa which has a resort, and tikehau, which also has a resort and now a fairly high end pension type place. Most people posting there (in trip advisor) have no interest in pensions, they want the OWB luxury resorts. That is what people think of when they think FP. That is what FP is marketed as. Many of those people will dive, but many of those will do discover dives or have no interest in diving every day. I think, they likely feel that given the average resort prices, they would have little success marketing as a dive destination and more success marketing as a luxury, honeymoon, anniversary, trip of a lifetime destination. They are hurting for tourism, at least places off the main tourist track (so places other than say, bora bora) Even Moorea is hurting.

On trip advisor, people do talk about and discuss diving, and FP does market it some, it is in all their local tourism ads, tourism sites and the local airlines magazine. But they are definitely more expensive, when you talk about resort prices, and since that is what travel agents deal with, that is what most people are talking about (in the US at least, likely Canada and even Australia as well) The French seem to have more information on pensions in general, and travel agents in France, maybe also other european locations, do seem to work with pensions more. The pensions are just not marketed in NOrth America, travel agents do not work with them or even know much at all about them, or want to work with them, and it is very difficult to get details on them at all, other than word of mouth, going there yourself, or asking people who have recently been there. The one we stay at doesn't even have a sign up, because he does not want people just randomly stopping by while on the atoll.

I do have to say, the lesser amounts of tourists is nice (for me, as a tourist who likes remote quiet places), and I don't know what Fakarava would actually do if they were hit with many tourists at once, there just are not that many places to stay. It is nice that there is no resort there. The cruise days are very heavily populated,a nd the village is over run.

And, in Rangiroa, there is one resort, a hotel (that is small) and a quasi pension/hotel, and then many other pensions but pensions are small. They can handle more people, but they are not built up like moorea or bora bora.

We book our own travel now, and before used a french polynesia destination expert, someone who travels there multiple times a year and knows the places. Once there, we learned about the various pensions on our own. Then, we figured out interisland travel to coordinate. And, we figured out which dive shops we liked where, and we book directly with them.

I guess I underestimated the number of people who rely on a travel agent to book their dive trips. If that is how most people do it, even scubaboard users, then I can see how they invariably end up in the NYC, Paris and London of dive destinations..

 

[WetPup]

Makes sense, my wife and I DIY travellers and former backpackers so it never occurred to me to use a travel agent, or that most people use a travel agent when booking a dive vacation I've always just done everything myself, part of the fun. But still, a place like Palau is on my radar simply because of how often it is mentioned on here. You would think that on somewhere like Scubaboard that the word would get out more about FP? Or perhaps the average user on here is accustomed to a certain level of luxury and pampering that is not found in the pensions and that is a deal breaker.

Not always quite that simple. I've been to a number of places that refuse to take direct bookings and force you to book through an agent. I prefer to do my own thing most of the time too, as I travel a fairly insane amount due to my job and like the flexibility (I'm out of the country 6-9 months of the year), but yeah, not always a practical option

 

[mmmbelows]

Divers on this forum are a very small minority of the larger diving community. And as previously stated, Tahiti (or FP in general) is heavily marketed as a honeymoon destination, not as a diving destination. All of the marketing I've seen for FP has been "go stay in luxurious overwater bungalows and get pampered in the spa". What mention there ever is of snorkelling or diving is aimed at the "discover scuba" market, not at the advanced divers. Whereas Micronesia, Indonesia, other islands in the SW Pacific (Fiji, Solomons, etc.) explicitly market themselves as diving destinations. It's not that FP is any better or worse as a diving destination than anywhere else I've mentioned, it's just that it doesn't market itself as such, so none of the dive travel agents market it or sell trips there, and regular high street travel agents know nothing about the place other than "OMG! You have to stay at the Four Seasons in an overwater bungalow that costs $1500 a night!". Which means organising and booking everything on your own - some people are prepared to put in that effort. Most aren't - which is why most of us rely on booking our dive travel through a professional dive travel company. And those companies appear to get no marketing material from FP, so they don't sell or market trips there.

This whole argument appears to pretty much just come down to a lack of interest in FP of marketing itself as a dive destination. Perhaps they don't want the increased numbers of tourists?

This is what I tried to explain to him 3 pages ago when he scoffed at the statement I made that FP is a vacation destination while Palau is a dive destination. With his focus on staying at places at the low end of the financial scale to him were evidence that there is no difference between the two, again I tried to explain that the low end has nothing to do with it. FP is an expensive destination whether in actuality you could stay in FP for $20 a night or not, the vast majority of the travelers there certainly don't and won't. The Four Seaons, the Ritz, the Intercontinental, the St Regis, etc... have no problem selling out rooms at $1000-$5000 a night. Perception is reality, and whether there are cheap places to stay or not in FP, it's regarded as an expensive destination and of course whether true or not the perception is that it is and that is a self fulfilling prophecy that keeps people from even exploring the possibilities of diving FP.