2000 Chapbook

While Tahiti and Moorea are everyone's dream of the South Pacific, the diving on these French-speaking islands with their pricey resorts and food is a notch below many other destinations, although there may well be some surprises waiting to be discovered as some areas have not seen many divers ....

Tahiti

Bali Hai/Moorea Underwater Scuba, June 1998, J. Parker Bailey, Las Vegas, NV. Vis: 80-120 ft. Water: 80-82 degrees. Lots of sharks. (Telephone +689 56-1732; Fax +689 56-1583)

Radisson/Paul Gauguin, September 1998, Randy Preissig, San Antonio, TX. Vis: 60-100 ft. Water: 78-80 degrees. No one goes on the Paul Gauguin cruise for the diving, but it's a nice extra. At $60 a dive it's not a cheap way to dive, but I guarantee you Radisson is spending $500/dive to make it available. Henry runs a new but capable operation. He booked us with a shore excursion operation for a more "advanced" dive. Tahiti is a lot like Hawaii as far as quality of diving. Certainly 2 steps below Fiji.

Top Dive Bora Bora/Club Med, December 1998, Stan and Lisa Gustas, Houston, TX. Vis: 25-90 ft. Water: 80-82 degrees. Windy, rainy, With poor visibility due to the plankton in the water, the mantas fed, and we did get many close up pics. No special accommodation on boats for photographers, and no film developing service at Club Med. Diving good, not great. No shore diving. One dive outside the outer wall was fantastic with incredible vis and beautiful corals, but that was only one dive out of 10. On most dives saw lots of manta rays and sharks. Top Dive is a new operation and caters to guests at Club Med and other resorts. (They have their own resort by the same name). Related, including going a little deeper on an afternoon dive than we had been on the morning, not doing safety stops all the time, and drinking sangria on the boat before the night dive waiting for the sun to set! We chalked it up to the French way of doing things, and kept a close eye on each other. Club Med we do not recommend unless you are a die-hard Club Med fan. Staff in charge of keeping us entertained were friendly and fun, but the staff in charge of running the restaurant, bar, front desk were rude and could not care less about service. Food was not very good. People traveling through smaller islands reported beach bungalows for $80 per night; hotels in Bora Bora average $300 per night. Air Tahiti flies to other islands from Papeete. (Telephone +689 689-60-5050 or +689 689-60-5060; Fax +689 689-60-5051)

Top Dive Bora Bora/Club Med, April 1999, Carole & Mike Dawson (dawson@jps.net), Monterey, CA. Vis: 75-100 ft. Water: 84 degrees. Dive restrictions: 90' 40 min. Drop-dead gorgeous scenery above and below. Top Dive a contractor for Club Med. Excellent dive operation and beautiful facility, with teak, bright work everywhere. Divemasters professional, well trained and cheerful. Lucien, the owner, found 20 large eagle rays where he predicted they'd be. The days that we dove, there were a max of 6 divers on the boat. No reminder to keep off the coral.