Bora Bora---Patrick or Christophe

[FlightMedic555]

We have done Christopher's Tour twice. Unfortunately both time we did not see any manta rays but we tried. His is a snorkel trip which does circle the entire lagoon, albeit at speed in the boat, so you do get a quick view of some sights. At one stop he did bring some bread into the water which is always pretty cool.

 

On our first trip Chris was our guide. This year it was Terry. Terry used to be part of the Paul Gauguin dive team but for some reason left. In any event, it was Terry that brought along some bread but his tour was just as good as the one led by Christopher.

 

Their boat is what I commonly refer to as a speed or ski boat and I would have felt a little uncomfortable if that boat was used to jam 11 or 12 people on board. One reason their tour seems special is that you are on a really, really nice and fast boat with some room to stretch out while motoring along. I guess they could expand to more than one boat but when we were there they only had the one which was the same speed boat they used the prior year.

 

We will be back in June and will use them a third time. Hopefully we will see the mantas this time.

[gerena]

Unless things have changed in the last year, there is no ray feeding with Christophe. His tour included stops at a site where you can swim amongst a school of spotted rays and another deep water site where you can search for manta rays.

 

We took tours with both Patrick and Christophe. I would say Patrick is more about entertainment and fun while Christophe has more of a focus on education and appreciation. But he was also fun! We much preferred Christophe.

Hi Mighty Quinn,

We so much enjoyed the Bora Bora Trip. Remember we were the ones that Christope was so patient with as we couldn't keep up with you guys!!! I loved that day. We did the Great Barrier Reef in Dec of last year---Bora Bora was hands down better.

 

Hope things are well with you. We are making all the tour plans for a 36 day b/b/b cruise to the Mediterranean. Small ship like the Paul Gauguin--which we prefer.

[Tikiintahiti]

Nope, you don't feed the rays but you will get the very best snorkel spots in quick fashion. The manta ray area is hit and miss. I've snorkeled at the location 3 times with different vendors and only got a picture once of the beautiful manta rays ............. took my breath away

 

[charlottegirl]

We took the Christophe tour in April and our guide was Terry. They had 2 brand new gorgeous speed boats. We were quite interested in seeing all that we could underwater as we can picnic anytime, and Terry delivered. We were lucky enough to see a Manta ray--gorgeous. I would highly recommend this trip

[MightyQuinn]

Hi Mighty Quinn, We so much enjoyed the Bora Bora Trip. Remember we were the ones that Christope was so patient with as we couldn't keep up with you guys!!! I loved that day. We did the Great Barrier Reef in Dec of last year---Bora Bora was hands down better.

Hi Gerena. Of course I remember you and your DH! We had a fab day together with Christophe on Bora Bora, along with the lovely Aussie honeymooners. Christophe is such a classy guy who really tried to make the trip special for all of us. I agree with you that BB tops the Great Barrier Reef for beauty and underwater life. Which small ship are you taking for your b2b2b in the Med? Take care.

[Friscorays]

I posted some shots from my tour with Cristophe in post #9 of this thread:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1535177&highlight=thoughts+cook+islands

 

We were lucky enough to have amazing sightings at the Manta Ray site. It is important to remember that Mantas are as big as your average family car and perfectly docile but you can't feed them as you do with stingrays as mantas are filter feeders and far too large to intentionally get in the way of (although if you did they would swim around you).

[4133Camellia]

Booked with Christophe rather than Patrick who was very uncertain in his replies. Christophe responded quickly and helped make me feel that we were going to get the day we planned on. On Christophe's second boat.

[Mancora Girl]

I'm sorry I didn't notice this thread earlier. We went with Christophe this past July, and thought the experience was fantastic. We are experienced snorkelers, but he was, as many have mentioned, wonderful with the novice in our group of six. All the areas we visited were great, but the huge manta rays were unbelievable. We were lucky: not only did we see three or four, one actually did a sort of slow somersault very close to my husband; Christophe was as amazed as the rest of us! Should also say that the boat was excellent and comfortable, pick up was on-time, and e-mail communication before the trip was prompt and helpful. We didn't miss lunch at all, loved spending all our time in or on the water.

[Friscorays]

I believe in giving credit where credit is due. Although this is a little delayed, I just want to post that we had another great experience with Christophe / Reef Discovery / Pure Snorkeling tour in Bora Bora.

 

We really enjoyed our tour with him in December 2011 and thus booked it for our both days when we were anchored in Bora Bora on our September 2013 cruise.

 

The first day in Bora Bora was a revelation: horrendous weather (for the first time in three trips). It was extremely rainy and windy and clear that it would not be a day to enjoy any excursion. Despite this, the sixth of us who booked were on the first tender. Christophe was at the dock to meet us. We were all relieved when he said it would be very inadvisable to do the tour and offered to rebook us for the next day when a sunny day was forecast. We were all relieved and took him up on the offer.

 

The next day was as promised: perfect weather. Christophe was again at the tender dock to meet us. There was one other couple from a hotel already on the boat so the group was eight. The boat is a modern motorboat and their was plenty of room for us all: four up front and four in the rear.

 

The first stop was "The Aquarium" named for abundant fish. We also saw stingrays here. I would estimate water was 15-20 feet deep.

 

Next stop was the one which was our favorite the last time around: Manta Rays. The channel here is on the order of 60 to 80 feet deep. Our last time visibility was excellent, we could see clear to the bottom. This time visibility was poor as a result of the bad weather the prior day but Christophe was able to drop us off adjacent to another snorkel group where we did see a manta. They remain an awesome sight.

 

The next stop was a beautiful area of coral in shallow water, perhaps five to ten feet, located near the fringing reef.

 

After this, Christophe told us that he had a report of a whale spotting and we were off. The whales like to hang out close to the fringing reef. The whales were on the outer side of the reef. Christophe took us for the 20-25 minute ride and there they were: baby, mother and a male. When the situation was correct, the offer was made to get in the water and snorkel with them. To my surprise, I was the only one that went in (probably because of swell as we were outside the reef). The people on the boat directed me on which way to go and I was able to spend a too brief period of time in the water with them before they moved on down the reef a ways and we needed to turn back back for the day.

 

We have already booked our third trip for September 2014, along with a sizable group on the Repeaters cruise!

 

A highly recommended tour for those that like to snorkel who find themselves in Bora Bora.

 

John

[dancingbeachbums]

Hi: I did the whole day tour with Nono Tours April 2014. It was good in that we did the reef, got in the water with the sharks, had lunch and swam with the rays. My only disappointment was the food was very basic.

 

If we can arrange another tour, there are four of us Judy, Bob, Abby and John from outside of Toronto Canada. Abby would love to do the whole circle. I am okay with that but would also be interested in doing a land tour with snorkeling at the end for a bit of a change. If anyone has thoughts on doing either, don't hesitate to contact me.

 

If I can put us on a wait list that would work or we may book Nono again. They are not as good as Patrick but they still provide a beautiful day.

 

Judy