Bora Bora Lagoon Tour

Bora Bora’s main island sits inside a wide lagoon ringed by motu, small islets, and a lagoon tour is a day on the water by boat: snorkelling stops, the rays and sharks, a coral garden and, on a full day, lunch on a motu. Tahiti Tourisme puts it the same way: a boat tour of the lagoon, snorkelling, coral gardens, marine life such as rays and sharks, or a cruise to a private motu for lunch. The full day carded first here is Rohivai Tours’ lagoon safari, sold on GetYourGuide as Bora Bora: Full day Lagoon Safari & Lunch on a Motu - ST: 6 hours with pickup by boat, from $169 a person (checked November 2026), with 850 reviews.

The short answer

Book the full day if you want every kind of stop in one go: the ray and shark stop, a coral garden, a site where manta rays are sometimes seen, and a picnic lunch on a motu, with snorkelling gear, drinks, a towel and pickup by boat in the price. Take the half day instead if you only have a morning or an afternoon, or you would rather not spend 6 hours in the sun; Rohivai Tours runs its own half-day version with the rays, sharks and coral but no lunch. The full day is not suitable for wheelchair users or pregnant women, and it runs only in favourable weather.

Check dates for the full day

The ways to book it: pick yours

Prices, ratings and review counts from the listings (GetYourGuide checked November 2026; Viator checked November 2026). The Viator count adds Viator and Tripadvisor reviews together. Operators price by date and season, so treat the figures as the shape of the market, not a quote.

Where everything is

Bora Bora is a 50-minute flight from Tahiti (Tahiti Tourisme). The airport is on Motu Mute, an islet on the north side of the lagoon, and Air Tahiti runs a shuttle boat between it and Vaitape, the main village on the west coast of the main island. Vaitape is 6.9 km from the airport in a straight line across the water, and Matira Beach, at the southern tip, is 6.4 km from Vaitape by road. Many of the hotels are on the motu themselves, where getting anywhere means a boat (Tahiti Tourisme), and that is why the lagoon tours pick up by boat. Pickups and Vaitape has the detail.

The day, stop by stop

The boat collects you at your accommodation if it has safe sea access, meaning enough depth, a sandy bottom, no coral and not the shallow fringe, and a jetty big enough for the boat; otherwise at a nearby meeting point. There are 18 listed pickup points, from the resort jetties to the Quai de Vaitape, Matira Beach and Farepiti. It is about 20 minutes by water to the first stop, a site with stingrays and blacktip reef sharks where you can watch them or swim and snorkel among them. Next comes a coral garden for snorkelling among reef fish, then a second site where manta rays can sometimes be found; they are not guaranteed. The day ends on a motu with a Polynesian-style picnic lunch, time to swim and walk, and views of the lagoon and the volcanic peaks behind it, before about 20 minutes back to the drop-off point. The time at each stop is 40 minutes at the ray and shark site, 50 in the coral garden, 40 at the manta site and two hours on the motu.

What it costs, and what the price buys

The full day is from $169 a person on GetYourGuide (checked November 2026). The same Rohivai Tours day on Viator is from US$194 (checked November 2026): see the full day on Viator. The price covers pickup and drop-off by boat, the use of snorkelling equipment (give your fin size when you book), water, fruit juices and sodas, a towel and the lunch. The lunch is rice salad, grilled chicken, raw fish in coconut milk, seasonal fruit, coconut bread and cake, and it can be adapted for allergies and dietary needs; alcoholic drinks and snacks are not included. No surcharge is stated on top. Bring sunscreen, beachwear, water shoes and a camera; baby strollers, alcohol and drugs are not allowed on board.

It is a shared trip and needs at least 4 travellers to run. The guide speaks French and English. What a lagoon tour includes sets the lunches and inclusions of the full days side by side, and lagoon tour prices has the whole range, from short snorkel trips to private boats.

See dates and the live price

Sharks, rays and the rule on feeding them

The animals at the first stop are stingrays and blacktip reef sharks. French Polynesia’s whole exclusive economic zone has been a shark sanctuary since 2006, and both manta ray species are protected species in category A of the territory’s environment code (Direction de l’environnement, 2026). Feeding is the rule that matters on the boat: the Service du tourisme of the Government of French Polynesia, in its notice of 29 August 2025, calls attracting fish, sharks, rays or any other animal with food, gestures or noises dangerous and illegal, with fines of up to 17,800,000 F CFP and two years in prison for harm to protected species. On the Rohivai Tours trips, feeding animals is not allowed. The sharks and rays compares the trips built around them.

The protected reef at Matira

In the south of the lagoon, off Matira, the Popora rahui sets aside 574 hectares of reef, 7.2 km long and 750 m wide, as a protected area where no means of transport may move or stop and no fishing or nautical activity of any kind takes place. That is how report 139-2025 sets it out, on which the Assembly of French Polynesia gave its opinion on 13 November 2025. No lagoon tour carded here names a stop inside it.

The half day, or another operator

The half day is Rohivai Tours’ own shorter version of the same trip, not a different company: Bora Bora: 1/2 day lagoon safari - Shared tour, 4 hours with the rays, sharks and coral gardens and fresh fruit on board, from $112 on promotion, usually $131 (checked November 2026). It fits a short stay or a day already half taken. Other operators run the lagoon too: Lagoon Service's full day has live ukulele and pahu music on the cruise before the motu, then a buffet lunch there and shows such as the Coconut Show, and the short snorkel trips below leave out lunch altogether. Half day or full day weighs the two.

When to go

Meteo-France Polynesie gives the Society Islands two broad seasons: a hot, humid rainy season from November to April, wettest in December and January, and a cooler, drier season from May to October. In Tahiti Tourisme’s words, some say the best time is the dry season, while locals and regular travellers prefer November to April. The lagoon tours run in both; what decides a day is the weather on it, and the trip needs favourable conditions. The best time to go has the detail.