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TOPdive/Hotel Mai Tai: "Beyond expectations trip to Rangiroa", Oct, 2022,by Luz Cobarrubias, CA, US ( 1 report with 2 Helpful votes). Report 12196 has 2 Helpful votes. |
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Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Accommodations |  |
Food | |
| Service and Attitude | |
Environmental Sensitivity |  |
| Dive Operation | |
Shore Diving | N/A |
| Snorkeling | N/A | ||
Overall Rating |
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| Comments |
Review of Rangiroa Rangiroa has been on our list of must dive locations for over a decade and we finally made it there! Although we always try to keep expectations to a minimum about all dive trips (best to be pleasantly surprised!) - so many factors can make one persons heaven on earth another person’s living hell - this was, without a doubt, some of the most unique and magical diving we have ever done. So here goes: Seamless, direct flight from SFO to Papeete. One night at a perfectly acceptable hotel near the airport to catch early flight to Rangiroa. Beautiful aerial views from small plane over French Polynesia. Landed in Rangiroa, met at airport by driver from Hotel Mai Tai. Terrific hotel with bungalows, both garden and ocean front, with attentive, friendly, helpful staff. Large, spacious rooms with AC and balcony with chairs. Restaurant at hotel serves excellent food (French / Polynesian fusion) - incredible fish soup (had it almost every night as a starter! - so delicious and well made, couldn’t resist). You can also eat very well at a roadside cafe across from the back of the hotel for a change. We did that but kept going back to the hotel due to the ocean views. Chilled for the first 2 days by the pool, set directly on the ocean, offering unparalleled views. Then went diving and didn’t stop! Dove with TopDive - incredibly well run, professional dive shop, all guides (divemasters and instructors) very familiar with local environment. You are basically diving the same site, the famous Tiputa Pass, which I could happily dive EVERY day for a year! It is a different dive every time. You dive from an inflatable and bankroll in. The crew (divemasters and captain) help you with the gear. You come back on to the boat with a ladder - NICE! The water is warm 80F, but I’m a wimp, so I always dive in a 3mm full suit with a 5mm shorty on top and a hood (don’t laugh). Believe it or not, I still get cold with all that and 80F (26.6C) water. Pathetic, but I hate uncontrollable shivering. The boats (they have at least 2) are fast and the ride to Tiputa Pass is 10 minutes max away from the dive shop. The water is usually very calm initially until you cut through the pass to the ocean, where it can get very choppy. The groups (one divemaster/instructor to 2-6 divers, 6 is max) descend together. You follow the guide. And believe me, you want to follow the guide. They know the water and it can be tricky (changing currents, downward currents, suddenly much stronger currents). Mostly drift diving but you do swim out to the “blue” where there can be lots of big animal action. After hanging out in the “blue” you swim back to the reef (this can get tricky with the currents so you have to know where you do this or risk getting “blown off”). Schools of barracuda, we were surrounded by a massive tornado of barracuda that kept circling gently around us. Below squadrons of sharks, easily over 100, doing their own thing. Pods of dolphins that come extremely close and with a few individuals that interact with divers. The divemasters told us it’s only certain females that want to play with humans, never the males (probably smart if you ask me). Being that close to wild dolphins for as long as we were (almost the whole dive on multiple dives), being able to admire them at such ridiculously close range was a religious experience. Whether we should play with them is for a different discussion. I have always been a firm believer in the “Look, Don’t Touch” mentality and instilled that in all my students (I’m a diving instructor) for years but this was bizarrely different. One or two of these dolphins would not leave us alone and kept coming right up to our group, going vertical in the water and waiting to be scratched, especially under their pectoral fins. It’s very difficult not to engage when a wild dolphin stops in front of you and goes vertical in the water, waiting. The pods would swim near, around, and through us. This happened on many dives with some dives having non-stop dolphin action. In addition to the dolphins, squadrons of sharks, and barracuda - we had turtles, Napoleon wrasses, schools of snappers, schools surgeon fish, schools Moorish idols, an eagle ray, etc. You also see pods of dolphins on the surface, playing in the waves in the pass on your to or back from the dive site. Not every dive is as exciting as others but every dive is a delightful surprise. They offer dives at 08:30, 10:30, 14:00, 16:00. No night dives (makes perfect sense!) You go out for one dive, then back to the shop, have lunch, then back out for another dive. You always come back to the shop for the surface interval. Some people were doing 3 dives/day, others 1-2 dives/day. It’s very fluid and you can book however many dives you want per day and a different number of dives on different days. They offer FREE Nitrox (although the compressor was being repaired when we were there), so we dove air (no big deal). You all surface together for safety reasons - this would usually be a deal breaker for me and not acceptable but it was absolutely fine - all our dives were about 1 hour, except for one that was shorter due to getting blown off the reef and the downward current (we surfaced for safety reasons - good call) . The guides all have marker buoys (we always have our own too) for when we surface. Topdive include rental equipment in their prices! The office staff are delightful and helpful, trying their best to accommodate your diving desires! They pick you up at your hotel. Two of the days we did the 08:30 dive and the 14:00. Once we got back to the shop after our first dive, Topdive offered to drive us back to our hotel, where we had a lazy time by the pool and lunch by the ocean and then picked us up again for the 14:00 dive and drove us back to the hotel after. Top service! Knowledgable, fun crowd that loves the diving - no signs of burnout in the crew! That enthusiasm is contagious and speaks volumes about the location. The weather was glorious - almost always sunny and HOT with a few showers that lasted about 10 minutes, then the sun came out again full blast. We spent a total of 13 nights and 14 days on Rangiroa. Everyone else was either coming from or going to another island. You can do that - it’s very easy with the domestic airline (Air Tahiti). We wanted to stay as long as possible in Rangiroa. There’s always another trip for another island! Planning the next one but Rangiroa is beckoning . . . . Booked the hotel and diving with Blue Water Dive Travel. They were great and very responsive to all our questions. They immediately fixed a mix up with the diving and we left knowing everything was all set. Not a glitch! |
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| Websites | TOPdive | ||
Reporter and Travel |
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| Dive Experience | Over 1000 dives | ||
| Where else diving | Hawaii (Kona), Thailand (Phuket, Koh Samui, Koh Tao, Similans, Burma Banks) Indonesia (multiple places), Mexico (Baja, Tulum, cenotes), Costa Rica, Bonaire, Philippines, Roatan, Japan, Belize (multiple places), Red Sea, Cuba, Zanzibar, Pemba | ||
| Closest Airport | Getting There | SFO to Papeete, then domestic flight from Papeete to Rangiroa | |
Dive Conditions |
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| Weather | sunny | Seas | calm, choppy, currents |
| Water Temp | 78-80°F / 26-27°C | Wetsuit Thickness | 5 |
| Water Visibility | 80-100 Ft/ 24-30 M | ||
Dive Policy |
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| Dive own profile | no | ||
| Enforced diving restrictions | Must stay together in small group (divemaster + 2-6 guests, max 6) | ||
| Liveaboard? | no | Nitrox Available? | yes |
What I Saw |
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| Sharks | Lots | Mantas | None |
| Dolphins | Schools | Whale Sharks | None |
| Turtles | > 2 | Whales | None |
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Corals | |
Tropical Fish | |
| Small Critters |  |
Large Fish | |
| Large Pelagics | |
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Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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| Subject Matter | N/A | Boat Facilities | N/A |
| Overall rating for UWP's | N/A | Shore Facilities | N/A |
| UW Photo Comments | [None] | ||
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above. |
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