Fakarava has been high on my bucket list for diving since I started diving many years ago. I found out about this diving paradise in French Polynesia while talking to a fellow diver in Sipadan, Malayia. I saw the videos of the wall of shark and knew I had to visit. Fast forward 10 years, and I finally made it to this lifelong dream!
Fakarava was my favorite island in French Polynesia and one that I highly recommend for diving enthusiasts. As someone that has dived all over the world, Fakarava is one of the best dives I’ve ever done. The island itself is also stunning and is the embodiment of the Polynesian island lifestyle!
Getting to Fakarava
Fakarava is a beautiful atoll in the Tuamoto island chain. It’s located about 1,000km northeast of Tahiti.
There is only one way to get to Fakarava and that is by flight from Tahiti. Air Tahiti has an island hopper ferry that runs a circuit from Tahiti to Tikehau to Rangiroa to Fakarava and back to Tahiti. From Tahiti to Fakarava, you’ll stop in Tikehau and Rangiroa before finally arriving in Fakarava. There is only one flight a day (no flights on Tuesdays) with flights departing Tahiti in the afternoon and arriving in Fakarava around 15:30.
The flight as you can expect is absolutely stunning and you’ll be awarded with the most quintessential aerial views of the French Polynesian islands. The Fakarava atoll is especially stunning from the air with what seems to be an endless lagoon that goes on forever.
From Fakarava airport, your accommodation will generally pick you up from the airport either as part of your room rate or a separate charge.
Where to stay in Fakarava
Fakarava is an island with 1,000 people. It’s not big and there’s not much going on. Surprisingly, however, there are more guesthouses than I would have thought.
As with all of French Polynesia, it’s not cheap to stay but I found it to be better value for money versus the bigger islands like Tahiti and Moorea.
I stayed at the Kaipolanie Gardens hotel which was absolutely amazing. This little guesthouse run by a cute couple has two beautifully decorated bungalows that was perfect for the week I spent in Fakarava. The accommodation was half board which included breakfast and dinner. The meals were absolutely amazing as Vanina is an all star chef that used to run the kitchen at the high end Havaiiki lodge nearby.
Every day we had fresh fish and dessert while enjoying amazing conversation with the other guests and host. After my day of diving, I was always counting down the hours until dinner was ready!
Budget Accommodation: Under 100 per night
Middle end Accommodation – 100 to 250 a night
Luxury Accommodation – 250+
- Havaiiki Lodge
Getting around in Fakarava
Fakarava is a small but very long island. While only about 300 meters wide, it is more than 60km long! Most of restaurants, grocery stores, and guesthouses are within a 5km radius of the airport but it just goes to show how big this island is.
Fakarava itself is a beautiful island. The beach that lines the entire lagoon side of the island is stunning to say the least. The water is an immense turquoise with shallow and clear water.
The main form of transport on the island is by bicycle. Many of the guesthouses will rent you bicycles for something like 500-1000 XPF a day. A bicycle is really all you’ll need because there’s not much going on in the island and it’s enough to get to most of the sights.
If you want to do more exploration, you can also rent scooters which are around 4,000 – 5,000 XPF a day (very expensive) or a car which will be even more expensive at 8,000 – 10,000 XPF per day.
Visiting PK9 Beach
If you want to visit the famous PK9 beach with its most iconic floating palm tree, then you can simply rent a scooter for the day. Aside from visiting PK9 beach, there really isn’t much reason to have a car or scooter in my opinion.
I found PK9 beach to be very nice but nothing out of the ordinary. It’s beautiful don’t get me wrong but compared to what the rest of the atoll has to offer, it’s really nothing special. The beach is quite narrow, and the beach faces rough seas which makes swimming not ideal.
You’re much better off taking a boat tour to one of the islands in the south which is absolute paradise! More on that later in this post.
Diving in Fakarava
Now to the good stuff, this is why you came to this post and why you’re probably coming to Fakarava!
Fakarava is world famous for the scuba divers in the know for being the ultimate mecca of sharks. If you love diving with sharks and want to see a lot of them, you’ve come to the right place as there is 100% chance to see hundreds of sharks in Fakarava.
The channels in the north and the south of the Fakarava Atoll have the perfect blend of current and consistency that attracts hundreds of gray reef sharks to its doorstep.
Unfortunately, I did not bring my professional camera set up to take nice photos since I was traveling for such a long time and this heavy setup was not practical. However, I did take many amazing videos on my GoPro for you to look at!
Dive shops in Fakarava
There are four dive shops on Fakarava:
- O2
- TopDive
- Dive Spirit
- Kaina Plongee
After doing extensive research and review reading, I settled on O2. I was very impressed and satisfied with my diving in O2. The shop was professionally run with good equipment, free Nitrox with 15L tanks, good guides, and comfortable boats.
In addition, O2 is located on perhaps one of the nicest beaches of any dive shop I’ve seen. There is also a food truck serving delicious paninis and tuna tartare overlooking this stunning beach. I would routinely hang out at O2 after my dives were finished because of the vibes.
Diving North Pass of Fakarava
Fakarava diving is pretty straight forward; there is the north pass which is close to the town and dive shops, and the south pass which is famous wall of sharks. You can dive one or the other and that’s it.
The north pass is woefully underrated since the south pass gets all the attention globally. From the O2 dive shop, it is a 20 minute speedboat ride to the north of Fakarava where there is a channel with insane amounts of sharks.
As soon as you descend from the boat, you’re engulfed in a tornado of yellow snappers and gray reef sharks. Depending on the tides, the current can be ripping here which means more action from all the fish. Compared to the south pass which usually has a milder and more consistent current making for a more relaxed dive, the north pass can be crazy but in the best of ways.
I saw so many sharks at the north pass along with crazy schools of fish. The coral gardens in the south pass are much nicer than the north pass but
Diving the South Pass of Fakarava
The South Pass is located at the very southern end of Fakarava Atoll about 50km from the airport. It’s home to the ultra famous Wall of Sharks which is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a channel dive that is home to hundreds of gray sharks. Literally, every dive you’ll see many hundreds of sharks swimming about.
These sharks are not large like the bull sharks in Fiji but the big ones still get to almost 2m in lengths! This is one of the most insane dive sites in the entire world.
From Fakarava, the dive shops will do the long journey to the south pass usually once or twice a week. The boat ride is 1h-1.5h depending on the waves and you’ll have an absolutely stunning surface interval at the pink sand beach near to Tetamanu village. I’m talking the most quintessential French Polynesia private island stop with a picnic lunch provided.
The surface interval alone is worth the trip in my mind!
As with all channel dives, the incoming current will bring in the best visibility which the shops usually try to time accordingly. Visibility during this time is a stunning 30m+ which will allow you to see all the sharks in their glory.
Unlike the insane currents of the North Pass, the south pass is a calm consistent current allowing you to relax and enjoy the show. It’s a dive that’s difficult to explain with words. I’ve seen the videos so many times but when you’re there in person, you are left speechless. It really is a sea of gray sharks swimming ever so gracefully in front of you. You’ll also find the odd lemon shark, silvertip shark, and nurse sharks as well.
Just like the north pass, I blew through my air on the first dive trying to take as many videos and photos as possible.
As you drift pass the wall of sharks, you’ll come through a coral garden right in front of Tetamanu village which is home to beautiful corals, schooling fish, and various other reef fish.
Surface Interval in between dives
The surface interval is done on the Pink sand beach island which is your own private island in the Atoll. The beach here is gorgeous with some of the clearest and bluest waters you’ll ever see. Lunch was delicious poisson cru with rice which is the perfect lunch snack. We had almost 2 hours to enjoy the beach and it really doesn’t get better than this.
Second dive of the south pass
The 2nd dive all depends on the current and which direction it’s going. I did the south pass day trip twice. On the first trip, the channel had completely changed to outgoing current and the visibility was terrible (15m max) which made for a short dive. On my second trip to the south pass, the ingoing current was just starting to switch to the outgoing current which meant the visibility was still good.
We saw again the wall of sharks with its hundreds of sharks but the real highlight for the second dive had to be the coral garden out into the ocean. This was easily one of the most healthy and beautiful coral gardens I’ve ever seen.
Hard corals were everywhere in pristine condition followed by an aquarium of fish all around us. Insane amounts of titan trigger fish, schools of yellow snappers, unicorn fish, red snappers, parrotfish, angelfish, and more were on the menu.
Finally, Fakarava is home to the most Napoleon Wrasse I’ve ever seen. In the past, I would see one or two Napoleon’s on a dive in other parts of the world and would be super excited since they are one of my favorite fish. In Fakarava’s south pass, I saw probably a hundred of them swimming around. The coral garden out on the ocean side was a literal aquarium of every fish you could think of surrounded by stunning corals. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my professional camera to take nice photos!
Cost of the south pass dive
All in all, the south pass is absolutely one of the best dive sites I’ve ever seen and I would recommend it a hundred times over. I did pay an extra 13k XPF for the boat ride and lunch (in addition to the cost of diving) which means it cost about 30k XPF for the day.
For comparison, a few of the tour companies charged more for a snorkeling trip to the south pass than the 13k.
Best time to visit Fakarava
Fakarava has two seasons, rainy and dry. The dry season stretches from April to October while the rainy season is from November to March.
Fakarava is located in the Tuamotu archipelago which is known to be the sunniest part of French Polynesia. While you’ll encounter storms during the rainy season, it is not as long or as frequent as that of Tahiti or Moorea. I visited during January and the weather was sunny and hot the entire week I was there with the exception of one morning.
The peak season in Fakarava is June to August which coincides with the French summer holidays so make sure to book your stay well in advance if you’re coming during those months.
Grouper spawning season is also in those months and the south pass becomes even crazier than at other times of year. You’ll go from 200 sharks to 500 sharks in one dive which is definitely a sight to behold!
