Best Snorkeling - Fiji, Cooks, or French Polynesia??

We are still debating between the Cook Islands, Fiji, and French Polynesia for our tenth anniversary trip in late April 2007. We've been leaning toward the Cooks, but then we're also hearing that the snorkeling in FP or Fiji may be better. We've been to Moorea and know that the snorkeling there is decent, but we don't know how it compares to other islands in FP and the Cooks and Fiji. For those of you who have travelered the South Pacific extensively, where did you find the best snorkeling? Please be specific as to which islands. We are looking for a variety of fish and great coral (I know good coral is hard to come by these days). Also, excellent snorkeling from the shore of an island would be a real bonus. Thanks for your help!

Don't know about Fiji.

I've been to Rarotonga and Aitutaki in the Cook Islands as well as Moorea and Bora Bora (the coral gardens behind the Sofitel Motu are an enchanted kingdom of fish, I kayaked out there). Based on my experiences I would choose the Tuamotu islands of French Polynesia.

In the Tetamanu pass (southern Fakarava), accessed straight from shore, I saw a grey shark as well as several giant Napolean wrasses. That would be my pick. Did a drift snorkel through Avatoru pass in Rangiroa (and I must admit that my eyes were closed at the time) but others on the excursion saw a hammerhead eating another shark below them. In the hoa (channel) between the main village and Kahaia motu on Tikehau I saw reef sharks everyday as I snorkeled. This was accessible directly from the beach. I saw many other colorful fishes plus rays around these islands.

Thanks for the tips Silvanocat. I've actually been considering Riamiti in Fakarava if we decide to go to FP. Did you stay there by any chance? If so, would you recommend it or do you have another recommendation?

For the Cooks, see my long entry on the fixed post at the top of this category.

Thanks Raro. I did read that. The snorkeling does sound nice from your post. I guess I'm just having a hard time deciphering which area really has the "best" snorkeling. Hubby really loves vivid colorful coral, which is getting harder and harder to find these days!

Snorkeling from the beach in the Cooks is great but the best I've experienced is from the beach on Mare in the Loyalties.

Moving beyond the three countries in OP, I would say that PNG, the Solomons and Vanuatu have the best snorkelling in the South Pacific - in that order. But they (or NC) would be farther and pricier to fly to for those coming from the US.

I did stay at Raimiti and am probably the only person who has been there who did not love it. I felt that I was not as valued a guest as the three French local expats who were staying there. The night that they left I was served leftovers for dinner! Not crazy about the fake thatch (looks real!) on the fares as it catches condensation and leaves the sheets damp.

Another poster here, Ed (Ejpii) stayed at Motu Aitu Paradise. I recall that he reported that he waded and swam to get to the Tetamanu pass himself to do some drift snorkeling. There's another place right on the pass, Tetamanu Village, which in the past has gotten some bad reviews. I looked at their Web site and it appears that they now are only taking accomodations in groups of 4.

Fiji.

If you draw a vertcile line across PNG then the quality and diversity of life (fish corals etc diminishes the further away you get). Sure there are a few excepetions but this is the rule of thumb in the dive community.
(this does not take into account coral death by pollution etc)

We snorkelled F.P., the Cooks and Fiji this summer. The best snorkelling we found in F.P. was on Huahine - mainly because the weather was great. For the rest of our trip the weather was windy and wet. We did get out for one snorkel trip on Bora Bora which was very good given the circumstances - must be awesome under better conditions. We saw some of the best coral here. We were not as impressed with the snorkelling in the Cook Islands, especially Rarotonga. Snorkelling was better on Aitutaki, but again the weather made conditions less than desireable. Fiji gave us our best snorkelling. We did a day trip to Mana Island and were very impressed with the coral and fish life we saw. Snorkelling from the shore at the Octopus resort was great. They also offer the opportunity to go out with the divers. If we were to go back just for the snorkelling we would choose Fiji.

In order:

Fiji - High recommend Vanual Levu SavuSavu - has amazing live coral and fishlife for both shallow and deep snorkelling and is highly recommended dive location as well. Loved the fact that we could grab lobsters ourselves from the sea floor - something not allowed in marine parks like the Great Barrier Reef.

French Polynesia

Cook Islands - Love this place and am going this Xmas but the coral is mostly dead and I don't go there to see high quality fish life and coral. If you've been to places with colorful live coral and abundant sea life then this can be disappointing but if you've not experienced amazing snorkelling spots then a lot of people are happy to see rocks and some colored fish and blue starfish.

It really depends on your levels of expectations.

But a place to really get amazed in the South Pacific is obviously the Great Barrier Reef. Has amazing spots for snorkelling and I highly recommend Cairns or North of Cairns and go on the boat trips out to some amazing snorkelling spots.

Thanks for all the recommendations everyone! I wish we had a few months to spend in the south pacific, but I guess we only have about two weeks this trip. It seems that Fiji gets a lot of votes on may travel boards. May be worth a reconsidering. #10, we've been really wanting to get to the GBR, but I'd like to do it when we have at least 3 weeks so we can take in a lot of Oz while we're there. If anyone else has any more recommendations, please feel free to post them.

I went to Tahiti.rangiroa, bora bora huahine and rurutu.
i thought that bora bora had the best visibility but coral is dull
huahine had a spot for good snorkeling with coral "castles" but all uncoloured
again rangiroa not much coral at all and when we did the pass saw little as poor visiblity so disappointed

best diving was in sipadan near borneo by far the most i have ever seen

but best coral was GBR of course

Thanks for your input doctorbella. We're still in limbo at the moment!

The "best" snorkeling is really subjective. I stay at a place called Lawaki Beach house in Fiji and have wonderful shallow water snorkeling right off the beach. Also, a place on the Island of Maupiti in Tahiti, a place called False Passage had excellent snorkeling. A good spot to stay is Kuriri Village. Both of these places rate very high in my book, but I have never been to GBR.

Now my question. Does any one have any snorkeling recommendations in the northern crusing area of the Bahamas?

In the bahama we love the island of Eleuthera . You can pretty much walk right in the water anywhere and snorkel to your hearts content. It is very much in a natural state, we saw hardly anyone on the beaches. there were lots of tidals pools with all sorts of interesting stuff as well as deep water where the two foot rainbow colored lobster lives. They say the reef sharks come in in early evening but we did not see any. We did see barracuda. there are houses you can rent on Eleuthera that are nice but if you plan on cooking bring your own food-the grocery stores were scarier than the barracuda. They have nice restaraunts but no fast food that we saw. It's a neat place but if you like a lot of civilization type of stuff you probably won't like the island. it we love the snorkeling there, so much right off the beach and. Wide variety of fish, coral, stone to enjoy.

Cwright57... You're in the wrong branch... this one is for Fiji in the South Pacific... about as far away from the Bahamas as you can get