Bora Bora Snorkeling Tours

Most lagoon trips on this site include a snorkel stop, but only a few are built around snorkeling. On those boats the stops are picked for what is in the water that day, the group is small and the guide gets in with you. This page compares them on the things that decide a snorkel day: how many stops, how long you spend in the water, what gear you get, how weaker swimmers are looked after and what you are likely to see.

The Tours Built Around Snorkeling

The Reef Discovery half day is the one this page books. It runs for 3.5 hours on a boat with a sun canopy, carrying eight passengers at most, and visits three to four spots depending on weather and wildlife. The listing starts at the manta ray feeding ground in the morning, moves on to two coral gardens and, if conditions allow, looks for eagle rays. Mask, snorkel and fins are included, along with beach towels, water and soft drinks. The GetYourGuide version, the 3.5-Hour Lagoon Boat Tour with Snorkeling, adds life vests and local snacks and puts water time at about two hours. In September 2026 it cost from $136 per person on Viator, with a 5.0 rating from 1,042 reviews, and from $143 on GetYourGuide.

H2O’s half-day snorkeling tour has a similar shape: 3.5 hours, three or four spots (mantas, an inner-reef coral garden, eagle rays and a fourth on the day), from $130 per person. Its GetYourGuide listing promises at least 20 to 30 minutes in the water at each spot, and the guide joins you whenever the boat can be safely attached. H2O states that it does not feed wildlife or visit feeding sites.

Moana’s Eco Snorkel Cruise is shorter and different in character: 2.5 hours, from $113 per person, with 100 minutes on a sandbank among blacktip reef sharks and stingrays, then 30 minutes at the Coral Garden. Moana also says it does not feed the sharks or rays.

If you want snorkeling and a full day out, Vavau’s full-day lagoon cruise runs 6 hours from $155 per person, with stingrays, blacktip sharks and coral gardens, then a BBQ and salad bar lunch on a small island. Two recent reviewers describe four snorkel stops.

What You See in the Water

Manta rays are the reason many people book a snorkel-led boat. Bora Bora’s best-known manta site is a cleaning station off Anau on the east side of the island, where reef mantas come in to be cleaned by small wrasse. Both H2O and Reef Discovery build a manta stop into the trip, and H2O says its tours regularly encounter them. They are wild animals, though, and no listing promises a sighting; Moana’s GetYourGuide version states that no refund is given if animals are not seen.

The coral gardens are the steadier part of the day, with reef fish close to the surface. Eagle rays turn up on both small-group trips when conditions allow. For sharks and stingrays in shallow water, the shallow shark and ray stop on Moana or Vavau is where you will find them; the H2O itinerary skips it. Turtles and dolphins appear in the H2O and Moana listings as possible sightings, depending on the day. Our coral garden snorkeling page covers the reef stops in more detail.

Snorkeling If You Are a Nervous Swimmer

You do not need experience for the Reef Discovery trip. The guide gets in the water, points out the animals and helps anyone who is not a comfortable swimmer, and the GetYourGuide listing provides life jackets for less confident swimmers. If you have never snorkeled, Reef Discovery itself suggests one of its private tours, where the guide can focus on you.

H2O asks more of you: everyone must be able to climb the boat ladder out of the water on their own, a medical certificate is required from age 70, and the trip is not offered to people over 80. The Moana sandbank is the gentlest start, since you are standing on sand in knee-deep water before you put your face in. For a boat to yourselves, La Plage Tours’ Private Bora Bora Lagoon Experience costs $610 per boat for up to four guests, and the guide swims with you for comfort and safety.

Gear, Water Time and Conditions

Fins help on the coral stops, where you swim more than you stand. Reef Discovery includes them; Moana supplies a mask and snorkel and recommends bringing your own. Reef Discovery’s GetYourGuide listing suggests a rash vest if you have sensitive skin, and says the tour runs rain or shine, with a refund offered for heavy rain and thunderstorms.

Visibility changes from day to day. The Anau manta site can be murky because the water there carries plankton, and one H2O reviewer notes that wind and cloud reduced visibility on their trip. If snorkeling is the main thing you came for, book early in your stay so a weather day can be moved.

Which Snorkeling Tour Suits You

• Book Reef Discovery if you want a manta stop and two coral gardens in 3.5 hours, fins included and a guide in the water, backed by 1,042 Viator reviews.
• Book H2O if you want bookings capped at seven, a strict no-feeding approach and 20 to 30 minutes at each spot.
• Book Moana if sharks and stingrays in shallow water are the priority and 2.5 hours is all the time you want to give.
• Book Vavau’s full day if you want snorkeling and lunch on an island in one trip.
• Book the La Plage private boat if anyone in your group is nervous in the water.

Where to Go Next

If mantas are the main goal, read our manta ray tours page. If time is tighter than snorkel quality, the half-day lagoon tours page sorts trips by hours and departure time. For the full itinerary, see our Reef Discovery breakdown, or check availability and compare both platforms before you book.