Scuba Diving in Bora Bora

Best Bora Bora diving sites

Bora Bora diving splits into two worlds: calm, shallow sites inside the lagoon, and deeper sites on the outer reef where the bigger animals cruise. Dive centers choose the day's sites based on weather, visibility and the group's experience, but these are the names you'll hear most often.

• Anau (also called Fafapiti or the Anau Wall), on the east side of the lagoon: a manta ray cleaning station, where reef mantas come in to have small fish clean them. Divers stay low and still while the rays circle above.
• Toopua, in the inner lagoon in the southwest: coral heads and small caves, with spotted eagle rays, moray eels and reef fish. A favorite for beginners and intro dives.
• Tapu, just outside the barrier reef: a slope known for blacktip reef sharks and large lemon sharks.
• Muri Muri (White Valley): a drift dive over coral and a white sand bottom, with garden eels and schools of trevally. It's better suited to intermediate and advanced divers.

Scuba diving Bora Bora: dive centers operating in 2026

Several centers run boat dives daily and most pick up from hotels, including the motu resorts. Ones we confirmed for 2026:

• Bora Diving Center: on Matira Beach since 1992. It offers intro dives, international certification courses and exploration dives, includes gear and hotel transfers, and offers nitrox to certified divers.
• TOPDIVE: a French Polynesia dive company with bases on Bora Bora, Tahiti, Rangiroa, Fakarava and Tetiaroa. It advertises free nitrox and Aqualung equipment.
• Diveasy: runs the dive center at the Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora, with beginner dives, two-tank dives for certified divers and a four-day Open Water course.

Tahiti Tourisme also lists other licensed centers on the island. Your resort concierge can tell you which one serves your motu.

Intro dives, certification and prices

An introductory dive (called a baptême in French) needs no experience. At Bora Diving Center, it's about 30 minutes underwater to a maximum of 6 meters at a lagoon site such as Toopua or Anau. It's open from age 6 with parental consent, after you fill in a medical form. You don't even need to swim. Booked through Manawa, it started from about €125 (roughly $140) as of October 2026. Other centers may set the minimum age at 8.

Certified divers need at least Open Water or Level 1 and usually a dive in the past year. A one-tank afternoon dive was listed from about €101 and a two-tank morning trip from about €193 (October 2026). Two-tank mornings usually pair a lagoon site, often mantas or eagle rays, with an outer-reef dive for sharks and visibility. Want to get certified? A PADI Open Water course takes about four days.

Plan your flights around your dives. Centers ask for no flying for 24 hours after your last dive, and that includes the Air Tahiti hop back to Papeete.

Best season for manta rays and diving conditions

Mantas use the Anau cleaning station all year. Several dive guides say sightings are most reliable from about May or June to November. That's also the drier high season, when seas tend to be calmer. Water is about 27°C (81°F) from July to October and 28–29°C (82–84°F) from November to May, so a 3 mm wetsuit or a rash guard is plenty. Check our best time to visit Bora Bora guide for rainfall by month.

Not ready to breathe underwater? The snorkeling and lagoon tours page covers the shallow sites.