Best Coral Garden Taha’a Tour: An Inside Scoop 

✔️ Best Coral Garden Tour company: ARE Tours

✔️ Tour duration: 8 hours (8:30 am from Raiatea/around 9 am from Taha’a – 4:30 pm)

✔️ # of Stops: 5

✔️ Guides speak English

✔️ Delicious Polynesian lunch included

ARE Tours is run by the friendliest group of guys whose mission is to show you the beauty of their island.

Our charismatic captain for the day was Tere, who was super fun and entertaining.

And he has a beautiful voice. If you are lucky, he’ll give you a little preview by strumming on his Tahitian ukulele when the mood is right.

Oh, and yes, the tour guides really do wear their famous little red pareos with matching red tropical shirts! You cannot miss them.

ARE Tours operates out of Raiatea, but they very kindly picked us up right on time at Tapuamu Boat Dock, which was right next to our Airbnb in Taha’a.

We couldn’t have asked for better weather on the day of our tour. The water was calm, and the sun was out!

Here is what a day with ARE Tours looks like …

Yeah yeah, I know. Rhum tasting at 9:30 am?

Of course! You are on vacation. Great way to get the day going!

Domaine Pari Pari is an award-winning local rhum distillery that uses local sugar cane. We had a lovely tour that walked us through how they process, distill, and age the rhum.

They also make local products like coconut oil, soap, and tamanu oil.

After our educational tour, we enjoyed a rhum tasting. They also have flavored rhum including passion fruit, ginger, and of course, vanilla. After all, Taha’a Island is known as the Vanilla Island.

We purchased a bottle of the Rhum T55 to make Ti’ Punches and a bottle of T Rhum Vieux Agricole XO to enjoy later at home. There was no pressure to buy!

Then it was off to the whole reason for booking this tour … the Coral Garden!

The Coral Garden is located adjacent to the luxurious Le Taha’a Island Resort & Spa. So, if you are staying at that resort, the famous drift snorkel is literally in your background.

We enjoyed our drift snorkel with ARE Tours so much that we came back and did it again on our own by booking a day pass with Le Taha’a Island Resort & Spa. More on that later.

I strongly advise you to do the drift snorkel FIRST on an organized tour. It is super important to know where to snorkel.

If you do not know what you are doing, you will drift right into the coral and get banged up. Yet another reason to wear a sun shirt!

Luckily, the crew from ARE Tours are experts and helped us navigate the drift snorkel with ease.

After we anchored our boat, we waded through the water to the sandy beach on the motu adjacent to the Coral Garden. We walked all the way to the end of the motu before popping back in the water.

By the way, I strongly recommend bringing your own snorkel mask and booties. Having the right snorkeling gear makes a world of difference in your underwater experience.

Our captain Tere gave us a safety briefing. He jumped in first and one by one we all followed, allowing enough room in between so we didn’t slam into the person in front of us.

You go fast!

It’s like a giant slip ’n slide!

So much fun.

The water is CRYSTAL CLEAR.

So many fish!

We saw saddleback butterflyfish, bird wrasse (gorgeous fish!), Picasso triggerfish, Titan triggerfish, trumpetfish, parrotfish, guineafowl pufferfish, clownfish, threespot dascyllus, lemonpeel angelfish, sergeant majors, convict surgeonfish, yellow stripe goatfish, and brightly-colored clams. 

Tere would stop periodically to point out some of the marine life.

Before we knew it, we reached the end of the drift snorkel and then enjoyed some free time exploring around.

I wanted to do the drift snorkel about 5 more times, lol! Loved it.

FYI, if you are going to Moorea too, do not miss the snorkeling at Sofitel’s Coral Garden and Coral Garden Tiahura. You can do it on your own or join a super fun sea scooter tour.

Next on the itinerary was a pearl farm tour at Love Here Pearl Farm.

I’m sure you have heard about the gorgeous Tahitian pearl. You will appreciate its beauty and value even more once you understand how much time and labor goes into pearl cultivation.

I had already done another pearl farm tour at Gauguin’s Pearl Farm (#3 on my top things to do in Rangiroa!) earlier in our trip, but it was still fun a second time around. We had a great friendly guide who was happy to answer questions.

Plus, I was able to continue my search for my perfect Tahitian pearl earrings.

No luck yet, but it was fun to check out their shop.

By now, we were all working up quite an appetite. Our tour guides sped us away to our private motu for a delicious homemade lunch!

Before we chowed down, our guides put on a really fun “coconut show.”

Tere demonstrated how to climb a tree BAREFOOT with the assistance of his little red pareo to obtain the coconuts.

Then the other guides humorously demonstrated how to open and sip that delicious coconut juice.

I promise they will have you laughing! Highly entertaining!

We were escorted over to an incredible buffet spread which included fish skewers, BBQ chicken, coconut rice, poisson cru, cassava, fresh fruit, and this delicious jelly-like dish called po’e.

The best part?

Hubby and I enjoyed this lovely meal sitting on a picnic table submerged in the water with little fish swimming by our feet and baby blacktip reef sharks swimming close by.

Love sharks?

If you are going to more French Polynesian islands, then do not miss Blue Lagoon (Rangiroa), Tiputa Pass (Rangiroa), and Sharks & Rays Sandbar (Moorea)!

The ARE boys serenaded us with their Polynesian songs and local instruments during our meal.

Talk about an incredible ambiance!

After we finished our meal, we jumped in the water with our snorkel gear and swam with the sharks who always kept a comfortable distance.

We even saw a snowflake moray eel.

I’m not sure which I liked more … snorkeling at the Coral Garden or this fabulous lunch experience!

Our last stop of the day was Fare Vanira, where we learned how the famous Taha’a vanilla is grown and processed by hand.

Smells so good!

After our educational tour, we walked into the shop where you could purchase products like vanilla pods, vanilla extract, vanilla coffee, etc.

When our group went back to Raiatea, ARE Tours kindly arranged a taxi to take us back to our Airbnb in Taha’a.

What an incredibly enjoyable day!

My husband and I have done numerous “snorkations” around the world, and French Polynesia has some of the best.

Do not miss the drift snorkeling at the Coral Garden. It was one of our favorite things to do in Taha’a!

And the way to make this experience happen is by booking with the friendly, entertaining guys from ARE Tours.

Hope this personal review was helpful!

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Questions about our Coral Garden Taha’a Tour experience?

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