Moorea Snorkeling Tours

The short answer

Moorea’s snorkeling tours are small-boat trips around the lagoon, three to four hours long, where you swim with stingrays and blacktip reef sharks in shallow water, snorkel with sea turtles and, on some trips, watch spinner dolphins resting. The five lagoon tours on this site cost from $114 to $162 per person.

This page books Enjoy Boat Tours’ lagoon and reef snorkel, from $114 per person with a 4.9 rating from 159 reviews. It runs about four hours from the dock of the Coco Beach restaurant in Tiahura, includes snorkeling gear and drinks (soft and alcoholic), and offers an option with lunch on an islet. Our breakdown of the tour has the detail.

The lagoon side of a Moorea trip

Whale tours work the open ocean outside the reef, and only from July 20 to November 20. The lagoon tours are a different half day: calmer water, shallow sandbanks and coral gardens, and animals that live around the island. In whale season they pair well with a whale morning. Outside it, from late November to mid-July, they are the way to get in the water with Moorea’s wildlife, since they are not tied to the whale window. Enjoy Boat Tours even gives rain advice for December to March.

If you want both in one trip, the same operator’s whale watch or swim tour finishes with a snorkel in shallow lagoon water among rays and blacktip sharks (our notes). For whales on their own, see swim with whales in Moorea.

The five lagoon tours, compared

• Enjoy Boat Tours’ lagoon and reef snorkel, from $114, 4.9 from 159 reviews. It heads outside the reef to look for blacktip or lemon sharks, comes back into the lagoon for turtles, and ends at a shallow ray and shark spot. There are no toilets on board.
• AKIVAI’s floating lounge snorkel, from $115, 4.9 from 53 reviews, is the shortest at three hours. The first stop is a shallow area with stingrays and blacktip reef sharks, then a coral garden. Mask, snorkel, fins, a life jacket if needed, drinks and fresh fruit are included; getting to the start point is not. Our notes.
• Moorea Sea Experience’s small-group snorkel, from $143, 5.0 from 23 reviews, covers a lot of ground in four hours: the ray and shark sandbar, the outer-reef drop-off in open water, Haapiti on the south coast to watch spinner dolphins resting in the lagoon, then turtles. It starts from the Coco Beach restaurant car park at PK 24 and is not suitable for non-swimmers. Our notes.
• Moorea Water Games’ sea scooter tour, from $161, 5.0 from 99 reviews, pulls you along on an electric sea scooter to turtles, rays, tropical fish and sometimes dolphins. It leaves from the Nautical Center at the Sofitel Kia Ora Moorea, runs rain or shine, and is not suitable for children under 10 or guests over 70. Our notes.
• Captain Taina’s glass-bottom boat, from $162, 4.9 from 86 reviews, suits every swimming level: non-swimmers watch through the glass panels while swimmers go in with the guide. It stops at a turtle area, the underwater tiki sculptures and a sandbar with rays and blacktip sharks, then lunch on the family’s private islet. Our notes.

Sharks, rays and the no-feeding rule

The blacktip reef sharks and stingrays gather on a sandbank in the lagoon off Tiahura and Papetoai, marked on the official lagoon map as a ray and shark zone. Blacktips are small reef sharks, and the tours here swim with them in shallow water with a guide beside you.

Feeding sharks is illegal in French Polynesia, and the 2026 official guidance for Moorea tells visitors not to feed any fish, rays and moray eels included. A shark bite at Moorea that needed 38 stitches was blamed on illegal feeding. Several listings here also rule out touching marine life. Sharks are protected, so look and let them pass.

Turtles and dolphins

Sea turtles are protected, and reviewers of the Moorea Sea Experience tour single out its turtle drift. Keep your distance and do not touch them. Spinner dolphins rest by day in the bays and near the passes and feed offshore at night, and the Haapiti pass area is a recognized resting zone. The Moorea Sea Experience tour watches them there, and they should be left to rest. Dolphins, like every animal here, are never guaranteed.

Before you book

Bring a towel, beach shoes and a mineral sunscreen; several listings ask for eco-friendly sunscreen. Tours that go outside the reef can be choppy, so take a seasickness tablet before boarding if you need one. If you snorkel from shore on another day, carry a surface float, because boat traffic is heavy around Cook’s and Opunohu bays, and keep your fins off shallow coral.