Private Whale Watching Moorea

The short answer

A private whale watching boat in Moorea costs from $1,269 per group on this site, and that price covers up to 6 guests. For a group of six, the Aimeho Private Escapes charter works out at about $212 a head. Six seats on a six-guest shared boat cost more: $1,524 on Moorea Sea Experience’s small-group tour at $254 per person, and $1,560 on Mori Ora’s half day at $260 per person. For two people the private boat comes to about $635 each, well over double a shared seat.

So the private option pays off for groups of five or six. At five guests, the Aimeho boat ($1,269) costs the same as five seats on Moorea Sea Experience ($1,270).

The private boats on this site

The Aimeho charter is a four-hour trip rated 4.9 from 37 reviews. It includes bottled water, soft drinks and snorkeling gear, and leaves out towels, sunscreen and transport. You park and walk down to the beach front to board. When a big southwest swell is running, the crew may move the pickup to the Papetoai cruise ship terminal and tells you in advance. Viator lists it with free cancellation. Our breakdown has the detail.

Tama Tours’ 4-hour private encounter costs $1,559 per group of up to 6 and rates 5.0 from 11 reviews. It includes a certified guide who speaks English and French, plus snacks; lunch is not included. The boat can come to your hotel if it has direct lagoon access, or meet you at Paopao Marina near the Cook’s Bay hotel, Papetoai Marina behind the post office, or Tiahura public beach. Viator sells it as all sales final, so there is no refund if your plans change. Our breakdown.

The same Tama Tours charter is also sold on GetYourGuide at $1,701 per group, but for up to 4 guests, and it is newly listed with no reviews yet. That version lists free cancellation, and it says a life jacket is mandatory unless you bring a 3 mm wetsuit, which is not included.

Moorea Sea Experience, the operator of the six-guest shared tour, also sells a private half day from $1,386 per group of up to 6, rated 5.0 from 22 reviews, from the Cook’s Bay public landing.

What each group size pays

Dividing the per-group prices by the number of guests gives a rough price per head.

The shared tours on this site run from $179 to $393 per person, so a private boat for two or three people costs more than any shared seat. For six, the Aimeho boat costs less per head than most shared swim tours, and the Tama Tours boat costs about the same as Mori Ora’s six-person half day.

What a private boat changes, and what it does not

A private boat gives your group the whole deck, a guide who only has to watch your swimmers, and one pace for everyone. It is the simpler choice when a group mixes strong swimmers with people who would rather stay on board, or when you have young children: the Aimeho and Tama Tours listings both say infants sit on an adult’s lap.

The rules stay the same. A licensed operator’s private charter keeps the same 100 m from the whales as a shared boat, swimmers still stay 15 m away, and no more than seven people can be in the water at once, guide included. That means a group of six can all swim together. The 300 m distance you may read about applies to unlicensed private yachts and dinghies, not to these licensed charters. Whales are never guaranteed on a private boat either.

Private or shared?

For one to four people, a shared swim boat costs less per head; our swim with whales in Moorea page compares them. For five or six, the private charter matches or undercuts six shared seats and gives you the boat to yourselves. The cost guide adds up the extras, the best time guide covers the season from July 20 to November 20, and which Moorea whale watching tour to book sets every option side by side.