If you’re thinking about visiting Fakarava, you need to know how to get there
Fakarava is an off the beaten track diving spot and not easy to get to. But is it worth the trip? If you’re thinking about visiting Fakarava, it certainly is worth the trip, especially if you’re a keen diver. This is even more so if you love scuba diving with sharks.
So how to get to Fakarava French Polynesia? The easiest way to get to Fakarava is by air on a flight from Papeete (PPT) airport Tahiti and takes about 70 minutes. Travelling from the US there are direct flights to Papeete from Los Angeles (LAX) taking 8 hours 30 minutes. Travelling from the UK you can take a connecting flight via LAX.
Once you arrive in Fakarava there are two main dive locations. These are the South Pass and the North Pass, which are channels leading into the lagoon in this Atoll. To dive Fakarava by liveaboard, follow this link to Polynesia liveaboards.
The best way to dive the Fakarava is by a scuba diving liveaboard. You can check the latest and best deals on a Polynesia liveaboard using the following window:
How to get to Fakarava French Polynesia in more detail
Once you get to the vicinity of either French Polynesia or Tahiti, it’s quite easy to hop on an Air Tahiti flight that will take you to Fakarava.
But depending on where you live, will depend on how easy it is to get to French Polynesia and Tahiti. Tahiti is the best stopping point to get to Fakarava.
Fakarava how to get there from the UK
If your starting point to get to Fakarava is the UK, one of the best routes is to go via LAX Los Angeles on the west coast of America.
You can take a flight from London Heathrow to LAX. This flight takes around 11 hours 10 minutes. There are flights operated by Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, KLM and American Airlines.
Your next leg of the journey is to fly from Los Angeles to Papeete (PPT) airport, which is in Tahiti. This flight takes around 8 hours and 30 minutes and it operated by Air France.
How to get from Tahiti to Fakarava
From Tahiti it’s then a short flight with Air Tahiti, which is one hour 10 minutes to Fakarava airport. This makes the total flying time for the journey from the UK to Fakarava 20 hours and 50 minutes.
This is a long haul trip and one that you may decide to break up. But also, this doesn’t take account of the time spent in each airport either.
One of the best options for this long haul journey would be to lay-over in LA for a day or so. Los Angeles is a fun place to visit.
Plus any time you pass though an American airport, you have to pass through US customs in any event. You may as well use this and enjoy a short stay in American as part of your trip.
An alternative route from the UK to Fakarava
An alternative route to take from the UK to get to Fakarava is to go via San Francisco. In fact the flying time from San Francisco to Tahiti French Polynesa with United is 8 hours 10 minutes. The rest of the journey will be the same once you get to Tahiti.
The flight time from London Heathrow to San Francisco is also slightly shorter in time, taking 11 hours and 5 minutes.
Getting to Fakarava from the US will be a bit quicker than it is when travelling from the UK.
But this does then depend on where in the States you live. If you live on the west coast of America, and even better if you live in Los Angeles or San Francisco, all you need do is to fly to Tahiti and then on to Fakarava.
This will be the same 8 hour 30 minute flight from LAX or 8 hours 10 minutes from San Francisco as described above.
But if you live on the east coast of America in somewhere like New York or Boston, then the trip will be a bit longer, as you’ll first need to fly to Los Angeles or San Francisco before continuing on to Tahiti.
Once you arrive in Tahiti or French Polynesia, it’s a matter of a short one hour 10 minute flight from Tahiti to Fakarava on Air Tahiti.
The total flying time from Los Angeles to Fakarava will therefore be 9 hours 40 minutes, without taking account of the time changing flights.
Fakarava how to Fakarava from Canada
If you are traveling from Canada, getting to Fakarava is normally done by also routing though San Francisco. The flying time from say Toronto to San Francisco is five hours.
The rest of the journey will be the same from there as it is described above.
How to get from Rangiroa to Fakarava or visa versa
If you want to get from Rangiroa to Fakarava or from Fakarava to Rangiroa, there is one flight per week between these two atolls. The flight it one house 45 minutes in duration.
However, if you choose to scuba dive Fakarava by liveaboard, then depending on which French Polynesia liveaboard trip you choose, some travel from Fakarava Atoll to Rangiroa Atoll so you can dive both atolls.
You can also snorkel in Fakarava around the atoll. The waters are warm and the climate is tropical.
I hope you enjoyed this article about how to get to Fakarava French Polynesia
I’d love to hear from you. Tell us about your adventures of diving and snorkeling, in the comments below. Please also share your photos. Either from your underwater cameras or videos from your waterproof Gopro’s!
If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about snorkeling or types of scuba diving (or specifically about how to get to Fakarava French Polynesia), please comment below with your questions.
There will also be many more articles about scuba diving (and snorkeling) for you to read and learn about these fabulous sports.
Have fun and be safe!
How To Get To Fakarava French Polynesia (Is Fakarava Worth The Long Trip)
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Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been a scuba diver since diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 1989. After his first dive he trained as a BSAC diver in the UK. He attained his Diver Leader certification with BSAC. He then went on to become a scuba diving instructor, teaching others how to dive and was voted as Diving Officer and Treasurer for the Saffron Walden BSAC club too. Russell has dived all over the world, including the UK, on liveaboards in the Red Sea, the Caribbean, South Africa and the USA. Russell is experienced in all dive types, including drift diving, deep dives that involved decompression stops and recreational dives too.
