Last Updated on March 18, 2026 by Adrienne
Bora Bora is more than just warm turquoise water, lush green mountains, palm trees, and overwater bungalows (although it certainly is that). It’s also a snorkeler’s paradise. We spent a good deal of our trip face down in the water, and saw all sorts of marine life, from tropical fish and sea turtles to stingrays and sharks.
alt="Snorkeling with sharks in Bora Bora" class="wp-image-5699"/>My favorite snorkeling spot in terms of fish was the interior lagoon at the Westin Bora Bora, where we stayed. There, we swam with many different kinds of tropical fish, including brilliantly colored parrotfish and unicorn fish, which I love because they always look surprised. Although the coral wasn’t particularly vibrant, the fish count was very high and, thanks to the fact that the lagoon is never more than about chest deep, snorkeling was really fun because the fish were so close to your face.
alt="A parrotfish in the interior lagoon at Le Meridien Bora Bora" class="wp-image-5572"/>
alt="A unicornfish in the inner lagoon at Le Meridien Bora Bora, a great snorkeling spot" class="wp-image-5575"/>Most of the marine life at the Westin isn’t much different than what you can find in Hawaii or the Caribbean, but we did see some things like clownfish (Nemos!) and giant clams that are unique to the South Pacific.
alt="A clownfish seen while snorkeling at Le Meridien Bora Bora" class="wp-image-5583"/>
alt="Giant clam seen while snorkeling in Bora Bora at Le Meridien" class="wp-image-5585"/>Although we weren’t lucky enough to see a sea turtle in the wild, we enjoyed watching and swimming with the rescued turtles at the Westin’s turtle sanctuary.
alt="Sea turtles at the Bora Bora Turtle Center in the Le Meridien resort" class="wp-image-6129"/>We really only left the hotel to snorkel once, but it was the highlight of our time in Bora Bora. We booked an excursion that took us to different spots around the island (including outside the sheltered lagoon that separates the main island from the resorts), to snorkel and swim with sharks and stingrays. This is a very popular activity in Bora Bora, and for good reason: if you do one excursion there, this should be it.
alt="Views of Bora Bora from our excursion to snorkel with sharks and sting rays" class="wp-image-5598"/>When we reached the first place we would swim with sharks, the guide chummed the water and waited until a few sharks were circling our boat, their fins slicing the water and their jaws chomping at the bait, and then said to me (since my husband had kindly agreed to “let” me go first) “Ok, you jump in now!” Even though I hadn’t been apprehensive about this activity at all up until that point, there’s something about jumping into deep water filled with hungry sharks (even ones that are supposedly harmless to humans) that I think would make even the bravest person a bit nervous.
alt="Sharks in the water visible from our boat" class="wp-image-5603"/>Once I got in the water, however, I wasn’t scared at all. As the guide had promised, the sharks completely ignored me. In fact, it was hard to get good pictures because whenever I approached them they swam away.
alt="Black tip reef sharks in Bora Bora" class="wp-image-5612"/>
alt="Snorkeling with reef sharks in Bora Bora with fish in the foreground" class="wp-image-5617"/>Almost all the sharks in this area were blacktip reef sharks, but there was one lone lemon shark hanging out on the ocean floor. Our guide dove down, grabbed onto the shark’s fin and let the shark pull him along for a little ride, but I was perfectly content to observe from the surface. I wouldn’t say I was scared of the lemon shark, exactly, but I believe in a healthy respect for nature…especially when nature has teeth like that.
alt="A lemon shark in Bora Bora" class="wp-image-5629"/>Our next stop – the stingrays! – was absolutely the highlight of the tour for me.
alt="Snorkeling with stingrays in Bora Bora" class="wp-image-5720"/>I’ve loved stingrays since I was a kid. I did a “swimming with stingrays” excursion on a cruise once, but it was a pretty disappointing thing where everyone queued up in knee deep water to take turns petting a stingray that a guide carried around, so I was excited to really swim with them.
alt="Snorkeling with stingrays in Bora Bora" class="wp-image-5649"/>
alt="A stingray swimming at me during our snorkeling excursion in Bora Bora" class="wp-image-5726"/>I feel like stingrays get an undeserved bad rap because of the Crocodile Hunter incident. They’re really gentle animals and only sting in self-defense (and even then, their stings are very rarely deadly; that was a freak accident). And unlike the sharks, which completely ignored us, the stingrays were like puppies, friendly and curious and wanting to jump up on us (and each other) and check us out.
alt="Stingrays crowding us while snorkeling with them in Bora Bora" class="wp-image-5653"/>
alt="A stringray swimming along the ocean floor in Bora Bora" class="wp-image-5659"/>There were blacktip reef sharks at this stop too, and because the water was so much shallower, we were a lot closer to them. It kind of made me wish we’d skipped the first shark stop and spent more time at the combined shark and stingray stop, although seeing the lemon shark was definitely pretty cool.
alt="Snorkeling with sharks and stingrays in Bora Bora" class="wp-image-5697"/>
alt="Black tip reef sharks in Bora Bora" class="wp-image-5705"/>Stingrays move through the water so gracefully!
alt="A stringray swimming towards us" class="wp-image-5747"/>
alt="Stingray swimming in Bora Bora" class="wp-image-5749"/>I had the chance to feed the rays, and that only further solidified my opinion that they are the puppies of the sea. As soon as they had any hint that I had food they were jumping out of the water and climbing up onto me to try to get the food!
alt="Feeding stingrays in Bora Bora" class="wp-image-5711"/>Although I could have stayed with the rays forever, we had to go on to our next stop, where we concluded our tour with a visit to a motu (one of the islets that surround the central island) with beautiful views of Bora Bora.
alt="Views of Bora Bora from our picnic lunch on the motu" class="wp-image-5717"/>We explored the motu while our guide prepared a delicious BBQ lunch, and then we sat down to dine under a thatched roof table just steps from the water.
alt="Exploring the motu we visited after our shark and stingray snorkeling excursion in Bora Bora" class="wp-image-5730"/>
alt="Views of Bora Bora from the motu" class="wp-image-5733"/>
alt="Our lunch hut" class="wp-image-5737"/>All told, I was as enchanted by Bora Bora’s underwater sights as I was by its beauty, and it certainly deserves a spot on any avid snorkeler’s life list.
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[…] ← Sharks, Stingrays and Snorkeling: The Underwater World of Bora Bora […]
[…] very last snorkel before we left Mo’orea, I saw a stingray! I love stingrays and although I had just spent lots of time up close and personal with them in Bora Bora, this was the first (and, to date, only) time I have ever swum with one in the wild without being […]
This makes me want to go somewhere beachy!
[…] I suppose I was imaging it would be something like my experiences snorkeling with sea turtles and sting rays. I figured I’d jump into the water, calmly put on my snorkel and pull out my camera, and look […]
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