Anau or Motu Piti Aau: Which Bora Bora Beach Wins
Published 2026-10-01. Conditions described are typical and never guaranteed.
Here is the short version before you read another word. If what you want is a close encounter with reef manta rays, a swim that becomes a memory rather than a sunbathe, go to Anau. If what you want is fine white sand underfoot, calm clear water and the best all round reef snorkelling on the eastern lagoon, go to Motu Piti Aau. Neither is better than the other in any absolute sense, because they answer two different questions. One is an experience you book and reach by boat. The other is a long reef motu where the beauty is partly behind a resort gate and partly open to anyone on the water.
That distinction matters more than usual on Bora Bora, because so much of this island's coast is private resort frontage. Knowing which stretch suits you saves a day, and sometimes a disappointment. So let us set the two side by side and be specific about the conditions that flip the verdict.
What you are actually choosing between
Anau is not a beach. We say that plainly because the facts say it plainly. It is an east coast village and a roadside lagoon access, with little to no sand for lounging. The entire reason anyone makes the trip is offshore: a manta ray cleaning station sitting between two coral reefs, in water running from roughly five to thirty metres deep, where cleaner fish tend the rays and the rays come back to be tended. You reach it by boat with a guide who reads the timing. Arrive expecting a towel and a shallow paddle and you will be baffled. Arrive expecting an underwater encounter and you may leave changed.
Motu Piti Aau is the opposite proposition in almost every respect. It is a long reef motu holding two of the island's best known resorts, with soft pale sand, groomed palm shade and sheltered lagoon shallows sitting at around twenty five degrees through the year. The reef close to the motu draws rays and black tip reef sharks, so the snorkelling is lively and the water is clear on a calm day. The catch, and it is a real one, is access. Most of the beach is resort land for guests, and day access for non guests is to be confirmed with each property. The open lagoon around the motu is the part everyone can enjoy, usually on a lagoon tour.
Sand, water, facilities and crowd
Sand
This is the most lopsided category and the easiest to call. Anau offers little to none; it is a working village shore, not a lounging beach. Motu Piti Aau offers fine white sand along a long reef motu, much of it manicured resort beach. If sand under your feet and a towel in the shade is any part of your idea of a good day, Motu Piti Aau wins before the conversation even starts. There is no honest way to dress Anau up as a sunbathing spot, and we would not try.
Water
Both sit in sheltered lagoon water, but they feel entirely different. At Anau the water is the whole point, a deeper station reached by boat where confident swimmers float above the cleaning station and wait for the rays. At Motu Piti Aau the lagoon is calm, clear and shallower near the sand, with a vibrant reef a short swim or boat hop away. For a gentle swim you can walk into, Motu Piti Aau is the kinder choice. For a single extraordinary creature encounter, Anau has something the motu does not reliably offer.
A word we are bound to repeat, because it is true at both: there is no public lifeguard at either site, and at Anau none is confirmed. Conditions here are typical of the dry season and never guaranteed, and we will never promise you a safe swim. Both are sites for confident swimmers, with a guide at Anau and the good sense to follow their lead in the water.
Facilities
Anau is minimal: a village, a roadside pull off, and tour operators who depart from around the island. Bring your own gear or rent it. Motu Piti Aau has full resort dining, bars and water sports, but almost all of it is for guests. The open lagoon is served by tour operators rather than public facilities. So the honest picture is this: Motu Piti Aau has far more, but most of it sits behind a guest list you may not be on. For a non guest, the practical facility level on both can end up closer than the brochure suggests.
Crowd
Anau is quiet on land and shared only with your tour group in the water. Motu Piti Aau's beaches are private and therefore calm by design, while its open lagoon can gather several tour boats on a good day because the snorkelling is genuinely good. Neither feels like a crush. If solitude on the sand is the goal, though, you will not find sand to be solitary on at Anau, and you may not reach the sand at all at Motu Piti Aau.
When the other one wins
This is where a straight recommendation earns its keep. The default answers above flip under a few specific conditions, and it is worth knowing them before you book.
- You have small children or nervous swimmers in the group. Anau's deeper station is not the place for them. Motu Piti Aau's shallow lagoon is far gentler, and if its beaches are out of reach that day, the public sand at Matira Beach is the safer swim.
- Manta sightings are uncertain. Rays visit the Anau station through much of the year, but sightings depend on tide, time of day and conditions, and they are never guaranteed. If you cannot stomach the risk of a quiet day, the reliable reef life around Motu Piti Aau is the safer bet.
- You are not staying on the motu and cannot confirm day access. If the resorts cannot take you, Anau on a guided lagoon tour gives you a certain thing to do on the water, while Motu Piti Aau's sand may stay out of reach.
- The weather turns. Both are at their best in the dry season from May to October, when the water is clearest and the lagoon calmest. Outside that window, the manta encounter at Anau can be murkier, and a guided tour that reads the conditions matters even more.
How most people should actually plan it
The smart move is to stop treating this as either or. A lagoon tour is the common thread: many tours that visit the Anau cleaning station also stop to snorkel the reef near Motu Piti Aau, often with a picnic, so you can have the manta encounter and the lively reef in one day on the water. That is the single best way to get the most out of both, especially if you are not a resort guest on the motu.
If you want to pair either with a proper beach day, the island's one true public beach is the answer. For soft white sand, a shallow calm swim and the finest free sunset on the island, the southern crescent is where locals and visitors share the same shore without a guest list. The quieter, deepening headland at Matira Point rewards snorkellers who want the reef to start closer to shore, though the tip itself is largely resort frontage. And for a change of mood entirely, the deep wartime harbour at Faanui Bay trades swimming for a cannon walk and a story, which is a fine use of a grey morning.
We would also point families toward our wider reading on travelling here with children, couples to the notes on quieter romantic corners, and anyone still deciding on timing to the piece on the best months to visit. If you are weighing the station against the southern sand specifically, our head to head on Anau and Matira Beach goes deeper on that exact trade.
The verdict, one more time
Choose Anau for the manta encounter and nothing else. Choose Motu Piti Aau for sand, calm shallows and reliable reef snorkelling, as long as you can reach it.
Everything else is detail. Anau is an experience wearing the word beach, and a remarkable one when the rays show. Motu Piti Aau is the postcard version of Bora Bora with a gate on much of it. Read your own group honestly and the right answer tends to pick itself.
Plan a club day on the water
Since so much of Motu Piti Aau sits on resort land and day access is to be confirmed, the simplest route is to let us help. Browse the Bora Bora beach clubs and lagoon venues and send an enquiry, and we can route you to operators for a lagoon tour taking in both Anau and the reef off the motu, or point you to the right property for a day on the sand. Start from the Bora Bora index to see how the whole shore fits together before you commit.