French Polynesia

Tahiti

Getting to Tahiti isn’t easy, regardless of where you’re coming from. Generally you’ll need to go through the west coast of the United States (SFO or LAX), and then to PPT (Tahiti). In SFO, it should be possible to remain behind TSA security lines to get over to the International Terminal as opposed to having to go through security again, and as a side note, there is a Centurion Lounge between G & F terminal. Think about grabbing food for the 8.5 hr flight from the west coast to PPT, as well as some Duty-Free liquor since the price of booze in French Polynesia is astronomical! We arrived after dark and immigration took some time, but the taxi was safe and easy to the Intercontinental Hotel which was just 5 minutes away.

The Intercontinental Hotel had a Polynesian dinner show at 8:30pm and although we didn’t participate, we sat in the upstairs café area and had a great healthy dinner, and could see a good part of the show!

The next morning we woke up, worked out, showered and changed, had an a la carte breakfast (25,000 cfp) at the hotel, and checked out. The hotel ordered up a taxi which was there within 5 minutes and cost 1500cfp to return to the airport. In the domestic terminal at PPT, there is a bar, McDonalds, and a couple other small food options outside of security. Inside were restrooms and a small Café with coffee, snacks and waters for purchase. They were quite strict about the weight of baggage - so we had to shuffle items from our carry-ons to our larger roller-bags to meet the requirements - 11lb for carryon and 50lb for roller bag.

We heard from friends who visited French Polynesia the month before us, that they had spent an extra day on this particular island of Tahiti before moving on to Moorea (just a ferry ride away), and they wished they had just gone to Moorea directly. So, for what its worth, do some research if you’re thinking about staying long on the island of Tahiti!

Bora Bora

Bora Bora is a quick 50 min flight from Tahiti, on a small 100-or-so passenger plane. The view from the air of this stunning island and surrounding reef is incredible (sit on the left side of the plane if you have a choice!). Once we landed, we easily found our hotel representative who had welcome flower leis ready for us. The shuttle boat is just outside the doors of the 1-room airport, and it takes only 15 min to arrive at the St. Regis resort.

Though the direct boat shuttle to the resort was expensive ($250USD round trip for 2 people), the alternative is to hire a private taxi (also not cheap), or take the public boat shuttle to the main town of Vaitape, and then catch the Hotel shuttle from there, which arrives and departs at certain times during the day. For us, the incremental cost was worth paying for the hotel shuttle boat.

With images of the White Lotus Season 1 welcome scene in our heads, we stepped onto the dock to find a butler assigned to us, who gave us a golf-cart tour of the property before heading to the check-in desk. Check-in was easy, and they confirmed our dinner reservations at the resort which we had made several months prior to our arrival via email with the Concierge team. We were driven out the long wooden docks to our stunning overwater bungalow and given a tour! This was by far the largest and most well appointed hotel room we’ve ever been in.

The St. Regis resort is situated out on the Atoll around the center part of the island, and we were thrilled that we had selected a bungalow facing the interior center of the island. The view from our private balcony was of Mt. Otemanu, and we could jump in the water and swim around/under our bungalow, all the while with views of the mountain.

Each room at the St. Regis comes with beach cruiser bikes, which are a fun way to get around the resort. If your room happens to be toward the end of one of the spines, you’ll be glad for a bike as an alternative to walking. The hotel does offer golf cart rides (which is great especially if you get caught with an unexpected rain shower), however their timing is inconsistent and operate more as first come first served (as opposed to a reservation system for specific pick-up times).

We dined at all of the on-resort restaurants - and each offered something unique and special that we enjoyed. Surprisingly, the costs seemed on-par with the nicest steakhouses in Denver. The breakfast and lunch options were more simple, but exceptionally expensive, given the quantity and quality of food. For example, ……….. Drinks were in the $25-$30 range - as expected, so we supplemented with some cocktails of our own, as mentioned above with our Duty Free shopping.

The beach club offered free paddle boards, hobie cats, and pedal boats for resort guests, along with a pristine beach area with loungers and bar/restaurant service if desired. The pool (directly behind the beach) included a swim-up bar and fun music.

The resort also had tennis courts and a fully equipped fitness room (though we didn’t use either on this trip!). We didn’t explore the main town of Vaitape on this trip, though we might have taken the time to do so, if we had 1 additional night there. The hotels we looked into all seemed to offer their own shuttles to/from Vaitape at regular intervals during the day, and other tours were available from there (e.g. zip lines, 4-wheel quad tours, etc.).

We were pretty excited to Scuba Dive while in French Polynesia, and we found a great resource called the Te Moana Diving Pass. This allows you to book multiple days/dives with different dive shops (regardless of the island) and gain a discount. So for Bora Bora, we booked 1 morning (2 dives) of diving with Eleuthera Bora Diving Center. For our next stop which would be the Atoll of Rangiroa, we booked 2 mornings (4 dives) of diving with The 6 Passengers. Both were excellent and we would absolutely dive with each shop again! With the Te Moana Pass, each of our dives came out to only $64 per person. Not a bad price! If you’re a Scuba Diver and plan to go to more than one island, check out this Pass and see if it’s a good fit for you! More to come on The 6 Passengers in the Rangiroa section of this post.

Eleuthera Bora Diving Center picked us up from the dock at the St. Regis, and took us on the 10 min ride to the Anau Lagoon - a famous natural lagoon located between Mt. Otemanu and the natural barrier reef on the east side of the island. This area is known to be rich with sea life, due to the natural currents bringing nutrients and food for the animals there. We were lucky enough to swim for about 10 minutes with a giant reef manta ray - with probably a 10ft wingspan. Due to the currents however, our visibility was rather poor on this first dive.

Our second dive was just outside the barrier reef. Visibility was exceptional there (80+ feet) and we saw more beautiful plant and animal life (though our Go-Pro died so we don’t have any photos to share!).

The St. Regis also happens to have its own man-made Lagoon, for those who don’t want to contend with waves. It’s deep enough that you can’t touch the bottom, so you’ll need to be comfortable swimming on your own. But it’s loaded with wonderful animal life so grab your mask & snorkel, and wander over at your leisure!

The St. Regis is by far the most luxurious resort we’ve ever stayed at, and it certainly exceeded our expectations in every way! We were fortunate to be able to use hotel points to defray the cost of this lodging, but if you’re not able to use points yourself and this isn’t in your budget, there are other resorts out there (e.g. Intercontinental Le Moana, Le Bora Bora, Conrad Bora Bora Nui, and Hotel Maitai Polynesia), along with some Airbnb’s that might be more reasonably priced.

Rangiroa

The quick 1hr 15 min flight from Bora Bora to Rangiroa was similar to the flight from Tahiti to Bora Bora. We picked seats on the right side of the plane this time, and had excellent views of the atoll as we flew in! We had selected the Kia Ora hotel for our stay, and a staff member was in the terminal waiting to zip us over to the resort less than 5 min away. As we were searching for lodging options in Rangiroa, Kia Ora kept filtering to the top, though there are a few other high end possibilities as well.

Though the internet indicates there’s plenty to do on this island, we felt that it was quite limited to scuba diving or snorkeling/boat tours. If that’s not your thing, there may be other better options for your vacation in French Polynesia.

We opted for an on-land bungalow (though they did have overwater ones available) since we had just been spoiled in an overwater bungalow in Bora Bora. Our unit had a great little deck with private hot tub, looking out onto the water. It was a mix of sand and rock to enter the water there, but wasn’t too hard to maneuver barefoot to go for a swim. The grounds were very nicely kept up, and it was only a hundred yard walk from our unit to the restaurant and check-in hall. As we discovered on our first night, the bungalows were not entirely enclosed, and no mosquito netting was set up - so we slathered on the repellant, and tried to avoid getting eaten alive by the little buggers!

We loved the food at Kia Ora (a nod to the French influence and attention to quality dining!), and only ate out at another restaurant on one occasion. Our breakfasts were included with our room rate, and the other food options on the island were quite limited. In theory, there were 3 restaurants walking distance (2km) away - but on the evening we went looking for dinner, 2 of the 3 restaurants were closed. The 2 mini-markets in the same area are bare bones shelves with household goods, and a few freezer chests of cold items. Don’t rely on any specific supply being available here!

As we arrived in Rangiroa, so did the biggest swell in 25 years. The ocean was washing out roads across the atoll, and our scuba diving was cancelled for the next day. Since we couldn’t dive, we borrowed beach cruiser bikes from the resort and biked to the opposite end of the section of atoll we were on - as far as we could go without hopping on a boat! The winds and waves in the Avatoru pass made it clear why we weren’t scuba diving that day.

We were able to reschedule our dive for the following day, and got picked up by The 6 Passengers van in the morning. The 6 passengers was a well-organized dive shop with a great location near the Kia Ora resort. They dive mostly in/around the Tiputa Pass, which is just a 10 min boat ride from the shop. So, in-between each dive, we made our way back to the shop to dry off, hydrate, and eat a snack before preparing for the next dive. Unfortunately due to the incredible swell, it was unsafe to do the actual Tiputa Pass dive, but we had GREAT dives and visibility just outside the pass. We even got to see dolphins on multiple occasions!

Summary

Tahiti in general was beautiful - and Bora Bora specifically was everything the movies make it appear to be. The main island, the atolls, and the water are all just majestic! It is, however, a LONG way to go from the United States (8.5hrs from the West Coast), and the prices are high. So from our perspective, this is a once (maybe twice?!)-in-a-lifetime kind of trip that we’d HIGHLY recommend to friends and family for special occasions. Think big anniversary celebrations, big birthday years, etc. It’s nearly impossible to “do” Bora Bora on the cheap. You could probably visit just the islands of Tahiti and Moorea and keep costs down, but it still wouldn’t be cheap.

As we noted in our French Polynesia (Tahiti) 2022 Trip Summary, don’t forget to look at Air Tahiti’s Multi-Island Pass for the best prices on flights once you arrive in Tahiti from your original destination: https://www.airtahiti.com/en/airpass-fares.

For friends looking at diving in French Polynesia, many of our fellow travelers mentioned Fakarava Atoll for the shark diving, in addition to Rangiroa (where we were) for the Tiputa Pass experience. Also, if you’re planning on Scuba Diving, don’t forget to check out the Te Moana Pass (https://www.temoanadiving.com/en/) for savings on your dives!

We loved our time in French Polynesia as an early 40th birthday celebration for Spencer, and we’d love to return someday! However as noted above, due to the distance and cost, and the number of other places on our travel list, we probably won’t return any time soon ourselves.