During our World Trip in 2024, the French Polynesian Islands, were certainly one of the biggest highlights of our months of traveling. That destination feels like reaching the end of the world, as it’s quite “super far” away from where we live.
After the Philippines we headed back home to Luxembourg for two weeks, as my father had some severe health issues. We were looking forward to leave again, within the upcoming 10 days, we would head back to the USA, stopping by in San Francisco, and moving on towards Tahiti.
Tahiti.
We landed in Papeete, which is the capital of French Polynesia. Papeete is located on the island of Tahiti, one of their many islands. Tahiti on the other hand is the biggest island of French Polynesia.
Even though it’s been more than two years since we were visiting that beautiful place. I still remember a lot of details of that unique journey.
As soon as we left the airplane and headed towards the main building of the airport, we were greeted with live Polynesian music. The immigration at the airport was fulfilled by French police officers.
After having visited Hawaii, we noticed that the Tahitian people kind of looked alike. Tanned skin tones, men were usually bigger than europeans, and both men & women all had black hair. However I couldn’t cope with the fact, that they would speak French. As we are living on the border of Luxembourg and France… it just didn’t feel like being surround by french people. It felt like a “glitch in the matrix”. I had to get used to it… just a tiny unimportant fact of Polynesia.
As we were driving by taxi from the airport to the Hotel, the streets reminded me of France again… small round-abouts surrounded by neon-lit french supermarkets. It definitely looked like the area across the border where we live.
We arrived around midnight, and were kind of hungry. Most shops were closed. Downstairs was a dive-bar that was selling french soda and slices of pizza. That was our rescue of the night, as Papeete seemed pretty dead at night.
The next morning we headed straight to the ferry terminal on foot. The ferry would take us to our first island away from Tahiti: Moorea.
Moorea.
If I remember correctly, it took us not more than 60-90 minutes to reach Moorea. The ride felt smooth, however it was the first time in a long time where I slightly got sea-sick. Nothing too bad. I just felt a little nauseous. On the way back home to Tahiti, it was Vanessa’s turn. Even though we are usually fine with ferries and boats.
Once we got off the ferry, we headed to the rental car company. As public transportation is almost non existent on those islands.
While driving around the island, to reach our apartment, we instantly noticed how beautiful those islands are. Blue turquoise water, lots of palm trees and gorgeous mountains, are painting the landscapes with lots of blue and green colors.
However I got to admit, as gorgeous as the scenery was, it was equally boring. There was not much to do on those islands. When we were visiting a black pearl shop in Moorea, I asked the shop-lady where we could go out at night. She replied “Moorea is for the retired people, there’s not much going on”. “And why are the restaurants closing that early”…she replied “Well why not? Why should we keep them open for only a few customers. The local people prefer spending time with their families”.
That wasn’t the answer we would have expected. But the locals were so right. Why stressing themselves if they can have a more relaxed daily life. Something we wouldn’t understand or admit where we come from, where life has to be stressed and packed with 100 different things each day.
There are lookouts to see Mount Rotui, or the Toatea lookout where you get a view over the lagoon and the famous Sofitel Hotel on Moorea. Besides that you can enjoy some delicious poke bowls along the road, stop at some beaches, witness their blue colored beauty, get some fresh pineapples while enjoying the silence and the beautiful nature. There are a few restaurants, souvenir shops and a handful of bars on the island. That’s about it. The drinks were mostly bad… don’t expect any decent cocktails. The wines were ok… nothing delicious either.
So what’s great about visiting French Polynesia?
The nature, the culture, the smiling beautiful people, their way of life. That’s what impressed us while being in French Polynesia. The gentleness of the locals. Their colorful robes, their flowers in the hair. It felt being far away, but being very welcomed at the same time.
Bora Bora.
After 3 days we moved on to the next island. If I remember correctly we headed back to Tahiti by ferry, and took a short flight to Bora Bora. As soon as we landed, we were picked up by a ferry who took us to Bora Bora’s city center Vaitape. Of course, it was “BORA BORA!”. The surroundings of the airport looked very beautiful, located on a tiny island in the ocean. A boat ride was needed to reach Vaitape. It felt like we had reached Paradise.
From Vaitape, we jumped on a free bus ride to our Hotel “Mai Tai”. Everybody thinks that Bora Bora must be unaffordable, as it’s also the place where you can find some of the most expensive hotels in the world. Obviously we wouldn’t spend 10.000$ on a hotel for 3 nights. Bora Bora looks like just another Polynesian island. Lots of mesmerizing lagoons, the astonishing bungalows floating over the waters. It looks fantastic. But we wouldn’t discover anything totally different than what we would we get in Moorea.
The beaches were beautiful… the landscapes were a 10 of a 10. A picture of what we would call paradise. Shops.. nothing exciting, except a few local souvenirs shops in the city center of Vaitape. Nightlife non existent. Our hotel was “ok”, nothing more, nothing less. We tried to order a glass of wine and a cocktail. Both weren’t drinkable, I emptied my glass in the plant next to my couch. In French Polynesia they mostly use “rhum agricole” which is a very different flavor than the carribean rums we use in cocktails or long drinks. It’s not made with sugarcane molasses, but straight from sugarecane juice. If badly mixed, a rhum agricole can taste very bad, if you don’t like that distinguish flavor.
We took some beautiful photos in Bora Bora, and shared some lovely moments as a family. However there wasn’t much to do. One day we had the idea to buy a daily pass to visit the Four Season Hotel on the island. It would cost us between 800$ to get to the hotel by a small taxi boat, get a daily pass to use their pools, have a cocktail and head back to our hotel.
We didn’t go.
Huahine.
The third island we were visiting was Huahine. And it was my favorite among the 3 islands, I just listed in this blog post. Was it that much different? No, not really, however it had a “city center” with a handful of restaurants and a few food trucks, a supermarket, coffee spots… it just felt more alive than Moorea and Bora Bora.
And…. there was a nice bar called “The Huahine Yacht Club”. It had a the look of a tiki bar. They had 3 different “cocktail” options. The drinks weren’t great, but good enough to be enjoyed. The “rhum punch” and a fruity version of a “mai tai” were the first good drinks that we enjoyed next to the ocean. We were watching the sunset. Huahine was beautiful with a drink in our hand.
The day we landed on the island. All the car-rental booths at the airport were empty. No option to rent a car. I asked a french police officer where we could rent-a-car, and he wasn’t much of a help. There were no taxi, no buses. So a couple with a minibus stopped in front of us, and asked if we needed help. We told them that we had an issue with not getting a car at the airport. They offered to give us a ride, and they would know a cousin who would rent us a car, which turned out to be best choice we made.
They just checked our drivers license, asked where we’d sleep during our stay, and handed us over a car. No trust issues… always smiling.
The hotel options were less numerous than on the other islands. Our hotel was super basic, but clean. Every morning they would put a cotton-wrapped fresh baguette on our balcony with jam and chocolate butter. We enjoyed the minimalistic breakfast, as we were happy to be on the island.
Back to Tahiti.
Once we headed back to Tahiti we knew that our journey would come to an end. We spent another full night in Papeete before flying back to the U.S. . We would definitely miss those « ʻia ora na » (hello), and “māuruuru” (thank you), once we would leave the island. They use their own language with the tourists, which sounded always so charming, comparable to the “aloa” in Hawaii.
We spent a day in the park and at the local market in the center of Papeete. We didn’t explore the rest of Tahiti. The park was nice, there are a few nice polynesian themed bars. The view wasn’t great as the bay front is surrounded by cargo ships, and industrial sites, due to the harbor.
Like I already mentioned a couple of times in this post. There’s “not much” to visit on those islands. It’s not like visiting Bali where you will find an endless amount of temples, waterfalls, night markets, surf beaches, lots of shops in the main tourist spots… Bali is way more photogenic. French Polynesia is cleaner and more peaceful.
If you’re open-minded and ready to discover the kindness of the locals, their Polynesian culture (dances, music, cuisine) and witness some magnificent beachy landscapes… French Polynesia is the perfect place to visit. If you’re hunting Instagram spots and are fancying great culinary dishes, I’d recommend visiting islands in Thailand, Indonesia or Vietnam.
We are convinced that we will be heading back to the French Polynesia someday. We loved it.
I got myself a small polynesian tattoon my leg, as a souvenir of that wonderful experience we had.