French Polynesia

Ia ora na!  There are no more beautiful islands anywhere.  They are ancient islands, weathered and sculpted by millions of years leaving knife-edged ridges, spires, deep valleys, and an extensive reef system creating perfect turquoise lagoons around every island.  Those colors are real, they aren’t Photoshop.

It’s an exotic place of beautiful people with French accents.  Tres chic, stylish, artsy, gourmand, black pearls, vanilla, but still rural, quiet, sleepy even; a place where mostly you sit back and just take it in.  And one other thing; overwater bungalows were invented here.  Other than the airport hotels near Papeete, everywhere else most of the rooms are built on piers over the lagoon, so besides being huge thatch-roofed suites with lots of privacy, they have decks over the water and stairs down into the lagoon with fresh water showers attached so you can rinse the salt off when you come out.   They have windows built into the floors and lights underneath so you can look down and see the fish even at night.

Best time to visit: French Polynesia is in the South Pacific, so their seasons are opposite ours (when it’s summer here it’s winter there).  Can be hot and humid in the summer, but gorgeous in the winter, which being our summer, is when most honeymoons take place.

What you should expect to pay:  French Polynesia is spectacular, but it is spendy, there is no way around that.  It’s usually a seven night stay and everyone wants an overwater bungalow (OWB) in Bora Bora, arguably the prettiest of the islands.  Expect to spend around $10,000 per couple for a nice OWB with airfare and breakfast included.

Where to go?  There are roughly 130 islands give or take in French Polynesia, and most of them are in one of the three major groups of islands, the islands in each group being similar geologically.

Society Islands:  Tahiti, Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea/Taha’a, and Bora Bora; they are all extinct volcanoes enclosed by extensive reef systems and surrounded by turquoise lagoons.  Mostly rural, there is only one city in all of French Polynesia, that being Papeete on the island of Tahiti.

Tuamotu Islands:  Manihi, Fakarava, Tikihau, and Rangiroa; these are all atolls, collapsed volcanoes, so all that is left is a coral ring surrounding a shallow inland lagoon.  Sparsely inhabited and nothing more than sand and coconut palms, this is where the best diving is, and where most of the black pearls are farmed.

Cruise: I‘m not a fan of mega-ship cruising. There is another class of cruise though, sometimes called expedition cruising, that is based on small ships, personal service, and most importantly an emphasis on nature and culture.  These cruises aren’t the whole trip, they are part of a larger itinerary that gets you into places that are difficult or impossible from a strictly land based tour. The Paul Gauguin offers 7, 10, 11 and 14 day cruises throughout French Polynesia and the Cook Islands.

Tuamotu Islands

Rangiroa

Cruises

Paul Gaugin Cruises