All About My Visit to The French Polynesian Islands

When you think of a dream honeymoon destination, odds are the over water bungalows in Bora Bora or the Maldives might come to mind. Thats what I always pictured also. A tropical get-away in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Well, I just spent the last 10 days there and I wasn’t on a honeymoon. I was just on my mothers birthday trip with my aunt. We spent our time traveling and exploring three of the main islands leaving the best for last.. bora freaking bora. Now before I get to the good part lets chat about the French Polynesian islands.

If you’re thinking about coming here I have two pieces of advice for you..

Firstly, prepare yourself for a long ass flight. Secondly, you better save up because this place is not cheap. I mean a club sandwich thats pretty mediocre is about $20 and a 10 minute taxi ride will also cost you about $20 one way. As my time here comes to an end I cant say I truly love this place but I also cant say I hate it. Im really in the middle, and thats not always a bad place to be. I would come back and visit or I could easily spend that money going somewhere new. I try not to visit the same place twice unless I really really want to.

If you’re coming all the way to the French Polynesian islands defiantly try to hit at least three islands. Although these islands are from the same chain, the landscapes and beaches look a bit different the more you travel them.Which made it nice since we did an island tour of all three islands we went to.

The three islands we traveled to were Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora. I personally think thats a great itinerary for first timers here. I was against having a travel planner at first but it was nice to have everything from our shuttles, activities, to our meals mostly planned out.

Ok now lets get into the islands and what I really think of them..

*Disclaimer - traveling is subjective and my opinions are my own, please dont let this factor yours or change anything these are just my personal opinions based on personal expeirnces*

First stop we flew in to Tahiti from San Fran, this took about 8 hours. I was sad we landed in at night and I wasn’t able to see the islands but it was a nice surprise waking up the next morning. We stayed at the Intercontinental which is only about 10 minutes from the airport. To be honest, Tahiti is just a layover island. You really only need a day here.. spend the rest of your time in the islands. I really wasn’t impressed or excited about anything here. Its one of the larger islands and we did a half day tour but like I said not really much to see. The hotel we stayed at is defiantly not worth the money but im not sure where else you would stay since it is one of the most popular resorts. One thing I really did like about the resort was the breakfast buffet, Ive never had a buffet where so much of the local cuisine was included. I've been eating mostly at the resort restaurants (same menu every night) so it was nice to have this option. We stayed our first two days and our last day here at this property. It gets the job done... let’s just say that.

Next we took a short ferry ride from Tahiti to Moore, that was a beautiful site. It did get rough in the middle but manageable. Moorea was alot better than Tahiti. It was the first time I saw the beautiful baby blue water I always saw on the travel videos. We stayed at the Hilton property and although it was pretty I defiantly would not stay there again. We found many things wrong with the room from the toilet always running, bathroom door not closing, and fan about to fall from the ceiling. I dont want to make this a negative blog but it wasn’t really a good resort especially for the price you pay. I also found these resorts to be super land locked. Not sure if thats the term but it was hard to leave the property unless you had a tour. Taxi’s are scarce, when I went to get a tattoo I would’ve had to wait 40 minutes but luckily a tour guide was on his way that way so he dropped me off. I did enjoy the island tour a bit more here but our tour guide threw so much information at us it was hard to keep up. The cave systems and waterfalls make this island more unique from the rest. Here you'll find some of the tallest mountains including the one that influenced Moana - Te Fiti. I had no idea the mountain was in this country until I got there, personally I think Moana is one of the best Disney movies so I was really exciting to learn this was the place the filmmakers got their influence. During our 4x4 tour we also were able to see and learn about the pineapple farms and how much they produce here. Fun fact- all the pineapples grown on this island are only consumed on the islands they dont import them anywhere since it would be so expensive. The pineapples are very sweet and refreshing. Moorea is a great stop on your list I would add it if you were planning trip. Aside from not liking the resort much I really loved the people and felt like this was a more tropical destination we were wanting.

Lasty we went to Bora Bora … let me tell you. Fucking WOW. This place left me speechless. I’ve never seen clearer water and sand bars like that. It truly is better than the pictures and I cant say that for many places. To my surprise Bora Bora is a tiny tiny island. The airport is on its own island so to get to your hotel you either take their ferry or the public one to the main land. We stayed at Le Bora Bora by Pearl Resorts and they were one of 4-5 resorts that picked you up by their own boat. Its quite funny that the airports in Moorea and Bora Bora don't have security.. you just check in and walk 10 steps over to the gate. Really you dont need to be at the airport anymore than 30 minutes before the flight. You’ll find one shop and one tiny cafe to keep you busy, of course both times I enjoyed a beer preparing my flight anxiety. I loved how the Air Tahiti flights are open seating, its just more fun that way picking your seat. When flying to Bora Bora SIT ON THE LEFT SIDE both ways for the best views. Flying in and out of the island is a treat itself.

Bora Bora was worth the hype if you absolutly want to visit. I really loved our hotel it was a perfect spot, centrally located where the ferry to the main island only took 3 minutes by boat. The rooms were gorgeous and the staff were so sweet. I highly recommend this place and I think it might be the cheapest option for over water bungalows. One of my favorite activities we did was the shark & stingray snorkel tour. Our guide took us to a hot spot filled with about 15 black tip sharks and 5ish stingrays. Our guide was exceptional making jokes but also helping us with our fears being around the stingrays (RIP STEVE). Our guide even went above to grab my GoPro and film me since at one point I was the only one from the group in the water. Snorkling in Bora Bora is breathe taking. No words really describe how beautiful it is. If you're in the market for some jewelry or pearls you can take a public bus or taxi to the "shopping area" which is just a little hot spot in town with a few shops. We stumbled upon this little jewelry flee market tucked away and ended up finding some cute hand made pieces. There isn't much to do by yourself on this island so I would recommend sticking to the tours or really just enjoying the resorts because they are some of the nicest in the world. For my moms birthday we all got massages and that itself was a great experience being spoiled at the spa. The spa on our resort property seemed to have a big Japanese garden influence, at times you forget where you are. Massages weren't priced insanely much like other things here they were pretty average priced so look into doing that!

Overall, I think my biggest complaint was how resorty and touristy the entire tripped seemed. Every resort was hard to leave and it made it hard to really enjoy the local culture which is just what I’ve been pushing for this year. If you’re looking for just a resort vacation and super relaxing this is your spot. I truly did enjoy my time and im so grateful I was able to experience this with my mother ticking off one of her bucket list items. It's an amazing country with the sweetest locals, I cant say I wouldn’t go back but I think once was good enough. I will say nothing will ever beat waking up in the bungalow seeing that water… I will miss that.

If you’re looking for cheaper options I would consider Bali, Costa Rica, or Mexico. I felt like the vibes were similar depending where you stayed but Bali is still at the stop of my favorite places in the world with the most insane villas.. and prices might I add.