This post has been a long time coming. I apologize to all the people waiting on this! We had the opportunity to visit three BEAUTIFUL islands of French Polynesia this past May for our anniversary trip and I’m excited to share part ONE of two with you today! The first island we visited was Tahiti.
To get to Bora Bora, you must fly into Tahiti first, so we decided to stay a couple nights on Tahiti at the Manava Suite Resort Tahiti. We definitely needed to catch up on sleep and wanted to enjoy some of the main attractions on this island. The flight from LA was about 8.5 hours, and when we arrived in Tahiti, it was 5am. The jet lag was so real and we had barely slept. So the first thing we did was enjoy a day at the infinity pool. After a full day of rest, we were ready to explore! We headed to the capital of Tahiti, Papeete, where we shopped at local stores, visited the Municipal Market (farmers market) and walked through the Paofai Gardens.
After Tahiti, we headed to the island of Moorea, French Polynesia where we stayed for 5 nights at Sofitel Moorea la Ora Beach Resort. We took a 30 minute ferry from Tahiti to Moorea (For my sea sick friends, take medicine! It can be a rough ride!!). I recommend taking the ferry because it’s cheaper than a flight and the views coming into the island were amazing!! A couple highlights from Moorea were an ATV tour from Moorea Activities Center, a Buggy ride from Moorea’s Fun Roadster, and playing golf at The Green Pearl!
Extra Tips:
French is their first language, however, the people who worked in the hospitality industry could speak English as well. Most menus were in French.
Their currency is also different – CFP Franc. For the best exchange rate, be sure to exchange currency at the airport when you land. Most local shops, accept credit cards, however, they usually had a minimum purchase amount which came out to be around $10-15 USD.
Watch out for stray dogs! Most are friendly, but we were warned not to touch them.
Special thanks to Michelle, our travel agent, for everything! We couldn’t of done it without her expertise! I highly recommend her for any of your travel needs, send her an email at michelle.icstravel@hotmail.com to get started! P.S. She doesn’t know I am saying this – just want to shout out the best travel agent 😉
*These photos are a mix of iPhone and my big girl camera 😉
We relaxed at the beautiful infinity pool and enjoyed the view of looking out to see the other island, Moorea. First day!The above picture is another view of the infinity pool!This was a view from our balcony on Tahiti. It was absolutely stunning!! This was the Municipal Market (farmers market). They had so many handmade items and a ton of fresh fruit.We grabbed a smoothie made with fresh fruit at the market and it was amazing!On the left is a photo of part of the Paofai Gardens walk. It was a beautiful ocean walk, but not to much to see other than enjoying a nice walk along the water. To the right is the front of the hotel we stayed at in Tahiti. It was recommended by a multitude of people to enjoy the food trucks (handmade food made by locals). One night we went to an area that had three or four of them. We enjoyed the pizza pictured above and a crepe for dessert! Just a heads up, food trucks are not like US or Hawaii food trucks. Most of them were the locals van that they made into a kitchen.This is the STUNNING island of Moorea (view from the ferry)! We arrived on a rainy/cloudy day so we took advantage of snorkeling! The left photo was right off of our bungalow and the snorkeling was amazing at Moorea! We saw so many colorful fish, a sting ray, and a barracuda. A tip is to grab bread from dinner and save it for the next day to feed the fish. If you followed me on Instagram stories while we were away, you would of saw the awesome video of us feeding the fish off the dock. Brian jumped in with his go pro and fed them by hand. It was AWESOME! The right is part of our resort, it was absolutely beautiful every where! When we arrived we were greeted with a cold, wet towel, fresh squeezed juice and flower lei’s! The Sofitel was beautiful! We loved our over water bungalow. These were not as nice or as private as the resorts on Bora Bora, however, they were still AMAZING! Every day they stocked your fridge with free water, fresh juice, and beer. A gorgeous sunset the first night!We went to a buffet dinner and a Polynesian dance show pictured left. It wasn’t anything to rave about (the buffet was pretty pricey too!). The best thing about the buffet dinner was the handmade chocolates and gelato. 😉 In Hawaii, we already went to a Polynesian dance show and this one was very similar. We took advantage of their happy hour and got some tasty drinks (pictured right)!The second day was also cloudy so we decided it would be a great day to golf at The Green Pearl! It had breath-taking views!! We sat on our balcony a lot. It was so peaceful! There was even a spot for us to lay out on, too!Another picture of part of the resort on Moorea.We rented the Roadster for four hours and took it around the entire island! Four hours was plenty of time to go around the island. We of course stopped and got ice cream first 😉 The Roadsters give you a map that lays out the entire island, provides great pointers, and tells you where you can find beautiful views!Moorea is such a STUNNING island!We ate at the golf course one day and it was delicious! Also, of course, I had to take a little bit of Tauri Baum Photography with me 😉 Laying out on our bungalow! This was their local beer that they stocked in our mini fridge.A view of Tahiti from Moorea!Included at the resort was free kayaking, canoeing, and paddle boarding. We took advantage of it! It was a beautiful day for it!This was the ATV tour. I HIGHLY recommend it!! It was so much fun and a GREAT way to see the amazing views from higher up.We went through Opunohu valley and it’s rivers!FYI – The ATV tour has a free hotel pick up and drop off. If you do not rent a car on Moorea, I recommend taking advantage of this!This is Belvedere – a picturesque lookout point with stunning views of mountains, bays & agricultural fields.We stopped at the Agricultural High School where we got free tastings of jam!Another view from the top!We stopped at this gift shop and got free rum tastings! Here, we bought vanilla (for baking) because they’re known for it! So tasty!The guide also takes photos throughout the tour and posts them on their Facebook for you to enjoy!This is a pineapple plantation. There were miles and miles of this!We got a beautiful 360 degree view of Magic Mountain!
I hope you enjoyed this blog! We love sharing our adventures with our couples, just in case they are considering it for a honeymoon! Please let me know if you have specific questions about either of these islands. We know we loved all the advice, recommendations, and tips when we were planning our adventure so we’d love to do the same for you! Be on the look out for the final island of Bora Bora, coming soon!
[…] We had the opportunity to visit three BEAUTIFUL islands of the French Polynesia this past May for our anniversary trip and I’m excited to share part TWO of two with you today! The final island we visited was Bora Bora. If you missed part ONE of the islands of Tahiti & Moorea, you can see it HERE. […]
[…] We had the opportunity to visit three BEAUTIFUL islands of the French Polynesia this past May for our anniversary trip and I’m excited to share part TWO of two with you today! The final island we visited was Bora Bora. If you missed part ONE of the islands of Tahiti & Moorea, you can see it HERE. […]