French Polynesia - Cruise or Land?
 

We are considering going to French Polynesia for a milestone anniversary. Which do you think we
would get the most out of: a cruise with stops at different islands or staying at a resort, possibly two different islands? Other than the fact that this is one of the most beautiful spots in the world, we have little information to guide us. Thanks.

Buy a package. Noumea and Ile des Pins. Or Rarotonga and
Aitutaki. Or Tahiti and Moorea. all perfectly beautiful.

If you don't know these places, don't plan it yourself, get an agent to do it for you and have a lovely anniversary!

I'd choose a cruise. We cruised Papeete, Bora Bora and Moorea last year and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I am in the middle of the same "problem". Paul Gauguin cruise, Archipels sailing cruise, or stay on 4 islands with Pacific Destinations.com? Any more opinions about there?
Marg, who did you cruise with?

We cruised French Polynesia as part of a Princess cruise ex Sydney. We saw a television documentary on the Paul Gauguin ship recently and it looked really good - smaller ship, smaller number of passengers. I think there is another small shipping company which does freighter/cruise trips around the islands.
Such a beautiful part of the world - I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

This is a timely question as we will be celebrating a mile stone anniversary in 2017 and want to start the planning.

I'm thinking a cruise to French Polynesia rather than flights. Marg are you able to provide more details on your cruise - which ship or anything else that might be useful, please?

Sorry Marg just re read your post. Were you happy with Princess? I'm not sure if anyone else goes there from Australia.

Hi stormbird,
Yes, we were happy with Princess and have done several cruises with them. In our case we sailed on the Sea Princess - it was 35 days round trip out of Sydney. We visited Tonga, Apia (Samoa), Pago Pago (US Samoa), Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Kauai, Maui, Hilo, Kona, Honolulu, and Noumea. We appreciated that we could visit places that are quite difficult and expensive to get to.
Princess are currently advertising a similar cruise for 2016 and hopefully for 2017.
Glad to help with any info you need.

Thanks Marg - 35 days is a long cruise - would you do that again. tHe longest I've done is 13 nights but feel I could go on a longer one with no major problems.

Hi stormbird,
We would do that cruise again - we both loved it. I think the longest stretch of sea days was five days but there were activities every day if you wanted to be busy. We thought the days absolutely flew. We thought it was one of the best holidays we had had, and some of the places visited absolutely beautiful. We have great memories of sailing into Moorea and Bora Bora in particular - so beautiful and spectacular.

IF you haven't already made your decision, you might look in to Windstar. They also do cruises of the Tahitian islands.