Hi,<BR><BR>I am in the early stages of planning my Honeymoon. The wedding is taking place on the East coast. We had originally planned to do the HI-Tahiti 12-day cruise, but are now rethinking that plan. We have enough miles to fly to Hawaii for free. We also want to include FP. The problem? Flight schedules and our holiday leave time! The ideal route is NY-FP-HI-NY. However, the only way to do that without retracing our steps is to purchase tickets on 2 different airlines. (Except for HI Air, no one appears to fly direct between Papeete and Honolulu; HI Air's schedule is limited.) One way air-fares are more expensive than round trip! Any suggestions?<BR><BR>Thanks.

Just go to Tahiti!!! Well actually, just land there and take off for the other unbelievable islands. Its so incredibly beautiful. Do you really want to be spending all that time flying on your honeymoon? I went to Tahiti last year and I live on the East too and believe me, its far and you have some long flights in order to get there. You could always go to Hawaii on your 1st year anniversary or something. Remember that the flight from Tahiti to Hawaii is 5 hours!! I checked it out last year. Good luck

ttt

TAHITI!!! We went to Hawaii for our honeymoon. But vacationed in Bora Bora and Morrea 5 years ago and we loved it!<BR>Kept saying "this is where we should have honeymooned"! Don't spend too much time in Tahiti, just get to the other islands.

hi!<BR>i think you need to choose one or the other. they are too far apart to do both and there is no reason to combine them, especially not on your honeymoon that is so short. decide which you want to see and fly directly there. they are nowhere near each other-- there's a reason those flights aren't working out.<BR>given the economy and the uncertainty of the airline industry these days (ie: yours could go out of business and you could lose your miles) i would go for the free trip. you should also see if you can save enough miles to get to tahiti- i *think* air new zealand is partners with united- that would mean that you could use your united miles to get to tahiti for free on air new zealand.<BR>both places have their charms - i would not give up a whole day of either one in order to see the other. as an above poster mentioned, do one this time and the other another time.<BR>i am very pro-hawaii because the people are so warm and friendly compared to the tahitians - who i found gruff. tahiti's waters, though, cannot be compared to hawaii's- they beat it hands down. <BR>have fun!

My vote would be Tahiti, specifically Bora Bora. I've been to Hawaii, Maui, Kauai many times, and although they are great, Tahiti is the more quintessential tropical experience. Plus, it's a more romantic, quieter vacation, perfect for a honeymoon. My husband and I went to the Pearl Beach Bora Bora last year for our 10 year anniversary, and I can't wait to go back.

TAHITI, TAHITI, TAHITI!!!! While we've never been to Hawaii (relatives live there though), we've been to tahiti twice and found it to be wonderful. RE: the posting stating the FP people were rude - that, unfortunately, is beginng to be true. Skip Tahiti & Moorea and go to the out of the way places (ranigoroa,huahine, etc) and the people are wonderful & friendly.

As others indicated you should choose one or another. They are different realizations of tropical resort based on US thinking and French thinking. I like merit of both while others only want it one way or another. If you want things to be like in mainland US only, then as few has indicated, you would not like FP way of doing things.<BR><BR>I have been to FP twice and Hawaii 4 times. This reflect more of opportunities rather than desire. While I would rather have visited FP more, frankly it is much tougher to plan a visit there. So from the opportunity point of view, think about what you will be doing in the future, would you be able to plan time off and take a trip to FP as easily as Hawaii as you are now?<BR><BR>Water in FP is incomparable to what is available in Hawaii. There are more night life in Hawaii than in FP. But if that is what you were looking for, why go to tropics in the first place?<BR><BR>Finally regarding service and friendliness, this is a difference between a US approach to a resort and a French approach. If you like to be pestered with "How can I help you?", "How is the food?, etc, then you get these in Hawaii. The French way assumes that you want to be left alone and would ask them if you want something. Having gone back and forth between these two types of resorts, I now prefer FP type of resort and rather be left alone until I need something. We were at a nice restaurant in Wailea in Maui. Others would say the service was impeccable, drink 1/2 inch of water, it gets immediately refilled, bread getting low, another basket magically appers on the table. Head waiter keep coming back asking how we were doing, etc. After a while, I wanted to scream at them to leave us alone in peace!