Good morning all!

My husband and I are planning a trip for our first anniversary in August. We live in Colorado and have 9 nights available. We are on a bit of a budget and were considering the Carribean, but French Polynesia has totally peaked our interest. As a matter of fact, we can't stop thinking about it! Our foremost concern is if it will be affordable for us or not (before we start doing all the research). However, we were looking online last night at package deals offered from various places online, and some of them seemed to be in our price range! If you wouldn't mind giving your input on some questions we have, it would be greatly appreciated!!!

1. Do you think it is possible to do an affordable trip to FP? We have always been budget travelers and are not concerned with big resorts, being pampered, etc. Just looking for a safe, clean vacation with breath-taking scenery and places to snorkel, hike, and lay on the beach.

2. Would you recommend Moorea to us given the above info? We are open to other islands including the Cooks, Samoa, Tahiti, Bora Bora, etc. Been to Hawaii and various places in the Caribbean before and loved them all!

3. We are young (25) and have always tried to choose safe "American-friendly" places to visit up to this point. Maybe this is dumb, but how would FP fit in with that?

We appreciate your help! We will be doing much, much more research on this if it looks like it will be do-able for us!

What do you mean by "on a bit of a budget"? How much do you have available for airfare/acommodations/food?

Ken

Glad you asked! Didn't know if it would be appropriate to post here or not. We have about $5,000 to spend on the whole trip.

Yeah, you ought be able to do it for that. Costco and some of the other travel outfits have Tahiti/Moorea packages that fall into that price range - providing that you are not looking for an overwater bungalow. Keep in mind that food at the major resorts will probably run you over $100 USD/PP/Day. If you can find a non-resort restaurant nearby (especially one frequented by the locals) it will likely be much cheaper.

Another alternative is to stay at one of the smaller, less expensive, family-run resorts. Here are a few to consider:

On Moorea - http://www.labaiedenuarei.com/

On Huahine -
http://www.relaismahana.com/accueilA.htm

http://www.mauarii.com/accueilA.htm

http://www.fare-maeva.com/accueilA.htm

Don't know much about these and some of them may be a bit basic (so research carefully), but they are very reasonably priced (especially for FP) and if/when I return I will consider them. Another plus about these places is that food at any attached restaurants is likely to be much cheaper than at the big resorts, so you'll save both on the accomodations and also on your meals.

Just don't book your stay on Tahiti only. Moorea and the other islands offer much nicer beaches than Tahiti. Of these, Moorea is the easiest and cheapest to get to and is often considered to be the most beautiful island in all the South Pacific.

Hopefully ALF (a very knowledgable poster on going to FP on a budget) will see this post and respond.

Ken

PS: Here's the link to set of small family-run resorts on Bora Bora:

http://www.temanuata.com/en/home_en.htm

Ken

You can do a 9-day trip to FP from Colorado for $5K. I agree with Ken that you should look at some airfare/hotel packages which potentially sould save you some money.

I think that Moorea is a great choice - it is a quick ferry ride over from Tahiti, and is much more relaxed and less-developed. There are a number of smaller mid-priced places to stay that are on delightful beaches with great views. The island is small enough to get around by bus, bike, or moped; yet large enough to spend a couple of weeks there and find plenty to do. Also, I don't think that you need to have any concerns about safety or lack of 'American-friendliness'.

There are a half-dozen mid-range places on Moorea: Hotel Kaveka, Les Tipaniers, Fare Vai Moana, Hotel Hibiscus, Linareva, and Moorea Village. Of this group, Moorea Village is the largest, and Les Tipaniers might be the fanciest. Actually, there are two Les Tipaniers, a few km apart, both of which are really nice. Vai Moana and Hibiscus are quite small and quiet, and we really liked staying there.

www.lestipaniers.com/cadres36.htm
http://www.tahiti.com/english-versio...a-village.html
www.linareva.com/introA.html
www.hotelkaveka.com/
www.hotel-hibiscus.pf/infoe.html
www.pacific-resorts.com/tahiti/moorea/vai-moana/

You should also consider the Cook Islands, which are (IMO) friendlier, less expensive, and just as picturesque. You could split your time between Rarotonga and Aitutaki, and really have a wonderful vacation. Although I really like FP, and Moorea, specifically, given the choice I'd go to the Cook Islands first.

Al F

Thank you for all of the great info! I am going to share this with my husband and continue researching. Especially the Cook Islands. Do you have recommendations of affordable places to stay there? Thanks so much!

Well, like ALF, the Cooks are my favorite destination. I do consider FP to be marginally more beautiful, but the Cooks are a very close second, and when you factor in the cheaper cost of accomodations/food/activities and the more friendly demeanor of the people, I think the Cooks come out on top. We are in fact planning on returning there next year.

However, there are a couple of things to consider:

1) The Cooks are a bit cooler than FP and August is one of their coolest months, with average highs on Raro only being about 76 or so. This is definitely summerlike and when you consider that it's their dead of winter, pretty darned nice. However, some people do find it a bit cooler than they expect and perhaps a bit too chilly to swim. Actually this temp is not too far off what people find in places like the north shore of Kauai in winter. The difference is - that in winter most visitors to Kauai are coming from a colder place, so a high temp in that range seems pretty nice. For you however, coming in August when Colorado may likely be warmer than the Cooks, it may feel cooler than you expect.

See the site listed below for more info:

http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/w...=&units=us

Anyway, maybe you'll be fine. I just don't know. Everyone's perception of temp is different - but also, as I said, very dependent on where you are coming FROM. Any other time of year than our (America's) summer I would definitely recommend the Cooks over FP. That time of year... I just don't know.

2) Though accommodations/food/activies are cheaper in the Cooks, airfare to get there is usually more than airfare to FP. In general, the longer your stay, the better your savings in the Cooks, because once you arrive, you will usually find everything cheaper than in FP. In any event, be sure and factor in the airfare prices to the Cooks in order to do a fair comparison. Not sure what the airfare is now, but we paid about $1000 USD/PP from LAX (round-trip) to Raro.

As far as places to stay, I normally recommend the Palm Grove on the south shore of Raro as the water condtions there are wonderful. The Little Polynesian is in a nice location too. During the cooler time of the year when you will be there I might be tempted however to recommend somthing along the sheltered west side of the island or perhaps something at Muri Beach (which although on windward side of the island, has the offshore motus to provide windbreaks).

On Aitutaki I'd stay on the west side of the island in a place like the Are Tamanu, the Aitutaki Seaside Lodges or maybe the new Etu Moana Beach Villas. We stayed at the first one and it was great. While the latter two were not yet built when we were there, they are in great locations in regards to swimming/snorkeling.

Note that Aitutaki is a couple of degrees warmer than Raro and tends to be sunnier (though in August that should be too much of an issue).

Ken

Ken,

Your insight is greatly appreciated! It sounds like we might enjoy the Cooks more, with the exception of the cooler weather and the higher airfare. I think cost is what might decide it for us in the end. Any recommendations for places to search for packages either in the Cooks or Moorea?

For the Cooks:

I booked through this place and got a very good price for the airfare (compared to the price quoted on the Air New Zealand web site - the only airline currently flying to the Cooks):

http://www.jetsave.co.ck/

Check the accomodation lists to get an idea of costs. We actually rented a terrific house on Raro's south shore for a week and an "OK" house on Muri Lagoon for a 2nd week (for about $100 USD/night), then stayed at the Are Tamanu resort on Aitutaki (for about $160/night) for a week as well. Total cost of the trip including all airfare (we live in Seattle), accomodations, meals, spending money, and a night in LA with a day trip to Disneyland) was around $7000 USD. The US dollar has dropped in value since then so that trip would likely cost maybe $10,000 nowadays. A NZ dollar was worth less than 50 cents US back then, and now is about 72 cents US. Note that that lousy exchange rate also affects prices in French Polynesia.

Here are a few other helpful links for the Cooks:

http://www.maui.net/~jbonline/menu.html
http://cookpages.com/

http://www.webcentral.co.ck/ac_rental.htm

http://www.rarorealty.co.ck/rentals.htm

http://www.islandhoppervacations.com/

Also, as I mentioned, if you are Costco member be sure and check out their prices:

http://www.costco.com/Common/CategoryMain.aspx?cat=1133

For French Polynesia: This is a Tahiti specialist site with a very active message board (best such board on French Polynesia). Do NOT post messages referring to any other travel company however as the site is run by a travel company and they will delete your message. It seems to me that their prices are pretty good and they are certain knowledgable about FP:

http://tahiti-explorer.com/

Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays also books trips to FP (I've never used them):

http://www.pleasantholidays.com/Plea...Web/Welcome.do

Ken

Hi! After much consideration (and help from Ken) I just booked a trip to Moorea for July. I have been dying to get to the Cooks for 3 years now but it's just too complicated. I was able to use frequent flier miles to go from NYC to Papeete, then will continue on to Sydney.

I used a company called pacific-for-less.com to book all accommodations in Tahiti. I will be staying in Tahiti the first night since my flight does not arrive until 6:20 PM and I need a place to store my luggage. Then I will go to the Moorea Pearl Beach Resort for 3 days, spending my last night back in Tahiti. Included in the package is all transportation to/from airport and hotels, accommodation, taxes, etc. I was pleased with the price although I could have done it cheaper if I picked one of the resorts Ken mentioned such as Moorea Village, Hibiscus, etc. However, since I am traveling alone and in my opinion this vacation is really about the resort I wanted somewhere a bit nicer. I was told the Sofitel Kia Ora is in bad shape and will be renovated soon, which was disappointing since it was more in the price range I wanted.

The hotels Ken and Alf recommended all look nice from their web sites and are cheaper than the Moorea Pearl Beach. I don't think you can go too wrong and if you also plan to spend some time exploring Moorea then you won't be there all the time. The problem with the Cooks was getting there-I don't have miles on United I can use and they are the ones that partner with Air NZ. However, I am going to Papeete on Air Tahiti Nui, which partners with American, as does Qantas which is taking me to Sydney.

Also good advice is the renting a house in the Cooks. Ken gave me this advice and it's a great way to save money, but be careful because some posts I read talked about burglaries and things like that. I'm sure if you are careful you'll be fine. I'm actually doing a house swap in Bondi Beach in Sydney for the second year in a row and it could not have worked out better. We met through mutual friends and he gets a free apartment in NYC and I get Sydney!

Good luck and have a great trip.
Abby

Hi there,

You can definitely do it! I just booked my honeymoon trip to the FP and the whole thing cost $4800per person, inlcuding airfare. We are going for 10 nights/11 days and here are the details:

Departing LAX on Air Tahiti
--Five nights in Moorea in a deluxe garden bungalow with private pool at the MOOREA PEARL RESORT (http://www.pearlresorts.com/moorea/bungalows.asp)
--Then on to Bora Bora for five more nights in a Premium Overwater Bungalow at the BORA BORA PEARL BEACH RESORT (http://www.pearlresorts.com/bora/main.asp)

We went through a local travel agent who in turn went though a company called Tahiti Legends - they are a travel wholesaler for that area. (http://www.tahitilegends.com/)

She first quoted us a price of $3861 which would have been for a garden room in Moorea and garden pool room in Bora Bora, but we had the option to upgrade rooms at both places so we took that option. It was $514pp extra to upgrade to an overwater bungalow in Moorea and $557pp extra to upgrade to an overwater bungalow in Bora Bora. We went with the Bora Bora option and the hotel had booked all the regular overwater bungalows so we paid a little more and got the premium one.

I would advise checking out gotahiti.com, or finding a local travel agent that can get you a cheaper deal - they are definitely out there.

Good luck!