Tahiti Vacation – August 29, 2015
Planning
We had been wanting to go to Tahiti for several years, and finally decided to take the leap. So far, we had taken one cruise using a third party company to help us but had planned and booked all of our other vacations on our own. We felt like this gave us the most flexibility and allowed us to control our own schedule. When we started to plan the Tahiti trip, we found that there were just too many logistics that needed working out, starting with which islands we wanted to visit. We also had no idea how to reliably get from island to island so it quickly became apparent that we needed help. We had heard good things about Costco travel, so we decided to give them a try. Theresa took the lead on this one, and did a great job. We started with their website, and found some packages, but we didn’t really find what we wanted, and we had a lot of unanswered questions. Theresa gave them a call, and after a few marathon sessions of about an hour each, we had exactly what we wanted. We were set up with a 3 island package, landing in Tahiti for one night, then travelling to Moorea and Bora Bora.
We found the best deal could be had by sticking with the same hotel for all 3 islands so we chose the Intercontinental package. We had great experiences in the past with Intercontinental hotels, and after doing some research, all of their hotels in their package seemed like great choices. We especially wanted to try the over the water suites at the Intercontinental Thalasso Spa in Bora Bora. As we finalized our reservations, we ran into a problem. The Thalasso over the water suites were sold out on two of the five nights that we were in Bora Bora. After some creative work by our Costco agent, we were able to move the sold out nights to the hotel Sofitel in standard rooms, and the final three nights at the Thalasso over the water. We actually saved some money with this move since 5 full nights in the over the water suite would have cost us a good deal more. Three nights to give it a try seemed like plenty so this was perfect.
Costco was also able to handle the part of the vacation that seemed so daunting for us. They took care of all of the inter-island transfers, and also all of the transfers to get us to the actual resorts. We were set to go.
Basically, there was no other planning that was needed. Unlike other vacations, where we booked tours and planned visits to various sites in the city, we would basically be spending most all of our time at the selected resort… relaxing. It would be a different kind of vacation, but we welcomed it. There was one exception… as we went over the itinerary, we realized that we got into Tahiti at 5:20AM and we couldn’t check in until 3:00pm. Sure, we could probably hang out at the resort and have drinks in the bar, but it seemed like a waste of a day. So, we came up with a plan to rent a car and to drive around the island until we could check in.
A quick look at Google maps told us that it would take about 2.5 hours to drive the entire loop around Tahiti. With a few stops, we could probably get back to the hotel in the afternoon. We thought it a bad idea to carry all of our luggage around all day in a rental car, so we would drop the bags off at the hotel and start our excursion from there.
Our planned drive around the island, including our stops.
Tahiti
Expect to fly in before the sun rises if you’re coming from the west coast.
We found the rental car desk without any problems, and we were off to our hotel in no time. After dropping our luggage off at the hotel, we started on our way. The weather was pretty miserable, and the rain made driving a little difficult. Except for a short, almost tragic, oops I’m going the wrong way on a one way road in Papeete incident, the drive around the island was pretty straightforward. The road is in pretty good shape, and there was rarely much traffic. We found some interesting sites on the road around the island.
The road around the island was in good shape and was an easy drive. Even with the bad weather.
The first stop was Faarumai Waterfalls which was 5 minutes off the main highway, down a narrow road. We pulled up to the parking lot and noticed that there were no other cars parked there. At the corner of the trail head were a few locals who were selling some touristy stuff. It was starting to rain, and it looked like the locals were packing up to leave. We decided to brave the weather and head down the trail. As we made our way through the plush vegetation, the rain really started to come down. Since the trail was fairly steep and getting muddy, we turned back. We were a little discouraged, but decided to continue the loop around the island.
The muddy trail down to the Faarumai Waterfall
As we drove, the weather cleared up and we took advantage of several spots along the road to pull over and enjoy the view. Another spot on our list of places to stop was the Paul Gauguin Museum. The Museum was located in a scenic park right on the water. It was located next to a botanical garden, and as we drove in, the whole area was full of beautiful vegetation. Unfortunately, the museum itself was closed, and was actually boarded up and permanently shut down. Well, we were now two for two to start off in our attempt to see the island’s attractions. The surrounding park was beautiful enough where we didn’t feel badly about the museum being closed. On to the next stop.
The Gauguin Museum located in the middle of a beautiful park.
We had better luck at our next stop, the Vaipahi Gardens, which was 5 minutes down the road from the Gauguin Museum. The Vaipahi Gardens is a plush area teeming with tropical flowers and other vegetation. It has a number of ponds and a waterfall. If you’re making the drive around this area, you should definitely stop here.
The Vaipahi Gardens are full of beautiful flowers and orchids
The gardens contain a number of ponds and a waterfall.
Driving another 20 minutes down the highway, you’ll see a sign for the Grottes De Maraa along with a turn out with some parking spots. The grotto, formed by natural lava caves, are really nice, and the easy hike is also filled with beautiful vegetation to look at as well. There is also the Grotte Teanateatea which is closer to the road. Just a word of warning to not leave valuables in your car when you make these stops. We had walked down the trail for 5 minutes before realizing that we had left our camera on the back seat. We had seen reviews that warned about leaving things in the car, so we decided that we would walk back to grab the camera. As I walked up to the car, there were two kids on bikes, one on each side of the car peering into the window. As I walked up to them, they quickly rode off. I’m pretty sure we dodged a bullet by going back to retrieve the camera.
The Grotte Teanateatea is only a few minute walk off the main highway.
Our final stop along the loop was the Arahurahu Marae. A Marae is an ancient temple or sacred meeting place. This one is a reconstruction of what the site might have looked like when it was in use. The alter area, along with other structures, are built from thousands of black lava rocks. The small road leading to the marae is easy to miss and even while you’re on it, you’ll second guess yourself a few times as to whether you’re on the right road. Just follow it until it ends and you’ll see the marae sign.
Ancient structures built from thousands of black lava rocks
We finished our tour of the island in the late afternoon. I returned the car and took the shuttle back to the hotel. We were able to take the rest of the evening to relax after our activity filled day.
Our balcony with a fantastic view of the Pacific.
The food
We stopped to eat at about the half way point in our drive in Taravao. We then had a substantial dinner after we returned to our hotel at the Intercontinental. Great seafood at the hotel that of course went along with drinks served in coconut shells. The next morning we took advantage of the hotel’s breakfast buffet.
Daily buffet breakfast at the Intercontinental Tahiti
Our land transfer dropped us off at the boat launch about an hour before our ferry was to depart. The location was right next to the Papeete Market, so we browsed the shops there for a few hours, picking up a few souvenirs as we wandered through the massive market. We headed back to the dock and boarded our shuttle boat. We were off to Moorea and the rest of our trip.
The Papeete Market was one block from the boat docks.
Our shuttle that took us to Moorea.
