Post #21605 by fatuhiva on Sat, Feb 1, 2003 1:50 AM

It was a very fun trip- I could see where it could possibly have been a hard trip had I not gone with the better accomodations. What I mean by that is, if you are going to send yourself all the way out there, you should try to live a little (rack that CC up) or you might find yourself in a place that kinda sours the trip for you.

Partly this is because I am a sissy when it comes to my comfort bubble, and partly its because Tahiti is just so beautiful, why no go the extra mile and make it an insanely great trip?

One can stay in the islands for very cheap if you want to have a camping-like experience (remember it can get hot and buggy) and that probably wouldnt be so bad because you are travelling cheaply and are expecting things to be no-frills.

However, I saw many places that were still $400-$500 a night and weren't much beyond the hostels.. so I say either rough it and save the money or go with the best hotels. do your research first if you go.

The paul gaugin is an very good deal. the rooms are very nice as you can see in the pics, and you will stuff your face 24hrs a day with incredible food- and I'm a food snob. You get to see many islands w/o having to hotel-hop and you have the peace of mind that your room will be perfect no matter where you currently are.

The only downside is that the daily excursions are a little more pricey through the ship (it adds up fast) and they are each half-day, whereas some companies directly on the islands offer all-day trips that give you alot more time to slow down and relax. For example on Moorea we went with one tour company that met on a dock in the morning and we just cruised around the island and its surrounding motu islands all day at a relaxed leisurely pace. The Tahitians who boat you around and serve as your guides were really great to have around- they were so fun-loving and laid back.. they just love to kick back and enjoy the beauty. They sat around singing songs with their ukeleles in french it was really cool. By the time it was over we had swam with and fed sharks, snorkeled beautiful reefs for hours on end, frolicked around with giant stingrays and had a delicous picnic lunch on a small island all the while picking fruit off trees and eating fresh coconuts wherever we happened to find it. All this for about $70 a person.

The trips from the boat are a bit more rushed becuase they go back 1/2 way through the day so people can stack another excursion on top- although some are setup where you can just kickback on a motu with small boats coming back and forth every 2 hours or so- but there weren't any cruise-around-all-day trips

[ Edited by: fatuhiva on 2003-02-01 01:55 ]