French Polynesia is a country of islands, 118 islands and atolls in fact, split into five major archipelagos. Some of them are easier to access like the Society Islands and Tuamotu archipelago and some are more difficult like the Marquesas and Gambier archipelagos and Austral islands. The islands can be quite different from each other some are low lying and some have impressive mountains, some have great snorkeling, some have great hiking and some have great birding.
During our first visit we explore three of the major islands of the most easiest to access archipelago, Society Islands. Tahiti is the most developed of the islands with the capital of Papeete and impressive mountains and some nice beaches and snorkeling opportunities. Moorea is our luxury island where we stay in an over the water bungalow enjoy the luxury and excellent hiking. And Raiatea is our water fun island where we explore it and its sister island Taha’a as part of an organized boat excursion.
Map of Travels
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Trips
- Quest for the Tahiti Monarch
A major attraction of our trip to Tahiti is a birdwatching trip to see the Tahiti Monarch a very rare endemic bird restricted to just three valleys on Tahiti - Marae Ta’ata, an interesting historical site
We end the day with a visit to Marae Ta’ata an interesting historical site that can be explored for free and is less visited than other locations on Tahiti - The fascinating Museum of Tahiti and The Islands
We spend most of the afternoon in the fascinating Museum of Tahiti with artifacts from all the archipelagos of French Polynesia and beyond - Exploring the closed Papeete downtown
After the gardens we explore Papeete’s downtown which unfortunately is mostly closed on Sunday - The beautiful and busy Pā’ōfa’i Gardens
We start our exploration of Papeete by exploring nearby Paofai Gardens which have some nice views and finding birds and lots of people - First nights in Papeete
We spend three nights at a condo in Papeete after a late arrival and use this as a base to explore this area of Tahiti