French Polynesia (Five Archipelagos) All-Encompassing Thread

[South Austin 53220]

Be sure to bring back some ties.

[alphahydro 337]

my $.02 on bora bora

we took the overnight flight to tahiti from LAX.  arrives early morning in Tahiti, so we just took a flight off tahiti to mo'orea later that day.  that's what i would do again. 

on the way back to the states, we spent a night in tahiti, because our flight left early morning.  got some airbnb in tahiti kinda close to the airport and the neighborhood was pretty sketch.  something to consider. 

overwater villa is fine.  imo you should do it if you are going to bora bora, but it's not life changing.  so don't go in with crazy expectations.  

food at four seasons sucks, except the breakfast buffet.  fare hoa beach bar is actually the best bet for lunch.  the dinner show they have is pretty good. 

i'm not a huge fan of bora bora, because i don't really like hanging out at a resort, but the activities are pretty cool.  we did the normal stuff, swim with sharks (very cool), skydiving, very cool.  (my daughter went skydiving with me and she was prolly ~15 at the time.)  reef snorkeling tour (pretty cool).  snorkeling above eagle rays and manta rays.  very cool, but we lucked out and saw a bunch of them.  i definitely recommend the private tours for all this stuff.

if you want to save a little money, my advice is to spend as many days in bora bora as you need to do the activities there.  once you do the activities, there's not much else to do.  though the landscape is beautiful. 

spend the extra days in mo'orea.  we did swimming with whales there (tho not sure if the 6 and 10 year old can swim well enough -it's no joke), and did parasailing (with Mo'rea parasailing - very cool couple if they are still in business).

no need whatsoever for travel agent, imo.  you're pretty much stuck on a resort, and it's easy to book teh activities through the resort or tripadvisor. 

also, make sure you are going when the weather is supposed to be good.  have fun! 

(you didn't ask, but i personally would do kauai over bora bora with 6/10/15 year old).  bora bora is basically just beautiful scenery and a few cool activities, some of which might be a little much for a 6/10 year old. depends on your kids tho) 

 

 

[alphahydro 337]

i should say, this is massively off-topic, but my kids' favorite trip of all time was Mahali Mzuri in Kenya.  and we've done some pretty cool shit.  would be perfect for 6/10/15.

If you are looking for a banger of a last trip, double check but I think they have amazing deals if your kids are 15 are under.   i know it has nothing to do with snorkeling.  but just popped into my head thinking about trips for kids those ages. 

[troph 25198]

On 2/15/2023 at 4:33 PM, sidis said:

 

I forgot about that thread. We ended up going to the Brando, got engaged the week before in Bora Bora and had a brilliant time on Tetiaroa celebrating our engagement. Caught my GT too. 8-10 dives over 10 days. Spectacular. I’ll post some pics soon.

Edited January 26 by troph