Considering French Polynesia. Would appreciate input.

[Quilter]

It's a dream. A long trip (distance). I'm planning for sometime May-September 2026.

Need to decide what islands. How long to stay. Do we combine this with Hawaii. How do we get there.

If you have experience with any of those I would appreciate some direction.

 

[klpca]

We did a Tradewinds trip in 2018 to French Polynesia and it was amazing. We flew LAX to Papeete on Air Tahita Nui and spent 3 nights in Morea then 7 nights on the Tradewinds boat. We flew from Tahiti to Raiatea, then sailed to Bora Bora, then on to Ta'aha island. Of those 4 islands, I liked Morea the best - like Kauai only better. We went in November and had pretty good weather, but it's in the tropics - expect some showers. We hope to get back there sooner rather than later. It is magnitudes better than Hawaii (and we love Hawaii). The primary language spoken is French, there were a lot of French tourists on Tahiti and Morea, it is much less developed that Hawaii (Morea had one store that sold everything from groceries to hardware, but everything was limited and expensive). I thought that it was fabulous, but set your expectation bar for convenience much lower than Hawaii.

 

[Sandy VDH]

Air Tahiti Nui from LAX or United from SFO/LAX

I've been twice. I would space a night beginning or end on Tahiti.

Bora Bora is a must if you have the pocket book or on a hotel points programs, this is a flight on Air Tahiti (the domestic airline and yes different from Air Tahiti Nui which does international). Moorea is also a short ferry ride from Tahiti. Taha'a is another choice next to Raiatea (airport is here), you get there by ferry. It was one of he best ever snorkel places I have have been to in over 40 years.

I find Hilton points are not a great option except for on Tahiti, as Moorea and Bora Bora hilton family of hotels consider all these rooms as premium and not regular rooms. So prices are high. Inter-continental which is part of IHG might have some better options. There might be a upscale Marriott branded option or two. If you paying cash you could looking into the Pearl Brand which are a local French Poly chain of hotels.

You could consider some of the outer islands like Rangiroa or Tikehau which is in the Tuamoto group of islands, they are a bit more remote, but generally hotels are cheaper.

I stayed at the Pearl in both Bora Bora and in Tikehau. I stayed on Tradewinds Catamaran other week that I visited.

There are passes you can purchase on Air Tahiti, consider that option if you plan to fly to a bunch of islands. You can buy a pass that has slightly more luggage weight (there are 2 prices, you may want to consider the higher weight ticket to avoid some high over weight charges. They weight and charge for your carry on, on the domestic flights so be prepared for that.