My husband and I celebrated 50 years together on January 29, 2018. We felt that that many years deserved a big deal trip. We decided French Polynesia would be the answer. We were looking for a place where we could really relax and enjoy the sun. Living in the snow belt area of Colden, outside of Buffalo, NY means 5-6 months of winter weather. Cold and lots of snow. Bora Bora and Tahiti were the only familiar names to us. Who knew that so many islands make up French Polynesia. We didn't.
A little bit about us. We are both retired and in our 70s. In decent health but feeling the aches and pains more now than we did in our 60s. My husband enjoys scuba diving, golf, good beer. I love exploring ancient sites, photography, good food, and being able to laze about on a beach or by a nice pool with a tropical drink close by. While working we were confined to short vacations so we concentrated on places in Mexico, the US, and the Caribbean. Being retired means we can plan trips of as many weeks as we want. Since retirement our trips have been 2 weeks to lasting as long as 3 1/2 months. We normally plan one vacation each year and I do all the planning. We have done a few vacations using a travel agent but doing it ourselves means we can go at our own pace, stay where we want, do lots of activities or none at all. Prior DIY trips since both our retirements have been London, Costa Rica, Greece, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Alaska, Turks and Caicos, and most recently Peru in 2017. Trips using a travel agent since retirement have been China, Kenya/Tanzania, and Egypt. Normally I would have planned this trip myself but for some reason I just couldn't get as good a price as the travel agencies. I asked for quotes from several-Pleasant Holidays from our local AAA office, Legends/Virtuoso, True Tahiti Vacation, and Tahiti.com. I also checked out Cosco and Paul Gauguin Cruises.
I decided to book our flights from our home to French Polynesia myself. I used kayak.com and sky scanner.com I also checked websites of different airlines. I checked out the reviews of airlines as to comfort of seating, reliability, etc. In the end I directly booked Delta for Buffalo-Detriot-LAX. Round trip price for 2 adults was $1319.20. I directly booked Air France for LAX-PPT. Round trip price for 2 adults was $2210.96 Ouch!! Most we've ever spent for airfare for a trip. Even the airfare for our SE Asia trip was less.
In the end we went with Tahiti.com as I was able to customize our trip. I also appreciated the ability to correspond back and forth so quickly and easily. I changed things often and it was never a problem. I booked our package on 8/4/17 with a small deposit and the final payment was paid on 4/2/18. The price for our package included the accommodations on Moorea, Bora Bora, and Tahiti. I asked my scuba diving husband if he wanted me to add the Tuamotus but he said he was fine with just the 3 islands. That was good because vacationing in French Polynesia is not cheap! Our price also included all transfers, the ferry over to Moorea, the inter island flights from Moorea to Bora Bora and from Bora Bora to Tahiti. I requested all Intercontinental hotels. In Moorea I requested 6 nights in a beach front bungalow. In Bora Bora I requested 7 nights in an over water bungalow. Last was 3 nights in a superior lagoon view room in Tahiti. Travel insurance was optional but we chose it as you never know......... Total package price was $11688.00
After the decision was made to book with Tahiti.com I decided it was time to do some research. I sent for The Islands of Tahiti vacation guide from Tahiti-Tourisme.org I bought some travel guides-Moon Handbooks Tahiti and Lonely Planet Tahiti & French Polynesia. I used Trip Advisor French Polynesia discussion forum to check out restaurants, things to do, and so much more. I read trip reports. I checked the forum almost daily and bookmarked certain posts that I found to be of interest. I should note that I am a bit OCD and am not a last minute, go with the flow type of person. Generally I am more comfortable having all my ducks in a row but I can make changes and be spontaneous if need be.
Since my husband doesn't like to bother family members to drop us off at the airport and then pick us up when returning home I made plans to park our car in a secure lot the duration of our trip. Quality Inn Airport also provides shuttle service to the Buffalo-Niagara Airport. Cost was $135.46 with a $6.00 coupon! Every penny helps.
I always buy a small notebook where I write down information such as flights, hotels, restaurants, excursions........ I also print out monthly calendar pages. For this trip I printed out May and June 2018 pages. I fill in the dates with our hotels, excursions, restaurants. I can just picture some of you rolling your eyes at me! I know, I know but what can I say. This degree of planning isn't everyone's cup of tea but it works for us. I must admit it was only when we started taking longer trips when we retired that this amount of planning came into play. This also helps me keep track of expenses/cost of the trip. This is especially necessary this trip as my daughter spontaneously (she's not a big planner) decided to ask if we wanted to meet up with her, her husband, and our only grandchild this summer in Spain. They moved to Doha, Qatar last summer for work after living and working in Shekou, China for 6 years. They decided not to visit family in the US this summer as they had made a few trips in 2017 and air fare to Spain is cheaper than air fare to the US. His family is in Portland, Oregon and is where their house is that they've been renting out since their move overseas. Her family is all here in the Buffalo, New York area. They will be traveling through Spain and Portugal their entire break from school. We will meet up with them and spend time in Pamplona (running of the bulls per daughter's must do), Barcelona (she fell in love with this city after attending a school related conference there) and Valencia. They will then head back home to begin the 2018-2019 school year while my husband and I will explore southern Spain. We will be in Spain for a bit over 5 weeks. So with an expensive trip to French Polynesia and then a long trip to Spain I need to keep track of finances since we pay for these trips as we take them.
The next item to take care of was to book the scuba diving for my husband. It's a lot stricter in French Polynesia than we knew. Because my husband is 75 we had to get forms from DAN (Diver's Alert Network). He had to complete these forms and have his doctors sign off that he was physically fit to dive. My husband who has his Advanced Open Water & Rescue PADI certifications and hundreds of logged dives was not happy. I booked an afternoon 1 tank dive and a next day 2 tank dive with Moorea Fun Dive. Cost 7500 and 12500 XPF. They did not require pre payment. For Bora Bora he decided to go with Eleuthera Diving Bora Bora and was able to request Anau as one of the dive sites. Cost for 2 tank dive $188.41 already paid. Then on Tahiti he went with Eleuthera Diving Tahiti selecting Source and Aquarium as the dive sites. Cost for 2 tank dive $181.17 already paid. My husband has also opted to bring his own ScubaPro gear as he is comfortable with it and just had it in for its yearly inspection per warranty.
With that done it was time to think about whether or not to book any rental cars. After much research we decided to book one day on each island. We went with Albert's for Moorea selecting an automatic. No prepayment required. Avis on Bora Bora. Cost 11900 XPF. Deposit paid of 1190 XPF/$12.32. Hertz on Tahiti. Because we are only 3 nights here and my husband is diving our car rental is the next day and from 9:00 AM-9:00 PM. Our last day flight home is early morning so we decided to return the car the night before as our transfer to the airport from our hotel is included in our trip package. Cost 8313 XPF.
For excursions I booked Moorea Miti outrigger canoe snorkeling and motu BBQ lunch full day tour. I liked this due to small number of people and the positive reviews I had read. Cost 20000 XPF/$200.76 already paid. For Moorea I also booked Francky Franck's half day land tour. Cost $50 USD per person to be paid cash day of tour. Great reviews. Since everyone says Bora Bora is all about the lagoon we went with two days of half day snorkel excursions. Reef Discovery/Pure Snorkeling. Cost $226.44 paid. Lagoon Service $179.47 paid. Both get great reviews. We are long past excursions involving jet skis and parasailing. We both have back issues so jet skis are a no no for us. Parasailing we've done before and it's not a must do for us.
Last, but not least, was food. Since breakfast was to be included in all our stays we really only had to worry about dinners. Starting with Moorea I made reservations at Mayflower and Moorea Beach Cafe. For Rudy's and Le Lezard I was requested to have our hotel concierge call them to confirm. On the day we have our rental car we intend to stop for lunch at Daniel's for pizza (we always have pizza on every trip-a must do) and then dinner at Hilton's Creperie. That leaves one night for dinner open ended. Moving on to Bora Bora I have made reservations at Villa Mahana and St. James. Others on my radar are Bora Bora Yacht Club, Mai Kai, Lucky House, and Matira Beach Club. I really wanted to splurge with dinner at Lagoon/St. Regis but was informed that priority is given to guests of the resort and to have our concierge call. I'm really torn about this as I've read so many amazing, wonderful reviews of this restaurant but getting there from our resort will not be so easy. We'll see. Tahiti is easy. Le Grillardin, our resort's Tiare for the buffet & Polynesian show, and the roulettes in town.
Preparations done. Packing next.
A little bit about us. We are both retired and in our 70s. In decent health but feeling the aches and pains more now than we did in our 60s. My husband enjoys scuba diving, golf, good beer. I love exploring ancient sites, photography, good food, and being able to laze about on a beach or by a nice pool with a tropical drink close by. While working we were confined to short vacations so we concentrated on places in Mexico, the US, and the Caribbean. Being retired means we can plan trips of as many weeks as we want. Since retirement our trips have been 2 weeks to lasting as long as 3 1/2 months. We normally plan one vacation each year and I do all the planning. We have done a few vacations using a travel agent but doing it ourselves means we can go at our own pace, stay where we want, do lots of activities or none at all. Prior DIY trips since both our retirements have been London, Costa Rica, Greece, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Alaska, Turks and Caicos, and most recently Peru in 2017. Trips using a travel agent since retirement have been China, Kenya/Tanzania, and Egypt. Normally I would have planned this trip myself but for some reason I just couldn't get as good a price as the travel agencies. I asked for quotes from several-Pleasant Holidays from our local AAA office, Legends/Virtuoso, True Tahiti Vacation, and Tahiti.com. I also checked out Cosco and Paul Gauguin Cruises.
I decided to book our flights from our home to French Polynesia myself. I used kayak.com and sky scanner.com I also checked websites of different airlines. I checked out the reviews of airlines as to comfort of seating, reliability, etc. In the end I directly booked Delta for Buffalo-Detriot-LAX. Round trip price for 2 adults was $1319.20. I directly booked Air France for LAX-PPT. Round trip price for 2 adults was $2210.96 Ouch!! Most we've ever spent for airfare for a trip. Even the airfare for our SE Asia trip was less.
In the end we went with Tahiti.com as I was able to customize our trip. I also appreciated the ability to correspond back and forth so quickly and easily. I changed things often and it was never a problem. I booked our package on 8/4/17 with a small deposit and the final payment was paid on 4/2/18. The price for our package included the accommodations on Moorea, Bora Bora, and Tahiti. I asked my scuba diving husband if he wanted me to add the Tuamotus but he said he was fine with just the 3 islands. That was good because vacationing in French Polynesia is not cheap! Our price also included all transfers, the ferry over to Moorea, the inter island flights from Moorea to Bora Bora and from Bora Bora to Tahiti. I requested all Intercontinental hotels. In Moorea I requested 6 nights in a beach front bungalow. In Bora Bora I requested 7 nights in an over water bungalow. Last was 3 nights in a superior lagoon view room in Tahiti. Travel insurance was optional but we chose it as you never know......... Total package price was $11688.00
After the decision was made to book with Tahiti.com I decided it was time to do some research. I sent for The Islands of Tahiti vacation guide from Tahiti-Tourisme.org I bought some travel guides-Moon Handbooks Tahiti and Lonely Planet Tahiti & French Polynesia. I used Trip Advisor French Polynesia discussion forum to check out restaurants, things to do, and so much more. I read trip reports. I checked the forum almost daily and bookmarked certain posts that I found to be of interest. I should note that I am a bit OCD and am not a last minute, go with the flow type of person. Generally I am more comfortable having all my ducks in a row but I can make changes and be spontaneous if need be.
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| Tahiti vacation guide |
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| Guide books |
Since my husband doesn't like to bother family members to drop us off at the airport and then pick us up when returning home I made plans to park our car in a secure lot the duration of our trip. Quality Inn Airport also provides shuttle service to the Buffalo-Niagara Airport. Cost was $135.46 with a $6.00 coupon! Every penny helps.
I always buy a small notebook where I write down information such as flights, hotels, restaurants, excursions........ I also print out monthly calendar pages. For this trip I printed out May and June 2018 pages. I fill in the dates with our hotels, excursions, restaurants. I can just picture some of you rolling your eyes at me! I know, I know but what can I say. This degree of planning isn't everyone's cup of tea but it works for us. I must admit it was only when we started taking longer trips when we retired that this amount of planning came into play. This also helps me keep track of expenses/cost of the trip. This is especially necessary this trip as my daughter spontaneously (she's not a big planner) decided to ask if we wanted to meet up with her, her husband, and our only grandchild this summer in Spain. They moved to Doha, Qatar last summer for work after living and working in Shekou, China for 6 years. They decided not to visit family in the US this summer as they had made a few trips in 2017 and air fare to Spain is cheaper than air fare to the US. His family is in Portland, Oregon and is where their house is that they've been renting out since their move overseas. Her family is all here in the Buffalo, New York area. They will be traveling through Spain and Portugal their entire break from school. We will meet up with them and spend time in Pamplona (running of the bulls per daughter's must do), Barcelona (she fell in love with this city after attending a school related conference there) and Valencia. They will then head back home to begin the 2018-2019 school year while my husband and I will explore southern Spain. We will be in Spain for a bit over 5 weeks. So with an expensive trip to French Polynesia and then a long trip to Spain I need to keep track of finances since we pay for these trips as we take them.
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| May 2018 |
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| June 2018 |
The next item to take care of was to book the scuba diving for my husband. It's a lot stricter in French Polynesia than we knew. Because my husband is 75 we had to get forms from DAN (Diver's Alert Network). He had to complete these forms and have his doctors sign off that he was physically fit to dive. My husband who has his Advanced Open Water & Rescue PADI certifications and hundreds of logged dives was not happy. I booked an afternoon 1 tank dive and a next day 2 tank dive with Moorea Fun Dive. Cost 7500 and 12500 XPF. They did not require pre payment. For Bora Bora he decided to go with Eleuthera Diving Bora Bora and was able to request Anau as one of the dive sites. Cost for 2 tank dive $188.41 already paid. Then on Tahiti he went with Eleuthera Diving Tahiti selecting Source and Aquarium as the dive sites. Cost for 2 tank dive $181.17 already paid. My husband has also opted to bring his own ScubaPro gear as he is comfortable with it and just had it in for its yearly inspection per warranty.
With that done it was time to think about whether or not to book any rental cars. After much research we decided to book one day on each island. We went with Albert's for Moorea selecting an automatic. No prepayment required. Avis on Bora Bora. Cost 11900 XPF. Deposit paid of 1190 XPF/$12.32. Hertz on Tahiti. Because we are only 3 nights here and my husband is diving our car rental is the next day and from 9:00 AM-9:00 PM. Our last day flight home is early morning so we decided to return the car the night before as our transfer to the airport from our hotel is included in our trip package. Cost 8313 XPF.
For excursions I booked Moorea Miti outrigger canoe snorkeling and motu BBQ lunch full day tour. I liked this due to small number of people and the positive reviews I had read. Cost 20000 XPF/$200.76 already paid. For Moorea I also booked Francky Franck's half day land tour. Cost $50 USD per person to be paid cash day of tour. Great reviews. Since everyone says Bora Bora is all about the lagoon we went with two days of half day snorkel excursions. Reef Discovery/Pure Snorkeling. Cost $226.44 paid. Lagoon Service $179.47 paid. Both get great reviews. We are long past excursions involving jet skis and parasailing. We both have back issues so jet skis are a no no for us. Parasailing we've done before and it's not a must do for us.
Last, but not least, was food. Since breakfast was to be included in all our stays we really only had to worry about dinners. Starting with Moorea I made reservations at Mayflower and Moorea Beach Cafe. For Rudy's and Le Lezard I was requested to have our hotel concierge call them to confirm. On the day we have our rental car we intend to stop for lunch at Daniel's for pizza (we always have pizza on every trip-a must do) and then dinner at Hilton's Creperie. That leaves one night for dinner open ended. Moving on to Bora Bora I have made reservations at Villa Mahana and St. James. Others on my radar are Bora Bora Yacht Club, Mai Kai, Lucky House, and Matira Beach Club. I really wanted to splurge with dinner at Lagoon/St. Regis but was informed that priority is given to guests of the resort and to have our concierge call. I'm really torn about this as I've read so many amazing, wonderful reviews of this restaurant but getting there from our resort will not be so easy. We'll see. Tahiti is easy. Le Grillardin, our resort's Tiare for the buffet & Polynesian show, and the roulettes in town.
Preparations done. Packing next.
