French Polynesia

February 2025 – Together with a very close friend of mine I spent nearly one month away from Denmark, more precisely:

3 days in San Francisco (as stop overs on the way out and back home).
3 days in Tahiti (two days upon arrival and then a one day stop over on the way home).
4 days on Bora Bora
4 days on Rangiroa
5 days on Fakarava
4 days on Roratonga (Cook Islands)

Some hints about going to French Polynesia:

We went in February, officially the rainy season (and hence the low season). But we had mostly fantastic weather and only a few days with some heavy showers.
We were told that mosquitoes would be a big problem, we saw and got bitten by a few, mainly on Fakarava. Absolutely not a big problem.
In addition to Tahiti, we choose to visit Bora Bora, Rangiro and Fakarava, all very interesting islands. These islands can be visited with direct flights so one doesn’t have to fly back to Tahiti between islands.
When landing in Tahiti for the first time, buy a sim card at the Avis car rental booth. They sell Vini sim cards which work on most islands. The Vodafone sim card only works on the big islands.
Bring plenty of cash, many of the cheaper hotels won’t accept credit cards. Even if booked through Booking.com. Euros work well.
Change some money at the airport, maximum is 500 Euros. Supermarkets on the smaller islands may not accept credit card or they require a minimum amount for using it.
Don’t spend too much time on Tahiti (three days is enough), it is way more interesting to visit the smaller islands.
At least in the low season, hotels are easy to find. We did all our bookings through Booking.com and we seldom booked more than one day in advance.
For some reason Booking.com has way more available options than Hotels.com.

Tahiti

We visited Tahiti twice during our trip, two days in the beginning and one day in the end. Tahiti is the one and only hub and by far the biggest island in French Polynesia. During our first two days on the island we rented a car and drove the ring road all the way around the island. There are many nice places to stop, but nothing extraordinary. Public beaches and cozy beach restaurants/bars are far between. Hotels are plenty and we booked everything from day to day.

Bora Bora

From Tahiti we flew non stop to Bora Bora. The flight is around one hour. One lands on a small island outside the main Bora Bora island, but a free ferry to and from Vaitape on the main island connects with every flight.

We stayed in a really nice house in Vaitape and rented a small car from the local Avis office. With the car we had easy access to the rest of the island, including the only public beach south of Vaitape and the dive center we ended up diving a lot with. We had our own kitchen and ended up preparing all our meals ourselves. Our days were spent going to the beach, hiking to the top of Mont Mata Pupu, a lot of diving and a tour around the island.

Diving is great with lots of Manta Rays.

Rangiroa

From Bora Bora we flew non stop to Rangiroa, this flight also takes around an hour.

Rangiroa is one of the biggest atolls in the world with a lagoon almost 1.450 square kilometers. We stayed very close to Tiputa Pass, a top dive site with strong currents and hundreds of sharks. Our days were spent on diving, a full day tour to The Blue Lagoon and beach time.

Fakarava

After 4 days on Rangiroa we flew non stop to Fakarava. Fakarava is an atoll very much like Rangiroa. Hotels, restaurants, supermarket and diving is very spread out along the one and only road, so we rented a scooter to get around. Our 5 days on the island were spent on sightseeing, diving and beach time.

Rarotonga

After Tahiti, Bora Bora, Rangiroa and Fakarava in French Polynesia we took the three hour direct flight to Rarotonga, the main island in Cook Islands, a group of islands associated with New Zealand.

We rented a car and couldn’t find the car rental office upon arrival. The reason was simple, the company didn’t have any offices. Instead we just have to find our car on the parking lot just outside the airport with my name in it and leave, super easy.

I didn’t book any hotels before arrival. This is a problem, one can’t get through immigration without proof of stay (and proof of return ticket). Luckily they had free WiFi in the airport, so we did a quick booking for the first night and got through immigration.

We had 4 days on the island and those were spent on diving, hiking, sightseeing, and our local beach. For hiking we did the Rarotonga Cross Island Track from coast to coast, a very nice hike across the island by The Needle.

San Francisco

We had two days on the way out and one day on the way back in San Francisco. By doing these stop overs we wouldn’t have to do two intercontinental flights in a row, my close friend could experience San Francisco for her first time there, and I could buy the return tickets CPH-SFO-CPH and SFO-PPT-SFO separately and this way get them way cheaper than a full return ticket CPH-PPT-CPH (close to half price!).

On the way out we spent the days in San Francisco visiting the usual sights.