Ia Orana!
I cant believe its already over 🙂 Here is a recap of our trip which might help anyone else heading over!
Our flight was delayed leaving Sydney so it was abit stressful getting to our connecting flight. We made it about 10 mins before boarding. We upgraded to a Skycouch beforehand on the longer legs and bid and got an upgrade to premium economy on the shorter leg. Next time id just book premium economy the whole way (think it would have worked out the same cost) Ive never transited before and was shocked we had to go through security scanning again at Auckland. We had brought duty free and that was such a drama as we got rescanned. Alcohol was in sealed bags and we got through but then I got pulled up for a explosive test and someone else come over and wanted the alcohol rechecked….so they opened up the sealed bag and put it through individually…meanwhile Im getting anxious for the connecting flight anyway we made it!
Transferred to the Hilton Tahiti which is so beautiful! This is a really really beautiful hotel and I would absolutely stay here again. Super close to the supermarket too!
Got to Hilton Moorea and we had the best room 101 right opposite the ice machine lol I had read that it was dated and it wasnt as new as Tahiti but we really liked it, it was perfect for us and what we like in a hotel.
Transfers – all our transfers were perfect expect on our way home from Te Moana, someone come and we couldn’t understand him there was another couple waiting. So I checked and he said no not Dolan and then he come back and checked again and said he would call, looked at our sheet and then looked in a book and said come with me…so I have no idea if we went with the right person or not LOL
Getting back to the airport I almost freaked out bc bag dropped closed in an hour and the queue was insane!!! I got anxious and tried to talk my way on to the Premium Economy line and then saw there was a shorter line for web check in which I had done so we didnt have a long queue, they then let us go into premium economy line anyway as we had the ton the second leg. I would have stressed out if I had of waited in the normal line!!
The flight out was also very late. There was 6 of us on the connecting flight in Auckland and we basically landed 5 mins before boarding, that was a heart stopper as we still had to go through transit again!! Maybe next time I wouldn’t cut it so fine hahahaha
Restaurants
We had the buffet and show the first night (had no idea what it cost when we booked it just figured first time it was easy to do) which look food was average but were figured we were paying for the show which we enjoyed
We also ate at the grill and that wasnt too bad, we felt the price was fair here considering it was at the hotel. This closed down the last 2 nights due to weather and basically everything was done out of the main restaurant.
Room service one night which again wasnt too bad at all.
Ate at the Creperie…..they sat us on the other side to the water so when someone left we asked to move so we could watch the sharks and rays!! We got lucky bc we did this on the Thur and it wasnt opened the last 2 nights due to the weather.
We got room service for lunch one day and ordered 2 pizzas….ate half went for a snorkel got back and they had come in and took our tray hahahah we were gutted lol
We did Happy Hour a few times too which was lovely
We also went to Rudys one night and also Holy Steak House….Rudys was nice, it was fresh and well priced and Holy Steak House was AMAZING…and would recommend this to anyone going
We liked that ease of eating in at the hotel depending what we had on each day but would venture out more next time. To be honest I thought the hotel was reasonably priced considering. We also had some massages at the day spa which we enjoyed
We had the best room!
Tahiti’s local dish, “poisson cru” marinated fresh raw fish in coconut and lime juice!
Beautiful blue lagoon even on a cloudy day!
Exploring the island was easy and fun…. we preferred Moorea over the Maldives!
ATV tour
Ia Orana from the lovely couple in French Polynesia!
Tours
We hired a car for one day (the day after we arrived) but honestly I didnt feel it was necessary…we drive around the island one way and then the other way, went to the supermarket and that was pretty much it. We didnt go to the lookouts as we were doing that not he ATV tour so didnt worry. I kinda wish we had the car after the food tour as I would have gone back to some places for lunch.
We did local food tour…this was FAB! I would def recommend this to anyone. Its def worth doing early on as it gave us good ideas, if we had a car after the tour I would have gone back to most places! I just messaged them directly via WhatsApp and booked that way. Payment was cash on the day, I was abit worried about getting cash so I got that in Australia before and was a BIG mistake. 0.58 cents here and got 77 cents from the ATM ….Def suggest to anyone not to take money but use the ATM at the airport. No rain this day so that was good
We did the ATV tour booked through Viator and was through Moorea Activities Centre. Even tho I had messaged them and confirmed they were late picking us up (no one had been late so straight away I thought it was weird) the actives desk called them twice for us and they eventually showed up and everyone else was waiting so I suspect they did forget us! No safety briefing prob bc we were late just threw us on lol It also didnt go to the Manutea Tahiti – Rotui Juice Factory & Distillery or Moorea Tropical Garden so I am glad that we did that on the food tour as it would have been a shame to miss it. Also thankfully we purchased some alcohol and jams and glad we didnt hold off to buy on the ATV tour as they were both missed. No rain this day so it worked out well
6 hours snorkelling and lunch through Moorea Miti tours and booked through Viator was great but we thought there would be more snorkelling. We loved the rays and sharks site but it was packed with sooo many Americans all coming off the cruise ships. So it was abit crowded and murky from so many ppl in one spot. Someone on our tour had done the shorter tour another day and said they were the only ones there. When we got to the lunch it started to rain and then it was torrential..ill need to send you some photos bc they are absolutely hilarious lol
Unfortunately for us we didnt have the best weather…..I would say max of 3-4 hours of sun in a week! We tried to remain positive and we were really lucky that on most of our tours it didnt rain and was only cloudy….the rain on the snorkelling was at the end of the tour and the full day of torrential rain was the day we planned nothing and wanted to snorkel and have massages so it was the best it could be…..we still got our snorkel in on our relax day and enjoyed our massages. I know the weather is out of our control but I really wish we had a few days of that sunshine which I think would have made it just alittle bit better! The fact they had sunshine for 2 days after we left argggg!!
We had a fab time and despite the weather probably preferred Moorea over the Maldives, simply bc there is more to do. We loved being able to do more than just walk around the island in 10 minutes and have the options of alot more tours. Moorea was easier to to get too and we were surprised how quick both flights felt. All our connections, transfers, check in and check out worked really well we didnt feel we wasted time ‘waiting’
Thank you again for booking our trip, we would recommend Moorea to anyone
Now …where to next!?
Jase and Mal