From: dunbar@boulder.colorado.edu (S Dunbar)
Subject: Trip Report French Polynesia, Tahiti, Etc....long
Reply-To: dunbar@boulder.colorado.edu (S Dunbar)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 23:37:54 GMT

Well my newly wed wife and I just got back from Tahiti and her islands
on a two week honeymoon, the following is a summary of our experiences.
but first i will say things are outrageously expensive and you really pay
for paradise.  I will also say that it was one of the most beautiful places
on earth and that for a honeymoon, we couldn't of asked for a better place.

We used Tahiti Vacations out of Los Angeles as our tour operator and they
were excellent.

We flow from  LAX to papette on Qantas a 747-400 series plane.
Qantas is now the best airlines that i have ever flown, amazing service
and flight.

We arrived in the middle of the nigth in Tahitis Faaaa International
Airport and a group of tahitians were playing welcome music for
us.  They gave us a flower and we quickly cleared customs.

Once we were out of customs a guy from paradise tours the local tour
operator for tahiti vacations had a board with my name on it and gave
us a flower lei and welcome drink.  he then took our luggage and transfered
us over to air moorea terminal.  We had a wait for a while so we went to the
cafe and bought two coke and a croissant for 6.00.  We then got aboard a
small twin prop plane for the 9 minute flight to moorea.

We went to the Club Med on the island of Moorea for 3 nites.
I really cant say too much right now about club med because i am currently
looking for an agreement with them on the poor service that we received there.
Club med moorea is on a beautiful beach and set in a nice palm tree grove.

enough said....

Moorea is a beautiful island, with huge peaks and large lagoons, we rented 
a scooter and took a ride around the whole island, it took about 4 hours and
it was really nice, the snorkelling was good too.  We went up to this lookout
point called le belvedere, and it was an amazing view of the two bays, cooks
and opunohu bay...  We had our meals included so we didnt dine around on moorea
so i cant comment on the resturants, but you would save quite a bit all in
the islands if you got the meal plans at the isalnds..

We then left Moorea for Bora Bora, we stayed at the Hotel Bora Bora, it
was the most amazing place on earth, the hotel is on the best beach and
lagoon on the island.  We loved it there, the diving was amazing, and if
you are interested in hearing about the diving, i posted a report on rec.scuba
so see it there.  The hotel is expensive but we found it to be worth it.

We rented a scooter on bora bora and rode around the whole island whichis
much smaller than moorea but more beautiful, the snorkeling and the lagoon
is the best part to bora bora.  We didnt have the meal plan on bora bora
which we wish we did becasue we would of saved a lot of cash.

We ate at the Bamboo house on bora bora, very good meal, and the rest. will
pick you up at your hotel and take you back. the best rest on the island.
dinner for 2 with beer was 55.00, not too bad.

we ate all our breakfast`s at hotel bora bora and the food was great, but
a continental breakfast was about 20.00/per person, but you did leave full.

we also ate dinner at this rest. called the blue lagoon, baddddddd!!!!!!
we know people that got sick there, we couldnt eat or meal so we didn't
get sick, i got chicken mediterean and it was all bone, my wife got
fish that she couldn`t get off the bone.  we paid 60.00 for french 
bread and rice, but i charged the dinner on amex so i am currently
disputing thebill, so hopefully i wont have to pay for it.
we also were going to eat at the famous bloody marys rest. but
after hearing couples drop 120.00 at dinner, we decided not
to go, but we did have lunch there for pizza and beer and it
is worth stopping by for a beer, and  a look at the stars names that
are on the board out front.

we also ate at the hotel bora bora for dinner and it was a good meal.

We then we to Rangaroa, all the interisland flights were on air tahiti and
they were always on time and good service

we stayed at the kia ora village on rangaroa and it was nice, and the
bungalows were great.  Two meals a day were included and the food was good.
diving was amazing.  The hotel offers an all day exchursion to a place
called the blue lagoon, amazing water and they provided a lunch.  The
blue lagoon was the most beautiful clear blue water i have ever seen.
well worth it.  We also did  a glass bottom boat ride that was good too.
we really enjoyed rangi, and would recommend it highly.

We then went to Manihi,which is famous for its black pearl farms.
stayed at the kaina village, which is very small hotel, its the only on
e on manihi.  Food was good, two meals a day and the lagoon was ofcourse
beautiful as all the others were.  We liked the staff at the hotel and
we were the only american couple there, so it was nice mingling with the
japanese and italians that were also there.  We did an excursion to
the pearl farms and my wife bought a black pearl for 250.00 which is really
nice. they go from 100-1500 in price......

We then spent  two nights on tahiti before going home. we wished we stayed
at manihi, but tahiti was nice, we had included in our package a free 
rent a car and drove around the island, very pretty once you get out of
papette.  We stayed at the hyatt reg.  very nice hotel and the food was good
there.  The highlight was our dinner at le belvedere rest.  its purched high
on a hill and the food was great.

well i am getting tired of typing, excuse the typos and the mis spellings
i am tired, feel free to ask me questions about the trip, in summary, we
had a great time, Bora Bora was the best island in all, and that was because
we stayed at the hotel bora bora, and it was a great hotel.  honeymooning
there was great.  Rangiroa was fun and manihi was great too.  I would avoid
tahiti unless its a final resting stop like it was on our trip.

correspondense via email would be welcomed to save band with.

Scott
 
Scott\      /\/\  /|email: dunbar@boulder.colorado.edu
  /***\  /\/*/**\/*|Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology
 /  /\ \/**\/    \ |University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO  80309-0347
Newsgroups: rec.travel,soc.culture.usa