Our itinery FP 29-09 / 22-10

Hi we also want to share our itinery (it is not finalized yet). Air tahiti is not very fast with confirming flight reservations (do any of you have the same problems with this).

Here is our plan:

Arrival 03:50am 29 september
3 nights Papeete (fare suisse)
4 nights Rangiroa (pension Bounty) Can anyone inform me about this place
3 nights Fakarava (havaiki pension) diving the north pass
4 nights Fakarava (Raimiti) diving the south pass
4 nights Moorea (Linareva)
5 nights Nuku Hiva (still thinking about where to stay, pearl lodge is to expensive)
1 night Tahiti (Fare suissi or Sofitel)

We were considering Bora Bora, but the extra cost for the flight is so high! We preferred to go to Nuku Hiva instead.
Is Hiva oa more interesting (diving - nature wise) than Nuku Hiva?

Any suggestions about accomodation in Nuku Hiva?

All thoughts or comments are welcome!

Au

Air Tahiti takes a couple of days.

Have you made arrangements with your dive operator to pick you up at Raimiti on the days that you wish, etc?

I liked Nuku Hiva better than Hiva Oa, but I don't dive and cannot tell you how different the underwater world is. Over water, I found Nuku Hiva to be more interesting.

A diver on his way to Niue told me that divers go to the Marquesas for the shark experience. I would pick the island with the better diving outfit if I ever had the courage to plunge into waters that are not protected by a reef.

Its hard for me to imagine ANYTHING could have better diving than south pass on Fakarava. I didn't do the north pass, but the south pass was the best "in the water time" I've ever had. I stayed at Motu Aito Paradise and couldn't think of anything to improve, except hoping the dog they had would quit jumping on sharks. Really. Dog was chewed to hell and still game every time he saw one. But the place, the hosts, the food and the diving...all perfect.

Ed

Personally, I don't know that you will enjoy a total of 4 nights in Tahiti. Aside from the fact that it isn't the prettiest or cleanest of locations, we found the people to be quite unfriendly. We stayed at the Sheraton as it was near the airport, for one night prior to going to Bora Bora and then 2 nights when we returned, and the staff there were absolutely woeful.

Bora Bora was absolutely stunning and a vast comparison to Tahiti. The air fares are expensive I agree, but it is such a beautiful location with the most impressive lagoon we have ever seen anywhere in the world. Moorea is probably the next most beautiful island, but doesn't have the lagoon. If you can possibly manage it, it is worth visiting.

My hiking partner and I had a great time at the Sofitel Maeva Beach a few km from the airport in PPT, the staff was great. It was so good that the next 2 or 3 times we came through PPT we actually stayed extra days just to hang around there. The view of Moorea across the bay is breathtaking. Yes Bora is prettier-and by far-but Tahiti is too often written off. Its very, very beautiful. We especially didn't expect to like Papeete from all we read here, but were again very pleasantly surprised. The people were nice, sometimes amazingly so. We had minor business with a local politician-merely bringing a gift from a Rapa Nuian politician-and one of the local MPs we met by accident while there took care of us for several days, completely unasked for and despite the fact that we had almost no common language. Polynesiians are awesome hosts in general, and tahitians live up to the rep well.

Ed