Tahiti, Bora Bora and Moorea on a budget - Yes You Can !

Got back last month from 9 glorious days in FP. Spent less than $3000 AUD (excluding air fares). The following is a small report.

Papeete - stayed at Fare Suisse - the pensione is not only spotlessly clean, great breakfast but because Beni the owner picked us up and from and to airport & ferry, saved us a packet. Easy to walk into town and quiet at night. Can't recommend it enough. We did a round the island tour (1/2 day) which we liked a lot.

Bora Bora - we were lucky to get the thatched bungalow 2 m from the water at Chez Nono - truly sublimely paradise. Quiet, right on the beach and within walking distance of at least 7 restaurants and the supermarket. The bungalow had a fridge and kettle so we had our breakfasts in. The Chez Nono tour of the lagoon was fantastic - a whole day snorkelling, feeding reef sharks and sting rays, and feeding and stroking manta rays - the most amazing tour. Also included is a very scrumptious BBQ fish and poisson cru veg fruit lunch. Well worth the 9100 francs. The next day we bicycled around the island (we are both 61).

Moorea - glad I went but wouldn't go again. The scenery at Cooks Bay and Opononu (sp?) Bay was astounding, The problem is public transport - it virtually doesn't exit. The taxis are very very expensive. If I went again, I'd stay and somewhere very economical and rent wheels of some sort. We stayed at Les Tipiniers but they didn't seem very interested in any transport arrangements. Happy to show us the bus stop. On arrival our plane was late so we missed the (supposed) connection with the local bus, the next bus was in 3 hours and a taxi to Les Tip cost 5500 francs! So we had to hitch-hike. When we got there, we had to go to the bank, walked to the local centre Le Petit Village but the bank there was only ATM, nothing else. Had to catch a bus (yes it came) to the nearest town to cash travellers cheques. On our last day the bus to the ferry never came and we had to hitch-hike again. Lucky we had lovely local people stop for us. We had a 'garden bungalow' at Les Tip which was great accommmodation but... it must've been school holidays because the whole place had heaps of kids which I normally wouldn't mind except when they keep you up all night, every night we were there. Their restaurant was excellent and prices very very reasonable.

PS: Great pub in Papaeete across from the ferry terminal - Les 3 Brasseurs - make their own icy cold delicious beer and looked as though they had some delicious Alsace type food (platters of sausages on sauerkraut, etc).

All in all, we ate at restaurnts every night, some luches at cafes, stayed at nice accommodateion, did 2 tours, rented bikes twice, always had a few beers and even some wine (could buy some pretty reasonable bottles in the supermarkets as well).

Just thought I'd let people know who think that FP is too expensive, it's not really. I'd love to go again asap!!!

3000AUD for 9 days (excluding airfares) being "on a budget"?
Well, certainly a VERY comfortable budget! :-)

Not sure this will serve to convince anyone "know who think that FP is too expensive, it's not really"...

Thanks for your report. You must have done some very fine dining. ;-)

On Moorea, to get from the airport to your accomodations, you can make a reservation with Torea Nui Transport for 700f each way per person. www.toreanui.com

1 - Compared to what people were paying in the OTW bungalows, it was budget. On Bora Bora the OTW bungalows are anywhere from $350 - $550 per night + as compared to our bungalow at Chez NoNo for $132. Also, Les Tip on Moorea was $85 per night for a garden apartment.

1. • Yes we did some fine dining becuase it was our 25th wedding anniversary. It would've been very easy to get an apartment with kitchen at Les Tip and do all your own cooking. Both Bora Bora and Moorea had supermarkets in walking distance so we could've saved a LOT of money if we made our own meals. We weren't there to do that.
     I found out about the Torea Nui Transport after I got back here. Les Tip NEVER mentioned it when asking how to get around, just got the "Hire a car or a scooter" or take the local bus!

Those OTW bungalows on B.o.r.a B.o.r.a are much more expensive - I would say $750 and up.

If you can get a garden bungalow for $350 at a resort you are lucky (and there's probably a drawback to it).

You did great on the accomodations.

Edited by: silvanocat to try to avoid creepy TT destination links.

Edited by: silvanocat

I did part of FP on a serious budget and part on a splurge. Basically, I went with someone else who paid for accommodation -- and yeah, it varied from $350 to $900 a night -- but was pretty much left on my own for food and transport.

I hitchhiked without any trouble at all on Moorea and got around quickly fine. The only issue was after dark, there are kind of a lot of dogs on the road (not that there is any nightlife). However, Mooreans are really friendly and would almost always walk with me. There was a Le Truck running then too, sporadically. It cost very, very little.

Met campers who were traveling around the world on a shoestring.

Bought groceries from the local market and fruit stalls as well as drinks. Lived on the local rum which you can't seem to get outside of Tahiti, mixed with tinned coconut milk and mango or pineapple juice. Also, very cheap baguette with cheese (found some tinned camembert), tuna, avocado, mustard; I bought a can opener at some point. Side of pineapple. The other cheap eats were the Croque stands, although some of the combos were wild... the chow mein one was pretty good and like $4 or $5. Pizza stands ran around $10-$15. In town, stock up on fruit. I did occasionally get treated to a meal here and there, but pretty much made it through on something like $10 a day for food (less alcohol). It can be done. Even without cooking facilities if one isn't too picky.

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Hi Vibe
Interested in your post
Where would you suggest to go instead of Moorea ? Say for a 5 night
Thanks

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