Pape'ete

Just a warning about Pape'ete on Sundays.

I spent the day in the capitol last week. LP says the market is happening, with lots of locals around on Sunday mornings.

This is wrong.

The place is a morgue. I was very dissappointed, no restuarants were open, no tourist junk shops.

Avoid the place on a Sunday if your making a special trip,

Samara

LOL - I guess Lonely Planet hasn't been there on a Sunday and is quoting the expert advice of others who haven't been there on a Sunday.

I suspect there may be or may have been a local farmers/fishermans market very early on Sunday at the market.

I noticed in the other thread that someone mentioned that the market opens at 5 am. It does open early but at first there is only fish, and then slowly the other shops open. The pastry (what I go for there for) and the souvenier vendors don't open until hours later.

We were also disappointed to find everything closed up on the Sunday morning we chose to explore Papeete. I can't recall(this was in '06) if our guide book said it was open but no where did we read that it was closed on Sundays, as we could have chosen a different day. I just assumed the market was opened every day.