French Polynesia can also be low cost, I assure you! Here are some tips for a do-it-yourself trip, to experience this destination without spending a fortune, from the choice of flights, to travel, to where to sleep low cost.
French Polynesia and low cost would not seem like two terms that can be put in the same sentence, and instead ... we would not call each other if once in a while we did not give easy and cheap solutions even to visit apparently very expensive countries. Already an advance of a trip to Low cost Polynesia for 7 days Benedetta had given it to us, in a
French Polynesia is a destination that can also be visited by organizing yourself, with a travel do it you therefore and not always with travel agencies or organizations that inevitably take money uselessly. It takes a nice preparation to organize everything by yourself and we cannot give you all the basics here, but if you are already skilled travelers, with little information you will be perfectly at ease.
How to get to French Polynesia
Let's start with the most expensive issue. How to get to French Polynesia? It took me about 30 hours. Yes, you read that correctly. The flight I took was from Paris to make a stopover in Los Angeles and then arrive in Tahiti. I flew with the company Air Tahiti Nui, which is the flag carrier of French Polynesia, but I had to take a flight from Paris to get to France Easyjet from Madrid. The flight was long enough, but overall it went well. The food was not bad, the films interesting and between a reading of the guide and a bit of rest at the end the trip "flown": D I can still advise you to keep an eye on the flights at least from six months earlier your departure. You will undoubtedly find offers, even not with the national airline or alternatively with Expedia.
During the flight it is possible choose meals, often the choices are always meat, if you are a vegetarian then it is important to say this already at the time of boarding. The films are all in English, so train or bring an iPad or Mac with you to watch your favorite TV series. It is possible to recharge Macs and smartphones thanks to comfortable grips that are under the headrest that you will find in front of you. This is a very useful thing that not everyone knows. All 'I arrive in Los Angeles you will have time to stretch your legs a bit, take a ride inside the airport between one check and another and take advantage of the LA wifi.
You will arrive in Tahiti definitely upset, or at least that's how I got there. The whole world, on the contrary, weighed heavily on my shoulders. I did not know whether to sleep or stay awake, but necessarily what I had to stay awake since the arrival of these flights is scheduled for around 6 am at the airport. The advice is to go immediately to the city market of Tahiti which they say is beautiful ... and indeed it is!
Getting around in French Polynesia
Taking a trip to French Polynesia means move between the islands and here there are means of getting around, yes, but only by air. Don't think about boats or ferries or other similar means, here you always fly, all the time. So organize your week or your 10 days according to the islands, passing from one to the other with two or three days of rest so as not to get too tired and not to move like the tops. You will also have to decide which islands to visit as French Polynesia offers 118 islands. You can't visit them all in a few days, that's obvious!
There are several connections a day by ferry or catamaran between Tahiti and Moorea with about 45 minutes of travel, but I have only tried the connection by plane and I'll tell you about that :)
If you want to stay on low cost I recommend a couple of days in Tahiti, a few days to Huahine and a few days to Rangiroa e Raiatea which is what I visited in just seven days. I have not seen Bora Bora nor Papeete no, they are two islands that offer a little more mass tourism and also more expensive. If you want to stay on the low then go for these islands and then if you have the budget left over, invest it as you see fit, perhaps in Bora Bora.
How to move between these islands? Obviously by plane. Don't worry, after spending a lot of flight to get here, at least the islands can be visited through convenient passes that also use locals. There are several and they change according to the use you want to make of them or what you want to see.
Air Tahiti ensures internal flights to 41 islands, departing from Tahiti. Often you will have to go from one island to another, always making a stop in Tahiti, it is a bit boring as a thing, but it is the fastest way to get around and you have to adapt to these rhythms a bit. From Tahiti there are daily flights to Tuamotu and Marquesas Islands.
Air Moorea it connects daily Tahiti to Moorea which can be reached in just 10 minutes by flight. The weight of baggage for travelers with intercontinental flight tickets is 20 Kg. Then, as I said, there are Tahiti Air Pass, domestic flight packages at discounted rates departing from Tahiti. You can see in detail all the fares in the link to the airline, below I give you some tips just to get an idea of the destinations and the costs of each single pass.
Discovery Pass: Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea. It starts at € 299.20 and allows you to carry up to 20kg.
Bora Bora Pass: Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea, Bora Bora, Maupiti. It starts at € 390.50 and allows you to carry up to 20kg on the plane.
Lagoons Pass: Moorea, Rangiroa, Tikehau, Manihi, Fakarava. It costs € 416.50 and 20kg by plane.
Bora Bora-Tuamotu Pass: Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea, Maupiti, Bora Bora, Rangiroa, Tikehau, Manihi, Fakarava. It costs € 560.60 and allows you to carry up to 20kg on the plane.
Australes Pass: Rurutu, Tubuai, Raivavae, Rimatara. With € 544.70 and 20kg you can travel to French Polynesia for these islands.
Marquesas Pass: Nuku Hiva, Hiva Oa, Ua Huka, Ua Pou. It costs € 735.80 and can be carried up to 20kg.
Australes Extension: Rurutu, Tubuai, Raivavae, Rimatara. It costs 296.70 and the suitcase can weigh up to 20kg.
Marquesas Extension: Nuku Hiva, Hiva Oa. With € 509.50 you can reach the most remote islands of the Marquesas Islands and you have the opportunity to bring a bag of 20kg.
Where to sleep in French Polynesia
The question of accommodation is a question mark in French Polynesia by no means small. If you want to save money, you won't sleep easily in the beautiful seaside resorts. But with a little research, you will easily find beautiful ocean view accommodations with interesting amenities.
First I recommend you to watch the service of Pensions of French Polynesia. The beauty here is that each guesthouse and structure is classified according to flowers typical of this place the Tiare. While there are stars here to classify hotels, there you will find flowers. Definitely interesting as what, don't you think? The flowers range from one, minimum, to three, maximum. As for pensions, I can recommend two of them.
The guesthouse is located on the island of Huahine Fara Maeva. The pension offers at a cost of € 60 per night interesting accommodation not far from the ocean.
On the island of Rangiroa, on the other hand, I found a very nice pension, I should have gladly spent a whole week. It is about Les Relais de Josephine, managed by Josephine and also reported by the Lonely Planet guide. The lady is delightful and her retirement if possible is even more so. The property is located in a strait overlooking the ocean, a destination for dolphins every day!
