Greetings: I'm signing up for the 4/26/2014 Aranui sailing. My DW of 40 years is a woos and is passing on this one so hello dorm room. This will be my 4th trip to Tahiti; I retired from Oregon and we moved to our condo in Kona, HI. 4 years ago but its nice to change rocks every now and then.
Only 1 flight from Honolulu to Papeete each week so need a few
days pre and post Aranui cruise. Flying over to Maupiti pre cruise (have always wanted to see - similar to Bora Bora but not well known and smaller.) Signed up to stay @ a place called Maupiti Residence @ ~ 90 euro per night. Someone in an earlier post asked about Huahini - we spent some time there also several years ago, staying in a pension and very laid back/had a great time.
Bora Bora has a drop dead beautiful lagoon but the prices to stay there as of last report were frankly staggering so have not done a land based there.
Princess has a 10 day cruise of the Tahitian Islands we have done twice (very nice/good pricing for Tahiti) when they don't sell out and have to cut prices - they also have an 11 night cruise every now and then between the Tahitian Islands and the Hawaiian islands. Its kind of a long, 5 day crossing though between the island groups; in our case (2 years ago) it was rough so they had to drain the pool to stop the sloshing, etc.).
I Will be staying at ye ole Fare Suisse in Papeete for 3 separate nights between flights/maupiti/waiting for flight back home in Beni's dorm room; reasonable 50 euro/night with breakfast. We stayed in a regular room 3 years ago and it was great, especially with the free transportation from airport to pension and from pension to dock, etc. This is a small place so probably is often booked unless you book far in advance. Have never been a big fan of horribly pricy Papeete hotels!
Except for circle island tour not much to do/see on the main island of Tahiti in my opinion. Its an easy hop over to Moorea, a drop dead beautiful place with better beaches. 2 years ago we stayed @ Hotel Kaveka for 4 nights in a partial OV garden bungalow w/ breakfast and dinner at a negotiated price for the 2 of us of around $900 US total. Not inexpensive on my budget but a great deal for Tahiti. We spent our 25th anniversary at the Moorea Sofitel - great property with a bungalow 5 yards? from the edge of the lagoon but even though I'm fairly laid back I found the staff to be intentionally rude - guess they did not like me asking them to remove all the pricy drinks from the "refrigerator" so I could keep our ham cold (yeah - we brought a frigging ham with us to save $ on food - worked out fine but could not stand ham again for at least 6 months afterwords. Only so many ways to fix the stuff in a microwave.
I'm looking forward to posts on/about the Arunia 3 as this is something I have wanted to do for many years. Love soft adventure - have trekked in Nepal Himalaya on 3, 2 week+ treks (Everest Base Camp, Annapurna Sanctuary, etc. but the knees complain more each time.
South Pacific Aranui 3-new reviews?
in Freighter and Other Non-Traditional Cruise Travel
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Greetings: I'm signing up for the 4/26/2014 Aranui sailing. My DW of 40 years is a woos and is passing on this one so hello dorm room. This will be my 4th trip to Tahiti; I retired from Oregon and we moved to our condo in Kona, HI. 4 years ago but its nice to change rocks every now and then.
Only 1 flight from Honolulu to Papeete each week so need a few
days pre and post Aranui cruise. Flying over to Maupiti pre cruise (have always wanted to see - similar to Bora Bora but not well known and smaller.) Signed up to stay @ a place called Maupiti Residence @ ~ 90 euro per night. Someone in an earlier post asked about Huahini - we spent some time there also several years ago, staying in a pension and very laid back/had a great time.
Bora Bora has a drop dead beautiful lagoon but the prices to stay there as of last report were frankly staggering so have not done a land based there.
Princess has a 10 day cruise of the Tahitian Islands we have done twice (very nice/good pricing for Tahiti) when they don't sell out and have to cut prices - they also have an 11 night cruise every now and then between the Tahitian Islands and the Hawaiian islands. Its kind of a long, 5 day crossing though between the island groups; in our case (2 years ago) it was rough so they had to drain the pool to stop the sloshing, etc.).
I Will be staying at ye ole Fare Suisse in Papeete for 3 separate nights between flights/maupiti/waiting for flight back home in Beni's dorm room; reasonable 50 euro/night with breakfast. We stayed in a regular room 3 years ago and it was great, especially with the free transportation from airport to pension and from pension to dock, etc. This is a small place so probably is often booked unless you book far in advance. Have never been a big fan of horribly pricy Papeete hotels!
Except for circle island tour not much to do/see on the main island of Tahiti in my opinion. Its an easy hop over to Moorea, a drop dead beautiful place with better beaches. 2 years ago we stayed @ Hotel Kaveka for 4 nights in a partial OV garden bungalow w/ breakfast and dinner at a negotiated price for the 2 of us of around $900 US total. Not inexpensive on my budget but a great deal for Tahiti. We spent our 25th anniversary at the Moorea Sofitel - great property with a bungalow 5 yards? from the edge of the lagoon but even though I'm fairly laid back I found the staff to be intentionally rude - guess they did not like me asking them to remove all the pricy drinks from the "refrigerator" so I could keep our ham cold (yeah - we brought a frigging ham with us to save $ on food - worked out fine but could not stand ham again for at least 6 months afterwords. Only so many ways to fix the stuff in a microwave.
I'm looking forward to posts on/about the Arunia 3 as this is something I have wanted to do for many years. Love soft adventure - have trekked in Nepal Himalaya on 3, 2 week+ treks (Everest Base Camp, Annapurna Sanctuary, etc. but the knees complain more each time.