Reserving independent 4x4 tour on Tahiti?

We are a party of 6 and are hoping to find a good 4x4 tour of Tahiti in Sept. on a Sunday. Have heard about Patrick, but he is already being used by some cruisers on our ship and cannot take 6 more. We would PREFER to do a 1/2 day tour. And are more interested in a fun ride & views than hiking around or anything. Is there a tourist info. booth near the pier where we might be able to book something or will there be reps around the dock area ready to book people on independent 4x4 tours? Any recommendations anyone? Thanks for any help.

Hi Top dive.com is a great site for alot of excursions and they have 1/2 day 4x4 you are interested in. Happy sailing

I've heard the name of Top Dive. Thanks, slk, I'll be sure to check it out!

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mlbcruiser:
We are a party of 6 and are hoping to find a good 4x4 tour of Tahiti in Sept. on a Sunday. Have heard about Patrick, but he is already being used by some cruisers on our ship and cannot take 6 more. We would PREFER to do a 1/2 day tour. And are more interested in a fun ride & views than hiking around or anything. Is there a tourist info. booth near the pier where we might be able to book something or will there be reps around the dock area ready to book people on independent 4x4 tours? Any recommendations anyone? Thanks for any help.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

If Patrick at [url="http://www.papeete.com/patrick/"]www.papeete.com/patrick/[/url] isn't available, you can always try Patrice at [url="http://www.tahiti-safari.com/"]www.tahiti-safari.com/[/url]

Happy cruising! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Bill


Coming Attractions:

8/23/04 Royal Princess, 12 Day British Isles/Western Europe

3/6/05 Legend of the Seas, 11 day Ensenada to Honolulu

3/17/05 Legend of the Seas, 10 day Honolulu to Ensenada

Thanks a lot, Bill! I have written to them. Sounds like they might be the company Princess is using for their excursions (?).

Hi, this is my 1st message so I hope this works!
We are going on the TP Sept 4th. I've seen your messages and hoped
you could help answer all my questions. There are so many ports and
so many excursions and frankly I'm quite overwhelmed and haven't made
any reservations yet because of all the choices. Seems as if you've done
a lot of research! I'm staying at the Sheraton Tahiti Sept 3 for 1 night and was thinking of a rental car to take us from the airport to the hotel. And I was wondering whether we should just spend the day in the rental or actually to
do Patrick's or Tahiti safari on the 4th or 5th. I have Marc's reserved in Huahine.
And I sill don't know about rarotonga, raiatea, bora bora-lagoonarium or 4x4 here
and who is sharkboy? Also what about Stephane at Raiatea? and aqua safari??
And what about Captain Heirfara in Moorea? My husband and I and our
19yr old and 7 yr old daughter are all going. I have been procrastinating since
the possibilities are endless. I want to see it ALL!!! Hope you get this message.
Are you going Sept 4th also ? nancy:)

Hi I am also going on the tp Sept 4 and I found alot of detailed info on the various excursions on the princess site---select tp ship--select sept 4--view each port and the excursions are given there in detail--from all I have read the 4x4 on Borabora,the muri lagoon cruise on Rarotonga,snorkel safari and stingray on Borabora are suppose to be great. Also Marc's motu picnic on Huhaine but princess does not offer this. Happy sailing

Nancy M and slk, I JUST now saw this post. (Just replied to another one you wrote, Nancy.) Yes, I HAVE read a couple of different books and everything has started to run together :confused: and much is repetitive! There is a thread for the TP cruise you are going on (aren't either of you on it yet?). Search under the ROLL CALL section. I'm sure you'll come across it. It's a friendly group and the more the merrier.

RE: renting a car in Tahiti. Well, it depends upon what you want to do. If you are going to spend a half or full day doing a 4x4, it might be a waste of money. If you'd prefer just to circle the island yourselves, maybe stopping at some beaches or hotels, etc., it could be handy. You will probably be a bit tired when you arrive and merely decide to walk around "downtown" &/or hang by your pool the first day, then do the routelles (do I have that name right?), etc., in the evening. Then the next day and the day our ship departs you could do an island or 4x4 tour. I think you will find lots of tour info. near the port as well as at your hotel. (Hey, our neighbors will be staying at the Sheraton when you are! But they never post on this board :( .) So if you meet a couple named Barb and Gary . . . . . !

First off, SEVERAL people from the Sept. 4 cruise roll call thread are going to be on Capt. Heirfara's tour in Moorea. (like maybe 12 or even more?). We just deposited. I do not know if there is any space left on that one or not. We are also booked on Marc's Motu picnic, again along w/quite a few people from our roll call, but it might still have space (?); and Patrick's 4x4 is full on the 5th. We have booked Tahiti Safaris (1/2 day) on Tahiti instead for the 5th. I think they have more than one vehicle so you could probably still get that one or do it on the 4th. As for the other islands, my husband is signed up for a couple of dives. During his dive on Raitea, I signed up for the ship's drift snorkel, but am not sure if I'll go. It depends upon if I know anyone else going or not. The Bora Bora lagoon and 4x4 trips sound interesting, as does the Aquarium, as well as circling the island w/the obligatory stop at Bloody Mary's. All things I'd like to do as well. Sharkboy is popular, but he has had some "bad press" for being unreliable and it's been said by enough people that I was a bit gun shy to book his tour. (Also, we are doing others that are so similar . . . Then there are the pearl farms and maraes. I figure we may see some of that stuff in passing once on the islands or when on other tours. We'll be staying at the Beachcomber Intercontinental on Moorea for 2 nts. precruise, so we can do some things then as well. Many people love the sunset lagoon cruises on Bora Bora , but it is just a bit too pricey for us considering our other tours. . . Rarotonga sounds interesting. CHEAPER than the other islands, for sure. We may wing it there and I've read of a good snorkeling beach, so perhaps we'll get our own vehicle of some sort there. (You can read about it in Frommer's South Pacific book at any bookstore or visit a site on Rarotonga.) You mentioned several different tour operators on the various islands. Some I tried to contact and was not able. (Though I didn't CALL any of them.) And one co. mentioned in the Frommer's guide said they could not book this far ahead (just 2 wks. ago?!) Apparently it isn't hard to find good tour operators in most of the ports or to rent a car, scootcar or motorscooter once you are in port. I think we are prebooked on about all the ship's excursions we will end up booking at this point. Have to see how the money is flowing once we are there for the rest! :o Oh, yes, if you haven't visited tahitiexplorer.com do so! There is GOBS of info. on it. Also gomoorea.com and so forth. Good luck getting your tours! Hope this helps you somewhat but I have a feeling it didint! LOL! :rolleyes: And don't forget to look for the Sept. 4th TP Roll Call postings! :)

MBCruiser,

We went with Patrice when we were in Tahiti in March. He comes under Tahiti Safari Expedition. Our guide was terrific, very informative and easily understood. We went for the whole day but it was far too long - 8.30am -6.30pm. I would suggest a half day as it is a long time to be bumped around.

By the way we went on a Sunday also whilst we were staying at Le Meridien pre cruise.

Here is the website - he is at the bottom of the list.
[url="http://www.thetahititraveler.com/islandguide/tahitiactivities.asp?iles_id=1&acttypeid=1&keyword=&pg=2&orig=&partner"]http://www.thetahititraveler.com/islandguide/tahitiactivities.asp?iles_id=1&acttypeid=1&keyword=&pg=2&orig=&partner[/url]=

Jennie.