B2B on TP, Land Based Trip or a Combination?

[Susan-M]

I've booked B2B cruises on the TP for next October and am having some doubts about whether or not this is the best option for us as a way of spending 3 weeks in Tahiti.

 

Originally I had just booked one cruise (Cook Islands) and thought we would do a couple of days pre and post cruise at a hotel. Instead, I've decided that the money might be better spent on the 2nd cruise (which goes to the Marquesas Islands).... and if we are going to spend that much on air, and travel that far, we should try to stretch the trip out a bit.

 

A few questions:

 

1. Do you think that visiting the repeat ports twice provides enough variety or are they so amazing that repetition is not a factor?

 

The ports that are repeated in each cruise are:

- Papeete (4 days total)

- Raiatea (1 1/2 days)

- Bora Bora (1 1/2 days)

- Moorea (2 days)

 

The ports that are not repeated are:

- Huahine

- Rarotonga

- Nuku Hiva

- Hiva Oa

- Rangiroa

 

2. We like to do things independently - e.g. take our mask, fins and snorkel and go to a beach on our own. Is this possible on some of the islands that we'll be visiting.

 

3. We also would like to rent a car and/or bicycles - which islands would you recommend doing this on?

 

4. We would probably go at least one (but probably two) days ahead of time to recover from jet lag - is there enough to do in Papeete for that length of time, i.e. the one or two days ahead, plus the 4 days that the ship is docked in Tahiti?

 

I know I need to do some more reading on Tahiti, but at this point I am trying to convince myself and DH that a B2B cruise will be better than a land based trip and staying on several islands.

 

Luckily I've got till Jan. or Feb. to commit as we can wait till then to look at air. At this point, I have deposits on the cruises and a booking at the Sofitel in Papeete.

 

Thanks very much for your input!

[dog]

Here's my opinion based on what I found:

*We stayed in Papeete 3 days pre and 1 post at Le Meridien - we had a car our whole time there. We enjoyed it but after seeing Moorea I wished we had made the extra effort to do the pre cruise days in Moorea ( easy to get to by ferry or small plane). I liked the beauty of Moorea and it is easy to rent a car and drive around the island.

*Tahiti would be the island to get a car. It was very easy for us to drive around the whole island, go to waterfalls and to le marche in town.

* With 4 cruise days in Tahiti I wouldn't choose a land based stay here.

*The other islands you mention sound fine to spend the extra time there. A land based holiday on a motu at Bora Bora would be another choice or Tahaa.

* Hotels and restaurants can be quite pricey, but with a car you can pick and choose more reasonable places to eat.

J.

[Susan-M]

Thanks J - appreciate your input! I agree that Moorea would be a better choice than Papeete for a pre-cruise stay if we do a B2B.

[chasetf]

We went through the same descision process when looking at 1/2 the cost being flights. So we added the second leg, and even twenty days on the ship seem to fly by. See my comments to your questions below.

I've booked B2B cruises on the TP for next October and am having some doubts about whether or not this is the best option for us as a way of spending 3 weeks in Tahiti.

 

Originally I had just booked one cruise (Cook Islands) and thought we would do a couple of days pre and post cruise at a hotel. Instead, I've decided that the money might be better spent on the 2nd cruise (which goes to the Marquesas Islands).... and if we are going to spend that much on air, and travel that far, we should try to stretch the trip out a bit.

 

A few questions:

 

1. Do you think that visiting the repeat ports twice provides enough variety or are they so amazing that repetition is not a factor? Not at all. I noted below all the various things we did. We feel with the extra days we got to see things we didn't see the time before.

 

The ports that are repeated in each cruise are:

- Papeete (4 days total) - mostly day stayed in Papeete. Last day (disembarkation day) we hired a van for the day off the dock and did our own island tour.

- Raiatea (1 1/2 days) - We did the coral canyon tour on Tahaa. We also did the motu picnic the other time on the island.

- Bora Bora (1 1/2 days) - one day we did a port pickup land tour and the other we did a boat circumnavigate the island pickup tour that included motu stop, stingray swim and snorkelling.

- Moorea (2 days) - same here as Bora Bora. One stop land tour and a boat tour. Both were great.

 

The ports that are not repeated are:

- Huahine - We did the motu in-water "picnic" which was ok. Motu was fun to walk around

- Rarotonga - we missed because of a tropical storm so went to Rangiroa instead

- Nuku Hiva - only worth a day. We went to the resort on shore for the day and walked around

- Hiva Oa - only worth a day. Also went to the resort on shore for the day and walked around

- Rangiroa - we went here instead of Rarotonga so saw it twice. Best snorkeling we found

 

2. We like to do things independently - e.g. take our mask, fins and snorkel and go to a beach on our own. Is this possible on some of the islands that we'll be visiting. Yes. There are great pickup tours on Bora Bora and Moorea that we took advantage of. The land tours (pickup van in port) gave us the ability to tailor our tours. Our guides took us were we wanted to go and stayed as long as we wanted.

 

3. We also would like to rent a car and/or bicycles - which islands would you recommend doing this on? - We didn't rent any vehicles and found when we wanted to tour it was better to have someone drive up. We were four, so it was great to split the cost.

 

4. We would probably go at least one (but probably two) days ahead of time to recover from jet lag - is there enough to do in Papeete for that length of time, i.e. the one or two days ahead, plus the 4 days that the ship is docked in Tahiti? - We had no desire to stay in an overwater bungelo for some outrageous price. We went with Princess air so you arrive late at night, get a good nights rest, have the next day in Papeete

 

I know I need to do some more reading on Tahiti, but at this point I am trying to convince myself and DH that a B2B cruise will be better than a land based trip and staying on several islands. - We enjoy the ship, so it was a no brainer for us. We had a great time and hope to do it again after exploring other places we have never been. If you plan on staying on multiple islands there is the additional travel cost and travel days.

 

Luckily I've got till Jan. or Feb. to commit as we can wait till then to look at air. At this point, I have deposits on the cruises and a booking at the Sofitel in Papeete. - Hotel rates are expensive and food is even more expensive. My brother and I each had a 16 oz beer and our wives each had a bottled water in a sidewalk cafe in Papette and it was $32. We kept hearing about $500 dinners, so that convinced us the most economical way to see Tahiti was from the ship.

 

Thanks very much for your input!

[Susan-M]

We went through the same descision process when looking at 1/2 the cost being flights. So we added the second leg, and even twenty days on the ship seem to fly by. See my comments to your questions below.

 

Thanks very much for answering all my questions! One concern I have is seeing your comments on the 2 ports in the Marquesas Islands. We're not fans of 'sea days', but thought it might be worth the 2 sea days to get there .... but you don't sound overly impressed with these ports?

[kruzingtogether]

4 days in Papeete is a long time. Even on our cruise, when we were in Papeete 1.5 days at the beginning and 1 day at the end, we ended up taking the ferry back to Moorea (loved it!) our last day of the cruise. We stayed 2 days pre-cruise at the Intercontinental Tahiti in an overwater bungalow. Though close geographically, the IC was a world away from the hustle and bustle of Papeete. The resort was amazing (great pools, a lagoon for snorkeling), and we were able to swim/snorkel right off our very private bungalow. After seeing the IC Moorea (went there for the dolphin encounter), we liked the IC Tahiti better (although we liked the island of Moorea better, on the whole). Also, the way most flights work, if you are coming from the US, you would not be able to get to Moorea until the morning after you arrived. Since we were honeymooners (and flew just hours after our wedding festivities wrapped up!), we were happy to have a beautiful room in a great resort that was close to the airport for a couple days when we first arrived.

 

As far as the cruise, our 10 days definitely flew by. Our Rarotonga stop got cancelled, so we had 3 days at sea in the middle... our ship had a broken engine as well, and it was the first time we were ever both quite sick on a cruise. When I wrote our honeymoon photobook, though, I just skipped over those days :-) , which was appropriate b/c we had forgotten about them by the end of the cruise!

 

In terms of repeated stops, I don't think it is possible to have too much time in Bora Bora or Moorea. Raiatea was nice (we loved the Tahaa Coral Gardens), but didn't really compare to Bora and Moorea otherwise.