Tahiti Travel Guide
Tahiti is the hub for everything French Polynesian and while most people fly into the main airport and then jet off to another island, I highly recommend staying a couple nights and exploring Tahiti before heading off to Bora Bora or Moorea.
How to get to Tahiti
If coming from the United States, the quickest flight will be from LAX flying into Faa’a International Airport. San Francisco and Seattle are the other two US cities that fly directly into Tahiti.
Getting Around Tahiti
You can either rent a car or take cabs but cabs will add up. If you are staying more than a day, I would recommend renting a car so that you have the freedom to explore the island. Doing a road trip around the entire island was one of my favorite things and if you don’t have a car, it’s a little harder to do. The car rental companies are right in the airport but be prepared to wait. It took us about an hour and a half to get our car and it wasn’t very busy. Also, be sure to book a car at least a few weeks ahead of time if you want an automatic. Tahiti has more manual cars than automatics.
Currency in Tahiti
The currency is the Pacific Franc, also known as CFP Franc or XPF. Credit cards are accepted at most places but it’s important to have some cash for smaller vendors, especially if you are checking out the markets.
Where to stay
I would recommend staying on the West side of the island or near Papeete, the capital of the island. Papeete is the busiest part of the island. You will definitely encounter lots of traffic and crowds in that area during the start/end of the work day, and on Saturdays. Stay a few miles away from Papeete to avoid some of the traffic/crowds.
There are plenty of hotel and vacation rental options. If you’re dreaming of an overwater bungalow, my recommendation is to save your money and stay in one on one of the other islands if you are travelling to other ones. You can find plenty of vacation rentals with gorgeous views, much more space, and for reasonable prices.
Airbnb: Bungalow with Sunset View of Moorea: $126/night
We stayed here for two nights and the location was perfect. Close to the airport/ferry so if you don’t have a car, cabs won’t be too bad. Gorgeous view of Moorea. It was spacious, with nice amenities, and fantastic air conditioning.
Must See Locations in Tahiti
Things to Do in Tahiti
#1
Rent a car and road trip around the island: Check out the Google Map I put together of places to stop at and truly get a feel of what Tahiti is all about!
#2
Check out the white and black sand beaches:
White sand beaches: Plage Vaiava, Plage Publique de Toaroto
Black sand beaches: Plage Lafeyette, Taharuu Beach
#3
Go to the Papeete Market but make sure to check the hours before going! They open early and close early. Sundays they close by 10am! Make sure to try an éclair from one of the food stands and I got an amazing latte from “Bubble Wafflerie”.
#4
Visit the Water Gardens Vaipahi
#5
Swim in the Grotto De Mara’a. There is a warning of falling rock so swim at your own risk!
#6
Book a boat tour to see one of the largest surf breaks in the world: Teahupoo (Home of the 2024 Olympics). Here’s a boat tour you could try! Full disclosure, we chose to see it from the island, but it was pretty far out so we could barely see how big the waves actually are.
#7
Swim with humpback whales (July – mid Nov): We are so bummed we just missed this because we went at the end of Nov – beginning of December but heard this is a remarkable experience. Just be aware when you book an excursion, you aren’t guaranteed to swim with the whales. Conditions, how strong of a swimmer you are, where the whales are, all determine if you end up swimming with them. Here’s a company we heard good things about here!
Restaurants in Tahiti
We did not do much research for restaurants in Tahiti so we had some bad luck at a few but here are a few we WOULD recommend
Les 3 Brasseurs
Sports bar food. The poisson cru and pizza were great, and they have a good happy hour!
O Belvedere
French Restaurant with insanely cool island vibes and the best views of the city, ocean, and Moorea. Getting to it is a little difficult. You can hike up or drive but the road is rough so be aware if you have a rental car you don’t trust to handle tough roads (we definitely drove up it with a tiny rental and made it work but there were sketchy moments). Or if you choose to hike Mont Aroa’i, it’s located at the beginning of the hike and the perfect spot to reward yourself with a beer afterward!
Urban Café
There are very few options to get coffee in Tahiti but this one was really good and had decent breakfast food!
Restaurants in Tahiti I would NOT recommend
- L’Instant Present: no flavor to anything
- Le Retro: medicore food at best but wouldn’t eat there again
Hiking in Tahiti
Vaimahuta Waterfall
Easy/short hike. Did it in a dress to the main waterfall. Changed out of sandals into tennis shoes to see the other two waterfalls a bit further in. More info.
Mont Aroa’i
Extremely hard/long hike. There are rope sections, narrow paths, rock-climbing, dense vegetation, and steep elevation in certain areas. You need to wear long pants to avoid getting too scraped up. Start at the restaurant, O’Belvedere. There are only a handful of parking spots, we got there at 10am and were able to get one. We only made it to the hut as we started too late and we were in the clouds about a mile in. If you want to get to the summit, plan for it to take about 10 hours. It took us about 2 hours to make it to the hut but that was without a ton of stopping. If you make it to the hut, there is water to fill up, but be sure to pack plenty yourself no matter what! The hike was hard, but the views were the best we had in Tahiti! More info.
