French Polynesia and The Austral Islands
I’ve wanted to visit French Polynesia since I began learning French in 8th grade. It always struck me as wildly alluring - a tropical paradise in the middle of nowhere. So when I got a last minute Scott’s Cheap Flights deal, I couldn’t help myself. I found tickets from San Francisco to Tahiti for $520, nonstop, on United. “What an amazing deal!” I thought. And it was. However, it was the first and last deal of the trip - haha. This might have been our most expensive vacation yet. But other than the cost, it lived up to all my other hopes and dreams. French Polynesia is an insanely beautiful place. You won’t regret a trip here. Just make sure to save up before you go.
Why visit French Polynesia?
If you like swimming, diving or snorkeling, go to French Polynesia. Prepare to see the bluest water of your entire life. It looks photoshopped, but it isn’t. The lagoons surrounding many of the islands are surreal in their multicolored hues, ranging from indigo to turquoise and every shade in between. And the marine life beneath the surface is equally amazing. Prepare yourself to see sharks, stingrays, parrotfish, octopus, giant colorful clams, beautiful coral, and a whole array of underwater awesomeness.
Other than the water itself, the island life is relaxed and peaceful. The islands are all geologically and culturally different. Some have impossibly steep mountains jutting straight out of the ocean with crazy pointy peaks. Others are flatter, made up of coral atolls from old coral reefs. Everywhere you go, people are friendly and the food is good. There is fruit growing LITERALLY everywhere and lots of jungle and palm trees. The pace of life is slower, but there is still a lot to explore. We loved hiking and swimming, or just sitting in a beautiful spot and reading books all day. It’s the perfect place to relax.
How to plan a French Polynesia Trip
There are 118 islands in French Polynesia.) that cover an area the size of Europe. It’s a big place. So how did I narrow down where to go? Well, I have a soft spot for Lonely Planet guides. While not perfect, they do provide a TON of in-depth local information. So I started by buying the Tahiti and French Polynesia guide. I read this cover to cover, and started to get a sense of which islands sounded the most ideal for us. If you are planning your own trip, remember that everyone travels differently! It’s okay to like different things. I’m aware that my husband and I are somewhat unique in our traveling style. We like to plan somewhat adventurous trips with a wide range of locations and accommodations. We like to spoil ourselves occasionally, but it’s usually more important for us to get off the beaten path, into nature, and to connect with locals. We are also birdwatchers, which makes us a little quirky and drawn to strange locations that might have cool birds, haha.
I quickly learned that Tahiti is the largest island, and it’s the hub for the country. Pretty much all international flights go through Faa’a international airport in Tahiti. Right next door to Tahiti is its beautiful sister island, Moorea. It’s very easy (and quick) to get a 30 min ferry between the two. So I figured that at the minimum it would be easy for us to see these two places. But with 16 days to kill, I was hungry for more.
Why visit the Austral Islands
Lonely Planet describes the Austral Islands like this: “Isolated and straddling the tropic of Capricorn, the magnificent and pristine Austral Islands are arguably French Polynesia’s most underrated destination. The Climate here is temperate, but everything else befitting a tropical paradise is here: flower-filled jungles, sharp peaks, outrageous blue water and genuinely friendly people.” This paragraph piqued my interest immediately.
After doing my research, I spent a LOT of time on Air Tahiti’s website. They offer “Island Passes” that cover a set of flights between islands in different archipelagos. I poured over the flight options and times during our trip, and discovered that a lot of these flights were NOT daily. More like once or twice a week. So this really helped me get the structure of our trip in place. I made one itinerary for the Marquesas Islands and one for the Austral Islands. In the end, we decided to go with the Australs, but I could definitely see us going back to explore the Marquesas someday too! Both archipelagos are remote and off the main tourist paths. They both offer dramatic landscapes and a strong cultural presence.
I also found this amazing travel blog called X days in Y and I read all about their Austral and Marquesas itineraries. This helped me narrow things down, and I’d highly recommend using their website as a resource!
Our Austral Island itinerary
We ended up visiting 6 islands on our trip and all of them spoke slightly different languages, had different geology, and unique vibes. I was worried that 6 islands might be too much in our 16 days, but we ended up loving the pacing of it. A lot of places we went were VERY small, so it was easy to get a good sense of the island in 2 nights while still having time to relax.
Day 1 - land in Tahiti at night, stay at Fare D’hôtes Tutehau guesthouse near airport
Day 2-3 - Morning ferry to Moorea, stay at Hilton Moorea in over the water bungalow
Day 4 - Ferry back to Tahiti in the afternoon, explore the city of Papeete, stay at Fare Suisse Guesthouse
Day 5-6 - Early flight to the Austral Islands - first stop - Raivavae - stay at Pension Vaimano-Raivavae
Day 7-9 - Fly to Tubuai - stay at Pension Taitaa Tubuai
Day 10-11 - Rurutu - stay at Pension Teautamatea
Day 12-13 - Rimitara - stay at La Perruche Rouge
Day 14-16 -Back to Tahiti - stay at a bungalow in the middle of mountains - Le Relais de la Maroto
Day 17 fly home.
French Polynesia and Austral Island Travel Tips
I hope you like fish. You will be eating a lot of it. We ate fish every day for two straight weeks. Lots of grilled fish and raw “poisson cru” which is kind of like poke salad or ceviche. They also eat a lot of taro root and fresh fruit. And baguettes.
Plan to spend a lot of money on food and accommodations. The cheapest guesthouses are $100-150 a night ($150 minimum in the Australs). Many guesthouses include room and partial board, but the food will be $20-$40 per meal. The exception is if you can find cheap baguette sandwiches for lunch - those are huge and usually like $5. The airports in the Australs all have snack shops with cheap sandwiches.
You can find nice hotels and resorts in the main tourist areas, but I highly recommend staying at local guesthouses, known locally as “pensions.” We stayed in guesthouses for our entire trip, with the exception of our Hilton splurge. Its a way better way to meet locals, fellow travelers, and eat local cuisine. We had a great experience everywhere we stayed.
Excursions and activities usually start around $50 per person. Your pension will help you arrange them.
Learn how to say hello and thank you in Tahitian! Hello is “Ia Orana” (pronounced ya-rah-nah). Thank you is “Mauruuru” (Maw-roo-roo).
A lot of places are cash only, especially in the Australs or anywhere off the main tourist path. Make sure you take out enough and keep track of which islands have working ATMS, and which don’t. We took out the max amount every couple of days and spent all of it because everything cost so much, haha.
Download French in Google Translate before you arrive. You’ll thank me later.
There is very minimal internet in the Australs and it is very slow. Plan accordingly or enjoy life disconnected for awhile (we did!).
Bring a water filter device with you. Many islands have drinkable tap water, but many others don’t. As you island hop, you constantly have to re-assess and buy more bottled water. We found that we could drink the water in Papeete, but it was not recommended in Moorea. And then it was not recommended in Raivavae, but safe in Tubuai and Rurutu. And unsafe in Rimatara.
Water shoes are a must. Everywhere you go, there is sharp coral and danger of stonefish. We saw one on Raivavae. I bought these Keens on Amazon before the trip and they were perfeect for water and hiking.
You will need a lot of sunblock and a lot of bug spray.
Moorea
Our first real stop, after a quick night in Tahiti, was Moorea. This place is a dream. If you don’t have a ton of time and you want to save on airfare, you can just fly to Tahiti and go to Moorea and you will have a great time. Yes, it’s more touristy than the Australs. But there’s a reason: it is STUNNING.
Due to life, and the hectic things that had been going on right before this trip, we decided to begin our vacation by deeply spoiling ourselves and relaxing. I couldn’t go to French Polynesia without staying at least a few nights in one of those fancy over-the-water bungalows, so that’s exactly what we did. After freaking out at the price tag (and booking everything 1 week before we left), we realized we could use our Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa credit card points to pay for a room at the Hilton Moorea. It was absolutely worth it. I’ve learned that a lot of times I am REALLY TIRED by the time I actually arrive on a vacation. I was so happy to relax in a 5 star resort for 2 days before beginning the more intense adventure part of our trip.
The Hilton Moorea was an amazing hotel. Our bungalow might have been the nicest room we have ever stayed in. Our clear glass coffee table had a perfect view of coral, fish, and even sharks below! We could jump straight into the water from our little deck. We could watch the sunset. The beach at the Hilton and the snorkeling in the lagoon was actually some of the best of our entire trip. It was everything we needed to unwind. We were there for a full 48 hours straight, which was the perfect amount of time. By the end we were just starting to get that “trapped at the resort” feeling, and we were ready to go. 3 nights would have been too many for us; 2 was perfect.
We spent most of our time relaxing in our room, snorkeling and hanging out. But we did take one epic excursion to swim with sharks! We booked this through the Hilton and it was so worth it. A little boat took 6 of us down the coastline to a shallow area in the middle of the lagoon. We hopped out and were immediately surrounded by friendly black-tipped reef sharks and stingrays. This population was well-fed and used to humans, so overall I felt pretty safe. We were also standing in shallow water, which helped my fear. We snorkeled with the sharks for awhile, and then took the boat out to a fringing island (known in French Polynesia as a motu) and snorkeled in much deeper water for a bit. It was fantastic. I didn’t take many photos with my pro camera, but we took a ton of underwater videos on my husbands iphone in a cheap underwater case. You can find the videos buried at the very end of this Instagram Highlight haha.
Papeete
We had to spend one more night in Tahiti in the city of Papeete after our trip to Moorea, so we chose a place close to town so we could do a little exploring. To be honest we spent most the day napping and reading, but we finally escaped our room at Fare Suisse around sunset. We wandered around the city taking photos, found a kareoke bar for some drinks, and then ate dinner at a “Rouloutte” a French Polynesian food truck. So good.
Raivavae
Raivavae is often described as “what Bora Bora used to be like 75 years ago.” As soon as I read that in Lonely Planet, I was like “I must go here.”
This tiny island has a population around 900 people. Landing here after being in bustling Tahiti was a shock. The airport is tiny. We had no data on our cell phones. There were hardly any businesses in sight. But it was GORGEOUS.
Our guesthouse host, Clarice, picked us up at the airport. We had a beautiful bungalow at Pension Vaimiano-Raivavae overlooking colorful gardens and the lagoon. It was incredibly quiet, save the buzzing of bees and flies (lots of those, haha). We spent our first day reading and relaxing, then borrowing a few bikes and taking a little ride around the island. We went in search of bottled water and came to a disturbing conclusion: both stores on the island were completely out! My water scarcity fear set in, but luckily Clarice had plenty in her own storage and we were able to buy some from her. In retrospect I really wish we had packed a water filter!
We were the only people staying at the guesthouse, so we enjoyed meals alone with Clarice, speaking a hilarious blend of broken French, broken English, and broken Spanish. She told us she had lived in Mexico for 6 months back when she was a traveling Polynesian dancer, so my husband and her practiced their Spanish together during meals. Her local cooking was delicious.
On our second day, we planned a motu tour - a trip to a fringing island on the outside of the lagoon. We didn’t know what to expect, but we were excited. Clarice drove us to the boat launch location where we were joined by her brother. All four of us boarded a traditional, 40 year old pirogue boat, (except with an engine!) and set off. Before arriving at the motu, we took a brief stop on a rocky, pyramid shaped offshore island that their family owns, known as “pig island.” Our boat was loaded up with buckets, and at the moment I realized they were filled with pig slop! As we approached, 15 pigs of all shapes and sizes started swimming toward us. Before I could stop it, a huge pig practically crawling on my lap, spilling the bucket of slop all over the boat. It was kind of scary! Clarice and her brother shooed it away and they proceeded to feed the pigs from the slop buckets and coconuts. It was fascinating and the baby piglets were SO cute.
After that, we rinsed out the boat and were on our way across the lagoon to the motu. We spotted a number of seabirds along the way - frigatebirds, tropicbirds, and terns.
The motu was isolated paradise. Pure white sand, pure blue water. This particular motu is owned by the family and we were the only people on the island. Mikael and I walked around the entire thing in our water sandals. We snorkeled, ate an incredible homemade lunch of fruit and poisson cru, and lay in the shade reading books. The perfect way to spend the day. We were there from 10am-4pm or so. We made one last stop at pig island to give the hungry hogs our lunch scraps too. We ended the night back at the guesthose eating a dinner of fresh caught clams that Clarice and her brother had gathered while we were on the motu.
Tubuai
We flew to Tubuai the following afternoon, and stayed with Nadi and Nathalie at Pension Taitaa Tubuai. Their beautiful home is set in a spacious garden setting (with a pool), and the row of guesthouse rooms seperate from the main house. Nathalie and Nadi speak very minimal English, so I really got to put my high school French skills to the test here! It was also hilarious because everywhere in the Australs, the hotel owners knew each other. As we left Clarice, she told us to give “bisous” (kisses) to Nathalie and Nadi for her. And Nadi told us that he considered our next host to be like a brother to him. It was such a small world.
Tubuai was way different from Raivavae. Its the economic center of the Australs and is a much larger island overall. The rolling hills give way to many farms, and this is where much of the produce in the Australs is grown. There is a stunning mountain, beautiful lagoon, and a much larger population here - closer to 2200 people.
We spent our first evening relaxing by the pool and chatting in broken French with our lovely hosts. Again, we were the only guests on the property.
The following day, we did ANOTHER motu tour, because Mikael and I could not get enough of motu life. This one ended up being completely different from the last, which was so cool! We took Nadi’s beautiful speedboat out to a much larger motu, with multiple cottages and families relaxing on a Saturday. They explained that their little motu house was where their family spent holidays and Christmas. We were joined by some of their good friends - a beautiful French military couple from the West Indies, and their 3 children. We spent the day speaking more broken French, miming a lot, drinking beer, laughing, and eating continually. Nadi cooked us the most fabulous traditional lunch. He made homemade banana bread rolled into banana leaves and cooked on open fire. He also cooked 2 freshly caught parrotfish on the grill. And any lunch would be incomplete without poisson cru, the famous raw-fish dish. He scraped multiple coconuts (with everyones help) to make fresh coconut milk for the dish. It was really cool to make a huge meal with everyone’s help, entirely outdoors and over a fire.
We snorkeled more at the motu, going out to deeper water with towering coral that rose from the depths to the surface. We swam over huge colorful clams that would move open and shut as our shadows passed over them. The water was clear as glass.
At around 4pm, we packed up and took the boat to yet another motu! This one was completely bare - save for a few recently planted saplings. Just a small strip of golden sand alone at the edge of the lagoon. We stayed til sunset, rolling around in the sandy warm water, tossed by tiny waves.
The next day we did an island tour of Tubuai with Nadi. We drove around the entire island in his truck and he took us to several ancient marae - or polynesian archealogical sites. It was SO cool to learn more of the island history!
Rurutu
Rurutu was different from every other island we visited. It has some crazy geology and is riddled with limestone caves and steep cliffs. This island also has a pretty big population for Austral standards - close to 2500 people in several small villages.
We stayed with Elin and Vaiamano at Pension Teautamatea. Elin is originally Welsh and was our first host in the Australs that spoke perfect English. She doesn’t get a lot of English speaking visitors, so it was fun to hang out with her and learn all about the island, it’s history and her unique family.
Within a few minutes of arriving, we decided to do an island tour. We hopped into the car with Elin and proceeded to spend the next few hours exploring the entirety of Rurutu to get a sense of the place.
There was so much to see in Rurutu. We visited 3 different caves on the tour, and that was probably my favorite part. We saw the jagged cliffs and rocky coastlines, as well as soft sandy beaches. We drove through several towns and went grocery shopping. There was even a small coffee roaster on the island that we stopped at (and bought some beans, of course). We also stopped and chatted with several taro farmers, learning about how the root grows and how it’s easily propagated again after harvest. Taro is a staple in the Australs and we ate a lot of it!
We relaxed after our tour by hanging out on the beach next to the guesthouse, and watching a beautiful sunset. Dinner was fun too - there were several other guests staying at the pension, so conversation was lively and enjoyable.
On our second day, Mikael and I got a ride to a trailhead and then hiked up to the highest point on the island - about 1276 ft. It was a great hike through ferns and forest, and the end got VERY steep. You could see 360 degrees from the top and it really gave the sense of how alone these islands must have felt in the vast ocean. There is literally nothing south of Rurutu until you hit Antarctica. So vast and empty.
We hiked down from the summit and then all the way back to the nearest town for lunch. We picked some pomelos on the roadside to snack on while we were walking (road fruit is considered fair game), but I was still pretty hot and cranky by the time we made it to town. We stopped in a little pastry shop for some of the most delicious chocolate pastries I have ever had in my life, and then ate lunch at an actual restaurant, a rarity in the Australs. We continued walking back to our guesthouse after lunch, desperately trying to hitchhike since it was VERY hot and our legs were extremely tired. The hitchhiking efforts weren’t going super well, and we were worried that the universal hitchhiking sign was somehow not known here, but eventually someone picked us up. And that someone was…. the local police! Ha! They told us to hop in the van and happily took us back to our pension. The islands are so small that everyone knows everyone, so of course they knew Elin’s house. We laughed so hard afterward - hitchhiking with the police is definitely a first for us on our travels.
We later discovered that we had walked over 8 miles that day - so we rested and watched the sunset from the beach again that evening.
On our third day, we had an early afternoon flight to Rimatara, so we decided to make the most of our morning with a horseback ride! Vaimano is known for his horse excursions, so I wanted to take advantage of his expertise. Elin joined us on the ride to help translate. We hadn’t ridden horses in 5-10 years so both Mikael and I were rusty. Riding horses is hard! My horse could probably sense my fear because it was a little grumpy and sleepy, which made me more nervous and was a poor feedback loop. We had a few small mishaps (my horse decided it wanted to roll on the sand while I was riding it - a rather terrifying way to start), but we made it back safely in the end. The loop took us down the beach and then way up into the mountains on different trails than we had walked the day prior. It was a very cool experience to see the island on horseback. But if you are a little nervous around horses, (like I secretly am), it may not the best activity for you, ha.
Rimatara
To be honest, I had low expectations of Rimatara. It was very difficult to find information about this tiny island. It’s also so small that there are only TWO hotels on the entire island to choose from. Adding to this, everyone we met on the other three islands kept asking “You are going to Rimatara? Why?” We had our reasons though. Two reasons. There are two species of birds that ONLY live on Rimatara: the Rimatara Reed Warbler and the Kuhl’s (or Rimatara) Lorikeet.
Our only plans were to hopefully see these two birds. We had around 36 hours to do it, and the island is only 9 square kilometers, so I figured it was possible.
We saw them both in the first 5 minutes of arriving at our hotel, haha.
I don’t know if it was my low expectations (I read a really terrible review online before the trip), or the birds, but I think Mikael and I feel in love with this place. It might have been our favorite island. It wasn’t flashy, it didn’t have beautiful mountains rising out of the ocean, but it had a friendly laid-back vibe that we adored.
Upon arrival, we accidentally met the mayor in the airport. He was excited to see two Americans from Oregon visiting his island. Once we made the 5 minute drive to our hotel, La Perrouche Rouge, we discovered that it way more beautiful than expected. Our bungalow looked out over a valley of palms, gardens, and you could see the ocean in the distance. The little lorikeets and reed warblers were everywhere in the colorful gardens, squawking happily. The hotel owner, Kenji, offered us a free island tour in his car, which was extremely generous (other places charged $50 per person for a similar tour). He drove around the entire island, telling us stories about his family, the history, and little tidbits of local gossip. He was funny and easy to talk to. We also stopped at the small store to buy water and snacks.
Dinner was delicious and we got to meet the only other guest at the hotel, a Polish man who was living there for a month to pursue HAM radio contacts. He chose the location specifically for HAM radio and he had immense technical knowledge about the subject after doing it for 50 years.
On our second day - our only full day on the island - we decided to relax. During the island tour, we saw a beautiful looking beach and decided to go back. Kenji dropped us off there and we spent the entire day relaxing in the most perfect swimming spot of our entire trip. It was called “The Bay of Virgins” (lol) and it was made of these jagged coral rocks that created deep, protected turquoise pools. We were there from 9am-4pm and it still didn’t feel long enough. There was also a cute little snack shop a short walk away, where we bought some baguette sandwiches for lunch. At the end of the day, we packed up and walked the 3 km or so back to the guesthouse at sunset. It was a lovely walk and I was happy to take pictures in the nice afternoon light. Rimatara was good to us.
Le Relais de la Maroto
After 10 days in the Austral Islands, we flew back to Tahiti. We had two more nights to kill at the end of our trip, and I wanted to do one more different thing. Since we had been on or near the beach the entire time, I figured, why not spend the last few days in the mountains? I discovered that there is literally ONE hotel in the very heart of Tahiti in the middle of the mountains. Lonely Planet had a great little blurb about it, and as soon as I googled it I was sold. Le Relais de la Maroto looked epic.
We arranged a transfer from the airport for $65 per person, which seemed a bit steep until we realized what that entailed. We drove for an hour in traffic to the other side of Tahiti, and then stopped at a small house and changed cars. Our driver only spoke French but I understand what she was saying: we needed a different car for the next road. We climbed into a beat-up, open sided 4x4 with a cracked windshield. Our new driver was very young but enthusiastic. Mikael climbed into the bed in the back and I sat in the front so I could take photos. For the next hour we crawled slowly up a pothole-ridden road, deep into the heart of the mountains of Tahiti.
Let me say this: Tahiti has some big mountains. The tallest one, Mont Orohena is 7352 ft tall. And this is on an island that is only 45 km wide. So to say that it rises almost straight up is an understatement. Tahiti is the largest and tallest island in all of French Polynesia and it was incredible to go deep into the mountainous center.
Thick jungle, wild waterfalls, impossible peaks - they all loomed above us as we drove to Le Relais de la Maroto. It was quite a journey and we enjoyed it immensely. When we arrived, we discovered the hotel is perched on a hilltop surrounded by peaks on all sides. Our bungalow had some of the best views of anywhere we had ever stayed.
The hotel itself was a bit shabby and run down, but the bungalows were newer and nicer. We did have to eat all meals in the same restaurant, so after a few days we started to get a little sick of the food. But the views made up for it all.
On our second day, we decided we were tired from all our travels and wanted one more day of pure relaxation before our trip ended. So we hiked down the hill to one of the rivers and spent all day swimming in the little pools and waterfalls, and laying out on big boulders in the sun. Several groups of locals came down to join us at various points. It was so peaceful and fun to swim in the river and see the looming mountains above us - it felt completely surreal.
Our final day was our first REALLY rainy day of the trip. Since we had a redeye that night, we decided to take things easy and avoid getting all our clothes wet before packing them away. So we just hung out at our bungalow, napped, read books, and enjoyed the views and sounds of pouring rain. We rode with some locals and their kids back down the mountain that afternoon, and made it to the airport around sunset. Since Le Relais de Marato has no wifi, we took our Navica COVID tests at the airport once we arrived. Easy.
Learn More
Did you enjoy reading about French Polynesia and the Austral Islands? If so, here are some other blog posts you might like! And always, feel free to contact me with more questions!
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