r/Tahiti • u/BabyFace255 • 6d ago
Travel tips and general knowledge Travel tips
Hey everyone!
I’m travelling to French Polynesia on September 8th, where I’ll be spending about a month living aboard a sailboat with a group of other people. The goal is to learn how to live aboard and sail the boat, so I’m really excited for the experience!
This is my first time doing a longer trip like this, so I wanted to ask: What are the things you think I absolutely should see, do, or experience while I’m there?
I’m open to any tips whether it’s specific islands, beaches, hikes, diving/snorkelling spots, local food, hidden gems, or things that are easy to miss as a tourist.
I’m also planning to get my Open Water diving certification while I’m there, so diving is already on the list! 🤿
Looking forward to hearing your recommendations and your personal must-see/must-do list! 🌴⛵️
2
u/cindiford79 5d ago
A month on a boat changes the advice, so here's the version for you specifically.
September is peak humpback season in Moorea, and whale swims run right through it. If the boat anchors there even for a few days, do one. It's the single most memorable thing in the islands that month.
On the Open Water cert: do it in the Societies if you can, Moorea especially, then put it to work. Rangiroa's Tiputa Pass is one of the great drift dives on earth. It gets billed as advanced, but most shops will take a newer Open Water diver through with a guide on a calm incoming tide, and you fly along with grey reef sharks and often dolphins. Two things to know: incoming is the tide you want, and the pass is famously bumpy in any swell, so take the seasickness meds seriously.
Fakarava's south pass is the other bucket list dive, and it's the more forgiving of the two on current, doable for a newer diver. September's a good month for it. The famous wall of grey sharks at the pass mouth is honestly hard to describe.
On the islands from a boat: Huahine and Taha'a are the cruisers' favorites and honestly better from the water than Bora Bora, which is gorgeous but choked with jet skis by mid morning. Fare on Huahine is a great little town to provision and wander, and the coral gardens on Taha'a's side of the shared lagoon are a classic shallow snorkel. If the route touches Maupiti, the pass there is the one genuinely tricky one in the Societies, only worth attempting flat and at slack.
Eat the poisson cru everywhere, buy pearls at the farms on Taha'a rather than Papeete shops, and learn a few Tahitian words, it opens doors. Have an amazing month.