The island of Tahiti is the largest and main island in the French Polynesia. There are many things you can do and see here including volcanoes, temples, black-sand beaches, lagoons, waterfalls and of course the underwater life.
Contents
Getting There
If you are flying into the French Polynesia from a different country, then you will be flying into the international airport in Tahiti – Faa’a International Airport.
We flew with Air Tahiti Nui from the US. Read more here about what we had to do to prepare for our flight regarding COVID tests, etc. Make sure you read about the requirements for the destination you are going to.
From the airport, depending on where your next destination is, you can take a ferry or a plane to a different island.
The domestic airline in the French Polynesia is Air Tahiti (not to be confused with Air Tahiti Nui).
Not much leg room 
Baggage Claim
The domestic terminal is much smaller but there was a McDonald’s and we like to try McDonald’s at different destinations! There are other food booths as well if you don’t want to eat McDonald’s.
We traveled to the French Polynesia and Tahiti during October 2020 so COVID is still a real issue. Face masks are required and they recommend social distancing.
How To Get To Other Islands
To get to the other islands, you can either take a ferry or a plane. If you are going to Moorea, the easiest and cheapest way is to take a ferry with either Aremiti or Terevau (~$11 USD one way). For our trip, we got a taxi from the airport to the ferry terminal which costs about 3500 cpf (~$34 USD). From there, we took a ferry with Aremiti from Tahiti to Moorea and the total duration was only about 30 minutes.
Here are the timetables as of October 2020:
Aremiti 
Terevau 
Terevau
You don’t need to book your tickets ahead of time and can just buy them at the box office the day of. We bought round-trip tickets since we knew we had to return to Tahiti for our flight back home. Make sure you get some good seats since you’ll be able to see the ferry approaching the other islands!
If you are traveling to Bora Bora, however, you’ll need to book a flight. The flight time is about an hour.
Things To Do
Although we just transferred directly to Moorea and Bora Bora in the beginning of our trip, we did spend a day and a half in Tahiti and were able to experience the culture here that we didn’t get in the other islands.
Snorkeling Tour
Since we visited Tahiti towards the end of our trip, we were pretty exhausted from all the snorkeling, swimming and getting underwater. However, we had already reserved a private snorkeling tour with Tahiti Lagoon Paradise (31000 xpf = ~$300 USD for the both of us). The weather in Tahiti was also not ideal – it was raining and the water was very rough. But our tour guide assured us that we would still have a good time and be safe. He was very friendly and knowledgeable. He also took a lot of pictures of us and sent them to us almost immediately! I would say that I could have passed on this and I don’t think we would have missed much. One thing that was different than what we saw in the other islands was a shipwreck.
We also spent quite a lot of time tracking these turtles. You can just see how rough the water was if you looked at the turtles – they were getting swayed and pushed back and forth!
West Coast Tour
If you’re not into snorkeling or swimming, don’t worry there are plenty of other activities you can do on land! We booked a half day private tour with Unique Tahiti Tours on the day that we were flying out. Since our flight was at 9PM that night, we did a morning tour (~4 hours) and then our tour guide (Tracey) also dropped us off at the airport!
There are several tours that this company offers and it really just depends on what you want to see. We chose the West Coast Tour so we were able to see all of these wonderful attractions:
Marae of Arahururu
Caves of Marae
Black-sand beach
Vaipahi Botanical Garden and a waterfall
Waterfall 
100 Year Old Turtle 
Tour of Monoi Coconut Oil Factory
We were able to go on a tour of the Monoi Coconut Oil Factory. It was very interesting and reminded me of a brewery.
This is all soap!
There was also a fragrance bar where you could mix and match different scents to create a unique one that you can take home with you!
Brea’s mix
Tracey, she is also the owner of the company, picked us up at 1PM from our hotel in a SUV that had a lot of space for our luggage and AC.
She was interactive the whole time and seemed to really enjoy her job and knew a lot about Tahiti. At the end of the tour, she dropped us off at La Plage for a sunset dinner before driving us to the airport. The total cost for this private half-day tour was ~$470 USD.
Where To Stay
We booked our stay at Manava Suite Resort Tahiti and it was almost a complete opposite of our accommodations in Moorea and Bora Bora. My first thought was that it felt as if we were in a jungle. The layout of the rooms was an open layout with a lot of trees and greenery all around you.
Be aware that there are mosquitoes and they are everywhere! Bring bug spray. There is a restaurant here where you can order food and drinks.
If you are short on time and can only visit a few islands, we recommend leaving Tahiti for another time. It is the main island of the French Polynesia but it is definitely not the most popular. You will get a very different experience staying in Tahiti as compared to Moorea or Bora Bora. We only spent a day and a half here but we thought that that was enough time to get a taste of the culture of Tahiti.
[…] get to Moorea, you will either need to take a ferry or a plane. We took a ferry after we landed in Tahiti and it was a short 30 minute ride. To get to Bora Bora from Moorea, we took a […]
[…] get to Bora Bora, you will need to fly from Tahiti. We had to fly from Moorea back to Tahiti and then to Bora Bora.The flight is about an hour and […]