More Reasons to Stayy with Trusted Friends & Family

Once upon a time I went to Tahiti with some friends. Having joined their trip somewhat last minute most planning and booking of Airbnb rentals was already done. Perfect for my planning laziness. 

If you haven’t been to French Polynesia, I highly recommend it. Polynesian Francs are used as currency instead of euro as they move further away from French rule. But you can dive into all of that history on your own. For our trip we landed in Papeete on Tahiti Island, the largest island in French Polynesia. Most flights that aren’t to local chain islands will have to file into the same place. After staying the night we took a puddle jumper over to Huahine island, a smaller island along the chain most of the way over towards Bora-Bora. But with a very low population and a small village, this is where we ran into issues. 

Upon arriving on Huahine we were to be picked up at the airport (basically a landing strip with a cafe next to it) by the host of the Airbnb where we were supposed to be staying. This was all set up and arranged in English via Airbnb. All paid and done. But when the host arrived at the airport in a very small vehicle (for 4 people plus him), he either could not speak any English or simply refused to to make everything difficult, only French. Surprising because of the fluent English communication online. And most damming, he demanded full payment for the Airbnb reservation in cash, up front, on the spot before doing anything or he would be leaving. Didn’t care that it was already paid for through Airbnb, flat our refused anything other than several thousand dollars cash. Which would have required getting a taxi into town to hit multiple ATMs to possibly get the cash required. Truly absurd, and obviously (or seemingly so) a scam to steal double the booking price from people with very limited options. Airbnb was no help. It was the weekend and cellphone data service was not great.

We ended up getting a refund from Airbnb later. But they couldn’t help with other accommodations in the moment, and we were essentially stranded on an island with a couple flights a day. Eventually I found a small tiki-hut style resort near the little village that looked like it had availability online, but we couldn’t book through the website because of the poor internet connection. So we took a taxi over, and the wonderful people at Maitai Lapita Village Huahine helped us get settled in to their last remaining accommodations and helped us to start learning some Tahitian. ‘Ia ora na! (usually pronounced like "yoranna" is a simple Tahitian hello). 

Things to do on Huahine:

• Jump off the little bridge into the lagoon and tidal river with the locals (if you seem like an awesome person they’ll make sure you jump only in places where it’s deep enough to be safe) and check out the huge stone fish traps in the lagoon water below. Near here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/nWoMqMemSwQYufL16 
• Read about local legends and see the various stone ruins (Fare Pöte'e).
• Maroe Bay view. Hiking up the “trails” into the middle of the island to find great views of whole area. 
• Rent an open, all electric, buggy and drive around the island. It’s like a 30 minute drive end to end. 
• Snorkeling and diving in the reef. See all the turtles, sharks, rays, and super cool nudibranchs. 
• See the Pearl Farm, take the tour and see how they seed the pearl formation
• The little village, Fare, has a grocery store, rental bikes, and some cute restaurant/cafes to have local fresh fish and snacks. 
• Speak Tahitian.
• See the wonderful flowers blooming.

After the super chill stay there (other than the accommodation issues when getting to Huahine), we hopped over to Moorea for some scuba diving and snorkeling with lots of sharks, rays, and turtles. The ferry ride between Moorea and Tahiti islands is also really great to get further on the ocean outside the lagoons between islands. 

Don’t forget to check out the Teahupo'o Wave when you get back to Tahiti, or on tv for the 2024 summer olympics surfing. And have a local Hinano beer while you soak up the sun and ocean breeze.

Māuruuru for using stay.