Papeete On A Budget (And Where To Splurge)

Posted on August 9, 2014 by Tara

You don’t often see those two words in the same sentence! But believe it or not, it is possible to save money in Papeete by doing what the locals do!

1. Locals use the buses. Unfortunately the colourful “Le Trucks” have disappeared and been replaced by normal buses. Bus fares from the airport to the town centre or Intercontinental will be around 200 XPF and a bit more to the Radisson. Weekdays, buses operate roughly every 15 to 30 minutes from around 5am until about 5.30pm. If you are staying at the Intercontinental, the Pape’ete-Faa’a-Outumaoro line supposedly operates 24 hours but in reality gets very quiet after 10pm. We did manage to get this bus to the airport at 5am but since we only had backpacks we would have walked otherwise. Sunday services are less frequent.

2. Locals eat at the Grande Marche or in the evening at the roulottes. Hotel food is really expensive and you’ve probably seen other blogs talking about $50 breakfasts and $100 dinners. You can save a bundle by visiting the food stalls at the market and buying sandwiches or plates of food to bring back to your room. We also brought packets of Crystal Light to mix with water rather than paying $5 for a bottle of soft drink. Here’s an idea of what to look for at the marche.

If you are feeling festive or planning on attending an island night (luau) you can buy leis just outside. The cheapest pareus (sarongs) are also found on the sidewalk outside the market but it’s cash only!

There are a few jewelry stalls near the tourist office.

3. Free maps and booklets at the Tourist Office.

4. Souvenirs are cheaper in the grande marche or just outside and some shops take credit cards.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST – THE SPLURGE!

I really wish I could have afforded these beautiful bird paintings on wood but they started at around $300! Yikes!

There are some nicer wood carvings and other objets d’art near the Place Vaima. You can also get a SIM card for your cell phone.

We got to see the Miss Tahiti crown on display as the pageant was happening the week after we left. Nearby, you can find some Tahitian haute couture!

Hotel Review: Radisson Plaza Resort, Tahiti

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Tara

*** Sadly this hotel is no longer with Club Carlson, it is now with the Pearl Hotel group. You can no longer book it with points. ***

As luck would have it, we had 2 days to kill in Papeete as the next flight to Rimatara was only 3 days a week and we were booked for Friday. This was a perfect opportunity to keep costs down by using my Club Carlson Visa benefits of getting one award night free after booking one. The Radisson Plaza Resort in Tahiti was a very nice property although the location was inconvenient to get to. Most people will take a taxi from the airport for around $50-ish but budget travelers can use the local buses which stop in front of the airport to get downtown. This bus will leave you near the Grande Marche and you will need to walk a couple blocks to get an onward bus to the Radisson. Just ask the locals, they will make sure you get the right one. In the map below you can see the location of the Radisson, the Intercontinental (review to come) and the Marche Municipale. It will cost around $5 per person in bus fares to get there. The photo below shows where you get off the bus for the Radisson. The last bus is around 5:30 pm but I would get there by 5 just to be sure.

I was pleasantly surprised to see we were upgraded to a suite overlooking the beach! There was a living area, balcony and powder room downstairs and the bedroom with full bathroom upstairs.

The wonderful view from our balcony!

The van that takes you downtown twice a day (8:30 am, returning 12:00 and 2:00 returning 5:00pm) is fairly small and you need to book in advance. Otherwise you will have to use a taxi or the local buses. They drop you off and pick you up behind the tourist office.

The swimming pool was really nice but I was disappointed to see the jacuzzi had cold water.

This is where I get ideas for our upcoming bathroom renovation. I love tropical decor!

On Thursday evenings, don’t miss the fantastic Marquesas dance show! My husband managed to get us a great table up front (guess it pays that he speaks their language)! It doesn’t have to be expensive. Thankfully it wasn’t some over-priced buffet and you could order what you want from the menu. Pasta dishes are around $20-25.

My husband is actually a Cook Island drummer so wanted to jam with the band! Even award nights attract a resort fee of around 1800 XPF and city tax 300 XPF per night. Award nights are 44,000 Gold Points (2nd night free with Club Carlson Visa). Reviews on Trip Advisor are mixed, most people have more issues with the location rather than the property itself. There are no dining options within walking distance so you can buy food at the market and bring it back.

When leaving for the airport at 4am on check out day, we were reluctantly prepared to have to pay for a taxi but got lucky. There was a large bus picking up a group of tourists and we arranged with the driver to pay 1000 XPF each to be dropped at the airport.

Goodbye Marquesas, Hello Papeete

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Tara

After 3 fantastic days on Ua Huka, sadly it was time to go. Our next destination would be Rimatara to see the spectacular Kuhl’s Lory. Since Air Tahiti only flies there 3 times a week, we had a day layover in Papeete which I will blog about soon. In the meanwhile, let’s farewell the Marquesas with a few shots from the plane and while changing planes in other islands. The Marquesas are stunning islands and if they weren’t so far from Tahiti (and Bora Bora much closer) they would be a top tourist destination, so maybe be glad they are remote!

Brief layover at Ua Pou – stunning island!

Friendly crew!

Changing planes at Nuku Hiva

Brief layover at Hiva Oa, they also have interesting endemic birds!

Back to Papeete, Tahiti!

Air Tahiti Flight: Papeete – Ua Huka, Marquesas

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Tara

You gotta love an airport where you can get lei’d first thing in the morning if you want!

The airport is buzzing from 5am onwards as people are checking in for departures at 6am onwards. The line is pretty long, no elite check-in so get there as early as you can! Fares are not cheap as I already posted!

Flights boarded right on time. People with children were called first, then all others walked to the plane and chose any open seat. We went for the “poor people’s business class” in the front. Not a great idea as seat arms don’t come up and we were last off the plane.

Air Tahiti’s domestic service is probably one of the more pleasant one-class flights you can take. On longer services to the Marquesas they aren’t able to sell every seat on the plane due to runway length and weight restrictions. The odds are pretty good you will have an empty seat next to you! Staff were very friendly but only coffee, tea or water were provided for free. We had brought the breakfast from the Tahiti Airport Motel as we weren’t prepared to eat at 5:30am! Snacks are available for purchase on board.

Motel Review: Tahiti Airport Motel

Posted on July 15, 2014 by Tara

Tahiti Airport Motel isn’t an eco-lodge by any sense of the word, however unless you have enough IHG, SPG or Club Carlson points, you will will probably find yourself staying here in between flights to the amazing Polynesian islands where you find the rare birds.

This is how close it is to the airport – literally right across the street and up a short hill. I have to admit giggling over the Trip Advisor reviews where people say they paid over $20 for a taxi to come here! In this photo, we have just come out of the terminal and there it is, you can’t miss it!

Follow this little side street (note the mural) up the hill to the reception.

Since I always want to earn more miles if possible, I used Rocketmiles to book this hotel. There was a promo running last month and I got 3000 bonus miles which posted very promptly so I am am very impressed with the service! If you join using my links (the 3000 mile bonus one may not be working when you read this), then you and I both get 1000 miles bonus!

Prompt point posting from Rocketmiles!

The rooms were in nice bright colours, clean and had free wifi so I quickly caught up my emails. I was so paranoid about missing our expensive flight to Ua Huka, I set 4 alarms – my phone, my husband’s phone, the clock in the room and the wake up call from reception! All went well, actually my iPhone woke me but I can confirm that the reception was within 5 minutes of the time I requested the wake up call.

Breakfast officially starts at 6am but they will let you have it early if you have to check in very early to your flight. Our flight to Ua Huka left at 0630 am! It’s a simple continental breakfast but fills the spot!

Air Tahiti Nui – Even Economy Was Pleasant

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Tara

The one thing I really like about some of the Pacific Island airlines is the way they incorporate their culture into their national airline. Air Tahiti Nui won’t be the choice of those seeking aspirational awards because J class is only a recliner, not lie flat. See my post on how to book award seats on Air Tahiti Nui.

But the economy is a good deal for those redeeming economy as the cabin has a 2-4-2 layout so couples can grab seats and be sure of not having to share a 3 seater with a stranger. We got lucky with a plane that had lots of empty seats so my husband shifted into the aisle across while I kept the 2 seater so we could spread out and pretend we were in J.

I loved the blue and green colour scheme and the way the FA’s wore typical Tahitian clothing, it makes you feel like your holiday has started already!

The most important tip I can give you about seat selection is AVOID THE MIDDLE ROWS INBOUND TO TAHITI!

Upon arrival at PPT, they disembarked from both the front and rear staircases, leaving the middle row passengers as the last ones off the aircraft.

A Hawaiian Airline plane had arrived just before us and the immigration lines were horrific! They seem to take forever processing each person and there were only 3 officers on duty. They do try to make it bearable by having a nice Tahitian band and dancer to welcome and entertain the new arrivals.

Getting To French Polynesia (Tahiti) With Miles

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Tara

The first thing you need to deal with is that flights into PPT, the international airport of Tahiti, French Polynesia are very limited. Coming from Australia, our only options were through Auckland. People coming from North America can connect through LAX and Honolulu and people coming from Europe could connect through Paris.

STAR ALLIANCE

Air New Zealand is the only Star Alliance airline serving Tahtiti. You can get an idea of availability on United’s site. I couldn’t find anything until Feb 2015 and economy class only.

For the last year, NZ has not been releasing any seats at all between Brisbane and Auckland so even if I could have snagged a couple of rare AKL-PPT seats I would have had to pay extra to get us to Auckland. I didn’t like that option! Air New Zealand used to be more generous with award seats, in 2011 I redeemed business class to Rarotonga but these awards are a thing of the past.

ONE WORLD ALLIANCE

LAN is the only OneWorld member flying to Tahiti so unlikely to be of use to people reading this blog, especially since AA no longer offers RTW mileage awards.

SKYTEAM ALLIANCE

Air France is the only Skyteam member that serves Tahiti. From Paris, one way awards start at 40,000 miles economy and fuel surcharge varies.

From the USA, rock bottom ex-LAX seems to be 30,000 miles with 146 EUR fuel surcharge.

The real challenge is trying to get connecting flights on Delta to LAX to hook up with your AIr France flight to Tahiti. I tried a few random dates in late 2014 and mid 2015 using flexible dates and couldn’t find anything to use as a screenshot example.

AIR TAHITI NUI

Air Tahiti Nui serves Auckland and LAX and is a partner of both American AAdvantage and Delta’s Skymiles. For Americans, you will face the same problem trying to get low-level award space on Delta from your home airport to LAX and Delta charges a fuel surcharge. AAdvantage has better availability for domestic USA awards to LAX.

For Aussies, you will fly on Qantas from Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne to Auckland, then transfer to Air Tahiti Nui. Award space was pretty good as long as you avoid holidays. You can see Qantas award space easily using AA’s tool.

Sometimes Air Tahiti Nui availability can be searched using the Flightstats tool.

If the systems are hooking up, you can see the fare buckets still available. This is what it will look like using the more easily searched AKL-BNE route. Ecomony seats are W class, business seats are I class. More information and photos of the cabins can be found on Flyertalk. Business seats are not lie-flat and it’s only a 4.5 hour flight so in most cases economy will be sufficient.

HAWAIIAN AIRLINES

One last option is Hawaiian Airlines. If you are a member of their program, you can redeem online at these award levels.

Otherwise, Hawaiian Airlines partners with many other frequent flyer programs such as United Airlines, American Airlines, US Airways, Alaskan Airlines, ANA, Korean and Virgin Australia so you may be able to use their miles to construct an award Mainland USA – HNL-PPT.

SUMMARY

In summary, getting to Tahiti using miles is one of the most challenging awards you will ever book so you do need to plan well in advance and research your airlines and award levels. I found the easiest option for availability to be on American’s AAdvantage program but as usual, your miles may vary!

Rare Birds & Ramen Noodles – Birding Remote French Polynesia

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Tara

Last month, I snuck off to two of the most fascinating islands in French Polynesia for birders – Ua Huka and Rimatara. Although I was pretty much unplugged for this trip, I did have blog posts queued up for auto posting so no one probably even noticed I was away. But now it’s time to ‘fess up and introduce you to two amazing islands that most travel bloggers have never heard of, let alone traveled to!

Location of Ua Huka and Rimatara in relation to Papeete and Bora Bora

This map shows where we were in relation to the two French Polynesian islands most other bloggers have been posting about – Tahiti and Bora Bora.

This trip was a bucket list journey for me in which I got to see one of the world’s most beautiful birds – the Ultramarine Lorikeet for the first time………………….

Ultramarine Lorikeet

……………………and to see the beautiful Rimatara Lorikeet, previously seen in Atiu in their original homeland of Rimatara!

Rimatara Lorikeets

I have many more photos of these gorgeous birds, I haven’t really sorted through them all yet so as this journey progresses you will get to see a lot more………………and yes they will be clear shots!

This is one trip you can’t do totally with miles and points. I had originally planned to do it in Feb 2015 with AAdvantage miles redeemed on Qantas and Air Tahiti Nui but brought it forward to June 2014. All the recent devaluations have spooked me a bit and this is one trip that could be vulnerable to the new US/AA merger. Air Tahiti Nui is a partner of AAdvantage but not US Airways and even then they are only a half partner. You can redeem but not accrue miles on Air Tahiti Nui using AAdvantage and they are not in OneWorld or any other alliance. Theoretically, I should have been able to do this trip with Star Alliance partner United or even US Airways before they merged but it’s been over a year since Air New Zealand has released award space in ANY class – economy or business on the Brisbane-Auckland route and space between Auckland and other Aussie airports is extremely limited. I felt it was a situation of book now or possibly lose my chance to get the flights to Tahiti on miles period!

Once in Tahiti, we still had to get to the islands of Ua Huka and Rimatara. The only way to do this is on Air Tahiti (not the same as Air Tahiti Nui) and you can’t use miles, you MUST pay cash and these flights are not cheap! I’ll be going into detail in a later post but now you know why we ate ramen noodles for most lunches (and will be eating them a lot at home for the next couple months)!

New Birding Guides In French Polynesia

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Tara

While gathering information for a future “bucket list” trip to the Marquesas to see the spectacular Ultramarine Lorikeet, and possibly also to Rimatara for Rimatara Lorikeets, I found this article in a pdf version of Air Tahiti’s magazine. Also see the MANU website.

This is excellent news as the birds could otherwise be difficult to find given the lush mountainous topography of these islands. The local guides would know where to find them.

There are very few airlines that get you to Tahiti on miles, only Air New Zealand (Star Alliance) and Air Tahiti Nui (non-alliance partner with American Airlines & Delta). You need a South Pacific award which falls into the same region as Australia in most cases.

Once you are there, you need to pay full price for the Air Tahiti flight as they don’t have any mileage options…………..and the flights are not cheap!

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