Even if your main interest in a visit to French Polynesia is birding the remote islands, there is nothing wrong with being a bit touristy.  The way the airline schedules are set up and the availability of award tickets (or lack thereof) to Papeete can leave you with a few days to kill in Papeete.  I highly recommend hopping over to Moorea which is a lot more scenic and relaxing than Papeete.

You can fly to Moorea from Papeete if you wish but I thought the flights were a bit pricy for us.  Since we only had small backpacks for the trip, it was easy to catch a bus downtown, grab lunch at the Grande Marche and hop the next ferry.  There are 2 ferry companies on this route – Aremiti and Terevau.

Fares on Aremiti 5 from Papeete to Moorea

Terevau doesn’t have a website but their one-way fares are 1160 XPF.  Since they accepted credit cards, I bought round-trip tickets for us.  The tickets are valid 6 months.

There really isn’t much to choose between the two ferries, just take whichever one is leaving next.  You don’t need reservation unless you are bringing a car.

The ferry awaits.

Seating is comfortable enough for the 20 minute trip across to Moorea.  You can see how I was “drowning in flowers” still from Rimatara!

The ferry has a small snack bar, prices aren’t bad but not a very good selection.  We were glad we ate at the market. We were in Moorea pretty quickly, barely enough time to admire the topography from the sea!

Disembarking at Moorea.

Moorea ferry terminal.

Turnaround was pretty quick, we watched the Terevau take off back to Papeete while looking for the bus.