Places to stay in Moorea

[sickofmorons]

Hi, just wondered if anyone knew anything about the French Polynesian Island of Moorea- particularly any reasonable but nice places to stay by the sea? Any other advice about the islands and any other good places to stay would also be greatly appreciated. Ideally under a 100 euros per night for two. Many thanks in advance.

[MrPahoehoe]

Hmmm, that was a bit out of my price range I'm afraid. I back-packed, so we had to stay somewhere cheap. I'm sure you already know, but it is expensive compared to most other destinations, so for the money don't expect what you'd get somewhere else.

Sorry, just looked for the second time and I can't find my French Polynesia Lonely Planet, so I can't tell you the name of the places. We stayed in the NW of the island which was nice enough, although I was bored to tears after 4 days since we couldn't get anywhere: too far to walk, no buses (might have been one really infrequently) & no beach. The big hotels all seemed to have private beaches so I'd try to go to one of them. We were allowed to use the beaches, but they were too far away to get to easily.

My foremost piece of advise would be: hiring a car is essential, go for a slightly cheaper hotel if necessary. After that i'd say you should stay in/very a town or at least in a large hotel complex where you will be able to do stuff when you are not driving & for a beach.

I've made it sound quite bad, but there were some really cool things: the scenery is PHENOMENAL! (sorry but that really does warrant caps), we went for one hike in the interior and that was cool. Did a couple of dives on the North coast and they were amazing. How long are you planning on going for?

[sickofmorons]

Hi thanks for the post- we are going to be there for about four days, but because we cross the dateline from new zealand it could be five!

[MrPahoehoe]

I guess finding stuff to do for 4 days should be ok. I would definitely recommend you try the SCUBA diving if you've been trained to do it already. If not i'd be tempted to learn to do it wherever you currently live. But, i'm not entirely sure, i think i recall learning that you aren't supposed to fly within 24 or 48 hours of diving, so you'd have to do it in the middle of your time there. I'd also check out how long it is that you're not supposed to fly for.....last thing you'd want is to get decompression sickness on an airplane.

Sorry i can't recommend anywhere specific to stay, but i would say to make sure you are at least near one of the villages (the ones i visited were extremely small) and/or you have a beach near the hotel. that would occupy a few days. if you hired a car then you could have a trip round the island and to the interior, although neither of those would take very long. I'd definitely hire a car & if you don't speak french then try to learn some or take a phrase book (i don't speak any and found it quite difficult).