French Polynesia charter questions

My wife and I have been pondering a charter in Raitea and Bora Bora next fall for our 20th anniversary. I wanted to get this out there to see if anyone else had chartered and could offer advice on a couple of things and I will list below.

1) It appears to me that fall may be a good time to go but wondered if anyone could offer advice on the best time of year to charter French Polynesian?

2) Figured we might stay in an over the water bungalow a day or two either before or after and then sail maybe 7 days to include Raitea, Bora Bora, and Tahaa. Is Huahine worth the extra time to visit or do most people stick to the above locations?

3) Is it reasonable to assume we could get there in one day from the states, including a charter flight from Tahiti to Raitea, settle in and provision on the same day and then sail out the day after or is this too ambitious?

4) Are the over the water Bungalows worth the expense or should we just sail the whole time?

5) Any recommended books or websites which could provide more information? Also any other words of wisdom or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Brett

I think kneafseym has sailed there, and seems like some others have also. So you should be hearing from some before long.

I would think trying to get to tahiti, make a charter and do provisioning would be very challenging. The flight time for a non stop from lax to tahiti is 8 1/2 hours just for that one flight.

Here is one short trip report I found from 2009

http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/s...rue#Post1098483

Thanks Eric! That's a good start. Seems like they had some rough seas on his trip report. I wonder if that is the norm?

Cannot help with that. When we were there we did a cruise around the various islands. Did see a lot of charter boats around. The French Polynesian islands are beautiful.

My wife and I have been pondering a charter in Raitea and Bora Bora next fall for our 20th anniversary. I wanted to get this out there to see if anyone else had chartered and could offer advice on a couple of things and I will list below.

1) It appears to me that fall may be a good time to go but wondered if anyone could offer advice on the best time of year to charter French Polynesian?
[color:"blue"]
April through to October is the best time. We were there April and May and the weather was good.
[/color]
2) Figured we might stay in an over the water bungalow a day or two either before or after and then sail maybe 7 days to include Raitea, Bora Bora, and Tahaa. Is Huahine worth the extra time to visit or do most people stick to the above locations?

[color:"blue"]We liked Huahine but if you haven't got much time then you can give it a miss.

[/color]3) Is it reasonable to assume we could get there in one day from the states, including a charter flight from Tahiti to Raitea, settle in and provision on the same day and then sail out the day after or is this too ambitious?

[color:"blue"]You should be able to get away the day after you arrive but you won't get far.[/color]
4) Are the over the water Bungalows worth the expense or should we just sail the whole time?

[color:"blue"]They look nice from the outside but never been inside one so can't comment.[/color]

5) Any recommended books or websites which could provide more information? Also any other words of wisdom or advice would be appreciated.

[color:"blue"]I would want to spend at least two weeks sailing there. It is not like sailing the BVI, you need time to get to places.

Food and drink are horrendously expensive even to us Brits who are used to paying far higher prices than Americans pay at home.[/color]
Thanks in advance for any help!

Brett

[color:"blue"]We were on a round the world trip not a charter so our experience is not all relevant but hope it helps. See my wife's blog - link below - starting April 2010 for photos and possibly some useful advice.[/color]

We're planning a trip there for 2016, but not sailing...so I've been doing a lot of internet searching. There are tons of videos from people who went there on the interwebs, with many showing the interiors of the OWB's. They don't seem to vary too much, but I've seen some with glass floor sections and such. People seem to worry about what each particular OWB is facing the most. Certainly there are some really high-end ones. I'm not very enthusiastic about the prices but we decided we really want to do it. Get busy living or get busy dying...

Jeannius,

Great information and appreciate the time it took to answer each question as that was extremely helpful. Enough help that I dare to ask a few sub-questions. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />

I kind of got the feeling that if we just do Raitea and Tahaa and Bora Bora that we would have two long sailing days and the rest would be short trips inside the reef system. But it sounds like you think even that will stretch our time. My line of work doesn't allow me to get away that long right now but that day is coming so I'm hoping to get maybe 10 days to include travelling.

I am envious of your round the world trip. I have looked at your blog before but didn't get back far enough I guess for the Society Islands photos.

What do you think about Phuket instead or the Grenadines as other options? Assuming your were choosing a 20th anniversary trip? lol

Have you started your RV tour yet? If so, let me know if you want to swing by Georgia for a visit. Love to hear about your adventures personally.

Kirk,

One of my top favorite movies of all time btw. I was curious to how you search the interweb or which site you were using where you saw the videos.

Appreciate the info

I scan through the tripadvisor forum for info and come across some of them. A lot of those are honeymooners though, not that there's anything wrong with that...just have a lot of couples posing etc.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g294338-i867-French_Polynesia.html

Also you can just search on youtube for Bora Bora or Moorea...once you find one video there's endless other ones suggested. I have a lot of downtime at work, so I watch videos a lot... <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C9hVB49Rhc

I am a land based person, not a charter boat person, but considering the length of the flight even from the west coast, and the time change, I think you are pretty ambitious to think about doing a charter in a total of ten days. As someone else mentioned, prices in French Polynesia for everything are through the roof! We did a very reasonable big boat cruise (well, about 800 passengers, which is small for cruise ships these days!!) and we gave ourselves a day or two on each end to try to decompress and it was sorely needed. I think doing a charter, having to provision and everything else, I just think maybe that's too much to pull off, especially when you're not familiar with the area, considering how long it takes to get there, and the time change. If you want to still go there, I would recommend either doing a big ship cruise or a crewed charter or just a land based trip on a couple of islands. It is a spectacularly beautiful area, for sure.

If you've only got 10 days in total I think there are good options that are much less travel time from the east coast than the South Pacific. We are hoping to head back to French Polynesia for my 65th birthday party and will be allocating 3 weeks for the sailing bit of that trip and heading to the Tuamotus (our favourite bit of the round the world trip)as well as the Society Islands.

If I remember correctly, I think I bought my wife a boat for her 20th anniversary <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" /> but as it wasn't ready we didn't go anywhere that summer

For our 25th we did a wonderful trip starting from St Maarten, sailing to Anguilla and then on to St Barts. That was a really great trip with lots of variety, great food and probably a drink or two as well. St Barts is excellent in the off season. You can bring your boat right into the superyacht dock and stay right alongside all the action for about the same cost as a night on a mooring ball in the BVI. A couple of very nice anchorages as well. If you want a bit more sailing then the beam reach from St Barts down to St Kitts and Nevis is one of the best day sails you can ever do and both the islands provide yet more variety.

We've also had many trips to the Grenadines and that would be another great option for you. We like starting from Grenada then heading up to Mayreau, the Cays, Bequia and for a bit of luxury, Mustique.

Our all time favourite in the Caribbean though is Isles des Saintes just to the south of Guadeloupe. However, going there really requires picking up a boat from Guadeloupe or perhaps Antigua and I imagine both those islands are more difficult to get to from the U.S.

Thailand I've never sailed but I hear great things from those who have. Personally, I think that is too far to go if you only have 10 days in total.

Our RV trip is on hold at the moment as both of my parents have become frail and I don't want to be having to find somewhere to leave an RV if we have to rush home urgently. When it does happen we'll definitely look you up. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />

Thanks again I think. Lol. Was thinking we were definitely doing French Polynesia but you guys are making me think twice about it with the timing. Actually I really do appreciate the thoughtfulness and effort.

Sorry to hear about your parents Jeannius. Hopefully you can make it back over at some point. I have enjoyed reading your blogs and adventures.

I appreciate the help with the links as I kept getting an inter web site that wasn't kid appropriate Kirk.

The boat is on the horizon but may have to wait for 25 for that one. Going to talk it over withe the crew and see what they truly want to do dor the occasion.

Once again thanks for the thoughtful responses and help! To you as well Carol!

You really should go there, for sure, just maybe with this short period of time, a charter may not work out. Best wishes with whatever you decide!