Tahiti - 7 or 10 day?

For me half the fun of travel is planning it. Considering a land based trip to American Samoa for hiking or Windstar for Tahiti. Windstar excursion would be more in line with my husband's wants, but I like the backpacking, hiking,diving, fale experience of American Samoa. So, since all good marriages involve compromise, how much time is there for hiking and diving on the cruise? Also, from reviewing the itinerary, overnights are part of the sail. Would the 7 or 10/11 be best? Please, opinion, tomatoes, cabbages and other tossed words appreciated.

I would pick the 10 day cruise in a minute. We were on a 7 day Tahiti cruise with WS before they offered a 10 day and every second it was glorious. I do not think there is a better way to see it than with a sail boat. The lagoon is beautiful: the colors of the waters, the back drop of the hills and mini mountaiss, the reflections of the sails, the sunsets. Spectacular. We were able to do so much from snorkeling, to hiking to where the moais held their cermonies to swimming and swimming. We left yearning for more, unfortunately living in Massachusetts it is not a casual, quick flight over! You can do as much or as little on this cruise, hands down 10 days. Enjoy and Happy Sailing.

We are in New Hampshire, so I understand about the flights. Thanks for the information.

We did the 10-day cruise in December and it was terrific. We are looking forward to doing it again. We liked the 10-day as we enjoyed the sea days and found that we were able to relax more. Going up to the Tuamotos is not to be missed. However, being Tahiti, you'll enjoy either one.

Hello again! You had asked in another thread about using a TA.

If you decide on French Polynesia, first consider the cruise line. No, I am not a shill for the Paul Gauguin, but having recently sampled the WS experience in Costa Rica on a seven day, there is no comparison, especially in French Potnesia. The PG has a lock on the cultural and ground experience in the region. They also control the Intercontinental properties, so your ground/cruise experience can be seamless.

As for cruise length, especially in FP, take the ten day if pocketbook permits. The Tuamotus are like no other islands you will ever experience. The change from the Society Archipelago is dramatic, and the diving is some of the best in the world.

Personally, I would plan my own ground portion of the trip and shore excursions, but the PG does have some of the best excursions I have taken from a cruise line's offering, but you will also pay more.

Hope this and the other post helps.

The easy part in a minute the 10 day as I stated in my above post. I do not know where you live but it is a long flight over you might make it worthwhile. I would do a WS cruise obviously because of the small number when full 149 and the sails. I do not think there is much more beautiful than sailing in that lagoon.

While the islands are interesting and pretty it is the views from the lagoon over to the islands which is spectacular. We used the WS tours as mentioned on a previous post on to use TA or not, we did not. I am not an organized tour person but we felt the WS tours we terrific especially the swimming with the rays, the moai history tour on Hauihai and Dr, Pool's boat tour of the spinner dolphins. I was so thrilled to be on a sailboat. The motu day extraordinary, the barbeque fabulous and all the cultural shows that were brought onboard. We have been on 19 WS cruises Tahiti was really special. Happy Sailing

PS did a Pacific Crossing with WS to get there I would rather have 19 days at sea than 19 hours in the air, we used miles to fly back business with Air Tahiti. We keot the misery at bay!

We did the 10 night in January and loved it (first time on windstar). The entire experience was excellent.

I liked the small boat feel and enjoyed the "sailing" aspect of it and open bridge policy. The ship feels different than a normal cruise ship possibly due to the low passenger count and unique layout. I have sailed on azamara and oceania a number of times and found windstar to be a solid step above either of those lines in terms of service / food and small feel of the ship.