Trip Report Cook+Society Islands, Pearl Beach Bora, Tipaniers Moorea, Meridien Tahiti

We are just back from the May 26, 2018 11-night Cook Islands and Society Islands cruise, with air travel and land accommodations that we arranged ourselves: three nights in Bora Bora and three nights in Moorea pre-cruise and two nights in Tahiti post-cruise. We’ve been home only since the weekend and already it all seems like a dream.

This was our first time on the PG, and our prior cruise experience is limited to a long-ago cruise between NYC and Bermuda, and a 2013 Holland America Alaska cruise from Anchorage to Vancouver.

Los Angeles

We flew from Hartford to LAX and took an over-priced taxi to L.A. Grand Hotel Downtown, walking distance to The Broad Museum which we had reserved for Saturday morning (free tickets issued on-line starting the first of each month for the following month). L.A. Grand had a comfortable vibe and we got a good price via Groupon. Saturday morning we walked to Central Market and joined the hipster crowd at Eggslut for breakfast, and we were at the museum by 10:00. The Broad holds one couple’s spectacular late 20th to 21st century art collection,very well presented.

Back at the hotel we reclaimed our bags and returned to LAX via Uber for half the taxi price, well in time for Air France’s 11:55pm take-off.We surprised ourselves by sleeping almost the entire flight, legs stretched out in our economy-class exit row seats. The other surprise and not a good one was the food service—a modest breakfast served after takeoff and a mini-breakfast served before landing.

Bora Bora Pearl Beach Resort

We collected our bags in Papeete and re-checked them on Air Tahiti’s 7:45am nonstop 50 minute flight to Bora Bora, proceeding by boat from Bora Bora airport to Bora Bora Pearl Beach, located on the same fairly large motu (island) as PG’s Bora Bora beach, separated by a good amount of jungle.

Arriving early in the morning to start our three nights at Bora Bora Pearl Beach Resort we paid for buffet breakfast at a special waiting-for-the-room rate. The three subsequent mornings’ breakfasts were included with the room. We stayed in an over water bungalow, Otemanu mountain view. It was beautiful and a great way to experience Bora Bora. We stayed on the Pearl Beach Resort motu the entire time. The PG was in Bora Bora and we could see it across the lagoon.

We arranged an excursion with Lagoon Service which provided pick up and return at the hotel pier. Theirs is the itinerary everybody takes with one or another agency: stop one to look at fish, stop two to stand among stingrays in knee deep water, and stop three to snorkel in deep ocean outside the reef where black tip sharks crowd to get fish pieces thrown to them by the guide.

The tour concluded with a tasty lunch on the beach and a coconut demonstration.

The food at Pearl Beach was good enough. Buffet breakfast had the usual omelets, pancakes, pastries and so forth. Lunch for us was usually a beer and a snack, and dinner was tasty fish burgers from the bar menu (we didn’t want the big dinner buffet and we weren’t interested in their sushi specialty restaurant). Dinner the third night was their Polynesian show—excellent performers, disappointing food, and a big price.

Pearl Beach Resort has beautiful gardens. We swam and snorkeled from the OWB--the water is lovely but somewhat shallow. Their coral beds may need another ten years to develop but the fish were nice.

Leaving Bora Bora was super easy. They assigned us to an 11:00am boat for our 12:00 noon flight to Moorea. I was nervous but they were right—20 minutes on the water, 10 minutes to check bags, and 20 minutes to wait for the boarding call.

excited to follow along!

Thanks, I'm hoping to get this all in today. Posts on cc are limited to six pictures and I have forty-something in the report.

Moorea

We booked a bungalow (on land—no OWBs here) at Les Tipaniers Hotel, making sure to get one that was renovated and air conditioned. The air conditioning was good, but limited to the two bedrooms, one with three single beds, good for storing luggage; the other with one large bed. Our bungalow also had a full-sized kitchen with stove, refrigerator and microwave but we didn’t use them. Everything was very clean.

Most guests were French families on holiday, their children playing unsupervised on the beach but very respectful and well behaved. It reminded me of my youth when children were trusted to adventure on their own, and as in my day it wasn’t unusual to see a child with arm or leg in a fresh plaster cast the price of tree-climbing or whatever. The holiday was Lundi de Pentecôte (Pentacost or Whit Monday) and many take the full week off.

Les Tipaniers is beachfront in the northeast corner of the island. There’s a beachside bar/restaurant on the property, good for a light breakfast or lunch, and a roadside French-Italian restaurant, one of the best on the island. Meals taken at either place can be charged to the room.

We had an Avis rental car, delivered to us at the airport on arrival and returned by us to their office across the road from the ferry to Tahiti.We drove out to Le Petit Village, about a mile away, to buy water and souvenirs, and to one of the nearby black pearl stores. We also drove fully around the island at and after sunset, about an hour’s trip, stopping at Mahogany Restaurant for dinner (an unusual menu but excellent and we were lucky to get a table without reservations).

We drove one morning to Moorea Activities Center (MAC), although they would have picked us up, and took the same jet ski tour that Deladane describes in her extensive review. We’re an older couple, reasonably fit but with no jet ski experience, and keeping up with the guide and two young couples was somewhat scary but fun in hindsight. Afterwards we drove to Snack Mahana for a terrific lunch (cash only).

The highlight of our stay at Les Tipaniers was lunch and snorkeling off the beach at Coco Beach Bar on motu Tihara across the water in front of Tipaniers' beach. We telephoned them for pickup at the Tipaniers boat dock. I used my high school french to tell them where, when and how many) and their motorboat came about 20 minutes later for the free crossing--I learned later that the standard way to get to Coco Beach Bar, no telephoning required, is to drive or taxi to their signpost on the road about halfway between Les Tipaniers and the Intercontinental. We enjoyed lunch there and especially the snorkeling a short way down the beach. It was the same snorkel spot that MAC jet ski had taken us to the day before.

We drove to Avis on Saturday, returned the car, and boarded the Teravau 3:00pm ferry to Tahiti. The ferry crew loaded and unloaded our luggage. Arriving on the Tahiti side we managed to walk all our luggage the 200 or so meters to the Paul Gauguin.

On Board The Paul Gauguin

Our itinerary was 11 nights including Huahine, two sea days, a day apiece in the Cook Islands Aitutaki and Rarotonga, Bora Bora overnight, Taha’a, Moorea overnight, and back to Tahiti. Our cabin was 767, the center stern-facing balcony cabin. We chose it for its bigger footprint and larger than average deck. It had a nice walk-in shower and no tub.

On the open sea there’s some vibration and a fair amount of motion in the cabin, but not nearly as much as we felt downstairs at dinner in L’Etoile. We wore Sea Bands that press on an acupressure point on each wrist and they seemed to work. There’s no soot on the deck, no tobacco smell, and no sound in the cabin from the restaurants/disco above and below our balcony. We overpacked but the cabin had room for everything and our four suitcases fit nicely under the bed.

Following advice here we quickly booked the galley and engine room tours. We missed booking the two specialty restaurants during their departure day lunch hours, so we returned at the dinner hour and got three of the four dates we’d planned for, one apiece before and after the mid-cruise menu change. Le Grill didn’t have the first half date we wanted, so we took advantage of their open seating on departure day and had our first meal with them.

Other folks have posted menus and food photos here so I’ll spare the details. We mostly ordered fish this week because we like it and every fish served on the PG, except salmon, was fresh line-caught Thursday or Friday last week in Polynesia. Meats and poultry are sourced mainly from the U.S. and New Zealand and come aboard frozen in primal cuts which the on-board butcher portions out (not that they aren’t delicious).

Le Grill’s dinner was excellent, both the shrimp appetizer and the seafood brochette. Also we’ve been satisfied with the daily wine offerings, one red and one white (so far we’ve only had whites). Service has been quick—actually the Le Grill service that first night was too quick. Also I was surprised how informal Le Grill was that first night, which I wouldn’t ordinarily consider a negative except a party of six across from us was very loud and boisterous. [We had our second seating at Le Grill on the last night of the cruise, likewise in Tahiti, and that time the tables were set outdoors by the pool and the ambiance was calm and romantic.]

Subsequent to that first night we mostly sat at group tables, and we’ve enjoyed the luck of the draw guest-wise. We met interesting people from Canada, Australia, and yes, America. Ages mostly range 50’s through 70’s (which is our demographic), what I call the new old. Most of our relatives and acquaintances in New England go to Florida, Cancun or Aruba, and maybe an occasional big trip to London or Hawaii. Here we heard talk of Nepal, Morocco, Cambodia, Antarctica, Africa, and so forth. Not to mention the people who’ve taken a dozen or more cruises on the PG.

Huahine

Huahine was our first stop, and after considerable debate we signed up for Huahine Iti By 4x4. We were ten guests divided between two vehicles with two young French women who doubled as drivers and guides. They made several stops at scenic places to see specimens of food and medicinal plants, followed by time at a local resort for a drink and quick swim, and finally a stop at a significant marae, a 600 year old royal artifact. Most interesting though was their account of island people’s current cultural and social/economic life and their own story of moving from mainland France to Huahine and raising children there.

The tour returned us to the tender dock, and we hopped on LeTruck for a ride out to see the town on the main island, Huahine Nui. The town didn’t seem to offer much (we stayed on the truck for the return leg) but guests we picked up said snorkeling was good just up the beach from town, and people who took the Huahine Nui excursion saw a pearl farm, sacred eels, and a much bigger marae.

Back on board we were well in time for the Children of Huahine show.

After that we saw the fascinating Moonfish presentation and, later, we ate our share of it at dinner.

Sea Day to the Cook Islands

I did some quality napping and got up in time for our two guest hosts’ cooking and wine presentation. They were interesting and enjoyable. The cooking was by Giuliano Hazan (son of Marcella Hazan who was to Italian cooking what Julia Child was to French cooking); the wine was by Marilisa Allegrini of Allegrini wines. Chef Hazan made a nice preparation of a baked fish filet with tomato and diced onion, substituting Polynesian papio for his usual halibut, in the course of which I learned better ways to dice an onion and peel a tomato.

Before dinner the ship sponsored a block party, providing an opportunity to go out in the hall and meet your neighbors, with a staff member pouring wine for everyone. A good idea!

We watched moon-rise from our deck.

Aitutaki, Cook Islands

Today and most mornings we had breakfast at La Grille. We prefer their location because the 8th deck is open to the outside near the pool, from 8:00 on. Early birds can get coffee and croissants at La Palette at the other end of deck 8 starting at 7:30. Room service breakfast starts at 6:30.

We were somehow able to board the first shuttle at 8:30 despite not being on a ship’s tour. We booked independently with Teking Tours and based on complaints we heard later about the ship’s tours we’re glad we did. Mr. Teking did the orientation and a scary safety briefing (no jewelry to be worn; no flash on cameras; heed all instructions), and he apologized for not going on board with us.

We were about 16 people divided between two boats. Mostly Australian or New Zealand tourists who were staying at island resorts. The boat captains and helpers are big men who speak a guttural Maori language to each other (and English to us, of course), impressive to see and hear. We made a snorkel stop to see giant bull-head wrasse, then another to see giant clams, and a third to see beautiful purple coral and many fish. I’m embarrassed to say I was so engrossed in fish and coral-watching on the third stop I failed to notice I was out there alone keeping everyone on the boat waiting for me.

The tour also included a stop on a sand bar where red-legged terns and their babies were nesting on the ground.

The final stop was at one-foot island and its beach. The boat ride back to the pickup point was extra fast and extra bumpy—I hope not because I’d slowed us down. Anyway we made what I think was the 3:00 shuttle so there was no danger of the ship sailing away without us (last shuttle was 4:30). Five stars!

Dinner tonight was our first-half booking at La Veranda (the menus at the two specialty restaurants change mid-cruise). When we first boarded the PG there was a bottle of champagne in our cabin—apparently courtesy of our travel agent—so we iced it and brought it with us to La Veranda. The menu gourmandaise was exotic and impressive, and the champagne paired well with it.

Showtime was the magician’s show, somewhat disjointed and marred by low quality audio from his headset microphone and an overloud soundtrack from the booth.

Excellent review and pics so far. I look forward to the rest! Thanks for taking the time to do this. By the way, you mention that the menus change mid-week in the specialty restaurants. Can you book each place more than once on an 11-night cruise?

Excellent review and pics so far. I look forward to the rest! Thanks for taking the time to do this. By the way, you mention that the menus change mid-week in the specialty restaurants. Can you book each place more than once on an 11-night cruise?

They invite everyone to book each restaurant twice, so they can have both menus in each.

Others here may have better information, but my sense is there is flexibility in how rules are enforced, especially if you're chummy with the maitre d', the sommelier, etc., or if you've befriended staffers on prior cruises.

Excellent review and pics so far. I look forward to the rest! Thanks for taking the time to do this. By the way, you mention that the menus change mid-week in the specialty restaurants. Can you book each place more than once on an 11-night cruise?

Yes but usually you can only book one reservation at each at the beginning of the cruise and then halfway through the cruise when they change the menu you can book a second reservation at each. This is to allow everyone to have a chance to enjoy an evening at the specialty restaurants.

I've been on the PG many times and I must say I've never personally witnessed any preferential treatment. Staff/crew treat everyone the same, as honored guest.

Rarotonga

As advised here we prearranged a car rental for the day. We used Avis in the center of downtown at the main harbor. The PG tender however landed opposite the commercial container port about a half mile from downtown. It was a hot, sunny walk but not a bad introduction to the island. Avis is next door to the CITC main store and we did some souvenir-type jewelry shopping before getting the car. Getting the car in Rarotonga was no different than anywhere else—show your license and credit card and away you go. Not what we expected, having been told on the ship we would have to go to the police station to buy a local license and so forth.

We drove the Island clockwise in air-conditioned comfort but there wasn’t much to stop for. We did stop at the National Museum (probably also walkable from downtown) which holds a small but interesting collection of artifacts, including a native mariner’s map of atolls made from strung-together sticks, coral fishhooks, and impressive ironwood war clubs. Admission NZ10 for two—I’d gotten NZ40 from a bank atm downtown. We drove from there to Fruits of Rarotonga and then doubled back a short way to Muri Beach. The only fruity item to be had at Fruits of Rarotonga was a mixed fruit smoothie so we had one apiece of those (they were fresh and delicious).

Muri Beach was disappointing. We parked along the road and walked to the beach through one of the hotel properties. We felt like intruders but the few people we saw didn’t appear to care (I believe there are places that welcome you to buy a drink but this wasn’t one of them). More importantly, the lagoon water here was dark and turbid—uninviting and certainly not good to snorkel. I asked a fellow at a paddleboat concession and he assured me the water was clean. He said you know the water is clean because of the many sea cucumbers that are on the bottom. Another reason not to want to wade out there when you can’t see the bottom! He pointed out four motus across the water, three opposite and the fourth out of view to the left (north) where the lagoon opens to the ocean. He cautioned that the farther left you go the more risky the current.

We finished the circuit clockwise around the island, passing the airport, bought a Cook Islands straw hat, paid $10NZ to refill the tank, and returned the car. The Avis representative offered us a ride to the pier, which we gladly accepted.

Sea Day 2

The highlight of the day was Chef Hazan’s second demonstration of the cruise. He made pasta fagiola and again provided some good tips: use your peeler to de-string the celery before you chop it, cook the egg pasta in the soup, and purée some of the solids before adding the pasta to thicken the soup. The wine pairing was a bright valpolicella. Gauguin’s audiovisual staff dropped the ball again and Marilisa Allegrini had to give her Italian wine talk without benefit of her slideshow.

The nighttime show featured the Gauguins and Gauguines. I want to note the tremendous contribution they make to the cruise program. Not only on-stage but morning, noon, and night. They’re always approachable (and if you seem alone or confused they’ll approach you). They embody the charm and warm spirit of these islands.

Bora Bora 1

Because our Cook Islands tour took us out of the country, an immigration officer was in the theatre at 7:30am to meet each passenger face-to-face and stamp every passport. We lined up early for fear of missingt he 8:30 shuttle necessary to meeting our Pure Snorkeling boat in Vaitape at 8:40. All went well (despite our being with an independent company and thus theoretically required to board after all the in-house cruisers).

Pure Snorkeling uses a handsome and comfortable outboard powerboat. The skipper is the only crew and Fabien did a terrific job. The highlight was the final stop, in somewhat shallow water in an inlet near an opening to the reef. Fabien cautioned us that the nearer you go to the opening, the stronger the current flowing in. You didn’t need to swim far to see beautiful corals, and the current would run you back towards the boat anyway. Fabien borrowed my camera to take closeup pictures of the coral.

We were a group of eight: a couple from Edmonton and ourselves from the ship, and two couples from Rome, Italy who were staying at our former hotel, Pearl Beach. He dropped them off first and as he headed to Vaitape we asked about getting a taxi to Bloody Mary’s. He said since he had no afternoon booking (he’d asked if anybody had afternoon plans at the start and since we didn’t he ran an extra 1 1/2 hours to 1:30) he would drop us at Bloody Mary’s private dock and save us the taxi there. (Yes, we tipped him the price of the fare.)

We didn’t want a full lunch at Bloody Mary’s so we were relegated to the bar for drinks, taco chips and salsa. This turned out to be the best choice anyway since we heard nothing good about the food there, while their bloody mary drink and amber Haino beer on tap was excellent.

Tonight was the crew show and I regret we couldn’t stay up for it having gone nonstop from 6:00am.

Bora Bora 2

This morning we booked via the PG the Maohi Nui version of the three-stop tour that we took with Lagoon Service earlier. Our skipper was the famous Patrick who was professional if a bit distant.

Our first stop was the reef sharks, etc.; it was good to see them again.

Second stop was the sting rays, and he handed us fish pieces to break up and insert bits into their gill slits next to the eyes, which connect to the mouth below. Yes, I took this picture!

On the way to the third stop Patrick stopped to show us a school of manta rays swimming far below us.

Third stop was the section of coral near the Conrad where we again had the mobbed-by-fish experience. I couldn’t help noticing that because they’re drawn by heavy chumming with bread, the fish are limited to a few varieties and I wonder what this means for the less aggressive species. Swim a few meters away from where the bread is thrown and you’ll notice a total absence of fish.

We shuttled to Vaitape for a final chance to look at pearls and souvenirs, and unfortunately we ended up missing the third and final food and wine presentation. We heard later that Chef Hazan did a raw tomato sauce and Marilise presented three of her wines including a pricey amarone.

Taha’a

We had pre-booked the popular drift snorkel excursion but having not gotten to a pearl farm in Huahine we cancelled it and substituted the snorkel + pearl farm excursion. The pearl farm demonstration was pro forma, especially since our Taha’a day was a Sunday and the place was empty. The proprietor did give a talk and his assistant partially opened a demo oyster to indicate where the seed and a bit of mantle from a sacrificial oyster are implanted. The emphasis was on moving to the shopping portion of the program.

Fortunately the snorkeling was excellent, and we had a full hour for it. The site was in the same neighborhood where they do the drift snorkel, but we had an area with no current and particularly beautiful coral and healthy fish all to ourselves. No bread-feeding this time and we were on our own in shallow water to explore it.

From here the boat took us directly to the private island well in time for lunch and swimming.

We stayed until the last tender at 4:15, and watched the sunset sailout from our deck. That's Bora Bora on the horizon!

Tonight’s show was Les Gauguines/Gauguins and we enjoyed them as always. This was another long day for them!

wow! Those photos are so vivid. beautiful!

Thanks! Apart from a few IPhone pictures, they're all taken with the Olympus TG-5 that Deladane recommended.

Moorea 1

The beautiful weather continued throughout the cruise. The pool is open all day at forward deck 8 and it’s often empty and never very busy. Pool towels tend to run out in the afternoon if you don’t have your beach towel with you (if you took your beach towel with you on an excursion you won’t have it because you were asked to drop it in the hamper upon reboarding the ship).

We had a difficult time deciding what to do in Moorea, having already done the jet ski and snorkeled on our own pre-cruise. Because Moorea is an overnight the last return tender on Day 1 isn’t until 10pm. We wanted to see the sites we’d missed pre-cruise (despite having had a rental car the whole time!), namely Belvédère, the agricultural school (and an opportunity to buy their local preserves which we’d been enjoying daily at the deck 8 buffet table), the roadside Maraes, some snorkeling, and more. We decided to rent a car, which is easily done since the tender landing is only a couple of miles from the Avis desk at the Intercontinental and they’ll pick you up. The car, by the way, was a standard shift which is not a problem for me.

We did all the above sites including a final return visit to Les Tipaniers and its beach. We looked at the new public beach just beyond Le Petit Village but it was very sterile-looking with a big parking lot, a narrow beach, and uninviting to snorkel.

The Avis desk closes at 4:30 and although I think we could have stayed at the Intercontinental pool for hours after and taxied to a late tender we did it the easy way, returning the car at 4:00 and taking a free lift from Avis to the tender.

We were back in time for a Mini Heiva featuring “the Local Mamas from Moorea as they demonstrate how to make Heis & Leis made of local fresh flowers and their weaving technique.”

The same group provided the evening showtime where the flower-work was augmented by song and dance. They were wonderful!

Moorea 2

We had previously booked the Trails of the Ancients trek with Mark Eddowes for Moorea 2, but renting a car the previous day allowed us to cancel it (and we heard later that Eddowes canceled anyway due to illness). We booked the catamaran snorkel trip instead for our final excursion, despite having been warned that the snorkeling would be in deep water with not much to see. But we learned the night before that it too was canceled. After some debate we switched to Dr. Poole’s dolphin watch (dolphins not whales in June).

Here again we were thwarted. Although he took the boat three-quarters around Moorea, counter-clockwise from Cook’s Bay to the ferry terminal, we were the unlucky five percent of his customers who saw nothing but landscape and water. (Apparently ocean swells closed the main openings in the reef and the spinner dolphins stayed outside the reef for the day.) Dr. Poole did his usual talk in the absence of any creatures to look at and most of the people on board were not dissatisfied.

The evening entertainment was another local group, “O Tahiti E, Polynesia’s #1 folkloric dance troupe, live on the stage.” They were highly professional and theatrical, but personally I preferred the more natural look and feel of last night’s group not to mention our Gauguines and Gauguins.

Tahiti

Since we were not using the PG’s transfers and air service, we had to be out of our cabin at 9:30 and off the ship by 10:00. We had 8:00 breakfast as usual and walked off the ship at 8:30, promising to return. We used the hour to see the Cathedral and the Municipal Market (the lady in the picture below gave me permission to photograph her). An hour well spent!

Coming back on board we collected our carry-ons from the cabin at 9:30, met our suitcases on the dock, and were escorted to the waiting taxi (having paid PG a fee to arrange the taxi and so forth). The taxi got us to Le Meridien in about 15 minutes, and I paid my last 4,000 ($39) of local currency for the ride.

Our room at Le Meridien wasn’t ready so early, but we rummaged in our suitcases for bathing suits (there is a changing room) and waited by the pool. Our room was modern and comfortable with a third floor balcony looking out to the pool (sand-bottom and huge) and beach (narrow but nice). Meridien’s OWBs are currently closed for renovation. There was a current running parallel to the beach, and we weren’t feeling adventurous at this point so we stayed at the pool. The restaurant choices are good but unusually expensive. The first night we walked to the adjacent strip mall for water and wine from the supermarket, and take-out pizza from a food truck.

The following day we signed up for a tour of Tahiti (the circular road around the island, not the mountainous trek inland). Four hours mostly in the back seat of a van, ourselves and a french lady the only passengers. The final stop was the lighthouse built by R.L Stevenson’s father, after which I was not sorry to be returned to the hotel.

We planned to eat in the main hotel restaurant the second night, but that evening there was a huge gathering at the poolside bar/restaurant. Literally hundreds of young French women and men, dressed for the Club, eating, drinking, and talking while house music throbbed in the background (oddly nobody was dancing). We bought $75 of credits for two drinks and two small-plate tapas and found a table. Apparently they gather at Le Meridien every other Thursday for the scene.

Then came the trip home—a 5:00am taxi to catch the 7:30am Air France flight to LAX, Friday night at the Westin LAX, and LAX to Denver to Hartford on Saturday.

As I said at the start, we’ve been home only since the weekend and already it all seems like a dream.

The End!

We are on the same itinerary you were on, so thanks for posting. :)

LesTipaniers is beachfront in the northeast corner of the island.

Correction to my earlier post: As the map shows, Les Tipaniers is in the northwest corner.

Loving your review! Alas the Polynesian flu has returned!

We were also on this itinerary! Great review and excellent photos. I can see my hands and one of my feet in the picture of the Hei making!

We also stayed at Le Meridien for 2 nights post cruise and took the Air France flight back to LA. Our next door neighbours from the cruise sat next to us on the flight, with another couple from the PG in front,

Thank you for taking the time to post your detail , wonderful review. We cant wait to return !

Thank you for taking the time to do a review! Very helpful!