recommended excursions on PG

[honeymoon 5/19]

I am leaving on our first PG cruise on the 7 nt Society Islands cruise. I was wondering what were amazing excursions that you did? I have snorkeled a few times and my husband has not. We both do get a little sea sick at times but are bringing with us dramamine, etc.

 

Thanks!

[Familygoboston]

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1590750

 

I haven't been yet, but got lots of good ideas i used to book ours from the advice here in a thread by Island Retriever asking a similar question. Good luck!:D

[Tikiintahiti]

Do land based tours on Moorea, lagoon based tours on Bora Bora.

 

The drift snorkel on Tahaa is very nice but is for experience snorkelers. A good lagoon tour for newbie snorkelers is

http://www.reefdiscovery.pf/us/index.html

This is not a ship tour but private company

[honeymoon 5/19]

Thanks so much for the info.

boston... there's so much info on that other thread, it's a lil overwhelming! But will definitely use it to start planning. We're a lil late as we leave on the 11th. Hope we can get ourselves together in time!

thanks again!

[Escriteur]

We just returned from the July 28 seven-night sailing. The "Stingray Ballet" excursion on Bora Bora was probably my favorite; very easy for beginner snorkelers (like my husband). In addition to the rays, we also saw black-tip reef sharks, which made for some great photos!

 

On Moorea, we did our own excursion to Tiki Village Theater (http://www.tikivillage.fr/en/accueil.html), which is open 11am-3pm and easily doable as a day tour. We went there on a Princess cruise 10 years ago and it was one of the highlights of our trip. PG doesn't offer it as an excursion, and the travel desk wasn't very helpful about telling us how to get there. We found out quite by accident that they offer free pickup and drop-off at the port, and admission is only 2500 francs per person. If you're interested, you can try arranging pickup in advance, or see if you can find someone to call them for you when you get there. (The travel desk never offered to do this; I don't know if they're not aware of the free shuttle service, or don't want to encourage passengers to book non-PG tour options.)

 

Also, be sure to allow plenty of time for the "free" motu visits on Taha'a and Bora Bora. I loved all of the amenities (shopping, food, coconut drinks, loungers) on Motu Mahana, but I preferred the beach at the Bora Bora motu since it has easier snorkeling and you don't have to worry about all of the sea cucumbers and sea urchins that crowd the shallow waters on Motu Mahana.

 

Enjoy your cruise - I'm sure you'll love it as much as we did!

[cmalagngl]

We used Christophe when we were in Bora Bora last August. He was fantastic. There was a guy on our trip who had never snorkeled before and Christophe helped through the day. I've been snorkeling thorughout the Caribean and Hawaii and this was the best ever. Christophe is just fantastic.

[Cruisedreamer1]

We rented a bike while on Bora Bora and rode around the island in less than 4 hours and that was with stopping to visit a hotel, 2 scenic sites, for a soda and visiting Bloody Mary's.

 

It was very inexpensive, lots of fun and actually one of the best "excursions" we have experienced in our 5 trips to FP.

 

The bikes can be rented as you exit the dock area and cross the street.

 

We tried renting bikes in Moorea to do the same but found that there was too much traffic to feel comfortable and safe.

[ALB0711]

The bike idea sounds like fun. Is the road around paved and fairly level?

[honeymoon 5/19]

Wow, the bike idea sounds great! Did they provide you with a map?

And was it easy to follow without getting lost?

[Tikiintahiti]

that circles the island, you can't get lost. Only one area where there is a hill and it isn't more than a few hundred yards to the top.

 

However, though a fun thing to do make sure you do not atempt to do it at 7:00 am - 9:00 am or 4pm - 6 pm. This is when the road is busy. The local traffic will buzz by you and at times whitin 6 inches :eek:

[Cruisedreamer1]

Once out of the main drag, there is little traffic. We rented the bikes just after getting off the tender which must have been around 10ish. We have done this twice. There was some construction(several years ago) and I walked the bike over the gravel and there was one hill that I walked but the rest was easy. We are in our 60's and 70's and of course, our 30 something daughter beat us back the the rental place.

[Meerjungfrau]

We just returned from the July 28 seven-night sailing. The "Stingray Ballet" excursion on Bora Bora was probably my favorite; very easy for beginner snorkelers (like my husband). In addition to the rays, we also saw black-tip reef sharks, which made for some great photos!

 

On Moorea, we did our own excursion to Tiki Village Theater (http://www.tikivillage.fr/en/accueil.html), which is open 11am-3pm and easily doable as a day tour. We went there on a Princess cruise 10 years ago and it was one of the highlights of our trip. PG doesn't offer it as an excursion, and the travel desk wasn't very helpful about telling us how to get there. We found out quite by accident that they offer free pickup and drop-off at the port, and admission is only 2500 francs per person. If you're interested, you can try arranging pickup in advance, or see if you can find someone to call them for you when you get there. (The travel desk never offered to do this; I don't know if they're not aware of the free shuttle service, or don't want to encourage passengers to book non-PG tour options.)

 

Also, be sure to allow plenty of time for the "free" motu visits on Taha'a and Bora Bora. I loved all of the amenities (shopping, food, coconut drinks, loungers) on Motu Mahana, but I preferred the beach at the Bora Bora motu since it has easier snorkeling and you don't have to worry about all of the sea cucumbers and sea urchins that crowd the shallow waters on Motu Mahana.

 

Enjoy your cruise - I'm sure you'll love it as much as we did!

 

Hi,

 

are you sure Tiki Village provided free transport? We recently e-mailed them and they seem to want to charge almost the same amount for the transfer as for the entrance fee! If the transfer really is free, we would be interested to go to Tiki Village.

[Tara&Jeff]

Also just back from the 7/28 cruise. We did 1 PG tour, black pearl farm and snorkel on Raiatea which was very good, and 2 non PG tours, Reef Discovery in Bora Bora and ATV Moorea in Moorea. Those last 2 were incredible with ATV Moorea being my favorite and Reef Discovery being my wife's favorite. Both are rated number 1 or 2 on Trip Advisor I believe for their respective islands.

[Tikiintahiti]

Has always been free transportation for their evening show/dinner. Unless it's a new thing to charge it should be free

[Meerjungfrau]

Has always been free transportation for their evening show/dinner. Unless it's a new thing to charge it should be free

 

As we will only be in Moorea for one day, we were interested in the daytime visit to the Tiki Village and they replied to our e-mail saying that there is a charge for transport.

[Escriteur]

As we will only be in Moorea for one day, we were interested in the daytime visit to the Tiki Village and they replied to our e-mail saying that there is a charge for transport.

 

Oh; that's a shame - I'm really sorry to hear that. :( We just did the day excursion ourselves. I wasn't aware they charged; they didn't ask us for additional payment (beyond the admission fees) when we went.

 

Here's our experience:

 

We knew we wanted to do Tiki Village because we had such a great time there when we visited on our honeymoon cruise 10 years ago. When I asked at the PG travel desk if they offered a Tiki Village excursion, they said no. When I asked how we could get out there, they said we could rent a car through Avis (the travel desk could reserve it) or that we could get a taxi at the port. We let it go until the last minute; we went down to the travel desk the morning we arrived in Moorea, but by that time, all of the cars and scooters had already been reserved.

 

There are people at the port offering free van rides into "town"; basically, they work for the various black pearl shops, and they take you to an area that has some small shops, a few restaurants, and not much else. We joined some cruise friends who flagged us to join them in their van, thinking maybe we could walk to Tiki Village or get a shorter taxi ride from there; but it was too far to walk and we didn't see any taxis go by. So we went back to port to consider our next move. When a taxi showed up, we asked how much it would cost to get to Tiki Village, and we were told 3000 francs each way (6000 round trip - yikes!). That would have used up all of our francs, and it seemed like a lot for such a short ride, so we declined.

 

As we were sitting around trying to figure out our next move, we saw the Tiki Village van roll up. We asked if we could get a ride; the driver said it was a private pickup (we later found out they had picked up a couple from our cruise who had booked a wedding ceremony at the village), but he said he'd send someone to come for us. He returned a short while later and brought us back to the village; we paid our admission (2500 francs per person, which we were able to pay by credit card) at the entrance, but they didn't charge extra for the transfer. The same guy (who also served as our guide) drove us back to the port at the end of our visit. He never requested an additional fee (so we just figured it was a free transfer), though we did tip him 500 francs.

 

How much did they quote you for the transfer? I was really surprised to hear of the charge, since we weren't charged for the rides...unless that was just an oversight. Depending on the cost, it might still be worth it, since a Tiki Village visit is less expensive than the other excursions offered through PG. Better yet, you could always tell them you'd like to visit but were only interested if they offered free transfers. Maybe they'd be willing to waive the transfer fee if it means getting some business rather than none. (The place was pretty dead when we went; we were just about the only visitors there.) Or if you were thinking about reserving a car or scooter to do some exploring on your own, you could always make Tiki Village a stop on your trip. (I believe the car rental would have been around $110 or $120 for 8 hours on Moorea.)

 

Anyway, please let us know if you hear anything further from them, and whether or not you end up visiting. I had been telling everyone that transport was free based on our experience; but now I'm wondering if that was an exception or oversight rather than standard practice. It seems like it would be good business practice for them to do free transfers to encourage more people to visit, especially since they have a black pearl shop and various craft stands throughout the village and could make additional money above and beyond the admission fee.

[Tikiintahiti]

Personally I would never rent a scooter on Moorea. Just to dangerous, I've seen to many accidents from scooter riding on Moorea. I aways rent a car.