If you’re looking for Moorea travel tips, look no further! Having been fortunate enough to visit Moorea multiple times, we’re excited to pass on all the insights we’ve gained from our adventures. Keep reading as we reveal the nuggets we’ve discovered during our stays on this enchanting island.
About Moorea
Moorea, a French Polynesian island, is a stunning with lush mountains, white beaches, and clear blue waters. It’s a short distance, 10 nautical miles, from Tahiti and offers activities like snorkeling, hiking, and relaxing on the beach. Moorea is a beautiful destination for nature lovers and those seeking tranquility in the South Pacific.
When we mentioned that it’s small in size, we really meant it. It’s only 51 square miles (132 square km) with a population just shy of 20,000 people. In comparison, Kauai another small island, is over 10 times bigger at about 562 square miles (1,456 square km).
Really laid back, really quiet, but unbelievably beautiful. Everyone is really friendly. Speak mostly French and their dialect, but you can get by on English most everywhere.
How to get to Moorea
Getting to Moorea requires a bit of island hopping. There are no direct flights from overseas to Moorea, so your journey typically begins from Papeete, on island of Tahiti, where the international airport is located. The flight from Papeete to Moorea is very short, only about 7 minutes. Moorea’s airport is very small with an open-air terminal.
Another option is to opt for the quick and convenient ferry ride from Papeete (about 30 minutes). More to come on this later in this post.
Lastly, Moorea is often features as a picturesque port of call for French Polynesian cruises. While doing a quick search, we did discover that there are many cruise options. If you enjoy cruises, and want to explore Moorea, there’s definitely something for you.
How to get around Moorea
The most flexibly way to see the island is by renting a car. For your convenience, there are options at the airport or you can arrange one through your hotel or resort.
We decided not to rent one for our stay since we had tour plans, with pickups included and wanted to take advantage of the resort. Instead, we rented one directly from our hotel for 24 hours. This did allow us to do a full tour of the island and make a few additional stops.
We did discover that many people visiting Moorea, pick up rental cars in Papeete and travel with them by ferry. This option does appeal to us and we’ll likely be doing that during our next visit. We’ll report back on that experience.
Another option, if you don’t want to drive is taxis. One thing that we found a bit different is that taxis do round trips, not one way trips like we are used to in Canada. They typically drop you off and provide a contact number for when our are ready for the return trip.
If you do drive around, you will notice that there isn’t much traffic at all. Driving there is quite a relaxing experience. You can drive the road that borders Moorea in just over an hour. The 37 miles (60 kilometers) road can be toured in about half a day with stops at beaches, restaurants, and lookout points. Moorea is small but is fun to drive with a paved highway and beautiful views. Many side roads on the island are unpaved.
Accommodations
During our past visits to Moorea, we stayed at the Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort and Spa. It’s a fabulous resort and the prefect for a relaxing stay. There so much to say about this resort, that we have a whole post dedicated it. Click here to read all about it.
Although a small island, there are other hotel or resort options:
For a more affordable stay, there are plenty of AirBnB and Vrbo options in all price ranges ranging for a single room to multi-room villas.
Activities
Moorea has plenty to do like hiking, sailing, jet skiing, ATVing, golfing and much much more. We did have the chance to experience a few.
Voila Moorea
This tour is a must do, it is both fun and pretty affordable. And, definitely amongst our all time favorite tours. We typically shy away from anything boat related, as we tend to get seasick, but so happy we went ahead. The boat never leaves the lagoon, so it was pretty calm and neither one of us experienced any sickness at all.
The tour is about 4 hours with three stops: the first to swim with the sharks and stingrays, the second to snorkel at the coral garden and the third to see the underwater tikis.
We have a full post about our Voila Moorea experience. Click here to read all about it.
Top Jet ATV Tour
We opted to do something fun on our first full day that would give us a good sense of what there was to see and do in Moorea. This ATV tour was great and did allow us to explore parts of the island not reachable easily by car.
We did this ATV tour in December, during the rainy season, and did it ever rain. When we started the tour, it was beautiful sunny morning. About half way through the tour it started raining. At first it was just a few drops, but after a few minutes it started raining really hard and it did so for the rest of the tour. The rain was really warm and only made the tour more fun with the splashing around. Not what we had planned, but we definitely made the best of it.
Coco Beach
Coco Beach is a restaurant on the Tiahura motu in Moorea’s lagoon. There you can enjoy great food and drinks, with your toes in the sand, while taking in one of the world’s best views. It’s about a 20 minute boat ride away, but it’s also within kayaking or paddleboarding distance away. A visit to Coco Beach should be on your Moorea must do list. Click here to read our post about our visit.
Weather
The climate is tropical so warm and humid. A warm rainy season lasts from November to April, and a relatively cool dry season from May to October. The average yearly temperature is 27°C (80°F) with the lagoon average 26°C (79°F) in the winter and 29°C (84°F) in the summer. To Canadians like us, the water felt so warm. I swear I’ve had baths that felt much colder.
Buying Tahitian Pearls
Tahitian pearls, also called black pearls, are special for their unique colors like black, grey, silver, and green. They come from black-lipped oysters in Tahiti and have a beautiful shine. If you are looking for a souvenir to bring back home, pearls are the perfect thing.
There are pearl shops at most resorts, but wanting to ensure we weren’t paying the “tourist” prices, we asked two taxi drivers where to go. They both recommended Sab. Our experience there was great and the service excellent.
It’s true that you can find pearls at markets and various vendors, but we were advised that if we were looking for quality pearls to go to a reputable store.
Where to eat
While on Moorea, we ate quite a few of our meals at the resort out of convenience. But, fortunately we did get to tray our some more local fare. Below is a list of the places that we would definitely recommend you check out.
Allo Pizza – Delicious wood fired pizza establishment. You can stop by and eat there or pick up. We did get delivery from them at the Hilton, however, they don’t have any posted information about deliveries.
Coco Beach – Make a day of it! It’s an idyllic location with really good food and drinks. To read more about our experience, click here.
Snack Mahana – Might be the best restaurant on the island but definitely our favorite. They are only open from 11 am to 2 pm and it’s quite busy, so go early. Our favorite dishes are poisson cru and the garlic shrimp. Important note, they only accept cash.
La Macaroulotte – It’s a small pink trailer about a 10 minute walk from the Hilton. They have many delicious treats, but our favorite was the carrot cake with lime cream cheese icing.
Finally, if you are planning a trip to French Polynesia below are some posts that might interest you.
- French Polynesia Travel Tips
- Rangiroa Travel Tips
- Bora Bora Travel Tips
- What to pack for a trip to Bora Bora
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