Tahiti is the big island, the one with the airport and the capital, and most families treat it as the airport. Give it a night on the way in and a night on the way out and it earns them.
Papeete is the capital, a small port town with a covered market in the middle that is the reason to walk in. Fruit, fish, vanilla, black pearls, pareos, monoi oil, and upstairs the craft stalls and a cafe. The kids get a pareo each and learn the five ways to tie it. Go in the morning when the fish comes in.
The roulottes are the evening. Food trucks park on the waterfront at Vaiete square at dusk and set out plastic tables, and the whole town eats there. Steak frites, chow mein, crepes, poisson cru, grilled fish, pizza, a plate for a few dollars, and the kids choose their own truck. It is the best cheap dinner in the islands and the most Tahitian.
The black sand and the surf
Tahiti’s beaches are black volcanic sand on the west coast, and the one at Point Venus where Captain Cook watched the transit of Venus has a lighthouse and calm water. Teahupoo on the far side is the surf break from the Olympics, and a boat takes you out to watch the surfers from the channel on a big day.
The Paul Gauguin museum, the botanical gardens, the Arahoho blowhole on the coast road, the waterfalls of Faarumai in the forest. A circle island drive is a day.
Then the ferry to Moorea from the dock in the middle of town, thirty minutes, with the kids on the top deck as Tahiti shrinks and Moorea’s peaks come up in front.
Planning French Polynesia with kids? Start with the full French Polynesia family travel guide, or send me the ages and the dates and I will come back with what is really available.
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