French Polynesia Travel Guide

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How to Vacation on Tahiti for Free? Just Buy a Flight on Air Tahiti Nui.

February 1, 2013 at 11:52 AM | by | Comments (0)

At some point in your travel life, you're going to want to visit Tahiti. It's inevitable and, duh, you should give in to the desire, but the only huge obstacle is typically price for such a trip.

Luckily for a period, Air Tahiti Nui is giving flyers free 3-night vacations in Tahiti if you book a roundtrip flight on them from Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand, with optional continuing service on to Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne.

The price for the whole shindig, flights and 3-night Tahiti stopover at either the Le Meridien or Manava resorts included, is $1,298, which is really awesome if you can keep to the cheapest option of LA-Auckland.

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Bora Bora Gets the Kim Kardashian Bikini Treatment

August 16, 2011 at 1:45 PM | by | Comment (1)

Love them or hate them, everyone has an opinion on the Kardashian family and their hit E! reality TV show, Keeping Up With the Kardashians. That's precisely what makes it so popular—the sweet hate or jealousy their shallow adventures inspire, or just the over-the-top glamor of it all; there's something for everyone. Truth be told, we only tune in when the whole Kardash-klan is packing up like twenty trunks to head out on vacation.

And now an announcement of immense importance: the big family trip this season was to Bora Bora in French Polynesia and those episodes—a 3-part series culminating in Kris' marriage proposal to Kim—begin airing this weekend.

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Tahiti's Giant Waves And Blue Water Becoming An IMAX Surfing Movie

September 16, 2009 at 3:43 PM | by | Comments (0)


An epic wave at Teahupoo

If you asked us to converse in surf lingo with you, we wouldn't know the difference between a double overhead and an A-frame. (Thank goodness for Riptionary). But that doesn't mean that we don't appreciate the sport, or lack reverence for the gorgeous worldwide locations that surfers visit to test out their aerial skills.

World champion athlete Kelly Slater, Raimana Van Bastolaer, and director Stephen Low share this love of surf culture, which is what drew them to the Polynesian island of Tahiti, where the waves are gnarly and the scenery storybook perfect. The three just wrapped principal photography on Ultimate Wave Tahiti, which will be shown in IMAX® 3D once it's released next February.

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Make A Short Video With Your New iPhone, Win A Trip To Tahiti

June 22, 2009 at 12:02 PM | by | Comment (1)

We haven't even gotten close to seeing a shiny new 3GS iPhone yet, but the tourism peeps over in Tahiti have already got a contest running using the new iPhone angle along with the bad economy. It's the Invest In Your Love contest, which says it's better to invest something in your relationship than stocks or bonds, and they just might be right.

Basically, the contest involves creating an 3-minute or less video about why you and your significant other(s) deserve a vacation in Tahiti. Round One has already closed—in fact you can already vote for the best video of those—but for Round Two, Tourism Tahiti is encouraging participants to shoot a video with their brand new iPhone and submit it to the competition.

If you create the video that gets the most votes, you'll win airfare to Tahiti, a week's accommodation spread over two different islands, and breakfast and dinner each day. Videos thus far have used everything from talking dogs to long-lost love strategies, and the good news is if you need a bit of extra practice to improve your iPhone videoing skills, there are six rounds of the contest so you can enter as late as November.

Related Stories:
· Invest In Your Love Contest [Official Site]
· Tahiti Travel Guide [Jaunted]

[Photo: Taravana]

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Your Own Semiprivate Oasis In Tahiti

May 20, 2009 at 5:06 PM | by | Comments (0)

Last one in's a rotten egg! We're finding the best places in the world to stick our toes in this summer (or next winter) for our World's Coolest Pools map. Know of any pools we must check out? Let us know.

The invention of the sandy-bottomed approach was one of the great pool innovations of the '90s. But the pool at the Le Méridien Tahiti takes it a step further: There's nothing real about this white-sand beach, but your toes won't know the difference.

The sand in question is claimed to be natural, but is in fact imported from other parts of the island to give the Le Méridien lagoon that particular sparkle. The blob-shaped pool is somewhat remote from the nearby city of Papeete, but the hotel also features an on-site artist's studio and horseback rides should you be bothered to change out of your swimsuit.

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Tahiti Jumps On the Travel Video Contest Bandwagon

April 27, 2009 at 1:41 PM | by | Comment (1)

Still depressed over not making the final rounds in Australia's "Island Reef Job" contest? Sulk no longer, as Tahiti has stepped up to give us burgeoning video competition pros a reason to go on: their "Invest In Your Love" contest. While the grand prize doesn't involve living on a sparsely-populated island far from civilization, it will get you a free trip to one or two.

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Rihanna and Katy Perry Keeping 'Girlfriend Getaways' Alive

April 23, 2009 at 10:54 AM | by | Comments (0)

No boys allowed! Rihanna had singer Katy Perry over to her house in Barbados, where they went out on a boat and worked on their tans.

Another celebrity currently stimulating the travel economy this week but doing the opposite of a girlfriend getaway is Salma Hayek. She's rumored to be getting married (again, she tied the knot with French businessmen François-Henri Pinault in February) this weekend in Venice, Italy -- and by "rumored" we mean Antonio Banderas blurted it out in the press conferences. He's so not getting invited to the next wedding.

So what we want to know is, what makes a great girlfriend getaway? Or, in a larger, gender-neutral sense, what do you do with your friends when you travel? Do you have a first-night-out ritual? A secret induction ceremony? (Well, it won't be secret now!)

Related Stories:
· Rihanna and Katy Perry: Sun-Kissed Girls [TMZ]
· Where to Stay in Santiago [HC]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Urban Celebs]

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There's Trouble In Tahitian Paradise

February 20, 2009 at 9:01 AM | by | Comments (0)

President Obama is certainly concerned about the economic situation here at home, but his worries are mostly focused on houses, money, and stocks—not on filling hotels full of tourists. However, that is the worry of French Polynesia's President Oscar Temaru. He’s calling the current tourism situation in the island nation “catastrophic.”

President Temaru has told lawmakers that hotel occupancy has been dismal, with some days seeing only a 20 percent occupancy rate. Temaru is close to naming a new tourism minister, who is going to have a lot of work ahead of him as well as a lot of sleepless nights. Hey, at least you can get a good spot by the pool, right?

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Tahiti Travel Tips: Don't Miss on Moorea

June 4, 2008 at 1:30 PM | by | Comment (1)

Earlier this week, we filled you in on a charming Moorea BYOB Happy Hour and today we offer our "Don't Miss List" for this perfect Tahitian island.

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