Daley Family Travels

My husband and I went to Tahiti back in January for our 15th wedding anniversary. We loved it and had such a great time. We broke up our trip between Tahiti and Moorea and even saw a few friends from back when we all lived in France. We had a rental car while on Tahiti (highly recommend) and explored almost the entire island.

The first place we checked out was Fa’aruma’i Waterfall. This was a beautiful walk and easy to do. Usually guests can also hike to a second and third waterfall, but that trail was closed during our visit. From here, we continued our drive around the island and checked out Water Gardens Vaipahi.

The water gardens had several little paths that we could explore. We saw so many beautiful plants and even a beautiful waterfall. This was our first full day on the island and we spent it driving around the big part of Tahiti (Tahiti Nui) and checking out these couple of spots and stopping at a few stores. Admission to both Fa’aruma’i Waterfall and the Water Gardens are free.

We stayed at Le Tahiti Resort while on the island (a little north of Papeete) and so our next day we headed over to Plage de la Pointe Venus. This was super close to our hotel and had a beautiful lighthouse that Robert Louis Stevenson’s dad actually built and later Robert Louis Stevenson himself also visited.

This was also where Captain Cook landed and set up an observatory and also the site of the mutiny on the Bounty. Several historical markers are there with more information and we enjoyed walking around the beach. There was even a little market set up while we visited.

In the same area as Point Venus, is Au’a Tahiti Coconut bowls and we stopped and bought a few bowls to bring home with us.

On our third day in Tahiti, we met up with our friends and they showed us around Tahiti Iti (the small part of Tahiti). It was wonderful! We visited their family’s farm and then went up to Belvédère de Taravao (the views were amazing!). We also went to a little local beach and ended our day with our friends at a natural spring (Source Vaima) where we actually got to swim with eels! It was a little scary at first, but they’re friendly eels. We got to chat with a lot of the locals and Aaron bought a ukulele from a guy that makes them there in Tahiti. It was an amazing day and we’re so thankful to our friends for taking us all around.

On our way back to the hotel, Aaron and I stopped at Grottes De Mara’a and checked out the little caves. It was a quick stop, but pretty.

From Tahiti, we took a ferry over to Moorea for a few days, but we came back to Tahiti for one more full day before flying home. We had hoped to check out the famous Papeete Market, but it was closed during our visit! Our trip was the first week of January, but the holidays last longer than they do in the USA, so many shops were still closed for Christmas and Three Kings Day. We still had a nice day walking around the city though. My favorite little shop that we were able to visit was Mihiarii Pearls. It had pearls of all types and we were able to get several for our daughters and me.

We had a wonderful trip. I would love to go back again someday with our kids. Have you ever been to French Polynesia before?