#74191 - 06/22/08 04:17 PM
Trip report of May-June 2008: Moorea and Taha'a
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carrieg
Member
Registered: 04/10/06
Posts: 153
Loc: Los Angeles
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Carrie and Steve spent 14 nights in Tahiti, returning on June 8th! We spent 6 nights in Moorea at the Moorea Pearl Resort, and the remaining 8 nights at Le Taha'a. It was Carrie's 3rd stay at the Moorea Pearl, Steve's 2nd, and it was the 2nd stay for both of us at Le Taha'a.
In general, both islands met our expectations. We had a great time both places, and had some fun new experiences, particularly on Moorea, where we went to the motu Moea and ate at the little restaurant there, La Plage, which was really fun, a real highlight of the trip.
Arriving at Papeete, we got Las Vegas Patti's guy at passport control, which took a full hour in line to get through. What was striking about it was, the passengers from the flight had been funneled into 2 lines, one of which flew through, the other (ours), slower than you can imagine, tried everyone's patience. I can't help but think we might still be there if the other line's passport agents hadn't been freed up to take people from our line once they'd finished theirs!
Eventually we made it in, and after an uneventful flight to Moorea, had lunch at the Moorea Pearl, which allowed us to check in a couple hours before the official check-in time. We were in a premium overwater bungalow, #420, which was perfect. The room was clean and spacious, and the view looking out at the ocean was exactly what we wanted.
After settling in, we walked to Eva Perle's shop, and Eva helped Carrie pick out some beautiful black pearl earrings. Eva, it should be mentioned, is extremely conscientious, and took the extra step of walking us through the procedures to get a reimbursement for the tax on the pearls. Having bought black pearls in Tahiti before, we know not every vendor does this. She was exceptional.
Our daily ritual was walking to get ice cream at Carmeline's, a cozy porch setting. Every day we followed Carlmeline's with snorkeling at the bungalow, Carrie's favorite pastime by far. We'd bought a new underwater housing for our little Canon point-and-shoot digital camera, which was a little scary at first ($350 gone forever if that housing leaks!), but it worked perfectly, and we got some great pictures of the sea life right under our bungalow.
A major focus of our time on Moorea was dinnertime, and Carrie spends a lot of time studying the many restaurants online. Here are our thoughts, in the order we tried them.
Le Cocotier: we loved the warm goat cheese salad, and the duck with honey brown sauce. This is a great little place, our 2nd time there, clearly favored by the locals. It seemed like everyone knew each other there, and this might have been the best waitress we had on the whole trip!
Aito Restaurant: easily the best poisson cru we had anywhere, and a great selection of bordeau wines. We also loved the banana sundae for dessert. Jean-Baptiste, the owner, picked us up from the Pearl, and we had great service, particularly from our waiter for the evening, a Frenchman who'd spent a lot of time in Los Angeles. We've forgotten his name, but he made us feel right at home.
The gourmet restaurant at the Pearl was our most expensive meal in Moorea by far, but the food, in our opinion, didn't quite stack up to the local restaurants we've been to. The lone exception: their gorgeous and extravagant desserts! Carrie had a chocolate sampler which was more than she could eat, but it was well worth the attempt! Steve devoured his cherry souffle and then did his best not to waste all the incredible chocolate!
Te Honu Iti: this was Carrie's single favorite meal of the trip! She had the beef bourguignon, and Steve loved the seafood bisque, and enjoyed a good osso bucco. We love this restaurant on the water and its stingray sideshow (if you're lucky enough to have a table at the railing, the rays are omnipresent and they're fed from time to time by a restaurant employee), but on this particular night (a Tuesday) it must be said that the place was packed and the service was pretty slow and forgetful.
Le Mayflower: We had a really awesome philo dough/ goat cheese salad, and Carrie loved the lobster ravioli. Steve also liked the seafood pasta. This was our first time at this restaurant, for which we had held onto our rental car, it being too far away from the resorts for the usual pickup service. But it was worth the trouble.
Rudy's: A brand new restaurant, with an avuncular owner who spoke flawless English. The decor is Spanish and very unique for the island. Carrie loved her parrotfish stuffed with crab, and Steve liked the filet with red wine sauce. One of the better restaurants we've been to, and sadly on this particular night it was totally empty! If it's a secret, it's a well-kept one, but the food was as good as any we've had on Moorea.
We did a few excursions on Moorea, some of which we'd done before. We took the 4x4 jeep tour of the island, Carrie's 3rd time taking the same tour, Steve's 2nd, and we even had the same driver/guide we'd had in 2005. It's a fun tour, hitting some great scenic vistas like Magic Mountain and the Belvedere, and also some of the agriculture, like pineapple fields and a distillery where you can taste local liqueurs. Even for a repeat trip, this was a fun way to get around and see things you'd miss on your own.
We rented a car for two days, taking it all around the island both days.
We used it to get to the Intercontinental Moorea, where there's a boat dock that serves as a launch point for trips to a motu called Moea, where we had one of our best meals! The tiny restaurant/shack known as La Plage served some of the best food we had anywhere (Carrie liked her tuna tartare, while Steve had a tuna steak with vanilla sauce that was to die for)!!! Afterward we hiked a distance around the motu to a spot known for its snorkeling. Tranquil and isolated, this was a true paradise. Also some of our prettiest pictures!
Our second day with the car we drove to Club Bali Hai. The Blue Pineapple restaurant there had a breathtaking view of Cook's Bay, and playful chicks at our feet who love french fries. (Which they didn't get from us, they were everywhere!) We also drove to Tamae, a public beach, which on the morning we were there was completely deserted. That's always nice.
Overall, we enjoyed better service at the Moorea Pearl this time compared to 2005, because of the newly added concierge and activities desks. That makes a big difference, and the staff there was very helpful in making dinner reservations for us (last time we'd had to make our own, the desk wouldn't do it for us), and informing us about excursions and things.
One slight disappointment about Moorea this time was the fact that we were there during their Mothers' Day, which was Sunday, May 25th. It meant that the resort's pool was extremely crowded with rambunctious local kids, and 2 boats with water-skiiers made the water outside our bungalow terribly noisy and actually quite dangerous for the entire afternoon. When the water-skiiers' boats started coming way too close to the bungalows (literally within 15-20 feet!), we called the front desk, but we got the impression that there was nothing they could do about it. Once the local revelers went home the next day, the resort became peaceful again, thank goodness! Next time we'll definitely try to avoid Mother's Day!
We moved on from Moorea to Le Taha'a, which requires a short plane trip to Raiatea and a boat to the resort, which is actually on a motu of Taha'a called Tautau.
Le Taha'a prides itself, quite correctly, on its service and amenities. We had an overwater bungalow with a Bora Bora view, which means that, between two motus, you can see the twin mountain profile of Bora Bora in the distance. It does make a gorgeous photograph!
The bungalows are over very shallow water, which makes the water crystal clear and a very rare shade of perfect light blue. We've seen magazines use the resort for cover photos, and it's as beautiful as anything we've seen anywhere else. Tranquil coral gardens just 100 yards from the bungalows are full of the local fish we've come to know pretty well, so for snorkelers it's pretty much paradise.
Le Taha'a is a very expensive place to stay, but there are several factors that make it worthwhile in general. The bungalows at Le Taha'a are so gorgeous, inside and out, spacious and perfectly designed, with a great balance between the rustic and the modern. A glass bench at the foot of the bed has a hinged lid, so you can not only see the fish below, but feed them. The glasstop counter behind the bathtub is also hinged, so you can even watch or feed the fish from the tub!
It's such a nice room that you never mind spending a lot of time there! The fact that this resort is somewhat more isolated from civilization is actually a huge plus for us, and makes the extra money easier to part with. Honestly, we've never taken any of the excursions from Le Taha'a, we've just loved the snorkeling and the hanging-around-doing-nothing too much. If you're into those things, Le Taha'a is perfect.
We were surprised by a few things that didn't come up during our first trip. For one thing, it rained every day we were there, usually only for short bursts (the typical tropical rain that lasts all of 20 minutes then dries without a trace), but at least 2-3 days were completely overcast, something unexpected for us. And like the Mothers Day experience at Moorea Pearl, we noticed a lot more locals letting off steam nearby (in this case, on the motu which faced our bungalow) on the weekend. This can lessen the experience slightly, as booming bass, roaring pleasure boats and screaming revelers is something we go to Tahiti to get away from, and yet the weekends here were definitely noisier this year than they were in 2005. Something to keep an eye on for us, anyway.
Food options at Le Taha'a are limited, because the resort is basically the only thing around, unlike Moorea. The main restaurant for breakfast and dinner is very good, though we found at the end of 8 days, the menu started sounding a little, well, blah. (Steve suffered a 24-hour bout of food poisoning, but we honestly believe that that could happen anywhere, and we don't think that it says anything about that restaurant. That probably did impact our assessment of the food, however!) Also, the servers there were in the process of training a lot of new and very young staff, who are not very comfortable with the public, seeming painfully shy and not used to communicating outside their language, which can be difficult at times.
The real food highlights for us were Le Taha'a's gourmet restaurant, Orhini, and also Chez Louise, on the main island of Taha'a.
We hadn't booked the gourmet restaurant at Le Taha'a (reservations DEFINITELY required, as we met several people who weren't able to get in at all during their time at the resort!) until our next-to-last night, and it was a revelation. The service was impeccably attentive, and the food was some of the best we had anywhere. The menu is based on trios, or three ways of serving a particular meat or fish. The kobe beef trio was a knockout, and the scallop trio and veal trio were also delicious. Before we'd finished eating, we'd booked it for the next night, too!
Another restaurant highlight was visiting Chez Louise on the main island of Taha'a. Although the delivery/dropoff was less than smooth (at first no one was there to greet us on the island once the boat from the resort dropped us off), they showed up soon enough, and we were driven a short distance to the restaurant, poised on the water surrounded and permeated with a veritable jungle of lush plants and trees.
The restaurant itself was charming, and the food was excellent! Served on bamboo "boats," the menu is completely catch-of-the-day, fresh and simple seafood cooked perfectly. More shrimp than we could possibly eat, one half-lobster per person, poisson cru and small tuna steaks cooked in a tangy lemon/butter/garlic sauce. Add in the mountain of rice and bread, and this was a true feast. A side benefit was watching the leftovers get fed to the fish below!
After eight days on Taha'a, we'd probably say that next time we might prefer to do 5-6, but ONLY because of the limited food selection.
It's also important to mention that we were over there in the midst of the labor and mechanical difficulties Air Tahiti Nui was going through. We especially want to thank the people on this board who posted updates and information, as we were eagerly checking in daily to try to anticipate whether we'd end up getting stuck there! (Not that we would've minded getting stuck there...) All our flights went smoothly and were on time, so we weren't inconvenienced by the plane that got hit by the catering truck or the plane whose machinists went on strike in Paris!
It was a great trip, and we're sure to return to both those islands someday. Next year we're going to Raimiti, which promises to be a completely different experience.
In case you missed it, last week we posted a link to our pictures, you can see them here:
http://samanengrove.smugmug.com/gallery/5168068_eNjPS
Thanks for reading! Your comments are welcome.
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#74192 - 06/22/08 04:42 PM
Re: Trip report of May-June 2008: Moorea and Taha'a
[Re: carrieg]
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Patti.
Expert Advisor
Registered: 03/28/04
Posts: 2460
Loc: Las Vegas, NV
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Great report! I'm still laughing at you guys getting stuck in that same line I always seem to get in! Too funny!
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#74193 - 06/22/08 07:07 PM
Re: Trip report of May-June 2008: Moorea and Taha'a
[Re: Patti.]
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Old Wife
Expert Advisor
Registered: 02/21/03
Posts: 2369
Loc: Burlington, Ontario, Canada
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Very well-written and informative! Thanks for taking the time to write that all out.
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#74197 - 06/22/08 07:30 PM
Re: Trip report of May-June 2008: Moorea and Taha'a
[Re: Old Wife]
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Eperera
Member
Registered: 09/25/05
Posts: 159
Loc: Durango, Colorado
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Love your report. As the wife of a chef, I always enjoy reading about all the restaurants. As a pregnant lady, its making me HUNGRY! Glad you enjoy Le Cocotier & Mayflower, two of our favorites. Sounds like a great trip.
Edited by Eperera (06/22/08 07:31 PM)
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#74201 - 06/22/08 08:56 PM
Re: Trip report of May-June 2008: Moorea and Taha'a
[Re: Eperera]
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beachlover
Junior Member
Registered: 05/21/08
Posts: 12
Loc: los angeles
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Great review and the pictures are beautiful :-) I am debating to go to Taha'a after Moorea and Bora Bora but all the reviews and pictures are so idyllic, it would be a shame to come to FP and not visit Taha'a . Thank you .
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#74204 - 06/22/08 11:46 PM
Re: Trip report of May-June 2008: Moorea and Taha'a
[Re: beachlover]
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rodjune
Expert Advisor
Registered: 07/08/03
Posts: 1726
Loc: Kalama Valley, HI
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Thanks for a nice report. Taha'a is on our to-do list in the future.
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#74247 - 06/24/08 07:27 AM
Re: Trip report of May-June 2008: Moorea and Taha'a
[Re: rodjune]
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Pago
Member
Registered: 12/10/05
Posts: 189
Loc: Ohio
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Thanks for the very nice report. ;['\]
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#74248 - 06/24/08 08:13 AM
Re: Trip report of May-June 2008: Moorea and Taha'a
[Re: Pago]
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DenverJoe
Expert Advisor
Registered: 09/10/02
Posts: 1878
Loc: Denver, Co.
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Thanks for the nice report. We go to Moorea in November and I printed off your Restaurant list to take with us.
_________________________
Nothing better than a Hinano in hand and toes in the sand.
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#74467 - 07/04/08 05:52 AM
Re: Trip report of May-June 2008: Moorea and Taha'a
[Re: DenverJoe]
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Gary & Cath
Expert Advisor
Registered: 04/01/06
Posts: 1284
Loc: Wollongong, Australia
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Great report. Same here with the slow line. Le Taha'a is still the benchmark for us as well. I love that sunset photo. Thanks for sharing.
_________________________
Is there anything better than a sipping a Tahitian Mai Tai on an Overwater Bungalow in FP?
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