Top Excursions/ Tips for Tahiti Cruise

HI there-

A group of us are embarking on the Wind Spirit on April 12th to celebrate my 50th birthday.

I would love some help picking the top excursions to book. Also, advice if there are places

you recommend renting a car & exploring on our own.There are 6 of us.

My birthday happens to be when we are in Tahaa which I understand there is a fun picnic lunch. I've heard

the coral drift snorkel is fantastic. Are you able to do that along w/ the picnic?

Since we are in Bora Bora for 2 days, is there anything in particular we need to see?

Where is the best port to visit a vanilla plantation?

For dinner, should we make reservations at Candles now? Do you prefer to eat there

versus the main dining room? Do you need reservations for dinner in the main dining room?

Thank you so much for any tips you can share!

xoxo

You can make dinner reservations for Candles on board. Be sure and do it as soon as you can to ensure you get the day you want. No dinner reservations required in the main dining room.

We booked two excursions on our own that we loved. It may be too late for you to do this, but give it a try. On Bora Bora we took an excursion with Maohi Nui. It was an all day tour on an outrigger boat. We had a delightful guide that played the yukele as Sparrow (his real name) drove the boat. We snorkeled, swam with the black fin sharks and then had a traditional Polynesian meal on a private island.

On Moorea, we took and ATV to the top of Belvedere with Albert Transport. It was a blast.

The picnic on Taha'a was so much fun.

Enjoy your trip and Happy Birthday!

The picnic on Taha's was great. We did not do the drift snorkel but there were tons of fish amongst the coral around the motu.

We did seadoos tour with Moorea Activities Centre. They picked us up at the Moorea dock.

Photos from our trip here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsm2rihG9

Happy Birthday !

You can't book Candles until you board.

One of the best cruise excursions I've ever take was Dr. Poole's dolphin/whale tour on Moorea.

https://www.drmichaelpoole.com/

If you book the drift snorkel through Windstar, they will take you to do the drift snorkel in the morning, then drop you off directly at Motu Mahaea for the BBQ event right afterward. That's what we did, and it was perfect. The guides that conducted the drift snorkel tour were excellent and we still had plenty of time at the BBQ event afterward. Just wear a long-sleeved shirt and leggings (and gloves if you have them) for the drift snorkel, since it's possible to accidentally brush against the coral and get a coral scrape. The current wasn't strong when we did it, but I had to stand up and empty out my mask a few times and while standing there in the current and doing that, I did get pushed up against the coral once. I was fine because I had leggings on. My husband got a coral scrape on his leg. It is ABSOLUTELY a must-do excursion, but just go prepared and smart. And you will need water shoes for every beach excursion you do, including this one, because all of the beaches in the Society Islands have broken coral at water's edge.

My other recommendations are these:

On Moorea, we rented a car from Albert's (Look them up on TripAdvisor. They will deliver the car to the tender dock) and drove around the island ourselves. All of the tours go to the Belvedere Lookout and the Agricultural School (right on the way there), and those are good places to go on your own. Use mosquito repellent at the lookout, though. And we also drove to the Sofitel hotel for lunch, then went to Temae Beach--the best beach on the island--right next to the Sofitel. Just tell them you are just going for lunch and they will not make you pay for a day pass.

On Bora Bora, I HIGHLY recommend a half-day lagoon snorkeling tour with Lagoon Service. You can also find them on TripAdvisor. This was the highlight of our entire trip, and we loved it so much that we booked a trip to Bora Bora just 2 months later and went out with Lagoon Service again! We e-mailed them ahead of time and had them pick us up at 9:30am at the tender dock on our Bora Bora arrival morning, then had them drop us off at Matira Beach after the tour. We had a wonderful lunch and swim at Matira Beach, then took the bus back afterward. You can also have the beach restaurant call you a taxi. If you don't want to deal with that, and if you don't mind missing beautiful Matira Beach, then take Lagoon Services' full day tour on your arrival day and just have them pick you up at the tender dock and return you there. They take you to a beautiful little private motu and their lunch is delicious. For Bora Bora Day 2, we didn't book a tour because we knew the ship would allow us to hang out on the private island (Motu Tapu) where they were having the BBQ dinner event later. Other people didn't know that this was an option, so we had the motu all to ourselves, except for the watersports people who were there with kayaks and stand-up paddleboards for us to use. We called up room service and ordered sandwiches beforehand, and we took those with us for a picnic. We also had our own rum punch (bring thermoses!) that we had made with the 50ml Bacardi bottles we had brought in our checked luggage and the Rotui juice fruit punch we'd bought on Moorea (the Rotui juice factory is another fun place to stop and buy fruit punch and souvenirs when you're on Moorea).

P.S. Book your Candles reservation as soon as you board the ship. The guy taking the reservations will be right by the buffet line. We booked ours for the first night on Bora Bora, since we knew the ship would not be moving.

I agree with 6Rugrats. Dr. Poole’s excursion was the best and most educational I have ever taken. Snorkeling was fantastic, we took the shark and skate excursion from the boat great, Happy Sailing.

The picnic on Taha's was great. We did not do the drift snorkel but there were tons of fish amongst the coral around the motu.

We did seadoos tour with Moorea Activities Centre. They picked us up at the Moorea dock.

 

Photos from our trip here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsm2rihG9

 

Happy Birthday !

Loved your album..thanks!

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your advice!

You can make dinner reservations for Candles on board. Be sure and do it as soon as you can to ensure you get the day you want. No dinner reservations required in the main dining room.

We booked two excursions on our own that we loved. It may be too late for you to do this, but give it a try. On Bora Bora we took an excursion with Maohi Nui. It was an all day tour on an outrigger boat. We had a delightful guide that played the yukele as Sparrow (his real name) drove the boat. We snorkeled, swam with the black fin sharks and then had a traditional Polynesian meal on a private island.

On Moorea, we took and ATV to the top of Belvedere with Albert Transport. It was a blast.

The picnic on Taha'a was so much fun.

Enjoy your trip and Happy Birthday!

You'll have a great time. We have done this cruise twice.

We did two terrific excursions not through WindStar.

On Bora Bora - we used PureSnorkeling by Reef Discovery. This was a 4-hour snorkel trip that included a coral garden, the lagoon and swimming with eagle rays and some manta rays.

On Raiatea - we used L'Excursion Bleue Day Tours. This was our second time with this tour. It was an all day excursion that includes a Pearl Farm, Vanilla Plantation, Snorkeling with Sharks, Two Coral Gardens and lunch.

Can highly recommend both companies.

Thanks for the great suggestions. We are doing this cruise on Jun 21st. I particularly liked the idea of the picnic with the Rum punch.. Were those little bottle classed as your 2 bottles per cabin, or were you able to just sneak them on

Thanks for the great suggestions. We are doing this cruise on Jun 21st. I particularly liked the idea of the picnic with the Rum punch.. Were those little bottle classed as your 2 bottles per cabin, or were you able to just sneak them on

We just packed a bunch of the 50ml plastic bottles of Bacardi Gold in a bag inside our checked luggage. They didn’t even open the bag when they inspected our luggage in the check-in line when we were boarding the ship. Honestly, they don’t want to know, so make it easy for them not to know and everyone is happy. We found this to be true as the cruise went on.

The 2 bottles you can officially bring onboard are typically wine, and those bottles are held for you by the wine steward and poured for you at your request at dinner.