Hotels in Papeete

[Leonid]

Would appreciate any recommendations for pre-cruise hotels in Papeete. Could not seem to find a thread that covered this.

[freddiebud]

while i am sure others will respond, i found tahiti-explorer.com a very helpful website. you might also want to post this on the ports of call section.

 

i stayed at the sheraton. it was close to town, across the street from a bus stop and used by pilots and cruise ships. it was okay, fine for the night, nice pool, but no beach.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

You'll get lots of opinions here. Lots of folks love the Intercontinental (aka ICB). I'm not a big fan myself. The Radisson hotel is quite new, and also quite nice. It's on the other side of Papeete from the airport, so it's a bit of a hoof to get there. No overwater bungalows, but a lovely black sand beach, and a beautiful infinity pool.

[Pincus]

Three years ago, before a Windstar cruise, we stayed at the Sheraton. The hotel was just fine, and the food was quite good, though expensive.

 

At the time, they were building a beach. Perhaps you might want to check their web site before considering if a beach is important to you.

 

Enjoy!

 

Pincus

[Cowgirlup]

We stayed at the Intercontinental for 3 days before our 11-day cruise in July. We greatly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it. Great views, nice rooms, adequate breakfast (included with the price) and the best thing is you can book as pre-cruise package with Regent so all transfers, details etc are handled with them. We even got a free night since Regent messed up on our air reservations. The pools, lagoon and water sports (kayaks, snorkeling) were terrific. We stayed at the Radisson for the post-cruise (had a day-room) and didn't like it as well. It's quite far from the town (so is IC but doesn't seem AS far). Maybe we were just depressed since our vacation was almost over, but I don't think you can beat the IC. Anyway, just my humble opinion!

[RachelG]

We stayed at the Sheraton pre-cruise and the IC post-cruise. Both are quite acceptable. The grounds at the IC are nicer, and the IC has a huge pool. Neither has a real beach. The Sheraton is way less expensive, and our room was really nice. At the IC, due to a strange set of circumstances, we had an overwater bungalow. I don't think I would pay for one again, but it was nice once.

As far as location, Sheraton and IC are about the same distance from the airport, but the Sheraton is between airport and downtown while the IC is the other direction. At the Sheraton, you can walk to town and eat in town. At the IC, you are stuck there unless you have a car or use Le Truck. Sheraton is going to be closer to the pier, and taxis are very expensive.

I would stay at either again, but probably would do the Sheraton for pre-cruise because of above.