French Polynesia 2026

The second island group on our Circle Pacific cruise was French Polynesia, a new location for us.  It is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been to.  French Polynesia is an overseas collectivity of France, similar to a French region (state) but with more autonomy.  The food is a combination of local and French cuisines, with the national dish being poisson cru, a dish made up of raw local tuna marinated in lime and coconut milk with salad vegetables.  There are other variations, but that is the most traditional.

Our first stop was the island of Raiatea.  It was a very interesting and beautiful entry as we approached the island, through a reef, and then relatively closely following the shore of nearby Tahaa Island.  We docked in the town of Uturoa, with a population of around 3600 people.  We walked around the small town and through the market and ate lunch at a wonderful restaurant near the pier, Brasserie Maraamu.  For me this was the best meal I have had on the trip thus far, including on the ship!  We both had the poisson cru, with rice and the very French haricot vert (green beans) on the side.

Our second stop was Moorea.  This was a tender port.  The ship was docked outside the reef in Opunohu Bay, and our tender boats brought us inside the reef to the dock.  The dock was in the small town of Papetoai, with a population of a little more than 2000.  From the dock we took a walk to hike up to the overlook of Magic Mountain (Faaroa in Tahitian).  It was a hot but beautiful hike.  After our hike, we had a refreshing coconut and lunch at the Tasty Moorea restaurant near the start/end.  We had a similar meal to what we had in Raiatea, poisson cru, rice and haricot vert; Kevin also had grilled fish but said it wasn’t special.  Kevin preferred the poisson cru at this restaurant; I preferred the first, but they were both good.  The restaurant was in a beautiful outdoor setting.  On the way back to the tender boat dock, we enjoyed seeing many beautiful flowers.  There were also a lot of fruit trees on the hike and along the road.  There was a produce stand along the way, and we are not sure if it is an honor system (we did not see anywhere to leave money) or free due the abundance of produce since there was no one manning the stand.  This was our favorite day in French Polynesia and our favorite stop on the cruise so far.

Our third and final stop was Papeete, the capitol of French Polynesia on the island of Tahiti.  This is the only city in French Polynesia, with a population of approximately 25,000.  It rained on and off, so I took few pictures.  We spent the day walking along the waterfront and to a park there, and then through the city and market.  For something different, we decided to eat at a wood-fired pizza restaurant, L’apizzaria, which was very enjoyable.  I had a pizza with fresh tuna, which might sound odd but was good.  It is an indicator that the tuna is abundant when this was one of the least expensive pizzas.  Kevin had a vegetarian pizza.  We also shared a very fresh vegetable salad.  What was fun about the day was that it was a Saturday, so the park and the pizza restaurant were filled with local families.