Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Short stay in Tahiti

Through creative use of miles to Australia, I'll be spending about 24 hours in Papeete next month.

Any recommendations on a place to stay and things to do during the day to make the most of the stay? Any tips on logistics to make the stay easier, such as hotel transfers or places to eat?

Thanks!

Hey, pretty cool. I did the same thing in July using ATN denied boarding vouchers (LAX-PPT, PPT-LAX in Y) and UAL miles on Air NZ (PPT-AKL-PER and SYD-AKL-PPT in J). I had to deal with the day in Papeete problem both ways, as we went on to BOB for a few days on the return.

Since I don't know everything about the city, I will just tell you our experience. The Papeete airport is pretty lousy in the public areas. Once you are security screened and in the gate/boarding area, it is pretty nice. The issue here is that you are not allowed to check in and proceed to the secured area until a short time before your departure, like 1.5 - 3 hrs, so if you have international connections with long layovers, you are pretty much stuck unless you leave the place and head for a hotel or the city. Food options are not very good (an overpriced cafeteria-style eatery and what appeared to be a sit-down coffee shop, which we did not visit), though there is a McDonalds (yuck) if this interests you. All of these food options close around 11PM-12AM, so if you are on one of the various late evening/early morning arrivals, you are basically stuck. The PPT airport seems to be a "hang out" for locals, strange as this may sound. There are always plenty of them loitering and/or smoking at the open-air entrance, and of course they have to stare at you. I don't think there is a security/safety issue here, but it's just creepy all the same, especially after withdrawing 40K CFP notes from the very visible ATM near the entrance in full view.

Taxis are lined up across the street from the main entrance, and you pick the first one in the line (they are all double parked so there isn't much choice). If you are on a very late night flight and need a cab in the wee hours, they are there, but odds are the driver is sleeping! We had to bang on the window of the first cab - an elderly woman driver came from the back of her van wrapped in blankets and things. The cab fare is pretty much agreed upon at the beginning, but make sure of this. We found typical cab fares to hotels ranged from 1500 to 3500 CFP, depending on distance...

If you have a problem with your ticket/flight and need airline customer service? Good luck - the only customer service desk is for the inter-island Air Tahiti, and they sit far behind a tinted glass window and speak very little English :D. In our case, we came in on TN arriving around 10PM, and had a 3:55AM departure for AKL. We figured we would just wait around the airport ... but I happened to walk around the front entrance a bit while passing time, and saw a 8.5"x11" sheet of paper taped to a pillar, announcing our flight was delayed until 9:30AM! This jeopardized our PER connection, even with a six-hour layover in AKL. Efforts to find Air NZ personnel were fruitless, as they only exist near flight times, back at the check-in counter which is guarded and available to passengers checking in on the immediately departing flights only. The screening and airport assistance seems to be outsourced... after much pleading with the check-in line warden, we were informed that an Air NZ office existed on the upper level of the airport. I was pointed to an unlocked "restricted access" door which proceeded upstairs, and was lucky to find a helpful gentleman in there who set us up with a hotel for the evening. As all business-class quality hotels were booked, we were placed at the Hotel Mandarin, which was probably what you'd call a 2-star property in the USA. Very decent and adequate, but not luxurious. At that point, all I really cared about was a hot shower :D... I would recommend this hotel if you need a short stay and are not concerned with luxury. It served our purposes admirably.

We did not need a restaurant in PPT, as the J-class lounge had pastries and things, which were good enough to tide us over. On the way back to PPT, we had originally booked at the Royal Tahitien, but when we got there had found that we were being "walked" to the Sofitel! I think the exchange rate had changed such that our Sofitel rate was around $10 more, but not a problem. The Royal Tahitien appeared to be an older property, but well maintained. I did not see anything but the lobby. The Sofitel Maeva Beach for one night was okay. The rooms are average, but the property and grounds are well-kept and quite adequate. Leaving mid-day for our flight home, we did not take advantage of the facilities, but walked around and enjoyed the atmosphere nonetheless.

Hopefully someone else will chime in about Papeete restaurants. I hear the food vendors down at the harbor (??) are a good place to try some local cuisine.

Let me know if you are taking any inter-island Air Tahiti flights - I will give you some pointers on the baggage allowance :)

I'd store baggage (don't know if you can anymore, tho) & fly over to Moorea for the night.

Baggage storage is in a small building across the street from the front of the terminal. It is not easy to find as it's behind a sort of hut/gathering place. Look on the ground and there is very faint painted text on the asphalt directing you to the baggage room. We utilized this for a week and stored some large items nicely. There is no weight limit on stored bags - you are only charged per bag, and I believe the daily cost varies by bag size.

I'd store baggage (don't know if you can anymore, tho) & fly over to Moorea for the night.

Agreed. It's a ten minute flight each way -- a very cool experience actually, if you enjoy flying -- and Moorea is way, way more beautiful that its more famous neighbor across the Sea of Moons.

I believe there is a less expensive ferry that runs during the day (not evening) to Moorea, but the cab ride to and from the airport just might make the ten-minute flight break even. :D