This is all great info.. stopping at the grocery store sounds like a good way..

2700 for 5 nights in an OWB..wow.. how to score that deal again

Thanks everyone.. excellent info!

You can also bring a suitcase filled with food. Wife+husband=two suitcases that can be brought, and it's not like you'll need anything other than a bathing suit.....I just brought a lot of food with me on a trip to Norway, and it was a great decision because food prices were crazy!

I might advise against wasting all the points for a Moorea/Tahiti redemption with IC simply because those hotels are affordable. I've never been, but for me, spending a week in Bora Bora on cash is unaffordable since the IC is like $850 a night. I can afford to pay for those first two properties without much difficulty. I was looking for fun the other day, and saw that a couple of the Sofitel properties were under $200. The IC's weren't much more than 200$ either. Not an awful redemption, but those on Bora Bora are 3-5x as expensive

Also, if you are paying for the room you can probably get the breakfast rate for a lot less than 75$.

So you can get Moorea for $200ish a night? wow
why is BoraBora so expensive? is it really that much more spectacular? (never been so honest question).

Honestly, I have no idea. I've looked through the pics of Thalasso and it's pretty much the best looking place I've ever seen. Moorea looks pretty good, but not like Bora Bora. Of course, you're essentially paying for the once-in-a-lifetime experience with that since it's so hard to get to.

My mom called me and told her she wanted to go to Aruba. Once I realized that the Holiday Inn in Aruba was the same price as the IC in Tahiti I told her that she was going to Tahiti. She was very happy. Just a quick search of hotel prices in Moorea and Tahiti are generally not that bad. The IC was like 210++ for the random dates I checked in March. Bora Bora has one place that is like 200$ a night that isn't a chain brand, then it's all 500$+.

this is slightly off-topic but is there a tool out there that allows me to see what flights go to Tahiti? I used AA's tool but it's utter crap. I'm wondering if there's something that gives me a list of all flights going to Tahiti based on a certain date.

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1 or 2 night in Tahiti is enough. Moorea is beautiful, never been to Bora Bora. Nothing in French Polynesia is cheap, so get ready to spend some money. Renting a car is ok, you can plan that on line. Most cars are stick, not many Automatics around. Only buy truly local trinkets on the islands, otherwise goto the main market on Tahiti, it's much cheaper there. I think it's called the Maeva Market or something like that.
The hilton hotels on Moorea are just fine, you'll be so relaxed, you won't care what hotel you are in.
There are a number of little shops around the hotel for fresh bread, water or whatever you need. All those little stores start with the word "Magasin" and followed by the name of their owners, which oddly are all chinese. (I dated a chinese Tahitian girl from Moorea for 5 year in college.)

Have fun, I can't wait to go back and visit again.

EDIT:
I missed the part where you pan to spend 20k for 2 people over 10 nights. So for everything I said about not buying stuff on the smaller island. SPEND SPEND SPEND.... you'll be just fine doing pretty much whatever you want. :-)



Have fun

Expedia.com actually does a good Job. I fly Air Tahiti nui From LAX... Their planes are pretty young in age.

$210 A night might be for a standard room with no ocean view. If you are toward the back of the hotel, and off the water, the mesqutos will eat you for dinner. So bring some bugs spray.

200 in Bora Bora sounds very cheap, you might want to research that a little, knowing a little about French polynesia, I would tend to stay away from such a cheap place, you get what you pay for. The last thing you want is to be miserable in a crappy dump of a hotel after paying 1000+ for flight, and thousands more for everything else. I heard the Hilton Bora Bora is nice enough.

Bora Bora really is that much more spectacular than Moorea. As others have said there's more to do on Moorea but Bora Bora certainly is the "face" of FP.

Haha, I didn't actually ever consider staying there. Don't worry, when I do make it to BB I will make sure to have enough PC points for a good 10 days at any of the ICs.

Of course the lowest rates are the worst rooms, but I'd like to hope that a 200$ room is decent enough. Ambassadors are guaranteed a one-category upgrade. FTers are very savvy when it comes to this stuff, and a confirmed upgrade is something I will arrange in advance with the property. Does look like IC Moorea jacks up the prices for the OWBs though...