"Tahiti - but is it paradise?" a Tahiti Travel Page by easyoar

If you mention Tahiti to most people, they think of an idyllic island with sunny beaches, blue lagoons, mountains and beautiful women. This was certainly the perception the sailors on the HMS Bounty had when they landed. The fact that the beautiful women went around almost naked and very had very easy going morals must have been a collosal bonus!

However, how true is this vision that people have today?

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Bird nesting in a bunch of bananas

The people probably look much the same, and yes the women are very pretty! There is still very beautiful scenery. The big down point is the colossal rip-off factor that has become built in to Tahiti and the surrounding islands. Everything costs a lot more than it should (every tourist and several locals that I spoke to were all complaining at the crazy prices). I also felt that you would be misled into thinking things were open to encourage you to go on tours or to visit them, and when you got there you found out they had been closed for months, and that only the gift shop was open! This for me was a very big minus against Tahiti and makes it very unlikely I will bother to go back there.

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Tahitian Marae

It is worth pointing out here that Tahiti is not a country. Tahiti is one of a series of islands that make up French Polynesia (other islands include Moorea, Bora Bora and several others). Politically, Tahiti (and French Polynesia) is part of France. Until recently this has been very good for Tahiti on an economic basis. France has had a Nuclear Testing facility in Polynesia, and locals were paid very good money to work there. However there has been so much pressure on France to stop, that they did indeed stop, and they closed the Testing facility at the same time. This has meant that the generous subsidies that France spent on improving the local infrastructure are starting to run out. Prices are ridiculously high as the locals try and earn a similar standard of living. I personally see Tahiti having financial problems in the near future.

French Polynesia is actually made up of 5 island groups. The group containing Tahiti is the Society islands, and Tahiti is the biggest and most important of these islands. These Islands are also referred to as "Tahiti and her islands".

Most people that arrive in Tahiti escape off to some of these surrounding islands (especially Moorea and Bora Bora) as fast as they can. I can understand why, but Tahiti is probably worth a day of viewing. rent a car and srive around the island or just some of it, there are definitely some sites worth seeing.