"French Polynesia in the Pacific " a French Polynesia Travel Page by easyoar

Most flights into Tahiti arrive at night, which means that unless you can get a connecting flight to another island, you will have to stay in Papeete (capital of Tahiti) for a night. One night is enough. We paid around USD150 for a dirty plain room for one night. And this was with a discount off the standard rate. You can pay way more than this. The only advantage of the hotel was that it was near the harbour and we could walk to the ferries that went to Moorea. Moorea is much better than Tahiti but still stupidly expensive. On our way back we left Moorea early, rented a car back on Tahiti and drove around some of the island, which can be quite nice when you leave Papeete.

Whilst outside of Papeete, there are some nice things to see on Tahiti, I would strongly recommend you go and see Moorea and spend most of your time there as this is much more the Polynesian beauty spot that you may be expecting. Tahiti has just got too built up in many places.