Login

r/Tahiti

Image 1 — There’s a certain kind of travel advice that insists if you’re going to French Polynesia, you HAVE to stay in an overwater bungalow, the kind that costs roughly the GDP of a small country, with a glass floor so you can watch fish while thinking about your bank balance.
Image 2 — There’s a certain kind of travel advice that insists if you’re going to French Polynesia, you HAVE to stay in an overwater bungalow, the kind that costs roughly the GDP of a small country, with a glass floor so you can watch fish while thinking about your bank balance.
Image 3 — There’s a certain kind of travel advice that insists if you’re going to French Polynesia, you HAVE to stay in an overwater bungalow, the kind that costs roughly the GDP of a small country, with a glass floor so you can watch fish while thinking about your bank balance.
Image 4 — There’s a certain kind of travel advice that insists if you’re going to French Polynesia, you HAVE to stay in an overwater bungalow, the kind that costs roughly the GDP of a small country, with a glass floor so you can watch fish while thinking about your bank balance.
Image 5 — There’s a certain kind of travel advice that insists if you’re going to French Polynesia, you HAVE to stay in an overwater bungalow, the kind that costs roughly the GDP of a small country, with a glass floor so you can watch fish while thinking about your bank balance.
Image 6 — There’s a certain kind of travel advice that insists if you’re going to French Polynesia, you HAVE to stay in an overwater bungalow, the kind that costs roughly the GDP of a small country, with a glass floor so you can watch fish while thinking about your bank balance.
Image 7 — There’s a certain kind of travel advice that insists if you’re going to French Polynesia, you HAVE to stay in an overwater bungalow, the kind that costs roughly the GDP of a small country, with a glass floor so you can watch fish while thinking about your bank balance.
Image 8 — There’s a certain kind of travel advice that insists if you’re going to French Polynesia, you HAVE to stay in an overwater bungalow, the kind that costs roughly the GDP of a small country, with a glass floor so you can watch fish while thinking about your bank balance.
Image 9 — There’s a certain kind of travel advice that insists if you’re going to French Polynesia, you HAVE to stay in an overwater bungalow, the kind that costs roughly the GDP of a small country, with a glass floor so you can watch fish while thinking about your bank balance.
Image 10 — There’s a certain kind of travel advice that insists if you’re going to French Polynesia, you HAVE to stay in an overwater bungalow, the kind that costs roughly the GDP of a small country, with a glass floor so you can watch fish while thinking about your bank balance.
Image 11 — There’s a certain kind of travel advice that insists if you’re going to French Polynesia, you HAVE to stay in an overwater bungalow, the kind that costs roughly the GDP of a small country, with a glass floor so you can watch fish while thinking about your bank balance.
Image 12 — There’s a certain kind of travel advice that insists if you’re going to French Polynesia, you HAVE to stay in an overwater bungalow, the kind that costs roughly the GDP of a small country, with a glass floor so you can watch fish while thinking about your bank balance.
▲ 75 r/Tahiti

There’s a certain kind of travel advice that insists if you’re going to French Polynesia, you HAVE to stay in an overwater bungalow, the kind that costs roughly the GDP of a small country, with a glass floor so you can watch fish while thinking about your bank balance.

They look spectacular. We also have a budget and a healthy fear of our own credit card statement, so in Moorea we did something different.

We rented a little bungalow near Tipaniers Beach, one of the most sought-after parts of the island, and stayed with a local host for about a tenth of what the nearby overwater bungalows cost. Best decision we made.

Our host showed up with fruit from his property almost every day. Mangoes, starfruit, passionfruit, coconut water, crabapples, you name it.

This wasn't grocery-store fruit. This was the kind of mango that makes you stop mid-sentence because your brain is busy reevaluating every mango you've ever eaten.

One day he explained that he could never charge anyone for the fruit. God gave it to him for free, so it wouldn't be right to charge someone else.

That pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the guy.

Then there was the breadfruit.

He fried some up and left it in a bowl on our porch one morning. Suddenly we understood why the HMS Bounty sailed halfway around the world in the 1700s looking for breadfruit trees. Honestly, after one bite, mutiny seemed like a reasonable career move.

Forget potatoes. This was like eating thick, ridiculously delicious potato chips.

Then came the day we had to leave.

Our host gave us each a seashell necklace and told us to hang it next to our bed at home, so every morning we'd see it and remember Moorea. If we remembered Moorea every morning, he said, we'd come back.

I'm not sure that's a proven marketing strategy, but it was pretty damn effective. Not that Moorea needs a marketing department. It has free breadfruit.

That's the thing about travel. Sometimes the best part of a place isn't the thing you paid the most for. It's the person you meet, the meal you didn't plan on, the fruit someone hands you because they have more than they need.

So here's the tip: don't just search for the nicest place to stay. Search for the place that lets you experience where you actually are.

You might just save some money. You might get introduced to fried breadfruit, and you might leave with a new friend and a seashell hanging by your bed, quietly working on you until you book the flight back.

u/BudgetSavvyTravelers — 10 days ago
▲ 1 r/Tahiti

Weather for next week in Bora Bora - how worried should we be given El Nino?

Of course we booked this a year ago with points not knowing the weather outlook this year - weather next week looks rainy and windy the entire trip, trying not to worry or panic given everything I've read about forecasts changing....we thought we'd be safe going in October :(

reddit.com
u/Interesting-Wing-760 — 10 days ago
▲ 18 r/Tahiti

We took a few photography classes in the Scottish Highlands, and the teacher really focused on teaching us new perspectives for capturing the moody days Scotland is famous for, which in the Highlands is most of them. But one tip stuck with us more than any other: zoom in.

Here's what most of us do when we see something beautiful. We take a step back, hold up the phone, and try to fit the entire view into one frame. The whole mountain, the whole beach, the whole sky. It makes sense. We want to show people everything we saw.

The problem is that the whole picture leaves nothing to wonder about.

When you zoom in, you give up the grand view and pick one small piece of it, and suddenly the viewer has to ask questions. Where is that? What's the weather doing? What's on the other side of that ridge? You're no longer showing them the scene, you're handing them the first line of a story.

Most travelers never try it. They take the postcard shot, and it's a perfectly good postcard shot, but it looks like everyone else's.

So here's our encouragement: next time you're out exploring, take your usual wide shot, then zoom in and take a second one. Then zoom in a little more than feels reasonable.

It might feel uncomfortable, like you're cutting too much out of the frame. That's the point. Zooming in adds a whole new dimension to your travel photography, it costs nothing, and the tool is already in your pocket.

Tahiti is a great place to practice. Look at the moody, misty mountains when the clouds settle in and start swallowing the peaks. Or find the spots where the sea changes color dramatically, from deep navy to bright turquoise in a single line. Skip the wide shot and zoom in on that edge.

A quick disclaimer: we're shooting with a Galaxy S23, not a camera with a lens. Every phone has its limits, and past a certain point, zooming in costs you crispness. Zoom as far as your gear lets you before things get grainy, then take the shot.

Here's what we've taken so far during our stay. Fair warning: they're not award winners. We're not sharing them to show off our skills, just to show off the idea. Zoom in further than feels comfortable, and see what story you end up telling.

u/BudgetSavvyTravelers — 9 days ago