French Polynesia 3 Day Itinerary
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Three days is the 2 day plan with a full extra night, which is enough to actually settle into Moorea instead of just glimpsing it on a day trip. It still stays off Bora Bora, since a flight there and back inside three days is mostly transit. Everyone arrives through Faaʻā International Airport (PPT) on Tahiti, about 8 hours from Los Angeles; if that route connects through LAX, budget for a US ESTA, since LAX has no sterile transit and you clear US customs there regardless of your final destination.
Day 1: Tahiti
Visa exempt travelers (US, UK, EU, Australia, New Zealand, and most others) get about 90 days here without a visa; French Polynesia sits outside the Schengen area entirely, so a Schengen visa is not a substitute. Ease in around Papeete: the Marché de Papeete for pearls, vanilla, and pareo, then the roulottes food trucks at Place Vai’ete come evening, the cheapest and most local dinner on the island. The currency is the CFP franc (XPF), fixed at 1 EUR to 119.33 XPF, and tipping is not expected anywhere in French Polynesia, worth knowing before you reflexively leave one.
Day 2: crossing to Moorea
Take the Aremiti or Terevau ferry from Papeete to Vaiare, a 30 to 45 minute run across the 17 kilometre channel and the one inter-island crossing here that is a boat rather than a flight. Rent a car at the dock and drive up to the Belvedere Lookout, about 250 metres up and the highest point reachable by road, for the view over Cook’s Bay and Opunohu Bay, the two bays split by Mount Rotui. Note that the island’s actual high point, Mount Tohivea at roughly 1,207 metres, is a separate peak from the distinctive “Shark’s Tooth,” Mount Mou’aroa, at about 880 metres; they get confused constantly in photos. Settle into a pension or resort here for two nights rather than day tripping back to Tahiti.
Day 3: Moorea’s lagoon
Spend the morning on the shallow “Sharks Sandbank,” standing in waist deep water with blacktip reef sharks and stingrays close around you, a genuinely calm way to be near sharks for anyone nervous about it. If your dates fall between July 20 and November 20, this is also whale swim season, and Moorea is the main base in French Polynesia for accredited operators running them, though that needs booking ahead rather than turning up. In the afternoon, the Manutea distillery in the Opunohu Valley runs a free self guided look at pineapple juice and rum production, an easy stop on the way back from the bays.
Book these before you go
- A Moorea shark and ray snorkel tour for a fixed morning slot.
- A Moorea hotel or pension for the two nights.
- A US ESTA at esta.cbp.dhs.gov sorted before departure if any leg routes through LAX.
- Current Air Tahiti schedules, useful context even though this plan sticks to the one ferry route.
Worth knowing: dengue is endemic with recurring outbreaks, so bring repellent, and ciguatera fish poisoning affects some reef fish, best to ask locally before eating anything caught that week. There is no malaria here. Medical care on Tahiti and Moorea is solid; outer islands only have small clinics, and a serious case elsewhere can mean an air evacuation to Papeete running $10,000 or more, a real argument for travel and evacuation insurance even on a short trip like this one.
For a longer version of this same route with Bora Bora added, see the 5 day plan, or read the Moorea guide for the full detail on the bays, the peaks, and the sandbank. Official tourism information is at Tahiti Tourisme .