French Polynesia 7 Day Itinerary

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Seven days is the sweet spot for French Polynesia: enough time for 2 to 3 islands done properly out of the territory’s 118 across five archipelagos, without the transfer days eating into the trip the way they do at shorter lengths. This plan runs the honeymoon classic, Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora, with a note at the end on swapping Bora Bora for a quieter or cheaper alternative.

Day 1: Tahiti, arrival

Land at Faaʻā International Airport (PPT), the sole gateway, about 8 hours from Los Angeles. If that route connects through LAX, clear US customs there with a valid US ESTA regardless of your final stop, since LAX has no sterile international transit. Visa exempt nationals get roughly 90 days here without a visa; French Polynesia is not part of the Schengen area. Spend the afternoon at the Marché de Papeete for pearls, vanilla, and pareo, then eat at the roulottes food trucks at Place Vai’ete come evening. The currency is the CFP franc (XPF), fixed at 1 EUR to 119.33 XPF, and tipping is not customary anywhere here.

Day 2: Tahiti in more depth

Before crossing to Moorea, use a second Tahiti day for Point Venus, the black sand beach and lighthouse where Cook recorded the 1769 transit of Venus, and the Faarumai waterfalls, about 45 minutes east of Papeete, where Vaimahuta at 80 metres is the easy one to reach on foot. If surf is your interest, Teahupo’o, the heavy reef break that hosted the 2024 Olympic surfing, is worth the drive even just to see it from shore.

Day 3: crossing to Moorea

Take the Aremiti or Terevau ferry from Papeete to Vaiare, 30 to 45 minutes across the 17 kilometre channel and the one inter-island route here that’s a boat rather than a flight. Drive up to the Belvedere Lookout, about 250 metres above sea level, for the view over Cook’s Bay and Opunohu Bay, split by Mount Rotui. Keep the two peaks straight: Mount Tohivea, the true summit at roughly 1,207 metres, is a different mountain from Mount Mou’aroa, the “Shark’s Tooth,” at about 880 metres.

Day 4: Moorea’s lagoon

Spend the morning at the “Sharks Sandbank,” standing in shallow water among blacktip reef sharks and stingrays. If your dates fall between July 20 and November 20, this is whale swim season and Moorea is the main base in the territory for accredited operators, worth booking ahead. In the afternoon, the Manutea distillery in the Opunohu Valley runs a free self guided pineapple juice and rum tour before flying out the next morning.

Day 5: on to Bora Bora

Fly Air Tahiti from Moorea to Bora Bora, about 50 minutes. The airport sits on its own motu, so arrival includes a boat transfer, and resorts on outer motu add another leg on top. Settle in, then spend the afternoon at Matira Beach, the island’s one proper public beach, with Mount Otemanu, the 727 metre volcanic peak, across the lagoon.

Day 6: Bora Bora’s lagoon

A full day lagoon tour by outrigger canoe covers the coral gardens and the shallows where blacktip reef sharks and stingrays gather, with a stop on a private motu along the way. Bora Bora’s overwater bungalow, the image most associate with French Polynesia, is usually credited to Hotel Bora Bora’s original 1970s stilt rooms making the style take off, not to any single hotel inventing it.

Day 7: departure

Fly back from Bora Bora to Faaʻā in the morning, about 50 minutes, and allow at least three hours before an international connection given slower check-in queues at peak times. Pick up black pearls or vanilla from a shop rather than the airport counter if you didn’t buy at the Papeete market on day one.

If you’d rather swap Bora Bora for something quieter or cheaper, Huahine and Taha’a run less expensive and less crowded, Raiatea holds the Taputapuatea marae, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2017 and the ancestral religious center of eastern Polynesia, or Fakarava, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and Rangiroa give a diving focused week among the Tuamotu atolls instead. Any of these still need an Air Tahiti flight from Tahiti, since Moorea is the only ferry-connected island in this plan.

Book these before you go

Worth knowing: dengue is endemic with recurring outbreaks, pack repellent, and ciguatera fish poisoning affects some reef fish, worth asking locally which catch is safe that week. There is no malaria here. Medical care is good on Tahiti and Bora Bora; smaller islands have only minor 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. French Polynesia runs expensive throughout, though family run pensions keep parts of a longer trip affordable.

For a tighter version of the same route, see the 5 day or 6 day plans. The full Moorea guide covers the bays, the peaks, and the sandbank in more depth. Official tourism information is at Tahiti Tourisme ; for the Raiatea marae mentioned across these plans, see the UNESCO listing for Taputapuatea .