The island has a few international resorts like Hilton, Le Meridien and similar. They are not incredible pricy that you could imagine but although I love to stay at nice resorts I decided to not do that because then I would just hang out there, not met any fellow travelers and not explore the island which was the purpose of this trip.

Saturday in Tahiti

The first day I took the local bus from my hotel on the center of Pepeete to a vulcano sand beach called Lafayette. It was supposed to be a good beach according to everyone I talked to but it wasn’t that good though so I wasn’t there long. It was Saturday and at this island after 3pm everything closes. No buses and nothing is open. Which I got to know the hard way. I got an involuntary 10K walk back to the city in my flip flops. Of course I could have taken a taxi but I had nothing else to do so adding up some steps to the daily account wasn’t an effort. When I came home it started to rain and then it continued the whole evening. They had a festival in the city that I planned to watch but it got postponed and postponed so at 10pm I gave up and went home to sleep. It was awesomeness to sleep in a bed after two night in a row at different aircrafts.

Sunday in Tahiti

Sunday morning and no rain in sight. If Saturday afternoon means that places are closed Sunday evenings places are really shut down. No busses and no stores are open. But as a traveler Sunday’s also exist in a week and my Sunday wasn’t boring at all. I planned on doing a running excursion and so I did. 25K when I was finished I had seen quite a lot of the west coast of Tahiti and to be honest it is not a fab island. But for running it was great. Pavements all around the island and during my running excursion I had several stops including Intercontinental for a drink where I also got to see local performers. One of few public beaches where I had a swim. People here are incredibly friendly. They always smile and say hi and if they can they help you out.

Papeete

Papeete is not much to see especially not during the weekend. The main street in town is cute with tourist my boutiques and a local farmers market and there is a nice boardwalk and park but that’s it. And some quite chrurches, but honestly if you travel a lot how many churches have you been watching and how many do you remember for life? You don’t need to spend more than an afternoon here if you are going to Tahiti.

So Papeete was nice to see but no place I will miss once I am back home. But it wasn’t that bad as some sources said.

/ Pernilla that is happy I explored Papeete myself