Thanks so much, great suggestions! Top 10 is a great list! Btw, Wico, French Polynesia sounds spectacular but to my knowledge getting there costs a fortune! How did you fly/what's the best way to fly? Cheers!
Where are you flying from? There are limited ways, AIr France, Hawaiian Air and Air Tahiti Nui. Here (in the US) all is routed through LAX, and I think but do not know for sure, that Air France also goes thru LAX. Hawaiian has limited days.
We use ATN because we can generally get on the red eye flights, and then get straight out to an atoll. I'd rather do that when we can instead of spending a night on Tahiti each direction. THe interisland flights do not fly at night, so if you take a daytime flight from LA, you stay on Tahiti and if you leave for LA on a daytime flight you also probably stay Tahiti the night before you head home. THat said, we just got back from there and took a day flight home and it wasn't so bad. We booked a overwater for the last day in Tahiti and got an early check in and just relaxed all day. But, we had our 14 year old with us who got certified there, so we did not go to the atolls this time, we did the island of Moorea making it a super easy dive for her, and a less expensive trip as no interisland flights are required, just a ferry ride. BUT the islands are not the spectacular diving you get on the atolls.
Occasionally, they have fare sales and we were lucky to use that for this latest trip, so air was like 1/2 what it usually is.
You can make your stay far less expensive if you stay in a pension, and we always do that now, we prefer them to the resorts actually. Tevahine Dream is excellent in Rangiroa, and we also really liked Havaike Pearl Farm on Fakarava. THere are many to choose from.
Once you get to Tahiti, where the international terminal is, you have to take an interisland flight and those are all on Air Tahiti. You can get a pass and that reduces costs, and then you just have to make sure to book in the order it requires. For us, that is Rangiroa first then Fakarava. It sounds more complicated than it is.
If you want to go, or want to look into it for this or another trip, just message me and I can get you more information on flights. I know people who manage to get their flights there by points, but that takes planning and time. Weather there right now is pretty much perfect. We actually got a little chilly at night a couple times and that never happens when we go there in March for our anniversary trip, which is during their Summer.
