Honeymoon advice for a 3 week trip

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Hydro215

New
Messages
4
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Location
Orange County, CA
# of dives
100 - 199
Hello Everyone,

My wife and I will be taking a delayed honeymoon in October 2015 or thereabout. We are both advanced open water divers with between 150-200 dives each. We have dove extensively in the Caribbean and are looking for advice on a pacific trip. We have approximately 3 weeks of time off to use for the trip. I would love to do a hybrid trip that involves just a few days of the pampered experience at a resort and the rest of the time doing world class diving. While we are both interested in doing the resort experience for a few days we are both used to hostels and the typical cheap backpacker experience you can find in the Caribbean.

So given that background does anyone have any advice? I have searched the forums and I have chosen Micronesia/Guam as a possible destination, and Bora Bora seems to have some amazing honeymoon resorts/activities other than diving that would be interesting. However I realize the distances between these destinations are large. So is Tahiti/BB for a few days, then making our way to somewhere like Bali for a week, then making our way to Micronesia and spending a week realistic? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Of course we are not set on any one plan at this point and I realize that it may be best to concentrate on a given area of the pacific, just not sure which or why.

Edit: Also tahiti/BB or Fiji could be interchangeable?

Thank you so much in advance for the help!
 
To be honest you only need a few days each in Tahiti and Bora Bora..there is actually not much other than structured expensive activities to do - the lagoonarium tour where you walk around stingrays and lemon sharks, the cultural polynesian dance meal, circle island tour - all of which cost a fortune.....and arent that special. Bora Bora is incredibly beautiful but the diving is krud. Tahiti IMO is a more interesting island - do a full day circle island tour, check out the blowholes, triple falls, lava tubes, marais, Cooks observtory and generally includes a lunch at Paul Gaugin museum, which is pretty boring - but Tahiti is better diving if you can catch the tahiti express if you are into currents. Recommended hotels - Tahiti manava suites and Bora Bora the Pearl resorts or Sofitel private island. St Regis is nice but stupidly expensive. If you are a drinker add another couple of thousand dollars to your budget for alcohol. French Polynesian diving really happens in the Tuomotos not the Society Isles so if great diving is your focus look at Tahiti/Rangiroa/Fakarava.
From Tahiti your flight options are....New Zealand or LA. You could add on a few days in NZ and dive Poor Knights which is great diving. From NZ you could easily fly to Fiji in a day leaving Auckland early and getting a connecting flight Melbourne to Fiji. If your heart is set on Bali then you be best flying Auckland > Perth > Bali - this will require an overnight stop in Perth or a direct(ish) flight from Auckland to Bali..but it is a long distance.
Another option if you want off the scale diving is Auckland > Cairns > PNG where your accomodation choices are Walindi plantation and a few others or a LOB on the Febrina or Golden Dawn.

You will not find cheap backpacker hostels in French Polynesia. The closest you will find is Pensiones run by local families @ around $60 per night per person. Fiji is much the same though you might find some local homestays.

Personally given your wants list Id do a two days in Tahiti before going to BB for three days (have a meal at bloody marys) then back to Tahiti then Fiji from NZ to maximize your diving time.
 
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Have you considered Palau? They have great diving and the Palau Pacific Resort is really nice too for a honeymoon.

You can get to Palau via Guam, and could probably hit up Chuuk as well while you are there.

Snorkeling Jellyfish lake is one of my top 5 travel experiences of all time, and that says a lot.

I was just in Palau in May. You can read about everything I did there, including dive report here if you would like:
palau
 
Thank you for your responses Wingy and Ink.

I appreciate the tips for French Polynesia. I was considering spending maybe a week total in that island chain, spending most of our time relaxing with a few dives and mostly hiking/sightseeing sprinkled in. It sounds like BB is not a great option considering the cost. Other islands probably have what we are looking for.

Having said that, I was strongly considering diving NZ/French Polynesia then flying from there to micronesia, but was wondering if that is even feasible. We will have up to 3 weeks of time, and I am not sure that we want to stay in FP for 3 weeks, and Palau looks spectacular.

Thank you for your link Ink, I will read through it.
 
Actually, there are some backpacker/dive places in Fiji that are quite nice and other lodging that is very reasonable as well. Very good place for a honeymoon/dive combo vacation
 
Hydro check Moorea out - you can still get those lovely overwater bungalows at the Pearl and a few other resorts (forget the names sorry I stayed at the SPM Pearl resorts on all islands except rangi) it will significantly cut the cost of adding in BB because theres a ferry from Tahiti (across the sea of the moon - how romantic!) a couple of times a day and Moorea is itself a very beautiful island. Resorts on Moorea are a little cheaper than BB but you save on the cost of the flight to Bora Bora. Again the diving is not the ultimate in FP but its better than BB.
Flights wise you can go Tahiti > NZ > Narita (layover) > Koror but it may be easier to do Palau first from the states with a layover in Honolulu and Guam https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Tahiti/Palau

I actually enjoyed Moorea more than BB because you can get out and go for a walk and hire a car to go around the island at your own pace. There are a lot more restaurants dotted around Moorea than BB plus it has Caramelline, the best patisserie in the whole universe :D. Cooks and Opuahuna Bay etc and Le Belvedere are nice places to spend the day.

Hope this gives you some more food for thought.
 
Wingy, you have our heads spinning in a good way! We are now contemplating PPG LOB which are all signature 9-10 night itineraries, followed by Palau (sticking to the resort based diving) for our "comfortable" portion of the trip. We could always schedule something in one of the other islands in Micronesia as well. This takes FP out of the equation, but I am not sure I want to travel that far between locations when great diving is our primary concern, and we only want a few nights of "luxury".

Thanks for all the great advice, this is so much to consider.

Has anyone done LOB in PPG and diving in Palau? How do they compare? It seems like both locations are off the scale.
 
Hi Hydro215,

When you write "PPG" I am guessing you mean PNG as Papua New Guinea. I have recently sent divers to PNG for a combo trip at Walindi Plantation and the FeBrina liveaboard. We also regularly book divers with Chris and Jason at Palau Dive Adventures. You are correct as both destinations off the charts. PNG is a bit tricky getting to if flight connections miss but the effort is well worth the trip. I would have to look at flight connections again as the flights to Palau are usually via Guam. If interested in Palau, the best Micronesia combo includes Yap as that is an easier connection than flying back to Guam to go to Chuuk.

If interested in the FeBrina, you need to book early as this ship holds fewer divers than many ships and fills up fast.
 
I typically only dive liveaboards so I am biased, but there are reasons for that too. I'd suggest that Palau is best done by liveaboard as there are considerable travel times out to the dive sites every day, like an hour each way. If you want beauty, then being anchored in German Channel with beautiful islands, and dive sites, 360 degrees around you and 5 minutes from the boat is the way to go. The cost to get there is not so good these days as, for all over the world, the boat costs are similar, so it's only the air fare that makes the diff, and the airfare to Palau stinks. PNG would definitely be a place to spend time both on the water and off it, if you are into the critters. However, it's hella expensive to get there because they basically charge you two international fares to get there, one to get to Australia, and then the equivalent of another just to get to PNG itself. Adding to that that those routes are not daily and you end up staying at a resort for the intervening days, because it's not nice elsewhere, at resort rates boom boom adds up the costs. Perhaps you could avoid that by flying on to somewhere else rather than back to the USA. The cost is not the only factor there as the sheer time it takes to deal with the travel takes days out, though they can be enjoyable days at a resort. Driving around on the island are things I'm not so interested in so I avoided Tahiti itself, but you have to decide your interests. There's also Indonesia which is another water and land location, and our experience has been very good there. Also loved Fiji as it has good water and land interests. If your dive total is correct, then note that trips like these or even just the 12-14 days on a typical liveaboard in Indonesia are really marathon events where you have to pace yourself. And bring stuff like for ear infections which can easily happen where you feel fine, though your ear hurts a bit, but being unable to equalize, you are SOL on diving and nothing can fix that but time, that you are spending thousands on.
 
Hi guys,

the only way you are going to get world class diving on a budget is in Fiji, specifically the Somosomo strait or Bligh waters off Rakiraki. In Fiji you can pamper yourself on some exclusive islands (e.g. Matagi Island or Yasawas) at $500 - $1000 a day plus if you want, or stay at dive resorts with dorm accommodation for $30-$40 a night. Do a bit of googling and use Tripadvisor.

If your priority is diving then Fiji is best, if it's luxury resorts then Tahiti is the go.

All the best for yr honeymoon
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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