07.12.2023 | French Polynesia, Oceania

4 weeks in French Polynesia – swimming with humpback whales

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One of our biggest dreams came true, a plan we had in our heads for years, traveling to the far away destination French Polynesia and swimming with humpback whales in the main season. Swimming with these giants was more we could ever wish for, but we got so much more. We even swam with sperm whales! We hiked the mountains that looked exactly like a scenery from Jurassic Park, dove at the famous Wall of Sharks, discovered waterfalls and cuddled with sting rays. What an adventure! Although we had some bad luck with the rainy weather a lot of the time (it was an El Nino year), it was the most adventurous and stunning journey we did so far.

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Take a flight to Papeete (Tahiti) ✓

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How to get from Papeete (Tahiti) to Mo’orea

All international flights will fly to the main island Tahiti, the airport is located in Papeete. If you are coming from Germany, you can look for cheap flights with French Bee starting from Paris, a short stopover in San Francisco and the final destination Tahiti. You will find the airport on Tahiti directly next to the ferry terminal. Rent a car at the airport on Tahiti and take the car ferry to Moorea. It’s pretty easy and the ferry takes around an hour. You don’t need any inland flight to get to Moorea! Have a look on the website of Aremiti ferries for their schedule, it cost us around 60 Euros one way with a car and two persons. If you book online you are asked to make a reservation for a departure time, however when we arrived early, it was no problem to spontaneously hop on the earlier ferry. We actually did this on both our crossings.

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Get a rental car in Papeete (Tahiti) ✓

Take the ferry to Mo’orea ✓

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1. Our dream island Mo’orea – Society Islands, Day 1-8

We saved so many pictures from this mystery island Mo’orea, and then we finally managed to visit this incredible place. We love this island, there are so many different things to do. From hiking to waterfalls and on different mountains, swimming with sting rays and black tip reef sharks or enjoying the sunsets at the beaches. But most importantly, joining a boat tour to search for the humpback whales! We were very lucky with whale watching, but because of a lot of rain we couldn’t climb the highest peaks of Mo’orea, we guess we have to come back soon! We recommend to spend here at least a week, we could have stayed here one month.

What to do?

• “Col de Trois Pinus” hike: A very nice hike mostly in the forest with a beautiful swing in front of the mountain scenery on the top! You can drive with the rental car directly to Belvedere Lookout and park your car there. The hike directly starts at the parking space. You will need around 2-2.5 hours.
• “Col de Trois Cocotier” hike: Same starting point at Belvedere Lookout. It is a longer hike around 3-3.5 hours with a beautiful mountain scenery! We found a secret sketchy lookout (-17.5468139, -149.8434235) with the perfect view of the 880m peak Mou’aroa.
• Sting ray and shark snorkeling: Rent a kayak at “Plage de tipaniers” and get to the sandbank on your own. You can leave the kayak at a buoy when you arrive, it’s only a 10 minute ride.
• Beaches: Visit the beautiful beaches Ta’ahiamanu (for sunset) and Temae Beach.
• Join a humpback whale tour! More informations below.
• Plateau du Bounty: You can drive there with the car, followed by a 5 minute walk by foot. It’s a beautiful view there!
• Buy a flower wreath from the stalls next to the street in Vai’are.
• Hike to Afareaitu Waterfall: You can park your car at a private house at the end of the dirt road.
• Climb the highest peaks: Rótui (7 hours hike, 4 hours on the ridge), Mou’aputa (5 hours hike), Tohive’a (only with a guide?).
• Visit Coral Gardeners and learn about their projects!
• There are also places for surfers and freedivers around the island.
• Visit a traditional dance show at Tiki Village.

Where to eat?

• Iaorana Smoothies
• Aoy Thai Food!!!
• Caraméline Café
• Vaiare Pizza
• Coco et banana

Where to stay?

• Painapaoao: Very nice wooden bungalows with a veranda, kitchen bungalow for everyone, perfect location in Painapaopao close to everything, nice calm area with a garden, two cute dogs, very clean. They also have two bungalows with a double bed and private bathroom.
• Airbnb in Maharepa from Aurelie: Nice cozy room with private bathroom, very clean and also close to everything in the North.
• Vaiotaha Lodge: Close to waterfall and ferry in the East, a little far from everything in the North. Clean room with big private bathroom, kitchen outside.

Facts about humpback whales

1. Humpback whales of French Polynesia are embarking on one of the planet’s longest migrations, covering 4.000-6.000 kilometers back to the nutrient-rich waters of Antarctica for the summer. In the winter, they return to the warm waters of French Polynesia for breeding and calving.
2. Babies that are born in French Polynesia weigh around one ton and are generally 3-5m in length. They nurse on the mother’s high-fat milk for at least 5 months and often as long as a year. During these first months, the calf will gain around 45kg per day!
3. Instead of sucking the milk out of its mother’s feeding glands, the mother squirts thick, rich milk into its mouth (around 380 liter per day!). She can do this by squeezing special muscles around the glands.
4. During the feeding time, mothers can lose up to a third of her body weight and she doesn’t eat for at least 6 months. This means fasting for 6-8 weeks it takes to get from Antarctica to French Polynesia PLUS! 3-4 months they stay to rest, breed and mate PLUS! 6-8 weeks for return trip to Antarctica. A female Humpback will spend two years of her life growing, nurturing and raising one precious calf. Keep in mind, these mothers are here to rest! Don’t chase them! If they have enough energy left to play, they will come to you!
5. Adult humpback whales grow up to 16 meters. The whales’ tails are like our fingerprints, no two are the same.
6. Humpback whales live to be 45-50 years old!
7. They filter feed tiny crustaceans / krill, plankton, and small fish (herring, mackerel, capelin, sandeel) from the water in Antarctica.
8. Only adult male whales sing. Females produce social vocalizations with their little ones but no real songs. The same population of males sing the same song for years with only some small changes every year. The longest song produced in Polynesia, was recorded in Moorea, and continued, non-stop, for 54 minutes. The male had been singing for 24 hours. It’s still unknown, if they sing to attract females or establish dominance or just communicate this way.
9. The population of humpback whales in French Polynesia is now estimated between 934 and 1849 individuals according to Dr. Poole and Dr. Baker. This is only an estimate, the actual number of individuals is not yet exactly known.
10. You can find a mother together with a child (be careful, they can be very protective and need to build trust before letting the calve play with the humans). Sometimes they are accompanied by one or more male escorts, trying to breed with her. Sometimes you just find a female or male adult alone. Always wait for the animals to come to you, never chase them.

Tips for photographing humpback whales

Be patient! Don’t chase after them! Respect them and their space, and sometimes magic happens. Rachel Moore, who is very experienced with whale photography, gave us these tip:

• AV mode: It will adjust the shutter speed depending on the light. It works best with the whales since they have such contrasting sides. If they turn belly up it’s hard to switch manual settings fast enough.
• Set the minimum shutter speed to 1/250 in your camera settings. For very fast moving dolphins you might set the aperture even higher.
• Aperture 5.6-7.1, since the whales are huge and you most of the times don’t only want to get the head sharp.
• Try to keep your iso below 400.
• We bought the seafrogs housing with a flat port for our camera and it worked pretty well. The seafrogs housings are much more affordable than the other companies and we met several photographers on the whale watching tours using it for years without any problems. They also sell glass domes which can be pretty nice for over-under-watershots with whales jumping out of the water. Just make sure to do the leak test everytime when you prepare the camera before you go on the water. We got an insurance just incase something might happen. Also we loved the handles to be able to hold the camera stable and a hand strap is really useful, so you can’t loose the camera. The good thing about the seafrogs housing is, that it’s almost neutral without any extra weight!

Which tour agencies are best for whale watching on Mo’orea?

Our most important tip, if you are very much into whales, is to book several whale tours on several days! At least 3 or 4. Weather and waves can change very quickly, and some days you are very lucky with the amount and playful behavior of whales, and sometimes you are just not.

We went on 8 tours in total, since it was a major goal to photograph them. We tried different companies listed below. For the perfect picture it’s easier to book a private tour, however we only went on group tours with 7-12 people on a boat, since a private tour was just too expensive for us.

@enjoyboattours: The crew with Joaquin the photographer, Charly the guide in the water and Amo the captain is amazing! We went out with them 5 times and they were always doing their best to find as many whales as possible. Joaquin is a fantastic photographer and learned from the biologist Michael Poole, so you will get a lot of facts about whales behavior. We just loved the crew and how they did it. Next to many humpback whales, we saw also sperm whales, pilot whales and dolphins with them!

@mooreaexpedition: Our last tour was with them. Jason and Bianca did a great job and were willing to drive around the whole island to find whales. There is a tour with a bigger boat at 8am and 1pm and a tour with a smaller boat (8-10 people) going out at 8:30am and 1:30pm. We prefer the smaller boat, since there are less people and you are closer to the water when you have to jump in.

@mooreamoana / pacificattitude: We went two times out with them. The first time with the guide Doris who was really nice, the second time was really disappointing, because the guides on the boat stopped searching for whales after 1 hour, although the weather and the waves were fine. The crew on the second tour seemed not to be very into their jobs.

Dr. Michael Poole: We guess the tours with Dr. Michael Poole are incredible, at leasts that’s what everyone told us. This guy knows everything about whales and studied them for many years. However, when we booked a tour with him, it turned out that he wasn’t on board and no one told us before. Also the captain and the guide were very rude and strange. If you book with them, make sure to ask if Dr. Michael Poole is on the boat. We canceled our second trip because of the bad experience. Also it’s the only company where you need to wear life wests if you don’t have a wetsuit (no matter if shorty of full, or if you wearing weights).

@mooreaoceanadventure: They only offer private tours, but we heard a lot of good things about them!

@corallina: They were fully booked, but friends went with them, and they had a good experience.

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Take the ferry back to Tahiti ✓

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2. Tahiti – Society Islands, Day 8-11

Since you will start or end your trip on Tahiti, you should plan 1-2 days to discover this island. Although Papeete might be loud and dirty, after a few minutes driving, you will be surrounded by nature. We found a wonderful airbnb and the host himself gave us a surf lesson just next to his house. Tahiti is known for the monster waves at Teahupo Beach, but there are also a lot of smaller waves in the North of Tahiti. We also loved the waterfalls on Tahiti.

What to do?

• Go surfing in the North
• Visit Faarumai Waterfall: close to airbnb, 40min from Papeete
• Piste de l’Aorai hike: You can drive with the car to Belvedere Lookout on a pretty small road. From there it’s a 7-10km hike.
• Visit Black Tautira Beach (1h20min from Papeete)
• Look for the big surf breaks in Teahupo
• Enjoy sunset at Taharuu Beach (38min from Papeete)
• Tour Valle de Papenoo with “Tahiti Discovery” & Teiva was recommended to us

Where to eat?

• Rainbow Café

Where to stay?

• Airbnb Hitiaa O Te Ra by Mehau: cute bungalow with private bathroom and kitchen. Amazing host who even gave us a surfing lesson in the morning with his equipment and brought fresh fruits.
• Hime Lodge in Papeete: okay for one night, clean, big room, good communication, close to supermarkets if you don’t have a car.

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Return your rental car ✓

Take a flight to Bora Bora ✓

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3. Bora Bora – Society Islands, Day 11-14

We have to admit, that Bora Bora is a lot about staying in one of the famous resorts. Still, there are also some things to do on the main island, while staying in a cheaper airbnb. But if you don’t plan to stay in a resort we would recommend to visit Maupiti or Raiatea instead of Bora Bora. The mountain scenery is incredible on Bora Bora, from all angles. We stayed one night on the main island in an airbnb, and we were lucky that it was followed by 3 nights at the Four Seasons Resort. From the airport in the North there is a free boat shuttle to Vaitape on the main island.

What to do?

• Join a lagune tour to a sharks and stingray point
• Matira Beach
• Viewpoint Amanahune
• Climb Mount Otemanu or Mount Pahia

Where to eat?

• Honestly we didn’t find something really good on the main island

Where to stay?

• Airbnb main island: Vaiotaha Lodge
• Resort island: Four Seasons, The St. Regis

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Take a flight to Huahine ✓

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4. Huahine – Society Islands, Day 14-17

This island is really amazing, since it’s very authentic and full of beautiful nature! Unfortunately, it rained almost all the time in the 2 days we stayed there, so we couldn’t explore as much as we had planned. But we found the perfect airbnb directly at the water, you can even see humpback whales swimming by! The host was the kindest guy, and invited us every evening for fresh fruits and a chat. In a small window without rain, we took the kayak to the close by sandbank. We remember the days pretty well as the most cozy days looking at the water from our veranda.

What to do?

• Rent a car or an e-bike, since the island is pretty big!
• Lagoon Tour with Huahine Dream Tours
• Kayak tour to the close by sandbank from the airbnb
• Ruins of Sofitel Heiva and Ruins of Marae Manunu
• Gym Tohova
• Beach Hana Iti and Hiva Plage
• Panorama de Tefarerii

Where to eat?

• we cooked on our own in our airbnb

Where to stay?

• Airbnb Guillaume Et Purotu’s place: wonderful bungalow with private kitchen and bathroom, very clean, looked almost new, perfect calm location directly at the water, you need a car/taxi to get there!, wonderful host who invited us for a beer and made us coconut chips

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Take a flight to Papeete (Tahiti) ✓

Take a flight to Rangiroa ✓

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5. Rangiroa – Tuamotu Islands, Day 17-20

The Tuamotu Islands look completely different compared to the Society Islands. While the Society Islands like Tahiti, Moorea or Huahine look like Jurassic Park with huge green mountains, the Tuamotu Islands like Rangiroa and Fakarava are flat circles of sandy islands. We travelled to the Tuamotu Islands mostly for diving, however the boat trips to the remote islands were pretty amazing as well! The Tiputa Pass on Rangiroa is famous for diving with very confiding dolphins and many sharks. We were lucky and one dolphin came to cuddle with the dive teacher. It’s forbidden to touch the animals. The Blue Lagoon tour was amazing as well!

What to do?

• Boat tour to the Blue Lagoon (around 1h drive, book with Poe Guesthouse)
• Diving at the famous Tiputa Pass with all the dolphins and sharks
• Dive Schools: Rangiroa Diving Center!, Top Dive, The Six Passengers, Rangiroa Plongee
• Watch the dolphins jumping from the veranda of Les Relais de Joséphine
• Ohotu Point

Where to eat?

• Pizzeria Moanatea !!
• Les Relais de Joséphine for lunch (for dinner you have to reserve 1-2 days in advance)

Where to stay?

• Poe Guesthouse (Poe prepares an amazing breakfast for you each morning!)

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Take a flight to Fakarava ✓

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6. Fakarava – Tuamotu Islands, Day 20-23

Well, we had quit some problems with this island. First of all we couldn’t find an accomodation for three nights, because everything was fully booked. Then we couldn’t find a diving school with availability in the North, the main area of the island. Our only option was to book the expensive nights at the remote Tetamanu Village far away in the South of the island, directly at the Tumakohua Pass, the point with the Wall of Sharks. If you book earlier than us, we recommend to stay in the North and to book only a diving day tour to the South. It’s best to plan one or two days as a backup for this trip, since it can get cancelled due to bad weather and waves.

That sad, we really had bad weather conditions arriving at the airport on Fakarava in the evening. It was raining heavily and it was very stormy. However, a car was waiting for us and 15 other people to bring us to a boat. Then we were packed on a small boat in the darkness with a lot of people, and we started the ride to the South of the island. It was horrible! The rain and the salty waves smashed in the boat, all the people and the luggage were completely wet. Half of the people got seasick because of the horrible waves..And the captain lost orientation in the middle of the island, which looks like the open sea. After 1 hour driving zigzagging and in circles, we managed to find the way with a gps with one phone. But it was really scary! A 1.5 hour boat tour ended up in a 3 hour horror boat trip. Tuamotu Village was strange itself. It is really expensive, but the money clearly doesn’t go to the village. The nature and the dive site there was amazing but the service was not what we expected. And there is nothing else in the South :D. Still the Wall of Sharks is so fascinating, you rest behind some corals and you see hundreds of sharks passing by!!

What to do?

• South of Fakarava: Tumakohua Pass / Wall of Sharks
• South of Fakarava: Pink Sand Banks
• North of Fakarava: PK9 beach and the famous horizontal palm tree
• North of Fakarava: Havaiki Lodge & Bar with a beuatiful beach
• North of Fakarava: Drift Diving at Garuae North Pass
• Dive Schools in the North: Top Dive, Dive Spirit, Kaina Plongee

Where to eat?

• Havaiki Lodge & Bar in the North

Where to stay?

• South Fakarava: Tetamanu Village (disappointed)

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Take a flight back to Papeete (Tahiti) ✓

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How to travel between the Islands?

Between Tahiti and Moorea it’s best and cheaper to take the car ferry. For all the other islands you have to book inland flights. Air Tahiti is the popular flight company, selling different packages for a combination of different islands. We were looking at the Bora Bora – Tuamotu Pass offered by Air Tahiti, a combination of several Society Islands and the Tuamotu Islands. However, they have some crazy rules for the sequence. For example you are only allowed to visit Moorea in the end or the beginning. It didn’t work with our itinerary so we ended up booking the flights all individually. We found the relatively new airline Air Moana and we were pretty surprised by their cheap prices but great service and new airplanes. Definitely check Air Moana out, if you don’t book a package with Air Tahiti.

Also it’s important to book the flights as early as possible. The later you book, the more dates are sold out. The communication with Air Tahiti is a little crazy, you write them your itinerary and they respond via email. However, you can also find all individual flights online. Be aware that especially Air Tahiti can ask for extra money, if your hand luggage is too heavy.

Airlines:

• Air Moana
• Air Tahiti (packages for a combination of different islands)

Is French Polynesia expensive?

Well, yes it is. It is one of the most expensive countries we travelled to. However, you can minimize the amount of money, if you don’t visit too many islands and if you skip Bora Bora. For example if you focus on Tahiti, Moorea and Huahine, choosing only airbnbs, it get’s a lot cheaper. Still, whale tours will cost between 80-120 Euros per person, food is expensive (a baguette is very cheap, but fruits and vegetables are so expensive). The guesthouses on the Tuamotu islands are pretty fast fully booked, so only the expensive ones are left. But on Moorea and Tahiti for example, there are so many guesthouses, that there is always something cheap left. Also camping is a thing in French Polynesia, you can bring your tent and find a campsite on almost every island. The good thing: All hikes and waterfalls are for free and no one will try to pull you off!

Best time to visit French Polynesia?

You can visit French Polynesia all year round. But we highly recommend to visit Moorea for the whale season: Mid/End of August until the end of October. The highest chance to see the animals will be in September, but this is also high season. You will have temperatures of 20-25 degrees all year around. Officially the dry season is from March/April to Oktober/November and the rainy season from November to March. However we had a lot of rain in September due to an El Nino year.

Places we would love to visit next time:

• Sailing trip around the Marquesas Islands
• Moorea: climbing the highest peaks: Rótui, Mou’aputa, Tohive’a (only possible if there is no rain)
• @niushack on the Island Ta’haa (a vegan retreat)
• Perl Resort on the island Raritea
• Maupiti: Motu Auira beach and Terei’a Beach, climb Mt. Teurafaatiu
• to combine French Polynesia it with the Cook Islands

We visited French Polynesia in September 2023.

Anzeige / ad: Most of the hotels, restaurants and companies we mentioned above didn’t sponsor us. All our recommendations are always based on our own opinion.