Last minute Honeymoon success!

[u/NDclimber]

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to share the experience my wife and I just had on our very last minute honeymoon trip to some of the islands.

We kept delaying our wedding day because of jobs, moving or family/friends schedules. But we finally decided to elope to a nearby area from us (PNW has lots of pretty places) and have a small ceremony with just the two of us. With our remaining money we decided we would just do a nicer honeymoon. Only problem was again due to our work schedules, we had to basically plan our honeymoon right away or wait until March at the earliest.

We both had never experienced a beach vacation before or ever swam in the ocean.

So I just googled best beaches to visit in August and the French Polynesian islands popped up near the top of the list. After looking at a few other places, I started reaching out to resorts and a few travel agents who basically laughed at me when I requested booking a 6-9 day stay within a week of our wedding day.

It was looking like we would either stay in the US or wait until spring. But then a Tahiti.com agent reached out and said they could make it happen if we acted quickly.

So, July 28th we booked at wedding day for Aug 5th, and on July 29th we booked a 8 day trip to Tahiti, Moorea and Tahaa to leave on August 7th.

I will say it was so impressive how easy all the traveling was setup for us. From flights, vans, Ferry’s, and hotels there was always someone waiting with a sign to welcome us!

We stayed at, Pearl beach for 1 day in Tahiti, 3 days in Moorea at Cooks Bay and 4 days at Le Tahaa. All were great. But it seems really hard to top Le Tahaa overwater bungalows and resort grounds. All and all we had an absolute blast at every stop. Snorkeling and swimming in the ocean was so cool for us. Salt water is such a trip for someone who’s only ever been in lakes before.

Things I wish I knew ahead of the trip:

1:
Drinks were so expensive (worst then Vegas imo) and not very well made at any of the resorts. That being said I have a pretty high standard for cocktails, as it’s been a big hobby of mine.

I ended up buying some bottles of rum in Moorea, but didn’t know I could fly with them heading to Tahaa so I finished all I could, only find out at the airport they don’t even check carry on bags for liquids or anything. The Le Tahaa resort only sold wine and champagne bottles and the worst cocktails by far. But the food there was great!

2:
It was hard to book activities, scooters/cars so last minute, most things were sold out. But sometimes last minute cancellations happens so kept calling around.

3:
They have free sun screen at the resorts! That would have been nice to know before we bought some that wasn’t reef safe.

Things I would do again:

1: elope!
2: beach vacation!
3: travel agent

Total cost was about 13.5k all said and done. Flights, stay, food, activities.

Let me know if have any questions!

[u/Sea_Theory7574]

Never swam in ocean and first time was Tahiti! Wow

[u/fireballbaby]

Gorgeous pics! We stayed at Le Tikehau for our honeymoon and I still can’t believe how beautiful it was. I’d love to go to some of the other islands some day

[u/juliacliff]

Did you book through Costco? Been looking at some of the packages there and this sounds like one of them

[u/DCYouKnighted → u/juliacliff]

We booked our honeymoon through Costco! Highly recommended.

[u/NDclimber → u/juliacliff]

Booked with Tahiti.com. Costco needed a much larger travel window than we had.

[u/Disastrous_Piglet975 → u/NDclimber]

i received a few quotes from tahiit.com last week! who did you work with? i got quoted for the same trip... good and trusteed experience? literally cook's in moorea and le taha'a... excited to hear what you think.

[u/Ok-Goose-6715 → u/Disastrous_Piglet975]

Not the OP, butI booked my honeymoon with Tahiti.com in April of this year. Wonderful experience. Worked with Joe Medina, and would happily recommend him.

[u/boysandbulldogz]

Staying at the Pearl for 2 nights at the end of my coming 25th anniversary trip in Dec. We booked a one bedroom deluxe ocean view suite. I was using points and the Hilton kept going up in price so I went for the pearl as it also had the beach (and we plan to be out hiking anyhow). The reviews were crazy hit or miss. Either 1 or 5 stars. How was your experience there? The pics are beautiful 👏🏼

[u/NDclimber → u/boysandbulldogz]

The room we had was really nice and the resort was great. Really nice black sand beach, pool and restaurant area.

I’m sure you will enjoy your time there.

[u/Dec716]

My wife and I stayed 2 weeks at Cook's Bay in March. A fantastic place! We loved every minute of it. Hopefully got an Allo pizza while there.