We have stayed at Hotel Hibiscus on Moorea’s West coast, next to the now closed (since 2001) Club Med. Club Med must have been the heart of the NW region of this island attract-ing an up-market clientele. The once many shops and restaurants now make a rather de-pressed impression, many of them are closed. The Club Med area itself is an unpleasantly looking assembly of rotting bungalows. The Centre Commercial has a few souvenir shops, one or two restaurants, and a supermarket with the usual supply of French food provided it is canned. Fruit are also available but you better by your ananas on the road side (4 for 500 CFP). Prices are reasonable (European level) given the fact that everything is brought in from France. Wine (French of course) is expensive (starting at 10 € for a bottle you won’t pay more than 3 € in France). The best bet is the Roulotte “A L’Heure du Sud” run by Ernést. Try his “casse-croûte”, baguette stuffed with chicken or white tuna, and the fruit juice! Great mu-sic from the Sixties. Open only from 10 am to 4 pm, BYOB. Try the good local beer Hinane!
Now the Hotel Hibiscus: It has definitely seen better days - about 20 years ago. The bunga-lows are spacious but the interior lacks fantasy: no frills. No A/C but this is okay given the way they are constructed – with lots of vents. Unfortunately it was raining heavily during most of our stay, which helped the mosquitoes to multiply. So take lots of insect repellent (OFF! as well as those incense spirals) and also after-the-bite relief. The kitchenette is rather rudimen-tary - so don’t expect to cook! Reception was somewhat distant at first but warmed up later. We arrived there at 6:30 am after a night without sleep, and so we appreciated very much being given our bungalow already by 8:30! The breakfast is served in the restaurant by Serge, a nice guy who runs also tours to the lagoon. Don’t miss his “ray experience” (hand-feeding the sting rays), which turned out to be more of a shark experience (about a dozen of black tips circling around us). Trust him, it is quite safe! We had dinner at the restaurant only once, the pizza was really good. On the down side: The beach is rather uninspired, with a concrete pier and some white sand. No sun beds, no regular cleaning of the beach. There is a small pool long and deep enough to swim. The patron owns a large dog, which likes to howl in the early morning or when left alone – quite a nuisance. And then there are the wild chickens, quite a few of them roaming around the bungalows along with the cocks who start to cry as early as 1 am. But this is part of life on these islands: Don’t even ignore them!
All in all: Not bad if you accept that the price level in FP especially for accommodation is probably by 50 – 100 % higher than what you would accept to pay in Europe. We have paid 132 €/night w/o breakfast. In France or Germany a fair price for the same level would be maybe 70 €.
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