Pension Ahitea lodge
Date of stay-- October 16, 2008 prior to cruise on Tahitian Princess.
Reviewer-- from California.

We booked this room because we did not want to pay for a 5 star hotel for less than 10 hours. We were originally booked at the Sheraton but it would have been about $450-$500 for the night to accommodate 3 single gals.

We were picked up from the Tahiti airport and taken by van to the lodge. The fee to be taken to the lodge was 4000 or 5000 cpf for the group. Can't recall exactly. There was 5 of us.

The ride made me worried. It went down a back street and into an alley to get to the lodge. It wasn’t reassuring. We got there & it’s a home that is now renting rooms. It wasn’t very clean. The rooms were old looking. They had a ceiling fan but windows needed to be left open to get any air. We were on a 2nd story so that seemed ok. The linens were old including towels. Our shower didn’t have a curtain but the toilet area right next to it did. Very odd. No water pressure. I had a roll away bed and it was not comfortable at all. To me, it was low class. They do have a pool. And a little covered outside area where they serve a continental type breakfast. A baguette, juice and coffee. The baguettes were very good. The staff was very friendly and tried hard to please. It’s not the quality I’m used to. Motel 6 seemed better than this.

And to top it off, there was a rooster that started crowing at 3 a.m. and did not stop until about 9 a.m. None of our group slept well that night. It was horrible, leading to cranky travelers.

The price for a double room, private bath was 9500 cpf. We needed a roll away for the 3 people in our room, which made the rate 11 500 cpf. It was about a 15-20 minute walk to downtown Papeete and stores. Easy to do without luggage.

When I go back to Tahiti, I will not stay there. It seemed “seedy” to me.

The Pension Ahitea Lodge in Papeete is an exceelent place to spend your first one or two nights before heading out to your island. It's reasonably well situated, about 15 minutes walk down to the market or the ferry or the roullotte (caravans selling food). The walk into town is along a scruffy road in not a particularly nice area and walking back to the pension after eating out at night is not a very nice experience. But there are taxis you could take. If you turn right at the end of the little road the pension is on you are immediately in a much nicer area, and about 300 m that way there is a supermarket. The pension is well equipped, we had 3 bed room which had airconditioning, a bathroom and a fridge. There was a swimming pool which was a godsend after a hot trek into town. The owner is very friendly and welcoming, a few more smiles from the staff would have been nice! Breakfast was included which was fresh bread and jam and coffee. I would stay there again.

Not generally whingers about things, our stay here was pretty bad and we felt compelled to write a review so that others might avoid the not cheap but definitely nasty experience of Ahitea Lodge.

Firstly, what's good:
- nice pool
- 15 minutes walk from central Papeete

What we didn't like:

- Unfriendly owners / operators who have no problem ripping off guests with hidden or overinflated charges

- Being told that we had to have the most expensive room despite the room we wanted being empty for our entire stay

- Poor value for money (even by French Polynesian standards). Decor is hideous, bathroom is revolting and not clean.

You can definitely do much better than this place. Keep looking for a better option!