Huahine is one of the least developed islands of French Polynesia, and that’s what we asked our travel agent to find. A place with sun and sand where we could “get away from it all” for a few days.
We flew in from Papette, Tahiti, a short and easy hop. But the hotel forgot to send someone to pick us up at the airport. This is a big deal when there are no taxis to be had, and we had paid for a private transfer. After we found someone at the airport who spoke English and called the hotel for us, we waited about a ½ hour for an unmarked van, driven by 2 guys who spoke only a bit of English. They delivered us to a small but quite lovely hotel. The manager, who forgot to apologize for the transfer mix-up, showed us to a private bungalow and described the activities and services.
Hint – you need to understand and speak at least basic French. The menus are not in English and wait staff’s English is limited. In fact, everyone else’s English is limited too.
The bungalow was perfect, comfortable King bed, plenty of closet space, and an indoor/outdoor shower that may be the best one I’ve ever had! When you arrive there are gorgeous flowers all over the interior - it’s beautiful. There is a well-stocked mini-bar, but no A/C. We slept with our doors open. A few mosquitoes did get in, but only a few. Beachfront bungalows offer your own beach chairs. The ocean is about 10 steps away. There is shade on the beach from trees that look hundreds of years old. Kayaks are available free as is scuba equipment. You can rent a car from the front desk and go exploring. They offer a cruise around the island, but it needs a minimum of 6 people to make it a go, so that doesn’t always happen.
The dining room is a bit overpriced but the food is quite good. They open at 7:30pm. It took them 2 hours to serve appetizers, entrees and dessert and they were closing up as we drank our coffee! Within walking distance you will find two other restaurants that are more reasonable. Breakfast is Continental but with lots of great fruit. Lunch is available, sometimes instantly and sometimes on Polynesian time.
It’s a perfect hideaway, but remember to bone up on your French first!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC