Top Local Tips for Faaa

shopping-------tropical flowers-----airport/ship departure We discovered a HUGE farmers mkt ...with fresh arranged flowers, very cheap prices, already for your cruise, just 2 blocks from where the ships are docked, ask anyone for directions, I am sorry we found them after the cruise, & not before, double check that the ship will allow them tho................. really think thru the idea of the cruise ship tranfer back to the airport, they are bussed from the ship dock in masses, & its insane when you get to the airport, with all of people are lined up waiting to go thru the checkouts.....I say grab a cab....they are standing by at dock side, & get off the ship at least 1 hour before the 1st scheduled ship transfer, you will breeze thru the check-ins & be setting in your cozy chair the the masses show up, also use the lounge restrooms on the 2nd floor, much better than ground floor, does have a elevator.

Eating in Papeete We totally enjoyed eating at the roulottes on the Pape'ete waterfront. It was very festive, good food, good prices (you don't hear "good prices" much on Tahiti). Although the town has some expensive sophisticated restaurants, for us the evening on the waterfront felt litke just what we wanted from a night in Pape'ete.

Long layovers A great idea for long layovers from the other islands en route to the U.S. is to get a room for the day and lounge around while waiting for your flight. We sat at the airport for 6 hours and that was the minimum layover we could get. A lot of people arranged for hotel rooms for the day or for restaurant reservations and passed the time much more nicely.