The second island Mike and I visited on our honeymoon was Moorea! Located only about 10 miles west of Tahiti, it is easy to get there for a day trip or longer. Moorea has tons of things to do, so we decided to spend four full days there. 

Day 1

While there is a ferry that runs frequently between Tahiti and Moorea, we had booked an Air Tahiti multi-island pass, so it was a bit cheaper to fly for us. This may have been the shortest flight we’ve ever taken, lasting about 15 minutes. 

We arrived late in the morning on a Sunday. Our Avis rental car shuttle driver was waiting for us in front of the airport. We got in the shuttle with a few other people and completed the 15-minute ride from the airport. 

It is important to know that most stores and restaurants are closed on Sundays. We wanted to be sure to pick up some groceries at Champion before they closed at 12:15pm. We grabbed the essentials and then headed to lunch. 

Lunch at Allo Pizza

Allo Pizza was one of the only restaurants we could find that was open. The restaurant is a very casual stop on the side of the road with only a few areas for seating. We saw while we were there that they do a lot of take-out business. 

The pizza was delicious! I got the goat cheese and honey one and am still drooling thinking about it. Mike ate his full pizza, and I saved half of mine for leftovers. 

After lunch we stopped at a gorgeous lookout of Cook’s Bay, called Panorama de Paopao. Wow!

Check into Airbnb

We decided to stay in the Tema’e region, which is the northeastern part of Moorea. We asked our host if we could arrive one hour early at 1pm and she said that would be fine. This ended up working out perfectly, so we had time to unpack our bags and get organized. We also showered and got dressed before our evening plans. 

Private Sunset Sail with Voila Moorea

Our next adventure was one of our favorites of the trip. We booked a romantic private sunset sail around the northern part of the island with Voila Moorea. The time we were supposed to meet our captain was 3:30. I’m glad we arrived early since it took us a little time to find the right spot. Their directions weren’t clear which direction from the public beach to go. (If you are doing this tour, when you are facing the ocean, the meeting spot is to the right of the beach). We found our captain right at 3:30 and he whisked us away on his dinghy to take us to the sailboat that was anchored out in the bay. 

We first ventured down into Cook’s Bay, a fantastically scenic bay surrounded by jagged mountains. After we came out of the bay, we headed west, sailing in the open ocean. I’d recommend taking a Dramamine beforehand as the waves were a little rough for us! We got lucky and saw tons of flying fish come out of the ocean, which I’d never seen before. It was fascinating to see how long they stayed out of the water- we learned that they can actually “fly” for up to 45 seconds!

We next toured Opunohu Bay, which looks similar to Cook’s Bay. Our captain pointed out that this bay is much less developed because this land is sacred to Polynesians. The sun started to set while we were there. We parked the boat not far from where we started our journey and watched the sun dip below the horizon. By the time we got back to shore, it was almost completely dark. The trip was about 2.5 hours long. 

Dinner at Rudy’s

I’d made a reservation at the restaurant, Rudy’s ahead of time by emailing them. The restaurant seemed to be popular among tourists and locals. This was the first time we came across other Americans on our trip. Our food was delicious! I had the mahi mahi with a yummy butter sauce and Mike had the seafood pasta. The service was also excellent. 

Day 2

Hike Three Pines Pass

We started our day on the earlier side, knowing we wanted to get most of our hike out of the way before it got too hot. We arrived at the trailhead around 8:30am, which is at a popular lookout called Belvedere Lookout. The trailhead has a very small parking lot, but there were still a handful of parking spots free when we got there. The lookout was also completely open, so I’d recommend coming early if you want a photo here without lots of people in it.

When you pull into the parking lot, you’ll see the trailhead on the left side. I would rate the trail as moderate in difficulty and it is only about one mile to the lookout from the parking lot. I had trail runners on and thought they were adequate for this hike. There are several turn offs along the trail. I’d recommend screenshotting a photo of the trail map and downloading Google Maps offline so you can make sure you’re going in the correct direction. 

We didn’t see any other hikers on our way up, but there were two other groups of people there when we arrived at the lookout. They left shortly after we arrived, and we had the top to ourselves for a while. I loved that there is a swing at the lookout, which makes this hike more unique. The swing was difficult to get up on and start swinging, so Mike gave me a boost and push so I could swing. The hike back to the car was easy and straightforward.

Iaoranasmoothie

We stopped at a smoothie shop after the hike to get a smoothie and acai bowl as a post-hike reward. They were both delicious and we could tell that the fruit they used was super fresh!

Les Tipaniers Beach

Our next stop of the day was Les Tipaniers Beach. This is a private beach that only hotel and restaurant guests are allowed to visit. Knowing that we wanted to see it, I made a reservation for the beach restaurant a few days ahead of time. We parked in the big parking lot across the street from the hotel, and there was a security guard waiting at the hotel path entrance. He checked our reservation and let us through with no issues.

The beach is beautiful but on the smaller side. I understood why they don’t want a lot of outside people coming. We hung out here for a little bit before the lunch restaurant opened at 12pm.

Lunch at Hotel Les Tipaniers Restaurant

We noticed that everyone started flocking to the restaurant once it opened, so the service was a little slow when we sat down. However, the food was delicious! I got the fish burger and really enjoyed it.

Rent a Motorboat

After lunch, we rented a motorboat from the company on the beach. It cost us 8000 XPF (about $75 USD) for two hours. The owner explained how to work the boat and where we could go to snorkel with sharks and stingrays. We had brought our own snorkeling masks, but we rented fins from the company next to the boat rental shop.

This was a perfect adventure for us! We only had to go about five minutes out before reaching the snorkeling spot. There were buoys to anchor to, so we could leave the boat and not have to worry about it. As soon as we hopped out, we saw tons of sharks and stingrays all around us. We ended up staying in this spot the whole time and absolutely loved it!

Rest of day at Airbnb

We were worn out from our adventures that day and spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out around our Airbnb. We had drinks on the beach and cooked dinner there. What a lovely day!

Day 3

ATV Tour with Moorea Activities Center

We went on a guided ATV tour this morning with the company Moorea Activities Center. The tour started at 8:30, so we arrived about 15 minutes early and were able to check in and use their restrooms. There were only six of us on the tour – Mike, me, and two other couples also on their honeymoon trips.

We started the tour with a drive to Belvedere Lookout (which we had visited the previous day). There were many more people there than the day before, and there were a couple other ATV groups as well. We got to enjoy the view before heading to our next stop. Our guide parked us under a massive tree with many vines hanging down. She allowed us to swing from one of the dead vines to let us live out our Tarzan dreams before continuing to the next stop.

From there, we drove along the Pineapple Route, a dirt road meant for ATVs or vehicles with 4WD. The route is bumpy, and I wouldn’t recommend taking a regular car here. We drove up to the center of a volcano that had collapsed. Our guide told us it was the largest volcano on the island at one point. From this spot, there were several pretty views of the surrounding mountains in every direction.

On our drive back to civilization, we passed a pineapple field. We learned that Rotui is the company that makes all the juice for French Polynesia. Pineapples are the main fruit grown on the island of Moorea. All the pineapples they grow stay within French Polynesia and are not exported elsewhere.

Our next stop was at a small restaurant where we were given a tasting of different jams made from local fruits. They were all really yummy and we ended up buying a jar to take home. I also got some fresh mango-papaya juice. There were restrooms here to use before the last stop of the trip.

Our last stop was at Magic Mountain. It is possible to hike up to the top, but definitely easier to take an ATV! The road was pretty treacherous, so a car would not be able to make it to the top. There is also very limited parking at the top, just enough for a few ATVs. The views of the ocean and mountains are gorgeous. You can easily see the different shades of blue in the ocean from here. This was a great last stop and an all-around awesome tour!

Rotui Juice Factory 

We stopped at the Rotui Juice Factory on our way back to our Airbnb that afternoon. They have a free juice tasting and rum tasting you can participate in. I did the juice tasting and discovered I really enjoyed the banana vanilla juice. I ended up buying a lot of that juice over the course of the rest of the trip. 

Kasdal Food Truck

We stopped for a late lunch at the Kasdal food truck, which was across the street from Iaoranasmoothie. The sandwich we split was delicious!! We actually grabbed another sandwich from there the next day. 

Rest of day at Airbnb

We spent the afternoon and evening at our Airbnb. We did some snorkeling in the lagoon in front of our place and then made dinner.

Day 4

Kayaking at Airbnb

The lagoon had a fairly strong current the previous afternoon, so we decided to take a kayak out the next morning. The water was more peaceful, and we paddled down to the Sofitel Resort and back. It was nice to have a more leisurely morning since we didn’t have to rush out first thing.

Cocobeach 

Many people had recommended visiting Cocobeach, which is a private island off the northwest coast of the main island. They have a nice restaurant, and the snorkeling is supposed to be amazing. You can take your own boat to the island, or they have a boat shuttle that leaves every 30 minutes. You must make a reservation online ahead of time. We had an 11:30am shuttle reservation and got to the parking area about 10 minutes early, which was plenty of time ahead. The payment for the shuttle goes on your food bill and you can pay with a card. The boat ride over was fun and we saw some beautiful views.

When we arrived, the host sat us at a table with an amazing view of the ocean. I ordered a margarita and Mike got a beer that they brought out in a bag of ice so it stayed nice and cold. For lunch, we got the caprese salad, fish skewers, and fish burger. Everything was so delicious! 

We saw several stingrays swimming by our table while we were eating. As soon as we finished our food, we eagerly got into the water to start snorkeling. The current was extremely strong, so about five minutes after we got in the water, we had reached the end of the beach. There weren’t many fish, and we didn’t see many stingrays while we were in the water. The current was so strong that it was difficult to even stand in one place for long, so we got out shortly after. We waited for the next shuttle and headed back to the main island. 

Opunohu Beach

On the drive back, we stopped at the public beach of Opunohu Beach. We brought our towels and laid out for about an hour. There is a big parking lot with restrooms and plenty of room for people to spread out on the beach. Then we drove back to the Airbnb for the rest of the evening.

Day 5

Our flight to the next island was at 2:30pm that day, so we had another leisurely morning at our Airbnb and packed up our suitcases. We checked out around 11am and did a little souvenir shopping.

Lunch at Tama Hau Opunohu’s Bay

Tama Hau Opunohu’s Bay is a really yummy restaurant in Opunohu Bay. I got the mahi mahi and Mike got shrimp. They were both delicious, but the shrimp portion size was fairly small. 

We flew from Moorea to the island of Bora Bora after lunch.

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