Well, what else am I likely to post than a RAVE review of our ten days in Tahiti?
But I'll stop short of calling it Paradise, like so many other vacation reviews I've seen.
True, Paradise would have to feature many of the basic elements of these islands: gorgeous weather, outstanding views in every direction, and the water (especially the crystal clear, warm sea water).
It would also have to present plenty of laying around in the sun, reading opportunities. The blissful peace, with Tahiti being so far from anything likely to interrupt that laying-around-and-reading time, chalked another mark on the plus side.
The main cost of all that privacy is the time and effort involved in getting there. A flight to LA, then eight hours overnight to Tahiti, followed by a forty-five minute flight to Bora Bora, left us with a half hour boat ride to The Sofitel resort on the other side of Bora Bora. Most of the first day of five at The Sofitel was spent with me barely opening my eyes, let alone my Kindle. After that first day though, each horizontal minute by the pool, or on the pristine beach, or even on the deck of our overwater bungalow was not a minute mis-spent.
On day six, we had the half hour boat trip back to the airport (the most relaxing airport experience I've ever had, with the airstrip occupying a tiny sticky-out piece of the island), then a fifteen minute flight to Raiatea - the second largest island after Tahiti itself - and another half hour boat ride to the island of Le Taha'a. This was our home for the next five days, and was perfect in almost every way. Almost.
For being part of French Polynesia, it's a shame the islanders only got the French language as part of the deal, and not the cooking skills to go with the words they inherited. The lackluster meals could only be forgiven by remembering everything needs to get to the kitchen from somewhere far away.
It would be churlish - consistent, but still churlish - of me to hold that against a place that otherwise would be right up there at the top of my list of places to spend one week out of every three or four for the rest of my days.
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