One day in Tahiti

Day by day

1. Day 1: Marché de Papeete and Notre-Dame Cathedral of Papeete

   Marché de Papeete, Notre-Dame Cathedral of Papeete, Musée de Tahiti et des Îles and Plage de Vaiava (PK 18), then Roulottes at Place Vaiete in the evening.

   1. Breakfast

      Breakfast: Firi firi

   2. Morning

      Marché de Papeete

      Come early on Sunday to see the market at its liveliest and buy a ready-made poisson cru for breakfast. Allow 1 hour.

   3. Late morning

      Notre-Dame Cathedral of Papeete

      If you are in town on a Sunday morning, attend part of a service for the singing, dressing modestly. Allow 30 minutes.

   4. Lunch

      Lunch: Poisson cru

      Everywhere, from roulottes and snack bars to resort restaurants and the Papeete market.

   5. Afternoon

      Musée de Tahiti et des Îles

      Allow time to walk the seafront garden afterwards, which looks across the channel to Moorea. Allow 2 hours.

   6. Café break

      Café break: Po'e

   7. Late afternoon

      Plage de Vaiava (PK 18)

      Bring your own mask and snorkel and swim out over the coral heads on the lagoon side, staying away from the boat channel. Allow Half a day.

   8. Evening

      Roulottes at Place Vaiete

      Arrive around sunset, browse all the trucks before choosing, and order crêpes for dessert from one of the dedicated crêpe vans.

Where to stay for this itinerary

Pace and daylight

The sights in this plan add up to roughly 8–9 hours of visiting over one day, before meals and getting between them. Daylight runs from about 11.1 hours in June to 13.2 hours in December.

Getting between stops: Car. Hire cars are available at the airport and in Papeete; driving is on the right and the coast road is easy outside Papeete's rush hours.

More or fewer days

• 2 days in Tahiti
• 3 days in Tahiti

Questions travellers ask