Suppose a disadvantage should possibly exist in traveling to Bora Bora, French Polynesia’s most famous tropical idyll. In that case, at the same time as you are on it, you cannot recognize its thrilling, unmistakably lush, conical shape rising from a cerulean sea. While one of its neighbors, Raiatea, the second biggest of the Society Islands organization after Tahiti, gives much less of the romance and cache of its counterpart, it is significantly lower-priced, and you may glimpse Bora Bora from many elements of it.
Raiatea is a sacred island that became the departure factor for the great historical Polynesian migration, and it is an overwater bungalow-loose. Its most highly-priced accommodation is this agreeable 15-room lodge. Run by using French expatriates, it’s a pension-fashion lodging. This increases through those islands, presenting an extra low-priced and actual alternative to high-priced luxurious resorts.
Raiatea is positioned between Moorea and Bora Bora, with precise daily home air connections to and from both locations, in addition to Tahiti’s main island and global gateway. Raiatea shares its lagoon and coral reef with its more conventionally idyllic neighboring island, the cute Taha’a, a short boat trip from Uturoa, Raiatea’s fundamental township. Uturoa is ready a 10-minute drive from the lodge.
The appealing two-story faux-French colonial wooden inn is fronted with big lawns studded with coconut palms and tropical gardens. There’s a big swimming pool, and the resort has a jetty from which visitors can swim and snorkel. The first-rate essential public regions and a shaded semi-alfresco eating place are at the ground stage, with views of the garden and lagoon.
THE ROOM
My at-ease “superior room” functions as a balcony with both garden and lagoon perspectives and the whole thing you would need for an overnight stay or longer. Sure, it lacks the finesse and amenities you’ll locate – and for that be counted, assume – at one of those five-superstar-plus accommodations, however with Raiatea Lodge Hotel charging a fraction of the charge as well as providing an exclusive take on the greater traditional French Polynesian lodging revel in, who may want to bitch?
THE FOOD
The island isn’t crushed using excellent dining alternatives, so it alleviates the present-day French and Polynesian-style delicacies at the in-residence eating place, and the ba,r is top-notis. Many dishes utilize the ample sparkling local seafood, including tuna, invariably served uncooked or lightly seared. The menu consists of the neighborhood traditional Poisson Cru, a delicious and refreshing dish presenting red tuna marinated in a blend of lime juice and coconut milk.
STEPPING OUT
Raiatea is super for no longer having a single seaside, but it has masses to provide past the prototypical French Polynesian sports. Take a tour by using a kayak along Faaroa, the only navigable river in French Polynesia, with one thousand-meter tropical peaks towering above, or make a pilgrimage to the largest marae, or area of worship, in French Polynesia. Raiatea is also domestic to a covered endemic flower, the tiare apathy, which may be viewed on guided walks to Mount Temehani, the only location in the world where the bloom is determined. Neighboring Taha’a gives guided visits to vanilla plantations, pearl farms, and rum distilleries, as well as the threat to swim with and feed reef sharks, snorkel on a coral reef, and swim o,ff the sandy beaches of a motu or islet.
THE VERDICT
In a destination that suffers from recognition for being a pricey place to visit, Raiatea Lodge Hotel is a breath of fresh French Polynesia ocean air. The unpretentious, oft-neglected, or maybe unknown, pension-fashion accommodation visitsvisiting of the Pacific greater pomore
