Where do you go for a honeymoon when you travel for a living? Easy -

Tahiti!

We left for Tahiti (via Denver CO) on Saturday, August 28. We returned to New York (well, G did) on Monday, September 13.

We should have stayed. I can't wait to go back!

We thought we'd do a brief on-line guide for a few reasons. The most obvious - it's a great way to share our vacation with friends. Another reasons is that none of the guidebooks we bought had reviews of these places. With the exception of the Pearl Beach Manihi, the resorts we stayed at were all too new for the books we bought to have had the opportunity to review them. On a side note - our favorite guide book was Jan Prince's Tahiti & French Polynesia Guide. Finally, Arnie promised many people we met, and friends back home, that he'd post these pictures as soon as we returned.

We spent three wonderful days at a delightful hotel on the island of Huahine called Te Tiare. We recommend it highly. The location was private and lovely, the service was friendly and professional, and accommodations were large, comfortable, and well cared for. An A++. The perfect start to a romantic honeymoon. After our time here, we felt ten years younger. Click on Huahine for photos and details.

We spent four days at Le Meridien Bora Bora. DO NOT STAY HERE! Unfortunately, even honeymoons have negative parts. The service at Le Meridien Bora Bora was AWFUL!!! The location was nice - a short boat ride away from the mainland - but this made us captives of the rudest staff we have ever encountered. You know all those horror stories of French waiters in Paris? Next to the people at this place, they could be poster children for southern hospitality. AVOID  LE MERIDIEN BORA BORA!!!!! For more, click on the icon on the left.

A delightful antidote to the awful staff of Le Meridien Bora Bora - four days at the Pearl Beach Resort on Manihi. Beautiful. Peaceful. Lovely bungalows. Friendly and helpful staff. Wonderful excursions  (including to a black pearl farm) and unbelievable snorkeling on a living coral reef. This was our favorite. The wide variety of beautiful fish outside our bungalow were so tame that they swam right up to us. And there's something wonderfully decadent about feeding the fish through a (removable) glass-topped coffee table in your room after dinner (the waitress was kind enough to remind us to bring back a dinner roll or two for them!). Click on Manihi for highlights.

Last on the list - two days on Tahiti at another Meridien before coming home. Thankfully, the staff at Le Meridien Tahiti was nothing like the staff at Le Meridien Bora Bora, but the atmosphere was a little too "Corporate America" for us. It is a lovely resort - we had no complaints. If you like up market Hawaiian or Caribbean resorts, you'll love it here. If you're looking for a place to book a sales reward trip - this won't disappoint. If you're looking for a picturesque spot not too far from the hustle and bustle of Papeete, Polynesia's biggest city, this is the place.

If you want the unspoiled beauty, privacy, and friendliness of a Polynesian escape - we recommend Manihi or Huahine.