A short 10 minutes flight from Huahine to Raiatea for our 2nd destination – Tahaa!

Tahaa is right next to Raiatea; separated by a lagoon and the reefs down looked incredible!

 

Once we arrived Raiatea, there was a guy holding a Le Taha’a sign ith my name, I checked in with him and waited for our luggage.

The gate opened up and we “claimed” our luggage lol and the guy took our luggage and owalked us down to the little way to the hotel’s boat!

More luxurious boat to the 5* hotel and of course comes with a hefty price tag at 11660 xpf round trip per person but it was a 45 minutes ride!

Only three of us in the boat with two staff, a private transfer!

Much more comfortable!

 

We passed through and saw a cute little church in Raiatea. The 45 minutes ride, finally a sight of our hotel! Le Taha’a is off at a private island across from the lagoon from the main island Taha’a. Being a Relais & Chateaux property, it did not disappoint!

As we approach nearer and nearer, Evita was getting so excited that all we can hear from her was “WOW”! Can’t blame her, it was her first time in French Polynesia whereas we have seen Bora Bora so it was a little bit different reaction. I was still impressed by the turquoise water and the overwater bungalows!

The receptionist greeted us the moment we stepped out of the boat and gave us ladies a flower wreath/headpiece; Evita wanted one of those since she arrived French Polynesia so it was a perfect welcome gift for her! Jason got a flower necklace instead. We immediately walked out for a photo while Evita continued on with her “WOW”!

The receptionist walked us to the main lobby while I walked a little bit slower for photos!

We were seated in the lobby and they gave us fresh cool hand towel filled with Tiare flower smell and an iced refreshing tea while I was filling in the paperwork. After the paperwork, we were told our room was ready YAY and she walked us to our room with some stops pointing us to restaurants. So far, I rated the check-in service as 5* compared to Intercontinental Bora Bora Thalasso’s as royal treatment; we were given a tour of the hotel plus dropped us off in front of our room via a golf cart!

One cute thing about the hotel is their way of showing “do not distrub”, “clean my room” by turning this next to the entrance door so have to remember to turn to the right picture when leaving the room! And knock the door by hitting that stick to the wooden tube, unique right?

Nevertheless, our room (#14 I think), compared to our room at Royal Huahine, this was amazing!!!

Welcome sweets:

They designed this glass “table” so you can open it and feed the fish 🙂

Our huge bathroom with a tub and toilet on the left side while shower on the right side:

That tray of body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion!

I have to spoil a bad news though……other than the body wash, the shampoo and conditioner aren’t “luxurious” at all. Especially the conditioner, it smelled so bad ewwwww!

Our deck was awesome!

And the view….facing other overwater bungalows and the main island.

Before we get too excited to start photo taking, we went to have lunch first at the hotel’s restaurant next to the activities hut and swimming pool: La Plage. It was New Year’s Day; they decorated the restaurant with festive colors. Dining with our feet in the sand was great except for the flies!!! The staff put incense sticks throughout the restaurant but that couldn’t stop the flies from attacking our food!

Restaurant menu; 5* hotel came with a 5* price but they were surprisingly reasonable (compared to Bora Bora’s):

I ordered the duck at 3200 xpf, it was good but not as great as the ones I had in Royal Huahine 🙁

Jason ordered the lobster spaghetti for 3100 xpf, it was with chunks of lobster meat but indeed tasted good:

Evita ordered a salad at 2000 xpf:

With a large water, our total was 9290 xpf, not too bad for three people at a 5* hotel! Best of it, at the restaurants, there was free wifi!!! We sent New Year wishes to friends and families and of course, a little bit show off that we started the new year in French Polynesia hahaha!

It was not hard to make friends and families jealous with just a simple photo like this 🙂 Paradise!

A short walk back to our room to start another photoshoot 🙂

 

Every corner was post card perfect! It’s impossible to get a bad photo in Le Taha’a!

 

Behind the scene from Jason:

We love French Polynesia, true paradise!!! The period between Christmas and New Year is their high season in the “wet” season but even with that, it’s still peaceful and not hard to take a photo without other guests inside the photo – a reason we keep coming back to French Polynesia…just wish that it’s a little closer from home!

After the mesmerzing photoshoot, we went back to our room to let our skin rest from the brutal sun! There was an activity sheet that listed the daily hotel activity and events for the week; not much activities besides the dinner buffet theme that changed every day (unlike Aitutaki where the hotel offer many fun activities like crab racing and crab hunting at night). On the other hand, I was surprised that the dinner buffet was only around 7000 xpf per person ($62 USD compared to Bora Bora where we paid over 12000 xpf per person), tonight’s theme was island grill.

Dinner was at Le Vanille Restaurant, upstairs of the reception main lobby:

That table outside beneath the tree is a cool location if you don’t mind the mosquitoes…we stayed “inside” but we were still eaten alive by mosquitoes!!!

Evita’s so-called organic insect repellent did not work; foolishly we used that and got tons of mosquitoes bites! Poor Jason had over 15+ mosquitoes bits on his feet during the meal; usually, I was the one attracting insects but it was him this time! Luckily the Zika virus did not reach French Polynesia and the chikungunya outbreak was over!

The buffet food:

Save room for dessert!

There was a grill bar where you can order what meat and fish to grill. That guy grilled to perfection, we were impressed!

Choices were steak (delicious), lamb, steak tips (we found out on our 3rd grill round), tuna, and chicken. That steak already worth 3000 xpf, like I said grilled to perfection! We lost track of how many rounds of grills we got LOL, I think I had 4! We totally made our money’s worth!!!