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Sarah Marshall describes the Farerei Haga Rangiroa festival, which celebrates the culture and traditions of French Polynesia. The festival features evening dance shows, coconut-shelling, va’a racing, and stone-lifting competitions. Her article also provides an overview of French Polynesia, highlighting its remote location, the beauty of its islands and atolls, and its association with exotic travel destinations. Marshall shares their experience of visiting Rangiroa and exploring the Blue Lagoon with their boat captain, Ismael Tixier, who showed them how to weave a plate from palm leaves and served them a lunch of mahi-mahi fish and coconut bread.
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If you're into diving, the Tuamotu Archipelago is an excellent place to visit. This natural and cultural gem is located 600 miles south of Bora Bora and has many nearby dive sites where underwater life is spectacular. As you discover these atolls with incredible natural scenery, once you come back you'll definitely be seduced by them.
AFAR Journeys is at it again with another very interesting piece on two of the greatest diving spots in the world, Tikehau and Rangiroa. Beautiful diving images abound and a nice itinerary designed by Tahiti Tourisme.
Tahiti Tourisme's CEO, Jean-Marc Mocellin issued a statement that borders will remain closed through April, but with the intent to reopen to tourism on May 1st. Tahiti continues its positive trends of reducing COVID-19 numbers within its borders and looks forward to welcoming back tourism very soon.
Given discussions held between French Polynesian leaders and their French counterparts, Tourisme Tahiti expects current border closure, enacted on February 3, 2021, to be "very temporary". Eduoard Fritch, the President of French Polynesia, strenuously requested that the temporary closure of Tahiti be no more than three months in duration. Tahiti has seen much improvement in their COVID trends. However, leaders of France mandated the closure for all of its overseas territories due to fear of new COVID variants they were already seeing in Europe. French Polynesia's economy, and it people, depend on tourism. A closure of more than 2 or 3 months would be a devastating and avoidable mistake. Expectations are that the borders will be open for travel in April or May.
As of February 3, 2021, Tahiti's borders will be closed again, temporarily. We expect borders to open again after 2-3 months. French Polynesia has been welcoming back guests since July, 2020. As of February 3, 2021, their borders will be closed again, temporarily. Despite Tahiti's progress in combatting the COVID virus, other areas under French rule have not fared so well. As a precaution, the leaders of France have mandated that all French Territories close their borders for a two month period. This is due to concerns in France about new COVID variants and is not correlated to the progress made on the ground in Tahiti. In the months preceding this mandate, Tahiti was trending very positively with decline numbers of cases. The leaders of French Polynesia have been very clear that this closure should not last more than 2-3 months.
As of February 3, 2021, French Polynesia will once again close its borders to temporary. This is a mandate passed down from France and is not indicative of the positive trends that Tahiti has been showing with regard to COVID-19. All French Territories must comply. We have been told this is a very temporary measure and expect borders to reopen by May 1st, if not sooner.
The exotic Islands of Tahiti have won Travel Pulse's Travvy Award for the "Best Destination Overall" for 2020. We are not surprised. Once you visit, you will agree!
Rangiroa and Fakarava in the Tuamotu Atolls named by CNN as one of the world's "most epic" Diving destinations. We agree, of course. Let us know if you'd like to visit this part of French Polynesia. We'd be glad to help.
