The Cocoa Butter Tales: Our French Polynesian Honeymoon!! Part 1: Tahiti

Honeymooning!!! This is right before we head off to Bora Bora.

(Goal: Get the honeymoon up on the blog prior to going on our babymoon.)

We didn't actually go on our honeymoon until 10 months after our wedding. Not much thought went into that decision (actually lack of thought is probably more accurate); but in retrospect, I'm glad it happened that way. Decreased stress of honeymoon planning while simultaneously planning a wedding allowed us time to save more for our honeymoon, and we weren't exhausted from the exciting yet tiring wedding day.

Folks have asked how we chose the location. I personally don't do well with too many choices to pick from. I figured this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stay in a bungalow in some 'far away land' as I had always seen portrayed in Costco... if we could swing it. So my choices were narrowed by bungalow locations, and we eventually settled on Bora Bora and Moorea.

We did our research on Google and TripAdvisor and ended up using Custom Tahiti Travel (Jackie Schlumper) as our agent. Can't speak highly enough about Jackie. She is amazing!... just like the reviews said!

Trip Itinerary: BOS --> LAX --> PPT --> BOB --> MOZ --> PPT --> LAX --> BOS

Off we go!!!

Beautiful Tahitian welcome at the airport after an overnight flight from LA.

Our overnight flight from LA landed us in Tahiti before sunrise. While our room was actually ready, we couldn't wait to go explore. Watching paradise reveal itself as the sun rose over the earth was simply incredible!

While not our main honeymoon destination, we had to fly into Tahiti to get to Bora Bora. We chose to stay overnight in Tahiti to 1) not waste a day at our main locations catching up on sleep 2) explore Tahiti, because well... it's Tahiti and 3) get snacks as was recommended on TripAdvisor.

Lighter by day.

The breakfast buffet finally opened. Ryan was pleased to see a diverse selection, including a table dedicated to an eclectic concoction of Japanese and Chinese dishes!

Ryan catching up on sleep, without sunscreen, post-red-eye breakfast. Note: without sunscreen. Despite our obvious differences in pigmentation levels, this trip showed that I know much more about sun safety than my husband... By the end of our trip, his epidermis had been fried, he was shedding everywhere, and sunscreen was his best friend.

I was exploring while Ryan began his sun-baking.

Artwork in our room

My creation of artwork in our room using our welcome leis.

Wall art discovered while exploring Tahiti

Because I was following the light cycle, this was our nighttime view from the hotel lobby.

Following the advice of TripAdvisor, we bought snacks to cut costs where we could... alas, our Tahiti farewell breakfast on our room porch. Ryan also has a thing for trying local snacks, i.e., the Nature Valley bars are mine.

Loved these Mr. & Mrs. tees from Blackbird Tees. I'm a nerd, I know... but I searched on Etsy for the perfect ones, and these fit the bill. (Plus, the owner was a pleasure to purchase from, and the tees were really comfortable!) Laid them out here to mark the 'official' beginning of our honeymoon, as this was the day we were flying into Bora Bora.