Paul Gauguin Review
Rating by category
Additional details
My wife and I recently completed an 11-day cruise on Paul Gauguin, visiting French Polynesia and the Cook islands. It was one of our most enjoyable cruise experiences ever. Prior to the cruise, I unsuccessfully tried to find answers to a number of questions relating to this adventure. Now that I know the answers to these questions, I thought that it might be useful to share what I have learned with those who may be seeking the same information.
Pre-cruise Travel
Getting to Tahiti from North America can best be described as a wearisome journey. Most of the direct flights leave from LAX. The trip is about 8 hours and most of the flights arrive in Papeete at around 10:00 PM. There are a few that arrive in the early evening as well.
Cabin Review
We have been on a number of different cruise ships. While the cabin was not the most modern and up-to-date, it was very comfortable.
The bathroom was larger than many that we have experience. There was also significantly more storage.
The only area that felt small was the rest of the cabin. The desk was not usable as a desk due to being too close to the bed. That left the nice loveseat sized couch as or the bed to sit at when reading or using a computer.
That said, I would trade the lack of "workspace" for the extra storage any day.
Port Reviews
Tahiti (Papeete)
A busy and not very attractive town. Take a tour of the island to see the pretty places on Tahiti
Huahine
A quiet place. We took local transport to a beach and spent the day. Enjoyable but not off the chart.
Rarotonga
Not much to do but walk the town. We tried to rent motor scooters but this required going to the police station, taking a written drivers test followed by a test in a vehicle. Not worth the hassle.