Weddingbee Blog

Moorea? Where is that? I definitely had no clue even just a few months ago. Well, that is where we will be going for our honeymoon!

Some of you may recall when I posted how we were going the cost effective way and using our Starwood points for a honeymoon in Bali. As we started researching and making reservations, we were a little dismayed at just how long it would take to get there… an average flight would have taken us 34 hours!! But we knew we wanted to go somewhere tropical and remote, and we were limited in our choices because we wanted to use our points.

Well, plans have changed! A few months ago, Mom and Dad Daffodil offered to pay for a honeymoon package as a wedding gift to us! We felt so incredibly humbled, blessed, and thrilled. And thus began our search for the perfect honeymoon package!

While cost wasn’t completely out of the question (our parents have trained us well, in terms of hunting for great deals!), their gift did open up a lot of possibilities. We headed to Borders to check out all the different travel guides for places a little closer by than Indonesia…Costa Rica, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, Greece… and Tahiti! After browsing through Frommers, Lonely Planet, and a million different websites, we were sold – We wanted to go to Tahiti!

Now came the hard part – Looking for a great deal. This was hard. We knew we wanted to go for at least 9-10 days, but even the most affordable deal we could find for the overwater bungalows in Bora Bora was still well over $3000 per person and only for 4-5 days. We talked to several different travel agents over the course of a couple weeks, and still to no avail.

Then we called Alison from Tahiti Travel Mate. She gave us a pretty good quote, but suggested we consider the island of Moorea, another Polynesian island known for its beauty and also known to be more tranquil and less touristy. That sounded interesting to us, so Mr. D began his research. After looking through countless forums, reading numerous books, and talking to friends who have traveled to Tahiti before, we were sold on the island of Moorea!

We still went to some other travel agents to get some quote comparisons, but no one could beat both the price and service that Alison provided. In fact, I referred Miss Cherry Blossom to her last week and I believe CB liked what she found !

So this is what we are doing. While a Tahitian honeymoon is not cheap, we have made it relatively affordable by customizing our package. Our package included airfare, the ferry ride from Tahiti to Moorea, a food credit, and 5 nights in Moorea in a Garden Bungalow (I’m paranoid about the overwater ones anyway!) at the hotel we had set our hearts on. And we are using our Starwood points for an additional 3 nights in Tahiti! This gets us to our 9-day Tahiti honeymoon, for only a little over ~$2K a person! A great value in our minds!

I can’t wait!! Have any of you been to Moorea before or are planning to go? Any suggestions on things to see/do or tips in general?