Marquesas Islands Tourism

a guidebook for obscure & crazy places all over the globe

in northeastern Tahiti. The latter is known for its South Sea paradises, while the Marquesas are much harsher in their characters. Volcanoes in origins and quite hilly with cliffy and challenging summits for mountaineers, they succeeded in conquering the island and defeating and disarming the indigenous soldiers.

They' re both dead on the isle, almost next to each other. When Gauguin moved to Tahiti from an early period of volunteer emigration, it became too European for his tastes. But his corpse was taken back to Hiva Oa and laid to rest near Gauguin's tomb. On the spot, both artist are honored with small local musees, and also the Jacques Brel airplane (also to supply the island's inhabitants, who were correspondingly thankful to him ) is today a work of art.

You will find all these attractions near the Hiva Oa infrastructural centre, Atuona. Domestic are places connected with the islands deep cannibalist culture (including a fierce statue of a female who suffers from birth complications!). The water went up to the Marquesas, where the water still rose to a depth of 6 to 7m.

However, this left no places of interest as such for the gloomy tourists. The target of the island(s) is probably not particularly obscure, but it covers, apart from the well-known tombs (and catastrophic groups ), the cannibalistic part. Since this is not otherwise dealt with on this website, I have chosen to give the Marquesas here anyway their own small list.

Journey to the island is not straightforward, although there is a runway near Atuona where small airplanes from Papeete, Tahiti, can dock. Other than that, it is with the utility vessel, which is not really a tourist option to get there. Moreover, cruisers that sometimes moor in the island bays (and can bring the visitor ashore by boat).

There' s a motel on Hiva Oa (also near Atuona) and a few simple guesthouses. Traveling to this far away place is unavoidably an important expense, and the island is not necessarily inexpensive for a vacation. A 4x4 Denim is needed to get outside Atuona and to/from the runway.

This all adds up to a cost, and even without domestic air travel, parcels from a few business hours to a brief weekly period can quickly reach around $2,000 plus. Auckland is the fastest and least expensive airport for flying to Papeete, although there are also airlines flying directly from e.g. Sydney,.....

Tahiti Nui is the name of the major national airline, Air Tahiti, which also operates flights to Atuona.