Raiatea

The Raiatea Lodge Hotel

This is a delightful mid-range home with a lot of personality, perfect for the French-Polynesian hospitality industry - somewhere between the glittering hotels and simple inns. Guests are always on the spot to discuss the best snorkelling, kayaking and cycling spots - they rent their gear for free - and food is provided in a similarly unpretentious manners.

Our head cook offers a wide range of Polish and international specialities. There is a good choice of new and old tips on the menu for the vintage wines. However, there is a ground floor room for families, which is much more accessible. It would be a nice place for a whole host of families and there is free snorkeling and canoeing.

Discover Raiatea, the holy island of the South Pacific

The most important thing I learnt during a visit to Polynesia is that all 118 Isles and Aylls have a different personality and a different atmospher. Bora Bora and Moorea are known for being stylish and stylish, and Tahiti is the main center of the island, but Raiatea is a beautiful and hidden find: not as popular as the other isles, but definitely magic and worthy of being put on your pailboard.

Though Raiatea is one of the biggest archipelago after Tahiti in France and its beauties are breathtaking, the isle is not so popular with the tourist. We' had travelled the whole length of the whole country for a whole afternoon, and our first stop was the Taputapuatea morae, an archeological site from the year 1000 AD.

Polynesians considered the Polynesians to be a holy place where they could talk to the deities. It' s hard to see why Raiatea was once the holiest South Pacific isle. It may be calm and unfamiliar today, but it has a significant historic significance, as it is the isle from which all of East Polynesia was-colonised.

According to tradition, Hiro, Raiatea's first emperor, constructed a large kayak to take him to other Polyneas. And if you like to cook and are looking for first-class custard to make an impression on your prospective guests, you have won the Grand Cru Raiatea custard. Raiatea's "largest" city is Uturoa. Don't be expecting big clothing shops and boutique designers, but hey, sometimes a girls has to go shopping, even on the Franco-Polynese Isle.

Thinking of Raiatea as a scenery full of falls, verdant hill and fruitful valley, nice little coves and the Temehani mountain, the highest point of the isle. In Raiatea you don't have to look for sand beaches: There are none. Faaroa is the only naval waterway in France.

Faaroa meanders directly into the Raiatea rain forest and can be discovered by boat, raft, kayak or motor boat. In Raiatea - and all France-Polynesia - Mother Earth is playing a great show, and I can't tell how many people I' ve just been sitting down to admire the unbelievable scenery that surrounds me.

Breathtaking vistas of other distant isles, the incredible blues of the Laguna, the sound of Mother Earth, the scent of wildlife... it's a show you can savour with all your sentiments. I tried to record Raiatea's beauties in images, but to be honest: they don't do the real thing.

Raiatea often, it lasts about 40 min by plane from Papeete and Moorea. It is only 15 min. from the near Huahine and Bora Bora islets. Between Raiatea and its twin Ta'haa isle there is a daily ferry service.