We just spent 3 1/2 months in French Polynesia, and had a really good experience of all of the islands we visited. Each island / atoll is unique in some way, some are more geared for tourists and some are almost uninhabited. There is usually a small house somewhere even on the uninhabited islands and atolls, where they stay when they harvest coconut (“copra”) which is dried and pressed for coconut oil. Although we watched a lot of YouTube videos before arriving, we still didn’t have any idea of how we would experience French Polynesia.
One thing I like to do in any new country is learn the words for “thank you” and a basic greeting, and add if possible other words. I have found that people are really happy when you take the small amount of time to greet them in their own language, to thank them appropriately, and even to learn to pronounce the place names as close to local pronunciation as possible. Here in French Polynesia, there was one local language in the Marquesas and a different one spoken in the Tuamotus and Society Islands, so we got to add a few extra words. French is the language that ties them all together, and I practiced a few phrases of French as well.
Overall, people in French Polynesia have been amazingly welcoming and friendly to us. Before coming here, we read and heard tales of locals not liking sailors and being hostile to them. In one case, the island had such a bad reputation among sailors that many people avoided it, and it turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip. Locals have gathered coconut husks for coals and invited cruisers to a beach barbeque, gone out of their way to help us find our way, and driven us back to the marina with our arms full of groceries.
When they have their local celebrations, we have been welcome even when they are primarily geared for local participation. Children try to make contact because they are curious and secure, and whenever we passed someone and greeted them with “Ia ora na” they gave us a big smile and an “ia ora na” in return. One of our earliest experiences with a friendly local population was on Fatu Hiva. The island is very small and only gets daytime visits from smaller cruise ships, so cruisers are a welcome addition. People flagged us down and offered to do our laundry in their homes for a fee, or host a dinner for us also in their home, take tours with them. Yes, they were looking for income, but they also were really welcoming.
Once we passed a woman carrying a heavy load of fruit and also a bucket and some gardening tools. I ran up to her and took over some of her burden, and she insisted on giving us some fruit in return for the help. At another place where there were rumors of locals being hostile to cruisers, we were approached by an elderly man in a small outrigger canoe. We welcomed him to our boat, and he just wanted to tell us that they would be having a barbeque on the beach the next day, and we were welcome to be on the beach with them.
French Polynesia left me with an impression of overall well being. There were many children who looked happy, and families doing activities together. They have excellent infrastructure, especially compared to the French islands in the Caribbean. Here they had smooth roads, well manicured lawns and gardens and also small roadside gardens where anyone could stop and enjoy the flowers. They seem to work to create a sense of community, and the Heiva celebrations that we got to experience were a great example of the community coming together.
On Bora Bora, the Heiva celebrations have a main singing and dancing component, and local townships compete against each other. The amount of practice and dedication required to put their shows together – it is all volunteer – are amazing. Their flowers on their elaborate costumes were assembled right before the performance. There were tents where they were working, and we were allowed to view the work. One man offered me a small flower and it had such a lovely scent, it kept the whole evening. Beauty was not just seen and heard, but even felt in the scents perfuming the air. I was awed by the performances, and understand how working to put together something like that can bring a community together in a positive way.
The dancers included all ages and body types, which also felt so inclusive. In the song competitions that we saw, there were elders in wheelchairs singing and wheeling about in formation. You could see the reverence that was given to the elders, they had pride of place and were given a voice. When we made our way back to our dinghy after the performance, I saw a group of singers sitting on a bench and said “mauru’uru” (Thank You) to them. Happiness radiated from them, it was truly magical.
Does that mean that there is nothing negative here? Of course not. But I was really impressed with the people and communities of French Polynesia as a whole, and feel fortunate to have been a visitor and experienced their warm hospitality.
Those are my thoughts after leaving French Polynesia, written on passage 24 July 2025.