Tahiti

The water is the draw rather than the sand. The sea around Tahiti stays at about 26-29°C all year, and inside the reef the lagoon is calm, clear and easy for swimming and snorkelling. The beaches themselves are modest. The east and north coasts, around Pointe Venus and Matavai Bay, have black volcanic sand. The west coast near Punaauia has the best of the pale-sand lagoon beaches, and on Tahiti Iti the small cove of Plage de Maui is the prettiest stretch.

Many visitors treat Tahiti as the gateway and keep their beach days for Moorea, about half an hour by ferry, where the lagoon is wider, the sand whiter and resorts sit right on the water. The open coasts of Tahiti face surf and currents and are not for casual swimming.

Eating on Tahiti mixes Polynesian, French and Chinese traditions. The dish to try is poisson cru, raw tuna marinated in lime and coconut milk, alongside grilled mahi-mahi, breadfruit, taro and fafaru for the brave. In the evening, food trucks called roulottes gather on the Papeete waterfront at Place Vaiete, serving steak frites, chow mein, crêpes and fish at shared tables, and this is the most local and sociable way to eat.

The Marché de Papeete is good for tropical fruit, vanilla and snacks, and French bakeries mean good baguettes and pastries in every village. Restaurants in Papeete and the west-coast hotels are competent and French-leaning, but the choice is small and nothing here makes the island a food destination.

Tahiti's heritage is Polynesian and mostly outdoors. The Musée de Tahiti et des Îles at Punaauia is the essential stop, with a strong collection on navigation, tapa cloth, tattoo and the culture of the islands. Restored marae, the stone ceremonial platforms, stand in the forest at Arahurahu and elsewhere around the coast, and Pointe Venus marks where Cook observed the transit of Venus in 1769.

Papeete itself is a small, functional port town with a cathedral and a few colonial buildings, but little historic fabric. A day or two covers the sights, and visitors interested in the deeper sacred sites of the islands have to fly further out.

Going out on Tahiti means Papeete, where a handful of bars and clubs near the waterfront fill up on Friday and Saturday nights with locals and sailors from the harbour. Elsewhere, evenings end with dinner and a drink at the hotel bar. The island is not chosen for its nights, and the outer resorts are quieter still.

Tahiti is a high volcanic island, and its interior is wild and dramatic: jagged ridges above 2,000m, deep rainforest valleys and waterfalls everywhere after rain. The Papenoo valley crosses the island by 4x4 track, the Fautaua valley leads to a tall waterfall, and the climb to Mount Aorai is a serious ridge hike with views across to Moorea. Many routes are best done with a local guide.

On the water, Teahupo'o on Tahiti Iti breaks one of the most famous waves in surfing, and the lagoons and passes offer diving with sharks and rays. Humpback whales calve offshore from about July to October. Moorea, a ferry ride away, adds its own spiky peaks and lagoon. The drier months from May to October are best for hiking.

The great day out is Moorea, about half an hour by ferry from Papeete, with its villages, bays, pineapple plantations and lagoon easy to tour by hire car in a day. On Tahiti itself, the drive around the smaller peninsula of Tahiti Iti to the surf village of Teahupo'o and the road's end makes a second outing, and boat trips run to the atoll of Tetiaroa.

Beyond that, the islands everyone has heard of, such as Bora Bora and Huahine, are short flights away and better as stays of their own than as day trips.

Tahiti is safe, relaxed and warmly welcoming to children, and the calm, warm lagoons are ideal for paddling and first snorkels. Older children enjoy the waterfalls, outrigger canoe outings and whale-watching boats in season. There is, however, almost nothing built for children: no theme park, aquarium or zoo, and the beaches on the main island are fewer and less inviting than those on Moorea. The long flights and high costs also weigh on a family trip, which works best as a slow lagoon stay at a resort with a pool.

One road circles the island along the coast, with a branch onto Tahiti Iti, so finding your way is easy. Public buses run along it but are infrequent and of little use to visitors, so most people hire a car. Traffic into Papeete is heavy at rush hour, and the interior is only reachable on foot or by 4x4. Ferries to Moorea run often from the Papeete waterfront, and any island further out means a domestic flight from Faa'a.

The one thing worth shopping for is Tahitian black pearls, sold loose and set by jewellers across Papeete, which is the main place to compare them. The Marché de Papeete has an upper floor of handicrafts, pareos, carved wood, woven hats, vanilla and monoi oil scented with tiare flowers. Beyond those, shopping is small-town and imported, and expensive.

Tahiti is very expensive. Almost everything is imported, so groceries, restaurant meals, alcohol and car hire all cost well above European levels, and the resort hotels on the west coast cost far more again. The main ways to soften the bill are family-run guesthouses, called pensions, and eating at the roulottes and snack bars where local people eat.

The performing tradition here is Polynesian dance, ori Tahiti, with its fast hip movement and pounding toere drums. It is at its best during the Heiva i Tahiti in July, when dance troupes, singers and choirs compete over several weeks in Papeete in a festival of real cultural weight. For the rest of the year, dance shows are mostly staged at hotel dinners, with occasional concerts and performances at the Maison de la Culture. Formal theatre, opera and classical music are almost absent.

Wellness on Tahiti means resort spas and the island's own massage tradition, taurumi, a firm, kneading massage given with warm monoi oil scented with tiare flowers. The larger hotels on the west coast around Punaauia have spas that face the lagoon, and a massage there at the end of the day is the main way visitors unwind. There is no bathing or thermal culture, no public baths and nothing beyond what the hotels provide.

The pace depends on where you stay. Papeete and the west-coast road are busy, with heavy traffic at rush hour, while the villages of Tahiti Iti and the east coast are slow and quiet. Many visitors keep the restful part of their trip for the calmer islands further out.