French Polynesia Travel Forum

We're from Vancouver BC Canada and thinking of taking a 10 cruise that includes Bora Bora, Huahine, Raiatea, Moorea, Tahaa, and Rangiroa.

What is of concern is that this cruise is in mid December 2008 and during the "wet" season.

Can anyone tell me if they have experienced any negative rainfall? I'd like to know your personal experience. If you have traveled recently (eg. Dec 2007), we'd like to hear from you.

I've seen various postings stating from "rainy everyday" to "brief rainfall and then sunshine".

We want a reasonable winter getaway with Sun, lying on the deck of the ship, and able to swim in warm water. Since Vancouver's winter is very rainy and damp, I'm hoping that the rain is brief. I think I suffer from lack of sun and get depressed easily.

Can someone please enlighten us? There are too many websites that say different things and some of the rainfall graphs are scary. So if it's brief rain with lots of sun afterwards, then I can handle that.

Thanks

The only "concern" I'd have is this is the rainy season, so it may range from brief showers to torential rain for a period of time. But take heart, the temperature will be about 82 (F). Check http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/FPXX0001_f.html for an extended forecast. Currently it's thunder storms every other day.

The dry season is easier for long range predictions. Wet season you could well get 10 days of sunny weather with possibly afternoon storms. But you could also run into 10 days of heavy rain, or anything in between. Whatever the weather, it will be warm. Coming from Canada you'll feel it. But don't get carried away with the idea of lying on the deck in the sun. That's a great way to get skin cancer, or at least all the attributes of a prune.

The truth is it's the tropical "Definition Rain" season. I've been there so many times in different seasons, it's like a weather forcast, always wrong. But in general the weather is good. I have been to Bora Bora and had it rain 24X7 with no wind, just pour for 6 days, in December. Ruined the vacation for a lot that were on 1 week vacations. They left Saturday ans the sun popped out and stayed that way for the next 10 days.

There is much more rain on the islands than over open water. I fish there and it's not unusual for an island to disappear in rain for a few hours while the sun shines over open water.

My experience says over the years your probably going to have a good time but are at risk. Go in May, Jun, Jul, Aug ,Sep and it's dryer and almost a guarantee good weather.

aita pe'ape'a

boraborabob.com

My husand and I were in French Polynesia a few years back in mid-November. Though Tahiti was fine for weather, in fact quite humid and hot, Moorea was terrible for rain. It was hot but the rain there hardly let up and at times were even terrential. It's a beautiful island if you can find a dry day to go around. I would really advise avoiding Moorea if you could during this time of year. We didn't go to the other islands so I can't say anything about their weather that time of year.