| | Overview (Source: Frommers) |
Large and abundant, Tahiti is the modern traveler's gateway to French Polynesia, just as it was for Capt. James Cook and the other late-18th-century discoverers who used it as a base to explore the South Pacific. In later years, the capital city, Papeete , became a major shipping crossroads. Located on Tahiti's northwest corner, the city curves around what is still French Polynesia's busiest harbor. There wasn't even a village here until the 1820s, when Queen Pomare set up headquarters along the shore, and merchant ships and whalers began using the harbor in preference to the less protected Matavai Bay to the east. A simple town of stores, bars, and billiard parlors sprung up quickly, and between 1825 and 1829 it was a veritable den of iniquity. It grew even more after the French made it their headquarters upon taking over Tahiti in 1842. A fire nearly destroyed the town in 1884, and waves churned up by a cyclone did severe damage in 1906. In 1914, two German warships shelled the harbor and sank the French navy's Zélée . Papeete is a very different place today. Vehicles of every sort now crowd boulevard Pomare, the broad avenue along Papeete's waterfront, and the four-lane expressway linking the city to the trendy suburban districts of Punaauia and Paea on the west coast. Indeed, suburbs are creeping up the mountains overlooking the city and sprawling for miles along the coast in both directions. The island is so developed and so traffic-clogged that many Tahitian
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| Getting Around (Source: Frommers) | Top | Although it might appear from the number of vehicles scurrying around Papeete that everyone owns a car or scooter, the average Tahitian gets around by local bus. Modern buses have replaced all but a few of Tahiti's famous le trucks , those colorful vehicles called "trucks" because the passenger compartments are gaily painted wooden cabins mounted on the rear of flatbed trucks. The last of them operate between downtown Papeete and Centre Moana Nui, a shopping complex south of the Sofitel Tahiti Resort. Elsewhere, look for modern buses. Once upon a time, le trucks would stop for you almost anywhere, but today you must catch them and the buses at official stops (called arrêt le bus in French). The villages or districts served by each bus are written on the sides and front of the vehicle. Fares within Papeete are 130CFP (US$1.30) until 6pm and 200CFP (US$2) thereafter. A trip to the end of the line in either direction costs about 750CFP (US$7.50). Buses Going West The few remaining le trucks and all short-distance buses going west are painted red and white. They line up on rue du Maréchal-Foch behind the Municipal Market and travel along rue du Général-de-Gaulle, which becomes rue du Commandant-Destremeau and later route de-l'Ouest, the road that circles the island. Buses run along this route as far as the Centre Moana Nui (south of the Sofitel Tahiti Resort) Monday through Friday at least every 30 minutes from 6am to 6pm, once an hour between 6pm and
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