Called the French Society Islands they are better known by the individual island names of Tahiti, Bora Bora and Moorea with Tahiti being the largest. The islands are due south of Hawaii on the other side of the equator.
Tahiti is part of a volcanic chain formed by the northwestward movement of the Pacific Plate over a fixed hotspot similar to the process that formed the Hawaiian Islands. Tahiti consists of two old volcanoes—the larger Tahiti-Nui in the northwest and Tahiti-Iti in the southeast connected by an isthmus. Tahiti-Nui was the first eruption that formed Tahiti as a volcanic shield cone between 1.4 million and 900,000 years ago. Tahiti-Iti probably formed about 250,000 years later.
Where Your Ship Docks – In Papeete, Tahiti there are piers capable of docking large cruise ships right in the center of Papeete’s waterfront. Within a couple of blocks there are public facilities an outdoor market building and numerous shops.
Visiting Bora Bora and Moorea ships anchor out and use tenders to take passengers ashore. While both of these islands are famous for their resorts they are still significantly rural without much of a central town. Near the tender docks on both islands there are some shops and facilities and usually craft stalls are set up nearby when cruise ships are visiting
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Tahiti has a long and rich history. The islands were first settled by migrating Polynesians as early as 500 BC. They were later discovered by European explorers during the 16th century but there is controversy over who was the first. The islands were eventually colonized by France and remain French today. In August 1768, Captain James Cook set sail from England to visit Tahiti to observe the Transit of Venus across the Sun and mapped several island groups in the southern Pacific that had been previously discovered.
Jardin de l’Assemblée de la Polynésie Francé
Getting Around – Except for taking a ships tour, the best way to see these islands is to rent a car. There are several major rental companies and day rates are moderately priced.
Language – The islands language is French and few locals speak English so you may have issues being understood.
Money – The islands use the French Pacific Franc equal to about one US penny. Some places will accept Dollars but don’t count on it. Credit cards are welcome almost everywhere.
Attractions –
Farerei Haga – Mid September, a cultural and tourist event takes place over a whole week with the contribution of the surrounding atolls. Fields days coconut husking, stone lifting, braiding. Evenings: traditional songs and dances. Tourists are encouraged, the event is free and located on the Papaputa land.
Pacific International Documentary Film Festival – Early February the FIFO is the audiovisual event that makes Tahiti the documentary film capital of Oceania. It brings a selection of documentary films before an international jury. A succession of film screenings, free workshops, conferences.
Moorea Marathon – In late October is the most important sports event on the island of Moorea. The Moorea Marathon since 1988 welcomes runners from all over the world and its course ranks it among the worlds most challenging.
The Tahiti Pearl Regatta – in mid May a sporting regatta that brings together between 40 and 50 sailing boats, or 250 to 300 crew members from around the world.
Papeete, Tahiti celebrates the Mutiny on the Bounty Festival each year in late October which usually offers an opportunity to hear lectures on history, buy T-Shirts, souvenirs and books. Papeete is the governmental center of The Society Islands with Jardin de l’Assemblée de la Polynésie Francé being the house of the assembly.
Notre Dame Cathedral
While Tahiti is short on historic sites there is the Notre Dame Cathedral, a historic building with a mix of Colonial and Gothic styles. It is a Catholic church opened in 1875 and is noted for housing three bells in its tower. The truth is that most people don’t visit these islands for history but for the beaches and clear azure waters and coral reefs. The islands are surrounded by coral reefs that act to protect these islands from storms and the diving is some of the best in the world. There are fewer resorts on Tahiti than the other islands with only three really highly rated hotels, the InterContinental Resort Tahiti being the top rated.
Bora Bora seems to offer the better selection of beaches with a dozen four star resort properties including the iconic Bora-Bora Pearl Beach Resort with its over water bungalows (in season rates start at US$600 a nite).
While Moorea is beautiful it’s Bora Bora that steals the show for scenery. It includes breathtaking towering peaks, natural lagoons and spectacular coral reefs circling the island. If you’d like to spend time in these islands this is the island to come back to.
Pacific Cruise Itineraries – While Alaska is one of cruising’s favorite destinations, the Pacific is the largest body of water on the planet, and Alaska is just the beginning of the Pacific adventure.
Oahu Hawaii North Shore
Want to explore more? Look south from Canada and consider shorter Pacific itineraries by looking into a number of cruises based out of California and Vancouver, Canada. These come labeled in a number of categories suggesting a number of itineraries, but most are focused on the U.S. west coast. Many start in Vancouver because of the Jones Act* and often end in San Diego usually with Seattle, Monterey, San Fransisco, Catalina Island being popular ports of call. After those options California also features a number of shorter cruises to Mexico that begin in a number of California ports and usually visit Cabo San Lucas, Acapulco or Porta Vallarta. These cruises range from only a couple of days to a week.
Waikiki Beach Oahu
Oahu SE coast
One of the more popular series of itineraries involves cruising to and around the Hawaiian Islands. The cruise companies, again because of the Jones Act*, have to do some interesting planning to cruise Hawaii. Often cruises that sail from the West Coast and end in Hawaii sail from Vancouver and often spend six to eight days at sea crossing the Pacific and will visit one or two ports in Hawaii before ending in Honolulu. There are also a number of cruises that sail around the islands with a majority sailing and ending in Honolulu and can include two to four Hawaiian ports. One cruise line, NCL operates an American flagged cruise ship, The Pride Of America which allows it to cruise freely around the islands without always returning to its departure port.
Bora Bora
Twice each year most major cruise companies reposition cruise ships between the North and South hemispheres offering a number of opportunities to cruise the Pacific Ocean. Many ships in the Fall are moving from Alaska to Australia and than back again in the Spring. The Hawaiian Islands are a usual destination in these repositioning moves with popular cruise itineraries being Sydney to Honolulu or Vancouver to Honolulu. Ports of call in these cruises can include Tahiti and the other Society Islands, Fiji, New Zealand and various ports in Australia. The southern half of these itineraries also cross the Equator making you an official Shellback including a very tame sailors initiation.
Sydney, Australia
Terra del Fuego, South America
There are also northern Pacific repositioning cruises to consider, especially if you love days at sea. A majority usually sail between Japan and North America and at times include a stop in Russia’s Vladivostok. These cruises usually follow the same schedule moving in the Fall to reposition ships from Alaska to Japan and than back again in the Spring.
South America is another Pacific cruising opportunity but the most common itineraries being sailing from the east coast to west coast of South America or the reverse sailing around the tip of South America. The primary West coast ports include Lima, Peru (consider a land tour to Machu Picchu as part of your itinerary) and Valparaíso, Chile.
Another opportunity to consider are South American repositioning cruises that can include a Panama Canal transit as the ships head to sail the Caribbean from ports in Florida, New Orleans and Texas.
A cruise that is on many people’s wish list is the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador. Because of restrictions to protect the Galapagos, large cruise ships cannot visit these islands but many cruise lines operate specially built smaller ships dedicated to seeing the Galapagos. In order to take a Galapagos cruise you will need to first fly from Quito, Ecuador over to the Galapagos Islands to join your cruise. In addition to the major cruise companies there are a number of additional Galapagos tour options.
Don’t be surprised if more cruise ports are added in the future as the cruise lines are always looking to entice passengers to cruise again.
*The Jones Act and its twin the Maritime Passenger Act are hundred year old laws that prohibits moving cargo and passengers between U.S. ports unless the ship meets a number of requirements. See our article on The Jones Act.
A recent incident and a conversation with a travel friend highlighted the importance of international travel insurance.
Please note that this is written with a focus on American travelers but we are also aware of similar plans offered in Canada and other countries, but you will need to explore options based on your home country.
There are a number of different categories and types of travel insurance that apply to a number of travel plans and that can complicate the insurance decision. Generally, insurance is available to cover problems in five specific areas:
Trip Cancellation and Interruption
Theft of Property
Health and Accident coverage
Medical Repatriation
Life insurance
In truth, most travelers we talk to are too casual in deciding on travel insurance. This articles will focus on three main areas. First is a concern about having to cancel an expensive trip at the last minute and losing deposits and prepaid money. The second is travel interruption caused by missing difficult air connections or a cruise sailing. Lastly are medical cost concerns while being out of the country.
One area that requires attention is exactly what are the conditions where the coverage takes affect and where it doesn’t apply. Insurance policies are very specific legal documents and all too often coverage we thought we had doesn’t apply in too many circumstances. Just recently in the news were a number of travelers faced with giving up their travel costs or putting their health in jeopardy because of a pandemic.
As the Corona virus started spreading around the world and countries started closing their ports, cruise ships and their passengers were placed in an interesting position. Initially cruise ships started adjusting their itineraries instead of canceling cruises. Passengers that were worried about their health and wanted to cancel their cruise soon discovered that insurance companies concluded that those concerns were not covered by the cruise cancellation insurance and offered no refund.
The cost of insurance is not insignificant and everyone should evaluate the potential financial risk against the actual cost of the insurance policy. With a long cruise the cost could be very high and while the insurance could be costly the loss could be even more significant if you have to cancel or should miss a sailing.
One area where many people leave themselves seriously in jeopardy involves international medical emergency insurance. Far too many people think that their health insurance will cover them out of the country while that is rarely the case. Unless your health insurance specifically indicates that it covers international travel you are risking a catastrophic loss. In one example we know about a retired couple \ traveling in Europe believing that Medicare and their supplement insurance covered them. They learned the terrible truth after a serious stroke left them with a quarter of a million dollars in medical bills.
Because many cruises involve international destinations most cruise policies provide medical cost reimbursement (up to specific amounts) and property theft and loss protection. Some also, but not all, cover the cost of medical repatriation.
Specific air travel insurance mainly is focused on the life insurance component and not on medical costs with trip interruption often being the airlines responsibility.
Because we frequently travel internationally our health insurance does have an international travel component that pays up to $50,000 for each of us with a lifetime cap of $50,000.
We carry an annual medical evacuation and repatriation policy that over the past number of years has seemed reasonably priced to us. The cost for the two of us has been less than $200 for the annual plan and offers $500,000 in coverage. It should be noted that this is not medical insurance and will not pay for doctors and hospitals except for expenses in getting you and your companion home. One of the largest is EA+ Emergency Assistance Plus
SpecificSituational Considerations
Cruise only – Say you are taking a Mediterranean cruise with flights into and out of the sailing port. A cruise insurance policy usually provides the appropriate amount of coverage in most areas. You can, in some instances, be charged for medical services while onboard and will have to submit documents to get reimbursed under these insurance policies. Most cruise policies also cover medical expenses if you need care in a local clinic or hospital while a passenger on the cruise with some covering medical evacuation and repatriation. The same policy usually extends coverage while on booked cruise/land packages and the flights to and from the cruise port.
Cruise with an extended land itinerary – If you are taking that Mediterranean cruise but then plan to go off on your own for a couple of weeks in Europe, chances are that cruise policy will terminate on disembarking the ship. For that reason you need to understand that you will not be covered for medical emergencies above the international coverage and limits of your American health insurance policy. For retirees Medicare does NOT cover international medical care.
Frequent international travel – If you are a frequent international traveler it is most important to analyze your risk and how much you are comfortable paying for insurance. You have options of buying a complete medical plan (Geoblue) , a medical evacuation plan (EA+) or a complete annual insurance policy (Allianz, Amex) that offer some coverage in virtually all areas. One caution is that most annual policies only provide coverage while on trips of less than 60 days each.
In our case we take a number of cruises and international trips a year and our biggest concerns are medical emergencies and evacuation, so we keep an annual MedEvac plan in place. We believe our Medicare supplement offers adequate (we hope) medical coverage for now and will buy cruise policies on individual trips as mentioned above.
There are also complete annual travel policies, which should be considered if you travel internationally often. Generally they have lower limits of coverage, especially in areas like trip cancellation and property loss. For example most annual policies limit cancellation protection to $2,000 per year. Here is an example from a recent annual generic quote provided by Alianz for a typical retired couple.
Special Note:26 European countries require health insurance to visit.
In early 1995 twenty-six European countries signed an agreement that abolished enforcing their borders between member states. As a result the area mostly functions as a single country for international travel purposes, with a common visa policy. Anyone from a country that requires them to apply for the Schengen visa to enter Europe must provide proof of international health insurance.
The 26 countries in the zone are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
A letter from your insurance company is required, and this needs to mention that you will be covered in Europe for any medical, evacuation and repatriation expenses during your whole stay. The medical expenses have to be covered for at least 30,000 Euros.
Americans and Canadians along with a number of other nationals do not need this visa to visit. Because of the immigration and pandemic crisis of the past year there have been a number of Schengen countries that are again enforcing their borders on an emergency basis and may have modified their health coverage requirements.
This post was prompted by a travel friend contacting me wanting to know what travel insurances we use. We compared notes and kicked around some scenarios and decided it was a good subject to explore in greater depth.
Also thanks to a visitor from Reviews.com who directed us to their extensive article on buying travel insurance and if you have questions about specific recommendations I would highly recommend reading this article from Reviews.comHERE.
INSURANCE AND LESSONS FROM COVID-19
A number of recent travel articles about travel and insurance are now recommending “Cancel for Any Reason” Insurance but this may be a bad choice especially since most major cruise companies, in an effort to get bookings back, have offered last minute cancellations as part of their policies. You need to check current terms.
Carry More Identification Than Your Passport And/Or Drivers License
Carrying emergency contact information, particularly when traveling internationally is very important. Even if you have your passport and drivers license with you it may be difficult, in an emergency, to know who your emergency contacts are and how to reach them. That information isn’t part of your passport or your divers license. We recommend that you use an easily recognizable ID card with important medical and contact information like pictured here.
In addition most travel insurance policies will only reimburse you for canceling your cruise under specifically identified conditions. Most of those involve medical issues with you or immediate family. Some policies also provide for work related emergencies. Based on our experience with COVID-19 we now see a number of issues we hadn’t considered when looking at travel insurance.
Our Experience Involving Early COVID issues
We were recently booked on a pair of cruises that went from Singapore to Rome with 14 ports of call and had paid in full (inside 90 days). As coronavirus issues began to appear our cruising companions cancelled early on and got full credit towards a future cruise. As things began to get worse we contacted the cruise line and they were no longer agreeing to issue credits. 48 hours later they cancelled the cruise, gave refunds along with future cruise credits at 125%. After that we contacted our independent insurance carrier and were informed that they weren’t accepting claims involving coronavirus but might consider our air portion because our cruise was cancelled. After that we just contacted the airlines and got future credits to use within 12 months.
Insurance And Travel Advisories
It seems that under standard cancellation coverage, you cannot cancel due to travel advisories from the CDC, State Department or other government agencies. You can’t cancel because the cruise line changed the itinerary, or for fear of terrorism, or concerns about epidemics or natural disasters. Before booking a policy you should now investigate these issues for coverage.
CFAR Insurance
Because of these issues recent travel articles are suggesting that CFAR (cancel for any reason) policies are the answer. If you want the freedom to cancel your trip for any reason at all — and still get reimbursed for travel costs there are CFAR policies available. Looking into this option we’ve discovered many aren’t covering as much as theses articles suggest.
We have another 30 day cruise scheduled in the fall across the Pacific and around Japan so we decided to investigate CFAR policy costs for that itinerary. Our current standard policy covering that cruise cost us about $350. We received a CFAR quote from the same carrier that would reimburse our “deposits” only should we cancel for any reason for a premium of $1,500 but would not offer reimbursement the two weeks before the trip. That exceeds our currently paid deposits by almost $800 with questions about the actual costs, in full, being covered making this a bad deal.
If anyone finds CFAR insurance that makes more sense we’d love to hear about it.
Insurance Is Still Important
We still believe travel insurance should be an important part of your travel plan. Its benefits usually include trip interruption, emergency medical and emergency transportation, travel delay, lost luggage and more but we need to understand there are major exclusions like pandemics, natural disasters, insurrections and government actions.
You also need to understand that in order to file a claim you need to submit documentation. That can include proof of your property loss and its value like purchase receipts along with a police/security report of the incident. Health claims need doctor and hospital reports and bills.
The burden is on all of us travelers to educate ourselves on things like terrorism, tropical storms and disease outbreaks affecting our vacation destination. Also if you choose to buy standard coverage after an event becomes “known” even if you didn’t know about the situation, your benefits could be severely limited, making that travel insurance policy almost useless.
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Puerto Madryn is an amazing city that is very popular with cruise itineraries in South America. While Mydryn itself is a modern and thriving city with much to offer, the big attraction in the area is the national parks. The park of Mirador Elefantes Marinos has become famous for colonies of penguins, sea lions and seals along with pods of orcas. The orcas have gained a lot of notoriety in recent years for coming up onto the beach to grab seals in the surf.
Where Your Ship Dock
Puerto Madryn has a large marine pier right in the center of the city capable of handling large cruise ships. A walk down the pier puts you right in the middle of the CBD with good restaurants, cafes and shops along with a large selection of tour operators. All along the waterfront is a wide beach with a walking promenade.
Transportation
Madryn is a port city boasting a large deep-water port and is also a major industrial city, mainly focused on aluminum production and fishing. Puerto Madryn is also in an isolated area of Patagonia with the biggest attractions in the area being the national parks. Trips out to the parks can take between one and a half to two hours each way and the best way to visit is to book a tour. Other than walking the best way to get around the city itself is by taxi which a reasonably priced.
Currency
At this writing the exchange rate is about 38 Argentine Pesos to one US Dollar. Because of inflation rates over the past several years buying Pesos before leaving the United States is almost impossible. Because of the high number of visiting tourists, in the CBD many shops are eager to accept Euros and American Dollars. It is still advisable to exchange some currency for convenience.
Attractions
Seals at the Peninsula Valdes park
It is one of the most vibrant cities in Patagonia, with a beautiful coastal avenue overlooking Nuevo Gulf. As noted the focus of the tourist business is visiting the parks to see the penguins, seals and orcas. In town there are a number of shops and cafes with over a dozen good restaurants within a block of the waterfront. One of the local favorite pastimes is drinking coffee with chocolates in the many chocolate shops along the waterfront.
Historic, modern, remarkable Oslo. We can’t think of enough superlatives to describe this beautiful city. Within a couple of square mile area are great shops and restaurants, the Royal Palace, a truly incredible art museum, a flower market and the historic fortress.
Where Your Ship Docks
The Inner Harbor Oslo
Akershus Fortress
Most cruise ships will tie up at docks right under the walls of the Akershus Fortress within the inner harbor. While public facilities at the pier are not readably available it is only a short walk to the fortress or around to the central harbor area where there are facilities. It is also less than a mile walk around the entire central waterfront past outdoor cafes, shops and museums.
Transportation
Central Oslo
Metro Train is the best option if you are spending just a day or two in the central city area. While the train lines are numbered one to five and each one has a different color all five lines cover every stop from Majorstuen to Tøyen in central Oslo, so you can pick any stations or stop and always find the right train. There are at least four services an hour on every line. A transit ticket/pass works on all Oslo transportation systems and you can purchase tickets at Oslo Visitor Centre at Oslo Central Station, Ruter’s Customer Service Centre, in most Narvesen and 7-Eleven shops, from ticket machines at metro stations etc.
Cafes on the waterfront
You can also download the Ruter’s mobile ticket app and buy single, 24-hour, 7-day and 30-day tickets before hand. A 24-hour ticket (flexible start time, multi-user ticket) Adult 108 NOK Child/senior 54 NOK
Currency
Museum area
The Norwegian Krone is the currency of Norway. At this writing the exchange rate is 9 Krone to 1 U.S. Dollar. Of special note, Norway like several Scandinavian countries is well on the way to being a cashless society. Everyone expects you to use your credit and debit cards.
Attractions
Royal Palace
As mentioned above, within just a two square mile area is much to see.
Akershus Fortress is only a short walk from the pier and well worth a stroll around the grounds with a visit to The Resistance Museum on the grounds.
Other sights include The Royal Palace, The Nobel Prize Center, The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History, Viking Ship Museum, The Fram Museum, Oslo Cathedral and the Tjuvholmen Sculpture Park right in the central waterfront.
There are a number of very good cafes and restaurants on the harbor as well as interesting shops.
Picture a wide, slow moving river flowing through tropical jungles around hundreds of islands thick with trees. The water at the nearer bank flattens and slowly spreads out into jungle, while the far side narrows and seems to funnel into a U shaped trough. Clouds of mist billow skyward as the trough drops away into a horseshoe shaped rift. The near bank of the river breaks into dozens of channels that seem to fan out farther into the jungle. Down through the jungle a series of rifts fracture the landscape and the land falls away in a jagged line a mile wide. Fingers of the river race to the edge of these rifts and pour over the edge in a swirl of mist as the water roars down through narrow gorges. This is Iguazú Falls, the largest falls complex on Earth.
Falling water is everywhere
Last week I was speaking to someone who has spent the past twenty-five years making his living traveling the world. We were in Argentina and had just come back from Iguazú Falls. Like us, he felt the falls was one of the worlds great natural wonders and how remarkable it was that so few people know about it. He said that his first trip to the falls was about twenty years ago and at that time there was no national park, no visitors center and the dirt trails were connected with ramshackle wooden bridges. To reach the upper falls was almost a days hike along unmarked trails.
Today Iguazú Falls is an Argentine national park with paved trails and metal bridges and includes a train to take people to the upper falls. Thepark has a number of food concessions and even boasts a Melia Resort Hotel. You can ride a train (free) or take a jetboat ride up to the bottom of the major falls. Outside the park and down river a town has grown up with a number of restaurants including four and five star hotels. There is frequent jet service to Buenos Aries where it is possible to fly up early in the morning and fly back late at night if you are pressed for time.
We first learned about the falls last year when we were planning our Antarctic trip that was to start from Buenos Aries. In researching we found an article that said that if anyone had the time while visiting Argentina a couple of days at Iguazú Falls was not to be missed.
Iguazú Falls are waterfalls on the Iguazu River at the border of the Argentine province of Misiones and the Brazilian state of Paraná in the South American rain forest. Remarkably together, they make up the largest waterfall system in the entire world. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu near the boarder where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet (Tres Frontieras).
You may have already seen these falls if you have seen movies like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls, The Mission or Moonraker, all shot here on location.
OUR TRIP PLAN
In making our plan we thought we had figured it all out – but we got it backward. Early on we found a number of tour operators that offered one day trips from Buenos Aries and that became our starting point. While planning on our own saved us a lot of money and gave us plenty of time at the falls we missed a few important points. We decided to fly up one afternoon, get a hotel for a night, get to the park early in the morning and fly back to Buenos Aries late that night. We booked our flights and shopped for a hotel. There are a number of hotels to pick from with good reviews – we selected the Saint George which was very nice (REVIEW HERE). Many people suggest renting a car but our plan was to take a taxi from the airport to the hotel and take a local bus to the park and back. Once there we realized that while inexpensive the bus service would have taken up a lot of time. We ended up striking a deal with a taxi drive to get us around for the two days.
While it should have been obvious, we missed it. Our day at the falls included ten miles of hiking in 100° weather with humidity in the 90’s. While most of the trails were in shade, at the end of the day we were exhausted and sweaty and in no condition for a plane ride. Fortunately we had time to get back to the hotel to freshen up before our flight but if we had this trip to do over we would have changed up a lot.
First we would have caught an early morning flight from Buenos Aries and gone straight to the park which is actually nearer the airport than town. A rental car would probably have been cheaper and also much more convenient. The town is some 14 miles away from the park. After our day at the falls we would have gone to the hotel, freshened up, taken a swim, drinks, dinner and been ready for a leisurely return to Buenos Aries the next day. Live and learn…
A FEW OBSERVATIONS
While Brazil has an Iguazú Falls park most of the good stuff is on the Argentine side which is also much more developed. You will also need to arrange a visa to visit Brazil. Arranging a tour is also in our opinion probably a waste of money. The park has excellent trails and facilities, the train rides are included with park admission and even taking a taxi to reach the park over a tour is a big saving. Also don’t book a package that includes air and hotel and perhaps a tour (and that includes Expedia etc.). We looked at booking a number of ways and the least expensive by far was booking the air and hotel separately. Yes it is summer in January here and it is much cooler in winter. But that is also the dry season and the flow over the falls is said to be greatly reduced. January is the high tourist season at Iguazú Falls. We read a number of times that you will need cash at the park which is also wrong. Visa and MC are readily accepted for admission and at the concessions in the park along with the hotels and restaurants in town.
The Intentional Travelers 