Dollar to satisfaction, Te Teira was the worst hotel experience my wife and I have ever had.

On our two week honeymoon in FP, which also took us to the Sofitel in Moorea and the St. Regis in Bora Bora, we purposefully chose to book a few nights at Te Tiare to experience an "un-Westernized" version of FP. Huahine seemed to fit the bill and Te Tiare is the only "luxury" resort on the island. Unfortunately, all we ended up doing was paying over $900 per night for a Motel 6 quality room in a tropical paradise setting. Not only were all of the furnishings old in our deep overwater bungalow (which are the most expensive rooms in the resort), but also incredibly cheap. The "mattress" was about a two-inch thick pad and the bedding was disgusting.

The power in our deep overwater bungalow went out on the last night. We called the front desk and they sent a guy out. After investigating for a few minutes, the only English he could muster, with a shrug of the shoulders, was "tomorrow." As in "I have no idea what the problem is, we'll deal with it tomorrow." That didn't work so well for us as we were leaving the next day. I spent several minutes fiddling with the circuit breakers and finally realized that the lights would work if we cut the power to the wall-mounted A/C unit. So we decided spending the evening in a muggy, but lit, room beat spending the evening in a muggy and pitch black room.

The hotel does have one really neat feature: when your power goes out and you have no A/C, the hot water for the entire resort automatically goes out the next morning so that you can enjoy an ice cold shower to cool yourself off after the prior night's sweat-soaked slumber.

When we checked out we mentioned the power and lack of hot water issues to the receptionist, and asked what the hotel was going to do to compensate us (and other guests - she mentioned that there was no hot water on the entire property) for the inconvenience. She spoke with the manager and all they would offer was to comp us the spaghetti room service my wife and I shared the night before.

Spaghetti in FP, you might ask? That's because the seafood dishes we ordered for our other meals at Te Tiare (as well as one pork dish) were terrible. You can't screw up simple spaghetti with meat suace. And to their credit, they didn't. Further, there aren't many other options on the island of Huanine, and the few that you may find are an hourly boat ride away. You are pretty much stuck with Te Tiare's food.

Anyway, we turned down their insulting offer of comping our $25 meal and instead will fight the good fight to have our last night's room rate refunded. It is obvious this place is struggling for every dollar they can get their hands on (we asked, only 16 of the 41 rooms were occupied), so I'm not holding my breath.

A premium overwater bungalow at the recently and beautifully renovated Sofitel in Moorea, at approximately $700 per night, was in our opinion a steal. And the St. Regis in Bora Bora was probably the nicest resort I've ever stepped foot on. Do yourselves a favor and skip Te Tiare, and Huahine in general, and spend a few extra days in Moorea or Bora Bora.

Our observations...Huahine is gorgeous! The resort is a little "rough around the edges". After 3 nights at the Moorea Pearl we were on cloud 9 (the service was fantastic). We arrived in Huahine in the rain. The taxi boat broke down and a grumpy woman checked us in. But we were still optimistic. We checked into our beach bungalow and could only stand the smell of mildew for about 5 minutes. We ended up paying to upgrade to a POWB. It was very large and the porch was nice. It just looked very "70's" in the decor. Having lived on an island before the roaches don't really freak us out- but there were quite a few. The snorkeling was very good. The food in the restaurant was decent. Except for the creme brulee which was Amazing! I didn't think the prices were too bad. The drinks at the bar were VERY strong, like almost undrinkable. The bar offered "activities" but many nights we were the only couple. It rained quite a bit so we decided to have an in room massage. The massage was FANTASTIC and the woman was saying how desserted the resort has been. We found that to be very true. It was nice to not have to wait for drinks and we had enjoyed a lot of privacy. The only problem was that they require a minimum of 4 people for their excursions. We waited 3 days for anyone to sign up for anything. We ended up doing the jetski excursion which was the best (most beautiful scenery) out of anything we did in FP. Downtown Fare was very small and cute (xmas type lights). Very few people spoke any english, I speak a little French. We found that people were not as friendly as they were on Moorea.

We chose Huahine to relax and enjoy quiet FP. It's true there really is not much to do. I'm glad we experienced it but I would not recommend more than a few days there.

We were pleased with the size of our OTW bungalow, the largest in French Polynesia. The size of the deck , complete with its little shaded area, make it very special. However, the OTW units are located right on the boat channel, hindering a private feeling and interfering with sleep. I would choose an OTW on another island if you are budgeting for only one such experience. Many of the garden units are more secluded with tall tropical plants than the OTW units are.We had only one dinner at the resort, electing to dine in the town of Fare for the 3 others. The ferry/shuttle runs once an hour to town and back. The best restaurants ( at the Relais Mahana and Chez Mauriti) are a long haul away from town so we chose to have lunch at them while we were out with the rent a car and then snorkel in the same area. You will need to rent a car for at least a full day to see all the sights of the island. Stop at the vanilla plantation for a high speed tour of the mini botanical garden-the guide is a hoot. The private lagoon tour/lunch on a motu with Huahine Explorer was a highlight. Do your souvenir shopping on the other islands as there are very few stores on Huahine. It is a lush and beautiful place, fortunately lacking the over development of some of the other islands.

Te Tiare is considered the best resort of the island but it might be worth checking out some of the less expensive options on Avea Bay, such as Relais Mahana and Pension Mauriti. They are on a superb beach on the smaller of the 2 islands of Huahine.

We stayed at Huahine for 5 nights before departing to Bora Bora. Huahine is one of the most secluded islands I have ever been to. Because of this, the island is in pristine condition and will have you awe struck.

The Te Tiare was an above average hotel. We stayed in a lagoon bungalow which was a nice introduction to the OW bungalow we stayed at on Bora. The condition of the hotel is a bit older and doesn't compare to the luxury of Bora however this is the only "resort" so it doesn't leave much for options or competition. The food at this hotel was good. I thought the chef overcooked the meals a bit. The sunsets are phenomenal. All of the OW and lagoon bungalows have a view. The sun sets over Le Tahaa which is two miles and just at the horizon.

With all that said, you go to Huahine to experience the island. It is breathtaking. We decided on the jeep tour, a boat tour and a private horseback riding excursion. The jeep tour was nice to go to some ancient temples and the look-out points were perfect. The boat tour was great. He took us to some good snorkeling spots and was an excellent guide. The horseback riding was the highlight. The stable was Le Petite Ferme. We booked a private tour with sea bathing. Going bareback into the water was an experience but no one fell off so I'm pretty sure we can call it a success.

The town, Fare, is small, but we picked up some groceries for breakfast and lunch. We went out to lunch and dinner one time each.

Oh...almost forgot to mention that there were birds(about 100) that roosted in the tree behind our bungalow every night and they felt the need to start singing at 5AM. This was a bit of an annoyance but there isn't much you can do if you want unspoiled beauty. You have the rest of the day to relax anyway :-).