Paris, France and Rome, Italy Tips

Tips:

- When flying from Lisbon, Spain to Paris Orly Airport, sit on the right hand side of the plane to be able to see the Eiffel Tower. 

- Business class in intra Europe flights is the same size seats as economy except there are only 2 assigned person for 3 person seats.

- From Paris Orly Airport, it’s a fix rate for taxi and there is a line just outside of the airport. To get to the left bank, it is Euro 32 and to the right bank, it is Euro 37. Make sure to ask the hotel to reserve a taxi when you go to the airport as summer is a busy month and can be hard to get taxi. It will be an extra charge of Euro 7.

- There are 2 lounges in Lisbon, you should definitely pick ANA lounge instead of TAP Portugal lounge as it is much bigger, better food selection and stronger AC as it gets really hot in summer

- Buy the SIM card when you get to Paris as it’s much cheaper and for 10GB, 30 days, it cost only Euro 15.49. Just ask your hotel concierge where to buy the SIM card. For us, it was a store which sold cigarettes.

- The SIM card didn’t worked automatically when we flew to Rome and we had to call the company. Looks like all SIM card should work throughout Europe and we just need to turn on roaming. Best investment of our trip was to get his SIM card as it helps us to take the Metro and gets us to all the destination that we want to go.

- Always ask the taxi driver if they take credit card before you get on the taxi as it’s too late if you ask in the car. Our taxi drive in Rome said that he only take cash and luckily we had exchange some Euro before we left Paris.

- Our hotel concierge told us that by law, all taxis should take credit card although most of them don’t like to.

- Cost of taxi from FCO airport in Rome to our hotel is Euro 50. Highly recommend taking a taxi instead of Metro as it’s very hot in the summer and you will have to walk from the metro station to your hotel and the roads in Europe are on cobblestone and slight hills which are hard to walk. Each taxi can take up to 4 passengers and 4 large checkin luggages.

- For Metro in Rome, it’s very easy to use like Paris. You can buy a pass for 5 trips or more so that you can use the same card instead of paying a 50 cent charge for each individual trip you buy.

- Paris is cooler than Rome but still pretty hot in July as it is around mid 80 degrees Fahrenheit in Paris. I highly do not recommend to come to Rome in July or August as it’s near 100 degrees Fahrenheit and humid as well. 

- Cars in Europe normally don’t stop for pedestrians but there are some drivers who do and are greatly appreciated. One driver ran a red light and  also hit us in front of the US embassy. Good thing is that they drive in the right side of the road which is the same as US roads so we are familiar with it. 

- No need to rent a car in Paris or Rome as they have a good metro system and are easy to take. But the metro stations are pretty dirty and some trains don’t have any air conditioning at all. 

- Take the white taxis in Rome as they are licensed and cheaper than the black taxis

- Quite a number of people likes to cut in line and also honk while driving. People seemed to be in a rush and doesn’t have much patience. Streets are very dirty especially in Rome and litter everywhere and graffiti on historic buildings which is very sad as we should preserve history instead of destroying them.

- There are many scammers in tourist places and be watchful. Some of the scams that we saw

1. People giving you flowers for good luck and once you take the rose, they ask for money

2. People putting bracelets on you before you could say anything and tie a dead knot so that you can’t remove it and have to buy it

3. Old lady with a cane walking very slowly asking for money. We fell for this one and our tour guide later told us they are scammers and makes Euro 700 each day.

- They are also many other vendors trying to sell stuff to you to buy but at least when you say no, most of them won’t bother you except a few persistent ones. There are signs asking tourists not to buy things from them.

- Brand name items are much cheaper than US, so a good place to buy if you are interested in the luxury brands. Just make sure to get the tax refund forms from the store where you purchase the items so that you can get the tax refund in the airport.

- Highly recommend booking the tours in advance. The tour guides are very knowledgeable and gives a lot of information on the history of each place as well as skipping the line to enter. Definitely worth the extra money that you have to pay.

Comparing Maldives with Bora Bora

We stayed at Waldorf Astoria Maldives which is a fairly new hotel built in 2019. The hotel was so amazing and we have our butler, so I think it is going to be very hard to beat. Conrad Bora Bora was nice but the rooms seem outdated, no butler and the breakfast was disappointing. There was no freshly customized made noodle staton nor any tropical fruits although the breakfast was cheaper at about $54 versus $80. But I rather pay more for the wider selections. Also, if you order egg Benedict’s or pancakes, you will need to pay an extra $12 while it was included in Maldives. Mimosa cost extra $35. So if you add these extra cost, then breakfast in Conrad Bora Bora is actually more expensive than WA Maldives. 

In terms of coral life, there seem a lot more fishes in Bora Bora as there have a lot of coral reefs and it’s a very old hotel while Maldives was recently built and man made. But we still saw a lot of fishes in Maldives especially outside our room. 

Also, we have our own exclusive bicycles in Maldives while in Bora Bora hotel, we just have to take any bike available. 

Maldives is all about ocean while Bora Bora has both ocean and mountains, so it makes it more interesting. Bora Bora also gives me the vibes of Kauai. Conrad Bora Bora is on a private cove on Motu To'opua. The hotel bought one side of the motu while the other side of the island has private residences and is only accessible by boat as there is no road to drive around this Motu. The reason that the hotel bought this side of the island as the view is facing the ocean and they have sharks and stingrays right in front of the hotel which is one of the best place for snorkeling. The other side faces Mount Otemanu and also Vaitape ferry dock.

Bora Bora is much closer to US than Maldives and only 3 hours slower in time zone, so not much jet lag. 

We went around the best time to go to Bora Bora but it rained multiple times although it was mainly showers and didn’t last long! We went during the rainy season in Maldives but was super lucky as it didn’t rained while we were there. 

Also, lots of mosquitoes in Bora Bora where we got bitten but less mosquitoes in Maldives. My son's hand was swollen from the bites. 

There are definitely more activities that we can do in Bora Bora as there is easier access to the main island and is less expensive than Maldives. In Maldives, we felt that we were in the middle of nowhere but at Bora Bora, we were visiting the main island several times as the hotel provided free ferry shuttle during the day so that we can just go to the main island for lunch and buy some snacks.

Tips for French Polynesia (Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora)

 Tips on visiting French Polynesia

1. Direct flights from SFO to PPT (Tahiti) for about a little over 8 hours. Once you get out of the PPT, turn right and you will see an ATM at the end where you can get some local currency. As of June 4, 2022, the exchange rate to US is about USD$1 = XPF 111 which is very good for people coming from US as it's usually about USD$1 = XPD 100

2. After getting money from ATM, walk to the curb and there are lots of taxis waiting in line. Hop on the first one and the ride from the airport to Hilton Tahiti is about XPF2200. Our taxi driver was really nice and only charged us XPF2000. Taxis have a meter, so you can see the price.

3. Hilton Tahiti is very nice and breakfast starts at 6:30 am but we had an early flight to Bora Bora, so had to miss the breakfast on our second day. We stayed there for 2 nights as we wanted to visit Moorea. We took a taxi to the ferry station which was about XPF 1500 and is in the opposite direction from the airport. We then went to the far right to buy the ferry tickets from Aremiti Ferry. One way tickets to Moorea was XPF 1650. Ferry ride is about 35 minutes. The ferry looks very nice and clean. There are 2 ferry companies which are Aremiti and Terevau. We didn't take Terevau, so couldn't say much about the ferry but I heard that it's a little cheaper.

4. Booked a local tour in Moorea from Viator and the tour guide picked us up from the ferry station in Moorea. Took us around in his 4x4 truck and it was fun. Suggest to take a local tour as the places that they took us is hard to find and very steep at some of the places, so don't feel comfortable driving ourselves.

5. Bought ferry tickets on the way back from Moorea to Tahiti. Couldn't find a taxi at the ferry station in Tahiti, so walked back to the hotel. Luckily, it wasn't too far, too us maybe less than 30 minutes to walk back.

6. Also, most shops are closed on Sunday as it's their family time. So, make sure to buy your snacks and dirnks before that.

7. On the way from PPT (Tahiti) to BOB (Bora Bora) which is about 45 minutes, the flight on Air Tahiti is open seating, so first come first served. Try to queue up early and sit on the left hand side of the plane facing forward. Also, either sit on the first 4 rows or last few rows but not in the middle as the propeller of the plane will block some of your views.

8. On the way back from BOB to PPT, try to sit on the right hand side of the plane. 

9. While in our hotel in Bora Bora (Conrad Bora Bora), we took their boat shuttle to the main island of Bora Bora. There is a small market called Chin Lee selling snacks and drinks near the Vaitape ferry dock which is a 5 minute walk towards the left and a pharmacy a couple of stores forward. We also rent a car from Avis Bora Bora next to the Vaitape ferry dock. Make sure to check that the car you rent is automatic not manual if you are like us who don't know how to drive a manual car. We didn't know about it and was shocked when we first got the rental car. We had to go back to them and asked for an automatic car. Luckily, they have 1 left. 

10. The main island of Bora Bora is not that big and takes a little over an hour to drive around. There are not many signs on the island, so we had to guess where we were. Best advice is to have a offline map or printed copy of where to go. We didn't rent any pocket wifi, so had no wifi to look for directions.