Hotel Le Mandarin, Papeete

Well, it's central Papeete- not exactly your ideal stop when you land in Tahiti. But everyone needs a place to cool their heels from the flight and grab some essentials before heading out to the islands. What's more- you don't want to spend a mint, either. Hotel Le Mandarin fits the bill: overlooking mountains and the picturesque city hall, it's within walking distance to everything that's worth seeing (and eating) in downtown Papeete. The big market, ferry loading dock, tourist information, and countless restaurants and stores are all within a 5 minute walk. In fact, just a couple of doors down is Le Dragon d'Or, one of the best Chinese restaurants in all of French Polynesia. The staff went out of their way to provide us a relatively safe place for storing our luggage, and even saw how tired we were after our flight and got us into our room early. The rooms are fairly spacious and clean, most with a fairly nice view. Unfortunately, like all of central Papeete, there is a considerable amount of street noise during business hours, and Le Mandarin is *not* the place to get some winks between the hours of 9am to 5pm. The surrounding neighborhood is relatively safe, although you may see some "street activity" walking back from dinner. But regardless of the negatives, if you want an inexpensive room (for Tahiti) with a great location before you jet off to snorkel the crystal blue lagoons, Le Mandarin is a good choice.