Fare Vai Nui

The hotel has five bungalows of wood and stone, each a few metres from the beach. The owner’s wife runs the kitchen, cooking à la carte as well as half-board meals for the hotel’s guests, and the restaurant is known on Raiatea for generous, tasty plates. Meals are served beside the pool, under a fare pote’e or in a small air-conditioned room.

The menu is not published online, so ask what the kitchen is cooking that day when you book, and order from the à la carte dishes at lunch or dinner. There is a list of wines, cocktails and beers. After the meal, walk into Vaiaau, where vanilla plantations sell their pods.

Enter the lagoon through the Toamaro pass to reach the Toamaro anchorage, in turquoise water with a view of the sun setting over Bora Bora; there is room for three yachts for up to 48 hours. Come ashore at the hotel’s dock. Snorkelling is good in the lagoon, and surfers use the Tetuatiare and Toamaro passes. Vaiaau village, with a pharmacy, a small grocery and a seaside snack bar, is within walking distance. By road, the hotel is about 25 minutes from Uturoa.

The restaurant serves lunch and dinner from Wednesday to Sunday, with lunch from 11am to 1pm and dinner from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. Book by phone or email, and confirm the day you plan to come.