Throughout our travels last year, I made my husband learn how to operate many different transportation modalities from jet skis to Vespas to ATVs. We had never been on any of these before and I give him props for being thrown into the unfamiliar scenarios and handling all of these vehicles like a champ! (Minus almost crashing our Vespa into parked Fiat literally within seconds starting our tour in Florence/Tuscany…but that’s a story for another day..!)
So onto our first new vehicle adventure… did everyone except me know that ATV stands for All-Terrain Vehicle?! I asked my husband what does it stand for, all excited and ready to teach him something and he flat out said “All Hyphen Terrain Vehicle.” What a show off. lol
Well, so for those who didn’t know, the name tells it all. ATVs can handle a wide variety of terrains, as its name states. The large, low-pressure tires allow these big monsters to ford and plow through rivers, mud, gravel, sand, etc. This means that ATVs are a very easy way to cover the hills and valleys of the lush land of Mo’orea that were a MUST (in my book) to see! It’s been awhile since I visited the topic of Mo’orea…and almost a year since we visited the island itself! But this adventure was still one of the most exciting and fun excursions we’ve booked before, and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who is visiting Mo’orea!
There are a few companies that offer ATV tours, and we chose to go with ATV Moorea Tours. Their website is a tadddd janky, but they were very easy to work with and I read many TripAdvisor reviews before going with them. I had a great overall impression after the tour of their service and friendliness. After all, tourism is huge in Mo’orea and I’d definitely recommend going with them!
Travel Pearl: Hiking in Mo’orea is possible, but it’s definitely not for the faint of heart and it’s a lot larger of an island than Bora Bora with gullies and mountains and rivers and volcanic craters, so it will take you a long time to get up these mountain or to the center of the volcanic crater. Hence, the ATVs!
Here are some quick links if you want to skip ahead in the article!
- What does the tour entail?
- Where is ATV Moorea Tours located?
- How much does it cost?
- How do I book this tour?
- How should I dress?
- What else should I know?
What does the tour entail?
There’s two group tours you can book with this company:
- “Discovery” aka 2.5-hour tour
- “Adventure Raid” aka 3.5-hour tour
Or you can book a private tour entirely and customize it to your liking. And there are two tours a day–morning vs. afternoon. We did ours in the afternoon because we couldn’t fit it in any other time, but I think morning tour wouldn’t be as hot on a sunny day if you are concerned about weather.
I like to think of the difference between the tours as including Magic Mountain vs not including it. And to be honest, you should include it as it offers some gorgeous panoramic views! We did the longer tour at 3.5 hours and it was a great way to spend the afternoon after a morning of helmet diving! (Next post to come!) Our tour group consisted of 8 people, including our guide, so it felt pretty intimate.
As in most volcanic islands, the roads mainly go around the perimeter of the island (37 miles in driving total for Mo’orea). The island is shaped a little like a stubby trident. The starting point for the tour is on the tip of the left prong across from the Intercontinental Mo’orea. (See picture below.) Here you’ll get oriented to your ATV at their office and how to drive it.
The ATVs can be ridden by a single person or two people can ride together. The interesting thing about ATVs is that you have to press on the gas on your handle bars instead of your feet. My husband said that it was a bit hard to drive sometimes because you’re pressing on the gas handle (thumb throttle) to accelerate while trying to steer the vehicle in different directions too.
Needless to say, these things don’t go super fast, but they cover the terrain much more easily than walking. I read many of the reviews saying that the order of the tour varies sometimes depending on your guide and the weather that day, so the following details might be a different order on your tour if you choose to do it!
1. Opunohu Bay
You drive down along the coast on pretty flat ground with the ocean to your left into Opunohu Bay, which is the first resting point to get off. The bay is at the end of a narrow straight, one of two on the island. The second bay is Cook’s Bay, named after Captain Cook. Our guide Guillermo, or Guy, was super friendly and spoke English fluently with a slight French accent. He explained how even though there is a Cook’s Bay, Captain Cook actually landed in Opunohu Bay instead! This bay is very calm and there’s a lot of small sailboats and kayaks that pass through here. The sand along this beach is a black sand beach as well.
2. Agricultural College
Next, we headed towards the center of the volcanic crater and crossed some muddy rivers before stopping to admire some vast pineapple fields! Mo’orea is a giant pineapple producing island in Tahiti and its lush valleys might be the reason why.
Guy explained that in Tahiti, the islands did not grow very many things to export except for fruits. Vegetables were rare as well, but the tropical fruits were plentiful! We passed through the agricultural college of Opunohu, which is the only one in the country, where students would come to study so they could become better farmers of fruit crops. We got to drive though lots of hibiscus trees, mango trees, and even saw soursop or cherimoya trees (little Buddha-head looking fruits).
Our guide also had us stop by some banyan trees and we tried swinging from the tree branches like Tarzans just to see how crazy strong these branches were!
3. Belvedere Lookout
We headed upwards towards Belvedere Lookout, which is pretty much almost dead center in the island now. Here you can see the view of both bays from high up and offers a nice panoramic view of Mo’orea with Mt. Rotui in the center. That mountain can be hiked, but it sounds pretty difficult and steep according to our guide!
At this point, I started to realize that I had giant welts of mosquito bites starting to form on my back shoulders where my tank top did not cover. That’s also when I realized I forgot to spray mosquito repellant there!! =(
4. Center of the Crater
From the center of the valley/crater, you can also see all the interesting mountain ridges and crags which definitely makes you feel like you’re in Jurassic Park!
5. Jam Tasting
We took a rest stop at a little hut to do “jam tasting” with all the tropical fruits from the island. It was more a local shop and you could buy jams so I didn’t feel our guide did much here, but it was a nice little rest stop.
To be honest, we were more interested in the ice cream they had than the jams. HA! It was so hot and humid on this ride, I was sweating like crazy and being bitten everywhere by mosquitoes! There were also some really friendly wild kittens here and they would slink up against you and a few had some fun playing with my mom’s sneakers!
6. Magic Mountain
The last stop we did was to head back towards our starting point but head up one more mountain to see the view from Magic Mountain. I read some people hike this from the Opunohu Bay when they get off their cruise ships but it is pretty steep so luckily we had the ATVs. The road is also pretty narrow and there were some ditches that were literally bridged by two planks of wood and I was kind of nervous for our big ATVs driving over these, but they managed to survive. You have to drive pretty carefully and slowly though!
Once you get to the top, the road becomes so narrow it’s essentially a one way lane. Our tour guide told us to park and start walking up the hill and he maneuvered the ATVs so that we wouldn’t have to back down the hill later on. Walking up to the top was a short but steep hike and it gets pretty windy at the top, but it felt so nice after the sweaty, humid day–even on an overcast day! I can only imagine what it is like on a sunny day.
Where is it located?
The tour company is literally located a couple hundred feet across the street from the entrance to the Intercontinental Mo’orea! (Make a right when you walk out and head across the street down the road.) I had no idea or else I would have just walked outside our hotel.
But they will pick you up from your hotel, so if you’re not staying at IC Mo’orea like we were, have no fear! Look out for the yellow lizard on their van when they come get you. (Remember from my other posts that Mo’orea means “yellow lizard!”)
How much does it cost?
I believe these prices are still the same as the ones we booked last year (April 2017) based on the emails. I have converted the new prices on their website as of today (March 2018) from CFP Franc (xpf) to US Dollars.
Currently, prices are as follows:
—1 rider, 2.5 hours = 12000 xpf –> ~$125 USD
—2 riders, 2.5 hours = 14000 xpf –> ~$145 USD
—1 rider, 3.5 hours = 19000 xpf –> ~$198 USD
—2 riders, 3.5 hours = 21000 xpf –> ~$218 USD
They also gave us a 10% discount for booking in advance if you pay through their secure server prior to your reservation!
How do I book this tour?
I booked the tour about 2 weeks before we left for Tahiti. I do recommend trying to book earlier if you know your dates in advance as we had limited time slots to choose from and limited time on the island. I tried to wait a little later to see what the weather would be like, but it’s so hard to predict! And people we met also did ATVing in the rain and said they had a BLAST too, so honestly, it doesn’t matter.
I simply emailed Karine at jqmoorea@hotmail.com and let her know the dates we were in Moorea and asked what openings for tours that she had. She was pretty good at writing back, even though sometimes she wouldn’t answer all of my questions the first time around. They are much better at French, but I appreciate that they do know English and can communicate in English via email! She needed the first and last names of our tour group, a phone number to contact, and which hotel we were staying at.
After we confirmed the date we wanted, Karine sent me a secure link to pay through and she emailed me when she received payment. On the day of the tour, I was a little worried because I didn’t receive any more confirmation emails and wasn’t sure if she would show up to pick us up (because we didn’t know it was LITERALLY right across the street). She arrived a few minutes later than the emailed time (1:20pm) but we could see her pulling up into the Intercontinental lobby, where we were asked to wait.
Bring your driver’s license and a credit card to the tour, so you can sign the waivers and they charge a deposit to the credit card which is returned when you bring back the ATV to them! Not that you can really drive off with it anywhere else… 😛
Travel Pearl: I read somewhere a lot of places close on Sunday in Tahiti so double check first on your excursions to make sure they do run the day you want to go! I know going to these islands should be more chill, but I’d say do all your adventurous activities in Mo’orea and relax in Bora Bora!
How should I dress?
Well, you will want to dress cool since it does get hot and sticky in the jungle! I suggest covering up your legs to prevent mosquito bites or basically dousing yourself in mosquito repellant! I thought the tank I wore was nice and breezy, BUT I forgot to lather up on my back shoulders which were exposed and, therefore, feasted on.
I use picardin, which I like because it does not damage clothes or backpacks or other materials, but I do actually believe DEET works very well too in things like Off! or Repel. However, DEET isn’t as safe on plastics and synthetics. We also used mosquito bands which use natural repellant smells and can smell a bit weird at first, but I think you just get used to it. I’d use them on my wrists and ankles, but I don’t think they offer as much protection to be honest. Oil of lemon eucalyptus is better than lemongrass, cedar oil, and all the other natural stuff. My husband prefers this as it’s the most natural form yet still offers protection.
Not only do I kind of get allergic reactions from mosquito bites, but I’m also trying hard to avoid Zika lately, as a woman who is of child-bearing potential. See this article by Consumer Reports for some more detail on mosquito repellants.
Our guide wore flip flops so you do not really need hiking or walking shoes for this because we honestly did not walk that much. The flip flops were useful when crossing the waters because water and mud splatters every where. I did get mud on my shoes and my leggings and it would have been easier to just wash it off of flip flops!
You don’t need a hat since you have the helmet and I’m pretty sure that this is where I lost my USC cap because I brought it but didn’t need it for the tour. Sad day.
What else should I know?
I wouldn’t pack too much, but you can bring a small backpack with water bottles and they will help you strap it to the front of the ATV as you can see in the above picture.
Again, be mindful of mosquitos, as I cannot stress enough. Unless you’re a natural mosquito repeller, there is slim chance you will get out of there without a dozen nasty bites. See “How should I Dress?” if you haven’t read it already.
Lastly, the best part is that our guide took pictures for us on his digital camera while we were driving when we didn’t ask him to and then emailed us the files after the excursion…all free of charge!! He was also very helpful in taking other photos on our phones too. The tour felt small and intimate and we got a lot of attention and information during the trip.
I’d highly recommend going with this company, especially if you’re already staying at the Intercontinental Mo’orea!
If you don’t get a chance to do the ATV tours, I definitely recommend at least trying to hike up to Magic Mountain for a good view of Opunohu Bay. But going more inland is really a treat to see the center of the island and the pineapple plantations. I mean, look at this landscape below. It’s pretty insane, and I bet it’d be even prettier on a sunny (albeit hot) day! I’m glad we got to do it even if it wasn’t the perfect day, and it’s a fun thing to experience the ATV rides too!
Happy travels! 🙂
-Jasmine
Makes me want to go now. Thank you for the great tips and details of the adventures
Yay!! So happy you enjoyed it Lynn 🙂