Le Tikehau by Pearl Resorts

My husband and I stayed in Le Tikehau by Pearl from Jan 12-19. We chose Tikehau because we wanted to snorkel everyday from our over the water bungalow and as we had stayed in a French Polynesian Pearl resort before, we knew we would get good quality. Le Tikehau by Pearl resort met and exceeded our expectations. First, the snorkeling was pretty good. It is not like it was 20 years ago, but there was still a little bit of color in some of the coral, and a very good variety and quantity of marine life. I highly recommend going on excursions to the “manta ray cleaning station”, the “coral gardens” and a quick drift snorkel through the pass. I enjoyed snorkeling underneath and around the resort every day, morning and afternoon, and saw something new on every snorkel. Raipuni, the resort guest manager was fantastic, giving us recommendations and going above and beyond to helping us arrange a trip to Bird Island and participate in a motu picnic. He really made the experience and I cannot sing his praises enough. Honestly, all of the staff were friendly, helpful, courteous and professional- Outstanding! There was no more construction going on as read in previous reviews, as the newly built fish restaurant, view towers, and stage and seating are completed. The new Fish Restaurant which opened for the first time, the week prior, was a very special experience, simple but elegant, in the most magical setting (Thank you Anthony). We ate there twice. The main resort restaurant options for breakfast and dinner were varied and extensive, and well curated. As mentioned in previous reviews, the resort was completely renovated around 2023, and the bungalows were very nice and air conditioned. We stayed in one of the Premium overwater bungalows which allows you to go directly in the water and then come back and use your private outdoor shower to clean the gear. We stayed in 6, which is one of the bungalows at the end of the pier and its location was spectacular, with views of both sunrise and sunset. Tikehau Atoll is a very special experience and even the occasional rain showers during the wet season did not dampen our enthusiasm and joy of just being…. We highly recommend Le Tikehau by Pearl.

We had a great time with Tuhea and Maui on the bird iland tour

Our stay here was so special, unforgettable, and exceeded our wildest expectations. We arrived in a driving rainstorm but the staff still stood on the boat dock and gave us a wonderful Tahitian welcome. From the moment we arrived, the staff were so attentive and friendly. Our overwater bungalow was magical and beautifully appointed, and it was such a gift to see the abundance of underwater sea life right outside our door. Each night the sunset was like an hour-long show, changing colors by the minute. Food was delicious and we loved sitting at the Kaina bar, enjoying tapas and a tropical drink. Le Tikehau was a once-in-a-lifetime experience! It is well worth the effort to travel to this remote and spectacular location to see unspoiled reefs and explore beautiful motus. Special shout-out to Raipuni, who adds his personal touch to the experience of staying here.

Absolutely stunning location, in a beautiful set of atolls. Lovely snorkelling from the pier. Free kayaks to explore the area. Newly refurbished over water huts, which were nice. I expected a better bathroom for the price point, and much better outdoor loungers, but it was all usable. I’m a big snorkeler and Tikehau probably had the best marine life I saw in FP: The resort had a few areas in which improvements are desperately needed; 1) the food is absolutely horrendous. Not just bad, but almost inedible. The chef has a pretentious menu, and things look fancy, but the taste is absolutely awful. Badly cooked, weird flavour or no flavour, salty, lots of ingredients that are straight from a can. I appreciate the resort is remote but so are many other places I travelled to in the South Pacific. They used local ingredients - lots of fresh fish, coconuts, hydroponic ingredients etc. it’s It’s so bad that I wouldn’t return purely for this reason which is such a shame as Tikehau is spectacular. 2) The staff seem entirely disinterested in their jobs/hospitality. If sat at the pool, it was almost impossible to flag a waitress to order a drink. When you did, it seemed a huge inconvenience. The staff that provide snorkels or kayaks offer absolutely no advice on where to paddle/where not to paddle or any risks/things to be aware of when snorkelling. Given there are stone fish and lion fish in the area - and very dangerous currents in some places, I’d be a bit more proactive! 3) there was only one excursion actually running via a third party operator. It was okay, not great. They took us to the Tikehau pass, where tiger sharks are often spotted. Hugely dangerous, very strong currents going out to sea, and kids were on the boat! Recipe for a shark bite or drowning. They shouldn’t be taking people there - many other nice snorkelling spots which are much safer for a family/general outing I could see the GM was trying hard to improve things. I felt sorry for him. But I really think he has to bite the bullet and sack the chef; it was absolutely appalling. And I travel maybe 50% of any year and stay in 5* hotels, so know what the standard is. It’s so far from this.

The Pearl over the water bungalow experience is beautiful. But the food was really very bad. The breakfast buffet had a poor selection of pastries. A lot of chocolate but I don't do chocolate for breakfast They had warmer trays of cool wet scrambled eggs , tepid boiled vegetables, slimey bacon sitting in its fat, and sausages that were only cooked on one side. The dinner menu often had multiple varieties of raw tuna which wasn't inspiring , and then very fancy sounding food that was swimming in over salted sauces. The lobster bisque was inediblely salty. There were really no vegetables, and there was no meal that was really good. Even the deserts were often weird and not appetizing. By the end I was eating off the kids menu getting grilled fish that was edible but really bland and not good, and I had ice creme for desert off the kids menu. The vanilla ice creme was good. But for the cost and the luxury experience ,this Pearl resort really needs to up it game in food department. Suggestions make some good fresh fish dishes with mahi, sword fish,moonfish, ECT. Make a good bouillabaisse, good risotto, a nice rack of lamb, or fillet mignon with bernaise. For desert make good French pastry. We had good pastry at a little place in Moorea " Carmaline", we had good wood fired pizza, . You could do so much better.