Check in was easy. There is a main circle driveway n a separate larger parking lot to the right of the hotel. Each room has a fridge, kitchenette, n kettle with coffee n tea supplied. The outdoor garden porch has a table n four chairs. We spent hours watching the chickens n drinking coffee. The bed was comfortable. The pool is amazing n directly adjacent to a small beach. There is a manned pool bar where you can sit n play cards. They have water equipment for use-kayaks, etc. There are multiple beds at the beach which is located on the bay. The sunsets are incredible. Across the bridge is the restaurant. It provides breakfast, lunch, n dinner which wildly convenient if you’re not in the mood to cook in your suite. I would suggest renting a vehicle if you’re staying for any length of time. We rented a vehicle n took the car across with the ferry. The vehicle was a stick shift. It enabled us to visit beaches, overlooks, shops, n small businesses around the island for lunch. There were multiple families from France on extended vacations. Family friendly hotel. There were no language barriers with staff or the community. Everyone appears to speak English. The hotel concierge will arrange whale watching, snorkeling tours, ATV, etc. you can access most of the tours from the restaurant dock or the front lobby. Other hotel occupants were coming to meet tours at the Cooks Bay Hotel dock. The staff are welcoming n helpful. We had a wonderful stay.
When the best thing about a hotel is ”eating with your feet in the water”, you really need to wonder. How about the restaurant being open for lunches and dinners for the brothers and their wives and friends, but not for the patrons of the hotel? The restaurant was closed more than half of the 14 days I was there. Suddenly the ”closed” sign goes up, for obviously bogus reasons. How about the fact that there is a spate of thefts, all perfectly timed for snatching shoes off patios at night or entering locked doors during the day, during the only hour a person was known to be out of the room? And the day after the maintenance man was given the job of cleaning that person's room? And suddenly security is too expensive for them to pay for, so some dude goes around a few times a night with a flahlight. And the police don't come even if they say they will because this island is a rotational job, they come from France and it is a vacation more than a job. Of course you need cash, because they don't accept credit cards, and banks are few and are all in the town 30 minutes away, as are the markets. So if you don't want to rent a car or scooter for exorbitant fees, you need to hitchhike to town ot take intermittent busses that may not operate that day. And the fish and coral in the lagoon are third-rate; the lagoon and its coral are degraded from too many tourists and too many boats zooming back and forth to bother the whales or the turtles or the sharks or the rays, and the coral id covered with sediment, no soft corals, not a great variety of marine species. Mildly fun, as were the kayaks, but not worth the transactional costs of being at a mediocre hotel with proprietors who couldn't care less about the comfort, security, or wellbeing of their guests! Do yourselves a favor: skip the bad vibes here, do diligent research and try to find a place that represents what Moorea should be and used to be, the one that exists in your mind. You will find it, it exists, but not at Fare Maheata!
Disappointed with arrival checkin was slow and rushed nothing properly explained. Garden Beach room had good view of sea but resort is looking old and dated. Service is not the best for a Sofitel food average and over priced. Sea is turquoise blue but very strong underwater current. Staid for 3 nights but would have left after 2. Bitten on the beach ankle level so assume sand mites, sunbeds are poor quality and very uncomfortable, pool is tiny.. Would not recommend this hotel to my friends.