San Jose to Papeete, French Polynesia from $615

Bag Type	Dimensions / Weight	Included
👜 Personal Item	Small bag / laptop	✅ Yes
🎒 Cabin Bag	Varies by carrier	✅ Yes
🧳 Checked Bag	Not included — buy separately	❌ No

🌍 About Papeete

Most travelers only change planes in Papeete on the way to Bora Bora or Moorea, but it's worth a day. Start at the Marché de Papeete, a two-floor municipal market selling Tahitian black pearls, woven hats and vanilla. The dish to order is poisson cru (ʻota ʻika): raw tuna cured in lime then folded through coconut milk — found cheapest after 6pm at the roulottes, the food trucks that fill Place Vaiʻete on the waterfront each evening. If you can time it, come in July for Heiva i Tahiti, the islands' big festival of competitive ʻōteʻa dancing and himene singing. Best months are the dry season, May to October; September–October bring the least rain and thinnest crowds. November to April is hot, humid and wet — skip it.