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 The main city, Papeete, is a smoggy, uncharming
little city. We took an overnight ship to the closest island, Huahine
(in cargo class--huddled outside on damp wooden boards). On Huahine you
find bungalows for about $30 a night, which is a fortune to a
backpacker. So one night we camped on the beach (illegally--no "camping
sauvage" allowed in the Society Islands)--check out our not-so-styly
setup under the makeshift lean-to.
Barely worth mentioning was the night we went to see a Tahitian luau at a fancy hotel--basically Polynesian culture all packaged up for the tourist. Anyway, if you had lots of time and money you could get out to some
of the outer island chains and maybe see some culture. But
transportation beyond the Society Islands is very infrequent if it
exists at all, and also expensive, unreliable and slow. Now if you had a boat, that would be the way to go.
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