Name: Fare Arearea Sweet Studio
Address: 10, avenue du régent, Paraita, 98714 Papeete, French Polynesia, Papeete, Papeete, Papeete, 98714, French Polynesia
Rating: 6

Air conditioning

Elevator/lift

Smoke-free property

Express check-in/check-out

Private check-in/check-out

General

Non-smoking rooms

Family room

Rooms

Safe-deposit box

Services and amenities

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Car rental

Airport transportation

Transfer

English

French

Languages Spoken

Parking

Garage

Swimming pool

Outdoor pool

Pool and beach

Family/Kid Friendly

Kids

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

At the apartment

Port de Papeete

Tahiti Faa'a Airport

Temae Airport

Fare Arearea Sweet Studio

Papeete

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

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king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

3-bedrooms

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not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

Good value for money studio apartment, 5 mins safe walk from downtown Pape’ete.
Contains everything you need - decent kitchen, safe, air con, washing machine.
Really helpful hosts who picked me up from the airport even when my flight changed, and helped me a lot with my onward travel.
Highly recommended!

Great value for money, really nice owners

'Sweet' really is the word to describe our stay on Tahiti - and so much of that is down to the hospitality of the proprietors of the Fare Arearea Sweet Studio, the truly wonderful Mr Carlos Fong and his equally fabulous wife, Françoise! Arriving in an unknown place late at night is never easy, but Carlos had thought of everything, from the taxi from the airport to our utterly charming, fully-equipped apartment in Pape'ete through a three-day tour of the whole, stunningly beautiful island, to a final weekend in a beach apartment on the wilder east coast with Pacific breakers crashing just a few yards from our beds, ending sadly with the fondest of farewells when Carlos and Françoise so kindly dropped us off back at the airport for our onward flight to Toronto. And as value for money goes, this was exceptional! Throughout our whole stay nothing appeared to be too much trouble for Carlos and Françoise, who were always ready with advice and recommendations, including the best tour of Mo'orea - Albert's, since you ask! - and how to choose the best papaya from the many roadside vendors of these delectable fruits. That's not to say, of course, that we didn't have plenty of time to buy pareus and black pearls in the glorious market, eat heartily at Le Rétro and the excellent Chinese restaurants, stroll around the exotic Paofai Gardens, join in singing with a local choir in L'Assemblée and buy delightful handicraft souvenirs at Pape'ete's highly colourful Christmas market, held outside the city's beautiful cathedral, with amazing displays of dancing to entertain the exceptionally good-natured crowds! Quite simply, Carlos and Françoise love people, and they also love welcoming the peoples of the world to their incredibly beautiful patch of Paradise! We simply cannot thank them enough for the warmth of their outstanding hospitality! When circumstances permit, we'll be back there in a heartbeat!

A Real Sweet Treat!

I would like to point out all the plus points in my first paragraph.  

Pleasant owner (Carlos), who gives you free transfer service from the Ferry on arrival and to the Airport on departure. The Studio Apartment was as described and the AC worked well. There was free WIFI but the reception was very patchy throughout our stay. Breakfast was rudimentary! There is a roof top swimming pool on the 7th floor which you can access via elevator that goes up to the 6th floor and then you walk up one flight of stairs.  The view from there is beautiful, but the door to the pool floor is not opened in the mornings till well after sunrise.The apartment is about 1.5 to 2 km from the Ferry Station as well as the promenade and is a 15-20 minute walk away. The owner responds to your messages via booking.com promptly. 

When choosing a place to stay, one of my primary pre-requisites is the included breakfast. We were thoroughly fooled on this regard with this booking. "Breakfast Included" statement on booking sites is very misleading. What it means in reality is that the owner has kept a loaf of bread, a bottle of juice and some butter in the fridge for you to use during your stay! There was also coffee powder left in the shelf but no milk nor creamer. The facility is totally independent and is in a building complex of apartments in a 7 story building . The owner is accessible only by phone after he leaves you with the keys on arrival. Since there is no office or any other place to store luggage and you have to check out at the latest by 11 am on the day of departure, this becomes a big hassle if one has a late night flight. And finally...not sure why, we had very patchy WIFI throughout our 3 day stay there.

Will not stay there if we go to Papeete another time.

I would like to start with a couple of the bright points.  The owner did his best to ensure that we were picked up at the airport, settled into the apartment and then transported to the cruise ship on time.  The rooftop pool was also a welcome relief from the heat, although there was some figuring out that had to be done to get back into the building from the roof.  Not a big deal, though.  Just a pushme/pullme door issue.    
       As mentioned in other reviews, the building is tired.  And dark.  And has some bugs.  And is kind of off the beaten track. The room is in dire need of an updating, but it was comfortable enough.  The air conditioning did work, the toilets flushed, the room lights could be turned on and off, the fridge worked and the water ran both hot and cold.  
       Bugs, specifically roaches, are everywhere in the tropics.  Honestly, there's no getting around it.  It is a fact of life and the best you can do is make sure that you don't leave anything out for them to graze on.  It's nice not to see any, but they are there.  In anyplace in the tropics.
       In terms of location, it is a nice 20 minute walk to the centre of town. There is a grocery store nearby and there is ready access to the food trucks. The wi-fi was free and reliable, which was a bonus.
       What we truly appreciated was the lengths the owner took to make sure that we were picked up and delivered to the apartment, familiarized with the neighbourhood and taken to the cruise ship terminal. He also checked in on us the second day to make sure we were doing ok.  
      In a nutshell, the room was a resting place to acclimatize before our cruise.  It served its purpose and we were well rested when it came to board the ship

A tired building, but caring owner.

We arrived at 1am  by taxi which was pre-booked, although an hour late.The pictures do not do the place justice. It was tired, no screens so had bugs crawling in the kitchen, some even managed to get into the fridge, the "continental" b'fast was opened fizzy orange, some opened jams, small sealed butters (good) tea, coffee, used previously and 2 loaves of bread which had actually passed their useby date. The taxi driver had another loaf of bread with her, but on seeing the 2 loaves didn't leave the fresh one.Bathroom needed a good scrub and sheets were 2 small to tuck in hence tangled through the night. Thank heavens there was air-con. Any good, close to supermarket. Had a pool but our keys didn't fit the entrance door!! Thak heavens only 3 nights.

Disappointing apartment

This is a really tough location to review.  When we arrived it was night time and our transportation was waiting for us and happy to help with luggage.  (Owner of the Fare studio.)  
As we were driving down the road, we approached the hotel/apartment and suddenly bolted down this little road to this dark under ground parking lot. It was really dark and cramped and didn't look too safe but the owner told us this was a very safe location.

Making our way up to the room, all the hallways were dark.  The hall lights worked on a motion sensor but if you weren't in the right area, it stayed dark.  

Our room was simple but small.  If you are staying in Tahiti for just a day or two, this room would be OK.  It had a bed, a few places to sit, a small balcony/patio area with chairs to sit and a kitchenette area with fridge and stove if you wanted to make any meals.  (The owner also supplies a loaf of bread, jam and carton of juice for breakfast.)  It also had a safe with a key to put your belongings.
 
The next day we wanted to explore the city and again had to navigate down dark halls to a door leading out in an alley way to the street.  We never felt totally safe but yet we didn't feel unsafe either.  

This location has a nice rooftop pool with a great view of the ocean, city and mountains.  (See attached.)   This is also a great location to walking to the main pier area to catch the ferry to Moorea or going to the Roulettes (GREAT food trucks ~ See other reviews.)

** The owner was VERY helpful picking us up at the airport, helping us with directions and even offered to help retrieve a piece of luggage that was delivered the following day.  He even drove us to the car rental place (near the airport) which had a better price and helped us with the reservation.  Keep in mind, French is the official language. ** 

Why is this review so hard to write?  This just isn't a great hotel/apartment (I guess some people live there full time) BUT in this area, there doesn't appear to be ANY great places to stay.  
We walked by the hotel Tahiti Nui and it was closed.  The people we talked with said it had a flood in January 2017 but we did see some people in a few of the rooms on their balconies?  We didn't see any construction or work being done on the building so we're not sure what's going on with that hotel.

Pros ~ Good location, had a safe in the room, walking distance to pier & roulettes, great roof top pool, several bars and restaurants in the area for dinner or drinks.  There was breakfast supplies for a quick bite in the morning.  (A loaf of bread, jam and a carton of juice was in the fridge.)  Owner was VERY helpful with whatever we needed.

Cons ~ Small room, rundown building, dark hallways, exiting into an alley and we did see some bugs in the hallways.  

Personal thoughts ~ We read a lot of reviews that Tahiti was really only a day or two stop over for cruises or going to other islands and now we see why.  If you plan on going to Tahiti for a night or two, we would recommend this location ONLY because there are really NO nice hotels in this area.  

If you plan on staying in Tahiti longer than a few days, there are some very nice places outside of town that can be access from a taxi or by renting a car.

Tough review....

DO NOT BOOK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Advert on here and Booking.com from owner Carlos, do NOT state that there are two apartments and that the photos for the apartments are all mixed up so you do NOT get what you book and pay in advance for.  We did NOT and when we stated the reason that's WHEN we found out about the 2nd apartment.  BREAKFAST is ADVERTISED butter, bread, coffee, tea, jam NOT at all - in the fridge was a 3/4 drunk juice with mould in it and the shelf door.  CLEANING products again advertised - used soap bars and OLD scourer/sponge with fluff on. We also had someone's washing up left behind for us.  FREE toiletries - again ADVERTISED- NOPE again old used/soap bars and the fsitful old/used sponge/scourer and a shower gel that looks suspiciously like one photographed in 2019.  Talking of photos..... on here the 3rd photo of a sunlounger it looked then and still does as if someone has died on it . 8th photo - yes still has the same toilet seat.  9th photo yes there are the same signs of damage to front of fridge door by the handle.  SAFETY- well apartment from health issues relating to old soaps and clea kng sponges, dusty lampshade and a sharp shower floor. As you can see, even in 20q9 it had grouting and was made up of broken tiles. Grouting has disappeared and when I tested with hand am glad I didn't move it as you could slice hand open where the tiles edges are so sharp.  Photos on booking.com only 2nd and 7th matched.  FREE AIRPORT transfer - NOT to us.  He collected us from ferry and then charged and took immediate payment for airport next day stating we would also be travelling with our 3 cases with 2 other passengers !!!!!! We raised our concerns immediately by phone as he is NOT ON SITE.  That's when we discovered there were 2 apartments and thats where the other guests were. He asked which photos we referred to and we sent copies immediately.  We asked for refunds and e has stated he has not claimed for the transfers on our cards(we shall see) accommodation refund has been ignored. we booked and paid a taxi and another accommodation for that night.  DO NOT BOOK.  His advert is totally misleading and untruthful

Fare Arearea Sweet Studio

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Internet

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Pool and beach

Kids

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