Living here · written from Raiatea

Daily life in French Polynesia

Prices are about a third higher than metropolitan France — but that headline number hides the only figure that matters: a metropolitan shopping basket costs 43,8 % more here, a local one 18,9 %. Almost everything else on this page follows from that gap.

Street life in Papeete — Everyday Papeete, away from the resorts. Photo: Peter Gill / UK · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The short answer

Import what you eat and it is expensive. Eat what grows here and it is manageable.

Prices

+30,8 % overall against metropolitan France (ISPF, collected 2022). Food +45,4 %, restaurants +75,5 %, housing +34,8 %, health +9,8 %, transport −0,6 %.

Money

The CFP franc is pegged to the euro at a fixed rate: 1 000 XPF = 8,38 €, unchanged since 1999. No exchange-rate risk, ever.

Tax

Local VAT, not French: 5 % on food, transport, electricity and hotels; 13 % on most services; 16 % on other goods, notably imports.

Inflation

+1,3 % in 2025, after +1,2 % in 2024. Rents +4,1 %, food +2,0 %, clothing −6,0 %, communications −4,5 %.

Getting around

Transport is the one thing that is not more expensive

Transport prices sit 0,6 % below metropolitan France — the only category in the whole index that does. That does not make it convenient.

On Tahiti, the bus network is Tere Tahiti: 21 regular lines, 173 school lines, a 150 XPF ticket, a real-time app, and about 5 000 extra seats a day announced for 2026. The audit chamber's assessment is unsparing — headways sometimes over an hour, chronic delays, a timetable built around office hours, and only 10 % of the fleet accessible to reduced-mobility passengers. Over 80 % of households own a car, and two-wheelers make up 20 % of traffic against 4 % in metropolitan France.

Between islands there is no road. Moorea is reached by ferry from Papeete — 30 to 50 minutes depending on the vessel, since Terevau ceased operations the line is shared by Aremiti, Tauati Ferry and Vaeara'i. Everything else is Air Tahiti: 40 minutes to Huahine, 45 to Raiatea, 50 to Bora Bora, an hour to Rangiroa.

Eating

Markets, roulottes and the import tax on habit

Municipal markets are the first fresh-supply network in every island: Papeete's opens daily and closes at midday on Sunday. In the evening, roulottes — food trucks — are the ordinary way to eat out, at a fraction of restaurant prices. Restaurants themselves are 75,5 % more expensive than metropolitan France, the widest gap in the whole index.

The staple dish is poisson cru au lait de coco — raw tuna in lime and coconut milk. Local fruit, root vegetables, fish and coconut are the cheap part of the basket. Cheese, charcuterie, cereals and anything else that arrives by ship is the expensive part. That is the whole 43,8 versus 18,9 per cent story in one sentence.

One thing worth knowing before eating reef fish: ciguatera produced 153 declared cases in 2024, and around 29 % of them came from fish bought in shops or eaten in restaurants. Ask where a reef fish came from; the Institut Louis Malardé maintains a public surveillance map.

Staying connected

Three operators, four cables, fibre mostly on Tahiti

Mobile is shared between Vini (Onati, the incumbent, 55–60 % of the market), Vodafone (40–45 %) and Ora (Viti, since 2020). Competition has worked: communication prices fell 4,5 % in 2025, and the gap with metropolitan France narrowed from +95 % in 2016 to +32,6 % in 2022.

Four submarine cables serve the country — Honotua, Natitua, Manatua and Natitua Sud — but a cable reaching an island is not fibre reaching a house. FTTH is overwhelmingly limited to Tahiti, at fewer than 5 000 new lines a year. No official coverage rate is published. Home fibre runs about 9 000 to 9 900 XPF a month, plus a mandatory fixed line of roughly 3 565 XPF.

For a short stay, an eSIM bought before departure is simpler than a local SIM.

Practical

The things people ask on day three

Emergency numbers

15 medical, 17 police, 18 fire, 16 sea rescue. The European 112 is not listed by the authorities here — do not rely on it.

Electricity and plugs

230 V, European type C/E sockets, as in metropolitan France. Electricity is in the 5 % VAT bracket but remains costly in the outer islands, where generation is still largely fuel-based.

Time zone

Tahiti is UTC−10, with no daylight saving. That is 11 or 12 hours behind metropolitan France depending on the season — which matters more than you expect if you work remotely.

Language

French is the official language and is spoken everywhere. Reo tahiti is widely spoken alongside it, along with Marquesan, Paumotu and other Polynesian languages depending on the archipelago.

Questions people actually ask

Everyday life in French Polynesia: FAQ

How much more expensive is French Polynesia than France?

Prices are 30,8 % higher overall, according to the most recent ISPF spatial comparison, collected in 2022. The useful breakdown: a metropolitan shopping basket consumed here costs 43,8 % more, a local basket only 18,9 %. Food is +45,4 %, restaurants +75,5 %, housing +34,8 %, and transport is marginally cheaper.

What currency is used and is it stable?

The CFP franc, XPF. It is pegged to the euro at a fixed statutory rate — 1 000 XPF = 8,38 € — unchanged since 1999. There is no exchange-rate risk against the euro.

Is there VAT?

Yes, but it is local, not French VAT. Five per cent on food, passenger transport, electricity and hotel accommodation; 13 % on most services; 16 % on other goods including imports. Import duties and consumption taxes apply on top.

How do I get between islands?

Ferry to Moorea from Papeete, 30 to 50 minutes depending on the vessel, now shared between Aremiti, Tauati Ferry and Vaeara'i since Terevau ceased operations. Everything else is Air Tahiti: 40 minutes to Huahine, 45 to Raiatea, 50 to Bora Bora, an hour to Rangiroa.

What are the emergency numbers?

15 for medical emergencies, 17 for police, 18 for fire and rescue, 16 for sea rescue. The European 112 does not appear on the High Commission's official list and no local source confirms it works.