PARADISE IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK... Just 7 1/2 hours from Los Angeles, you'll find the crystal clear turquoise lagoons and pristine beaches of the islands where love lives.

Just 7 1/2 hours from Los Angeles, Tahiti's unique history, friendly people and breathtaking beauty are waiting for your arrival.

ISLANDS IN THE SUN...
Tahiti and Her Islands comprise an area officially known as French Polynesia. The Islands are scattered over four million square kilometers (one and a half million sq. miles) of ocean in the eastern South Pacific.

The total land area of these 118 islands and atolls adds up to only 4,000 sq. km. (1,544 sq. miles), and consists of five achipelagoes: the Society Islands, Austral Islands, Marquesas Islands, Tuamotu atolls and the Mangareva Islands.

BALMY WEATHER & GENTLE BREEZES...
Temperatures average about 79 degrees (F) year around, both the air temperature and the water temperature. We are a tropical destination blessed with lots of Sun and enough rain to keep the waterfalls flowing and the flowers blooming!

MEET HER PEOPLE...
The population of French Polynesia is an amalgam of Polynesian (75 percent), Chinese (10 percent), and European (15 percent). Among these racial categories exists every conceivable mixture. It would not be unusual to encounter a Tahitian of Chinese, American, Polynesian and French ancestry.

A DELICIOUS CULTURAL BLEND...
The mixture of Polynesian and French cultures has resulted in a fertile culinary environment. There is a variety of splendid foods available in Tahiti ranging from traditional Tahitian fare to fine French cuisine, and tempting combinations thereof. The Tahitian diet consists mostly of fish, shellfish, breadfruit, taro, cassava, pork, yams, chickan, rice and coconut.

UNCROWDED BEACHES & SMALL VILLAGES...
A 1996 census counted 219,521 people living in French Polynesia, 74 percent of which live in the Windward Island, 12 percent in the Leeward Islands, 7 percent in the Tuamotu archipelago, 3.5 percent in the Marguesas Islands, and 3 percent in the Austral Islands.