Moorea Cycling Guide

Moorea and Tahiti are well known tropical paradise islands with warm water, lagoons, and beautiful waves. In French Polynesia, you expect to find world-class diving and waves, but few would expect also excellent bike trails. We visited Tahiti and Moorea in the middle of 2020 rainy season, in February, and spent most of our time in water. Once the waves got small I rented a bike from Ebike Moorea and biked around the island in search for mountain trails. I was totally surprised by the quality of trails I found inland.

Moorea is a small island and you can really only do two things. Bike around the island or test yourself at the excellent inland Xterra Tahiti mountain trails.

Biking Around Moorea

Moorea ring road circles the island in just 65km (42 miles) and offers a great way to explore the island. The road is mainly at the water level and has only two small hills. Most of the way there’s a wide bike lane, but even without you have little to worry as the traffic is very mild and the highest speed limit is 60km/h. Bring water, hat and plenty of sunscreen, and check some of the sights (clockwise from the ferry):

1. Afareaitu Waterfall - 3km roundtrip hike to a beautiful swim hole with 50m tall waterfall.

2. Ha’apiti Surf - the best reef break in Moorea and one of the best long lefts anywhere.

3. Coco Beach Moorea - small cafe in a beautiful island accessible with boat, kayak or paddle board.

4. Belvedere Lookout - long uphill (not bad if you select an e-bike) to a nice viewpoint.

5. Manutea Tahiti - a local distillery that makes fruit based drinks from juices to pineapple cava. You can sample different drinks for free.

6. Cooks Bay - some of the most beautiful views anywhere

7. Moorea Beach Cafe - great restaurant with even better sunset views.

Xterra Tahiti Trails

The real fun starts at the well-maintained Xterra Tahiti trails. Every May Xterra organizes a jungle triathlon competition, and the trails are accessible year around for free. Below a map of the Punohu Valley public trails. I tested all of them and they are well maintained and of excellent quality.

The best trail I found was a combination of Toa Nui and Rotui trails. The trail offers a good combination of hilly pineapple road, jungle single track and many fun rideable river crossings. Below trail details and photos.