Q: What perspective is this review coming from?

A: We're a family of four. Mom and Dad are in their 40's, with a 10 year-old daughter and 15 year-old son. We're very seasoned travelers from California. Not poor, not rich, yadda yadda yadda.

Q: Can you tell us about Chez Fifi on Price, rooms, location, and service?

A: Price. If you're not already prepared for French Polynesian prices, get ready for an EXPENSIVE vacation! We did tons of research, as I'm sure you're doing now, and found Chez Fifi to be the best value. Their currency is called Pacific Island Francs, commonly referred to as "Francs." For simplicity, I will refer to prices in US Dollars at the time of this writing (August 2008). We spent about $80/night for the four of us for a TINY room, see attached photos.

A: Rooms. Chez Fifi is a converted house with 5 or 6 tiny rooms for individual occupants for $60 to $80/night. We met several clean, young, French people who were temporarily living in these rooms while traveling or looking for work. They also have a "dormitory" which is a larger room with about 10 or 12 single beds shared in co-ed simplicity. If you're comfortable with that like we are, the dormitory costs about $35/per bed. Finally, there are two small rooms in the back which are completely private and joined in the middle by your own bathroom. You can rent one room for $80 or both for $160/night. See attached photos, the views from the common area are pretty neat. We often relaxed in this "living room" and just outside where there's a couch or two and a gentle ocean breeze. Unfortunately, if the wind is just right the smell of the traffic below and airport can go from unnoticeable to slightly irritating. The rooms seemed pretty clean, we didn't see any bugs. What can I say? It was a decent, middle of the road stay-over before our ultimate destination of Bora Bora.

A: Location. Chez Fifi is located about 5-10 minute walk from the airport. Seasoned travelers learn to travel light and our whole family only had two carry-ons and three checked bags. So we were able to literally walk across the street and up a small hill to Chez Fifi. The neighborhood seemed completely safe. We walked around at night and noticed no unsavory characters. Dogs and roosters are everywhere, I don't know why. There's a bus stop just down on the main street and it's about $1 per person each way into the main city of Papeete, 10 minutes away.

A: Service. The proprietor is a Tahitian woman who speaks very little English. There's no front desk really and you kinda have to hope she's around when you get there. Otherwise you just go in an relax on the couch in the living room. It's totally laid back. No need to feel like you're imposing. I got the impression that she might be slightly negotiable on price, especially if there's vacancy. Be careful not to offend. She provides a continental breakfast around 6-6:30am every morning, which is basically bread and butter with coffee.

Conclusion: I didn't originally intend to write so much but I think there's people out there who might appreciate it. Chez Fifi is not for everyone. It's a relatively cheap hostel/pension and doesn't claim to be anything else. You could easily spend $300/night for a place comparable to a Motel 6. I would hardly call this place terrible like a previous person or anything better then average. These ratings are so subjective and I tried to give as much information as possbible and include some photos as well. Good luck and have fun, don't sweat the little things ;-)