Vaccinations and preparations

Tahiti Tourisme says it plainly: no vaccination is required to enter French Polynesia. Routine vaccines, diphtheria, tetanus, polio, are recommended, and the organisation advises seeing your doctor before departure. One exception concerns yellow fever. The June 2026 health surveillance bulletin of the Direction de la santé points out that vaccination is compulsory for anyone over 9 months old who has stayed in, or transited for more than 12 hours through, an endemic area in the 10 days before arrival; Tahiti Tourisme refers to the list of countries at risk published by the World Health Organization. No official source consulted says anything about malaria; put the question to your doctor or a travel clinic.

Tahiti Tourisme suggests carrying a copy of your medical records and your doctor’s contact details, and stresses adequate health insurance. Medical decisions, treatments and prescriptions belong to a doctor alone; this guide describes the situation on the ground, nothing more.

Dengue and mosquitoes

Dengue circulates in French Polynesia, carried by two mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Aedes polynesiensis. The last epidemic, declared in October 2024, peaked in April 2025 and was declared over in November 2025: 2,675 cases, 131 hospital admissions, no deaths, with the highest rates on Rangiroa, Fakarava and Bora Bora. In June 2026 the bulletin of the Direction de la santé spoke of an inter-epidemic period and a low level of circulation, while pointing out that the virus keeps circulating quietly between epidemics.

Prevention comes down to a few habits that the Direction de la santé repeats in every bulletin: remove breeding sites every week, meaning standing water around the house, protect yourself with repellents and long clothing, sleep under a mosquito net. Tahiti Tourisme simply recommends a repellent. A fever during or after the trip calls for a consultation; the diagnosis is the doctor’s. The health surveillance bulletins are published on service-public.pf, under the Direction de la santé.

Sun, heat and tap water

Temperatures stay between 20 and 30 °C all year, with 7 to 8 hours of sun a day according to Tahiti Tourisme; in the Tuamotu, sunshine approaches 3,000 hours a year. The advice given for Moorea’s beaches applies everywhere: the sun is very strong in the middle of the day, take a hat and an environmentally friendly sunscreen, and avoid staying out during the hottest hours.

On tap water, the Centre de santé environnementale of French Polynesia is precise: access to drinking water that meets the standards is not uniform, only some communes have it, and the map on tefenua.gov.pf, Health layer, shows the situation of each commune. Its recommendations: boil water for at least one minute, follow the dosage of chlorine tablets strictly, prefer bottled water for vulnerable people; collected rainwater, common on the islands, is untreated and not drinkable. Tahiti Tourisme sums it up: the water is drinkable on Bora Bora and in parts of Tahiti and Moorea, elsewhere ask, and when in doubt drink bottled water.

Ciguatera

Ciguatera is a food poisoning linked to eating marine organisms, fish and invertebrates, contaminated by neurotoxins produced by a microscopic alga. The link was established in the 1970s in the Gambier, hence the name Gambierdiscus given to the microalga. Lagoon fish are the main carriers of the toxins to humans. The bulletin of the Direction de la santé is clear: a contaminated fish cannot be told from a healthy one by eye, the toxins are odourless and colourless, neither cooking nor freezing destroys them, and they concentrate in the head, the roe and the viscera.

The first symptoms generally appear within 12 hours: gastrointestinal upset together with neurological and cardiovascular signs. In 2023 and 2024 the fish involved came mostly from the Tuamotu, but every archipelago saw at least one episode; no death has been recorded in more than ten years. The Institut Louis Malardé runs the surveillance network and a reporting platform, ciguawatch-app.ilm.pf. If symptoms follow a fish meal, see a doctor.

The sea: passes, reef and animals

The lagoon is calm; the passes are not. At Rangiroa, the Tiputa pass has strong incoming and outgoing currents and a tidal bore, and the Avatoru pass a strong current in a narrow channel. That is why drift diving there is done with the centres, which pick the time according to the current, and why swimming in a pass is done with an operator. Lagoon trips at Moorea and Bora Bora bring you among stingrays and blacktip sharks, which Tahiti Tourisme describes as harmless; the organisation asks that wild animals not be fed.

On the reef, watch where you put your feet and do not knock the coral with your fins, two instructions from Tahiti Tourisme; the official pages consulted do not mention reef shoes. From November to April, French Polynesia is exposed to cyclone risk; Tahiti Tourisme adds that disasters are rare but that strong winds, floods and tsunamis remain possible, and that a warning siren is tested on the first Wednesday of each month at noon.

Care, emergencies and insurance

The Centre hospitalier de la Polynésie française (CHPF) is at Pirae on Tahiti, avenue du Général de Gaulle; it works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, houses the SAMU and the emergency department, and describes itself as the country’s hospital of reference and last resort. Tahiti Tourisme adds hospitals and clinics in Papeete, at Taravao on the peninsula and at Uturoa on Raiatea, and states that every inhabited island has at least a hospital, a dispensary, a doctor’s surgery or a nursing station; patients whose condition requires it are transferred by air to Tahiti.

The emergency numbers are 15 for the SAMU, 17 for the police and gendarmerie, 18 for the fire service and 16 for sea rescue; Tahiti Tourisme also gives 112 and 911 for any emergency. Tahiti Tourisme considers it important to travel with adequate health insurance. The sources consulted put no figure on care or on a medical transfer between islands; check before leaving what your policy covers, including transport to Tahiti and the journey home.

What we verify for your dates

Timetables, provider conditions, entry rules, weather-sensitive activities and commercial terms are rechecked for the actual trip. This article explains the planning logic; it is not a live availability promise.

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Polynesia Local editorial desk · sources cited on every entry · 20 October 2026