A four-bedroom house on the lagoon near Cook’s Bay, with a pool, a dock, and a cook on the staff, asks around $42,000 for a week in July and settles toward $26,000 in February when the rain and cyclone window arrive. Moorea is the quieter, greener sister to Bora Bora, 17 kilometres across the water from Tahiti, with a small villa market and a clear dry-season premium. The full structure, by bay and season, with three worked examples.
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The number that matters first: $22,000 to $95,000 per week. That is the real spread for the handful of true high-end villas on Moorea, and where you land turns on three things, in this order: the season, the bay, and whether the house comes staffed and on the water. This is a small market, far smaller than the over-water-bungalow resorts the islands are known for, so the right question is less which estate and more which week, because the dry-season premium dominates the page.
Moorea runs one apex. The dry season from May to October fills the lagoon houses, with July and August and the Christmas to New Year fortnight at the top, 40 to 70 percent above the wet-season low. The wet season from November to April brings heavier rain and the cyclone window of January to March, and rates ease accordingly. The shoulder weeks of late April, May, and November hold the best weather-to-price trade of the year.
Indicative weekly rates in US dollars for quality villas on Moorea. Low is roughly January to March. Shoulder is late April, November, and early December. Peak is the dry-season high and the Christmas fortnight, quoted at the top of each band. Waterfront houses sit above hillside ones of the same size.
| House size | Low (Jan–Mar) | Shoulder (late Apr, Nov) | Peak (dry season, Christmas) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3–4 bedrooms | $22,000 to $30,000 | $26,000 to $36,000 | $32,000 to $48,000 |
| 5 bedrooms | $28,000 to $38,000 | $34,000 to $46,000 | $42,000 to $62,000 |
| 6 bedrooms | $36,000 to $48,000 | $44,000 to $58,000 | $54,000 to $78,000 |
| 7+ bedrooms | $46,000 to $60,000 | $56,000 to $72,000 | $68,000 to $95,000+ |
Bands reflect quality villas around Cook’s Bay, Opunohu, and the northwest beaches, April 2026. Lagoon-front houses with a dock and staff sit at the top of each band. Rates exclude the 13 percent accommodation VAT.
The premium pocket is the northwest, the lagoon and beaches around Hauru and the Tiahura point, where the sand is whitest, the snorkelling is on the doorstep, and the sunsets face the open water toward Tahiti. Waterfront villas here carry the highest rates and the tightest dry-season availability. Cook’s Bay and Opunohu Bay, the two great green-walled inlets on the north coast, hold the most dramatic settings, deep bays under jagged peaks, with houses on the water at the middle to top of each band.
The east coast around Temae, near the airstrip and one of the island’s best public beaches, gives you easy arrivals and a softer rate, while the hillside houses set back from the lagoon trade the dock for a view and the lowest prices of all. The further you sit from the northwest beaches and the closer to the hill, the more house you get for the dollar, and the more you drive to the best swimming.
French Polynesia runs its own tax system, separate from mainland France. Accommodation let by a larger operator carries VAT at a 13 percent rate, below the 16 percent standard rate on most goods and services. A small private owner below the registration threshold may fall outside VAT entirely, which is one reason quoted rates vary in what they include. Ask whether the figure is VAT-inclusive before you compare two houses.
Prices appear in CFP francs, US dollars, or euros. The CFP franc is fixed to the euro at a set rate, so a euro budget is steady while a dollar budget moves with the euro. On top of the rate, the commune levies a modest per-night taxe de séjour, a small line collected on arrival rather than built into the headline. Neither the peg nor the séjour tax will move your week much, but both belong in the plan.
More Moorea villas come at least partly staffed than the small market might suggest, often with a cook or housekeeper in the rate. A dedicated private chef runs roughly $400 to $700 per day plus food. Provisioning is the line to plan early and budget generously, because much is imported and island prices are high, so the food bill on a remote-Pacific week runs well above a Mediterranean one.
Expect a refundable deposit of $2,000 to $10,000 depending on the value of the house, taken by card hold or wire before arrival and returned within two to three weeks of checkout.
Each budget is built from the rate plus the lines that land on the invoice. On Moorea the swing lines are the season and the imported-food bill, with the 13 percent VAT behind them.
Headline: $30,000 / wk (shoulder, hillside, cook included).
VAT (13%) $3,900. Taxe de séjour and transfers $300. Provisioning $1,200.
All-in: about $35,400 for the week, roughly $5,060 a night for a house that sleeps eight.
Headline: $50,000 / wk (dry season, waterfront, part staff).
VAT (13%) $6,500. Taxe de séjour and transfers $450. Chef three dinners $1,800 plus food $1,400.
All-in: about $60,150 for the week, roughly $8,590 a night for ten.
Headline: $80,000 / wk (Christmas–NYE, full staff, boat included).
VAT (13%) $10,400. Taxe de séjour and transfers $700. Provisioning and chef food $4,000.
All-in: about $95,100 before excursions and gratuities.
Three levers move the all-in cost on a Moorea week, and one upgrade we would skip.
Take the late-April or November shoulder. Either edge of the dry season delivers warm, mostly settled weather at 25 to 40 percent below the July and Christmas top, and outside the cyclone window. With flexible dates, this is the largest clean saving on the page.
Choose a bay or hillside house over the northwest beach. The Hauru waterfront premium is real. A villa on Cook’s Bay or set on the hill gives you the island’s best scenery at a lower rate, with the snorkelling beaches a short drive away. If your week is about the view and the lagoon as much as the sand, the bays are the value play.
Provision in bulk on arrival, not daily. Island shop prices are high and add up fast on a long stay. A single big provisioning run, handled by the house cook, beats daily top-ups, and a euro-denominated budget is steadier than a dollar one given the franc’s peg.
What we would skip: paying up for a private chef every night. The included house cook handles the Tahitian and French staples most groups want. Bring a dedicated chef in for the celebration dinners, not the whole week.
Moorea has a small villa market. Quality houses run from about $22,000 per week for a three to four-bedroom in the low season to $95,000 or more for a large waterfront estate with staff over the dry-season peak. Most four to five-bedroom villas land between $28,000 and $55,000 per week in the high season.
The dry season from May to October is the apex, with the July and August window and the Christmas to New Year fortnight at the top. Rates run roughly 40 to 70 percent above the wet-season low, and the few waterfront villas book six months or more ahead for the peak weeks.
French Polynesia applies VAT to accommodation at a 13 percent rate for larger operators, below the 16 percent standard rate. The commune also levies a modest per-night taxe de séjour, usually collected on arrival. Prices are quoted in CFP francs, US dollars, or euros, with the CFP franc fixed to the euro.
The wet season runs roughly November to April, with the real cyclone risk concentrated in January to March. French Polynesia sees fewer cyclones than some Pacific neighbours, but the wet months bring heavier rain and the small chance of a storm, which is part of why the dry-season premium is so steep. May to October is both drier and the peak season.
Moorea sits about 17 kilometres from Tahiti. Most visitors fly into Faaa International near Papeete, then take the 30 to 45 minute ferry across, or a short 15 minute hop to Moorea’s own airstrip. A villa will arrange the transfer and the ferry meet, since the crossing is the main piece of the arrival day.
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