Teahupoo Tahiti to host 2024 Olympic Games surfing competition

A remote fishing village in Tahiti, French Polynesia, will attract worldwide attention when it hosts the surfing competitions at the 2024 Olympic Games. Teahupoo, also known as Teahupo’o, has a population of just 1,500 and is a 90-minute drive from Tahiti’s Faa’a International Airport (it’s a 12-hour flight to Tahiti from Sydney via Auckland).

Until the early 2000s, Teahupoo’s wave was known only to local surfers, Lonely Planet reports. It is now one of the most photographed and powerful waves on the planet, with the best wave quality for surfing from April to October each year.

Local surfer Kauli Vaast tells the Red Bull blog that the three main factors that make Teahupoo’s waves so special include the perfect barrel and the surrounding landscape.

“Lastly, there’s the mana,” Vaast says. “When you come through the reef pass, you can feel that good mana, that good energy and you know to be respectful and understand how crazy the wave is.”

The 2024 Olympic surfing competition will take place in Teahupoo from Saturday 27 July to Monday 5 August, with athletes including four Australians Tyler Wright, Molly Picklum, Jack Robinson and Ethan Ewing. Teahpoo, hosting the games, is an opportunity to involve French overseas territories and their communities — for the first time in history — while showcasing France’s heritage.

After watching all the action on TV, you might want to visit Teahupoo. Here’s everything you can do on the island—except surf, of course—plus where to eat and stay.

What to do in Teahupoo

Besides surfing, Teahupoo has many more water activities, such as snorkeling, diving and swimming. You can also hike to waterfalls, jump off cliffs into the sea and take a half or full day boat trip around the island.

During the Teahupoo Wave Watching Tour you can watch the famous wave for an hour while the captain tells you all about the history, legends and current activities of the island.

On a nine-hour Teahupoo Olympic Journey Tour, visit the nearby Vaipahi Garden and waterfall before boarding a boat to see where the Olympic surfing competition is held. Afterwards, visit Fenua Aihere, a wild part of the island accessible only by boat or foot, and the Vaiau River, with pristine forests and a freshwater swimming pool.

Where to stay in Teahupoo

Prior to the Olympics, organizers considered renovating a Teahupoo hotel that had been closed for 26 years, but those plans were scrapped in favor of housing the athletes on a cruise ship instead, The Inertia reports.

The Aranui 5 will be a floating Olympic village, with 103 cabins accommodating up to 254 people. The ship will be anchored approximately eight kilometres northwest of the event venue in Varirao Bay.

“It’s great to hear that the local people of Tahitia have rejected the idea of ​​just building new facilities for the Olympic Games and have decided to preserve their beautiful environment and leave everything as it was,” Peruvian Olympian Lucca Mesinas told The Inertia.

“I have great respect for them for standing up for themselves and for what they believe is right.”

Teahupoo is a small village with limited accommodation, but a variety. On the more basic side there are homestays, where you can live like a local. Tahurai Homestay is owned and run by a family originally from Teahupoo. On the nicer side there are lodges such as Vai Iti Lodge, Kia Ora Lodge and Vanira Lodge.

Where to eat in Teahupoo

During the Olympics, there will likely be a lot of local food shacks popping up, as Mick Fanning told surf magazine Stab in 2016 about other surfing competitions the island has hosted. Dining options are limited, but many accommodations serve food.

“If you’re looking for Western clubs, restaurants and nightlife, it’s a 45-minute drive to Papeete (a city) – too far for most professionals,” Fanning told Stab.

Tahitian cuisine is based on fresh local produce and both sweet and savory dishes, often made or flavored with vanilla or coconut milk, the tourist office reports. The unofficial national dish is poisson cru, raw tuna marinated in lime juice and coconut milk. Other favorites include chicken cooked with spinach and coconut milk and Tahitian suckling pig.

Related: 7 of the Most Remote and Romantic Resorts in Tahiti

Related: 10 Popular Places Australians Are Escaping to This Winter, Whether You Want to Be There or Avoid Them

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