Beaches in French Polynesia

One hundred and eighteen islands across an area the size of Europe, in two kinds: high volcanic islands with dark sand and a lagoon around them, and low atolls that are nothing but a ring of coral. The lagoon is the shared feature — almost every beach here faces protected water with the surf breaking on a reef in the distance. The lagoon is the organising fact. Almost every island sits inside a reef, and the water between reef and shore is calm, shallow and warm while the ocean outside it is not. The high volcanic islands — Tahiti, Moʻorea, Bora Bora — have black or dark sand on their own shores, and the white coral sand is on the motu, the low islets on the reef rim, where most resorts are. Public beaches are scarce on the main islands because the shoreline is largely private, which gives the few that exist a weight they would not have elsewhere.

They spread across three beach worlds, the largest group being two atoll and lagoon beaches. Together they account for 4.2 km of shore. · computed from the 4 records below