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The fresh scent of frangipani lingers in the air. Rugged mountain spires tower over lush valleys and pristine coastlines. And fiery globes sink into coral-fringed lagoons as darkness begins to fall on two of the most beautiful cruising regions in the world.

Welcome to French Polynesia and Hawaii – the collection of islands, atolls and volcanoes that rest in the warm waters of the Central and South Pacific Ocean. There’s a majesty here; a sense that these islands with their dramatic beauty are as close to perfection as any place can be. And yet, while related by common Polynesian ancestry, there are differences that separate these Pacific versions of Shangri-la and make both worth visiting.

Hawaii is the bigger of the two regions, and it features nature painted on a much larger canvass — higher mountain peaks, wider valleys and taller waterfalls.   It’s also more developed, which means better shopping, hotels and nightlife.

Most Hawaiian cruises stop at the state’s four main islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai.

There’s plenty to see and do on all of the islands, including tours of the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor west of Honolulu, and snorkeling in Kealakekua Bay near Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii.

The Big Island of Hawaii is also home to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Mount Kilauea, an active volcano which last erupted in 1982. Since then, it has been spewing molten magma through a lateral vent known as Pu’o O’o, which is often visible to cruise ships as they sail by during the evening.

On the nearby island of Maui, one of the most popular excursions is the “Hana Trail,” the gorgeous road along the island’s rugged southern coast. The journey, which can only be made with a 4-wheel vehicle, explores remote and often idyllic parts of the island rarely seen by tourists.

While all the Hawaii islands are beautiful, most visitors agree that the Garden Isle of Kauai is possibly the best of them all. There are lots of ways to explore this spectacular island, but none that can match the sensation of soaring over the Waialeale crater, across Waimea Canyon and along the fertile valleys of the Na Pali coast in a helicopter.

French Polynesia is more laid back and less commercial than Hawaii, and features small towns, over-the-water bungalows and outrigger canoes.  Most ships sail from Tahiti through the Society Islands of Moorea, Bora Bora, Raiatea and Tahaa, while a handful cruise all the way to the rugged and spectacular Marquesas Islands.

The first European to discover Tahiti was Captain Samuel Wallis of England who was greeted in 1767 by outriggers full of natives, including vahines (women) clad in nothing but grass skirts. Frenchman Louis Antoine de Bougainville and Englishman James Cook followed, but the most infamous visit involved Captain William Bligh and his ship the Bounty in 1789.

Encircled by a ribbon of coral, Raiatea was once the religious centre of Polynesia, and is believed to have been the starting point for all migration to the Hawaiian, New Zealand and Easter islands. The best way to see Raiatea is to combine a jeep expedition round the island with a trip down the Faaroa River aboard an outrigger canoe.

Like most of the Society Islands, Bora Bora sits on the eroded cone of an extinct volcano with its majestic peaks towering over lush green valleys and pretty turquoise and emerald bays. As the heavy basalt rock of the extinct volcano slowly sank back into the earth’s crust over the millennia, it left a lagoon teaming with life between its jagged coast and the coral reef.

Dominated by a number of spires that overlook deep bays and emerald lagoons, Moorea is the beautiful Polynesian paradise that inspired the mythical island of Bali Hai in the musical South Pacific. In fact, novelist James Michener was so taken with Moorea that he once wrote: “If Tahiti boasted of nothing more than these faery silhouettes across the bay, it would still be one of the most fortunate of islands.”  
If you’re beginning to have difficulty choosing between these two Polynesian paradises, then don’t. Just decide which of these magical places you’ll visit first!