My wife and I stayed at the hotel for 4 nights in Mid July 2008.

I am 41 and my wife is 37 and we are pretty active overall and enjoy travelling around the world.

Hotel Location: I belive this is the key issue of this hotel as the location is on the windy side of the island and there are very high mountains right off the hotel location. This causes the clouds to gather and provides extra light rain and cloud cover. While the hotel is only minutes away from both the ferry docks and airport I would suggest that if you can find the same price at the Pearl Beach resort or Sheraton you consider strongly staying at one of those locations due to the island layout and positioning. We heard from other hotel guests the same issue.

Hotel Bungalows: We had requested a Deluxe Beach Bungalow but recieved an beach view over the water bungalow. Since it was the end of the vacation we thought nothing of it, but the Deluxe Beach bungalows with the beach access look really nice. The bungalow was clean, and the view okay but we did not get sun access till late afternoon. The ocean view bungalows seem to have excellent position. I would not travel around the world to this location to stay in a garden bungalow, but that is only my preference.

Hotel Food: Dissapointing to say the least. We stayed in Bora Bora and Tahitti in addition to Moorea and this hotel was very-very poor in food quality. The buffets were meant to serve high numbers fast. The meal plan is lacking and we spoke to other younger honeymooners who were disgusted with the food in addition. I would strongly suggest you DO NOT use the meal plan and call/utilize the local restaurants who offer pick-up/drop-off service to the hotel for free for dinner. In the 2 dinners we had there (due to the meal plan) we ate minimal food and I can (and do) usually enjoy just about everything. Unfortunately, even the desserts were terrible and that to me is to difficult to ruin. I truly believe they do not have any chefs at this hotel and only use cooks to heat and serve food for scale vs. quality. It was not good.

Attractions: Moorea is the place to do things and have fun!

ATV Tour: We did the ATV tour that leaves from the Sheraton? hotel and goes up in the farm and magic moutain and that was a blast! We did a 2 1/2 hour ride and my wife and I both drove the ATV and really enjoyed the time and beauty and fun of driving around off-road with our tour-guide and other couples. I would strongly suggest you do the ATV on Moorea as you get to see really different aspects of the island and you get to have fun on the ATV's while being safe.

Jet-Ski with Jean-Pierre leaving from Pearl Beach hotel: This guy is what island living should be about! We went on the 2 hour Jet-ski tour and in no time we were done! The jet-skis are large seat 2 comfortably (I am 6'4 and my wife is 5'8") and have 2 different speed settings depening on your experience. J.P. starts you off on the low setting and once you are comfortable he allows you to turn-on the high speed Zrrom! setting. We also jumped in the water (you jump in about 4 feet of water) where the sting rays come up to you and you can see the non-human biting reef tip sharks come around. This was a lot of fun.

Rent a Car: We rented a car for 4 hours (about $150USD) and went all around the island stopping at shops and picture points along the way. It is a great way to relax and enjoy the island and see all the spots.

Local Food: While I suggest you go locally, I would watch out for Alfredo's. While they have a wide menu with a very interesting drinks menu the the only thing good was the fettucini. I had prime rib that was so rare the vet could have revived my piece of steak. Seriously, I usually have med-rare meat and enjoy it very pink to red, but this was really rare! Our appetizers were also very bland and average and even the drinks were average. Trust me I tried 4 different drinks (Chi-Chi, Banana Daquriri, Pina Colada and a drink with 4 alchols named very provactively). Now usually 4 drinks would cause me to be very 'jolly' but they were average and lacking in alcohol. Again, if you go Alfredo's stick to the pasta and some local good Hinano beer and you should be fine. We also went to another Italian rest I believe it was Lucio or something that offers pick-up/drop-off and had French Onion Soup, Steak, & 4 cheese salad and pasta and it was very good considering what we were eating at the hotel and Alfredo's. Our best meals were us buying food at the grocery store and making baguetes at home.

Timing of Moorea to other islands. Everyone says the same thing, leave Bora-Bora for the last island on your tour....and you MUST go to Bora-Bora as it is the pearl of the Pacific! Moorea is a good 1st island to go to so you can wind down from the trip and get into island time.

Getting from Tahiti (Papette) to Moorea: We found out there is a Ferry service you can pay $14USD for which is a high-speed, modern large catarman (holds 300+ people) that leaves around every hour from both locations all day 6 days a week. Be warned that Sunday they only go about every 3 hours. This is a great option vs. paying a ridiculous $500 to fly. All up from the air-port to the ferry docks to and cab to the hotel we paid a whopping $45USD in total. The Ferry service is called Aremetti.

Again, I hate to be negative on this hotel but the location and food was just poor overall. I am usually pretty laid back when travelling to the islands and have travelled around the Pacific islands so I am pretty good about service, but the food and location I think deserve focus from perspective hotel guests.

Just make sure you go to Bora-Bora and stay there!

This resort has an excellent location with new, clean and well equipped bungalows. We stayed three days in a deluxe garden bungalow and two days on the furthermost of the deluxe owb's and were well impressed by our rooms.
Only negative experience: Staff may be somewhat inattentive.
Try the diving: The crew is funny and very forthcoming.

We went there for the Christmas break. The first impressions were all positive: the resort is well kept, the reception is nice, we got a couple of pineapple drinks upon arrival.

accommodations: We were given garden cottage the first night. Inside it was spacious, clean (we did find a huge, dead cockroach) but the bathroom area had an odd odor that made it kind of hard to be in there. They moved us the second day to a beach bungalow and it was just a few meters closer to the beach but we could not see the water from the room because of some very high bushes that grew just outside the mini porch of the bungalow. This bungalow seemed a lot more warned out, and you could not stay on the porch for a rotting smell that came off the wood in the deck perhaps! The bathroom here was OK. Be warned: if you want privacy, the beach bungalow might not offer it: there was a look out security guy who was prancing around peaking inside all the time! This being a honeymooners destination, you can imagine! We had to keep the day curtains closed all the time because of this guy and beach walkers.

Food: there are 2 restaurants. We had 1/2 board, no lunch but breakfast and dinner. We were disappointed with the food variety and service overall. Breakfast seemed to consist everyday of the same thing: some frozen baked fries, some lame from the jar sausage, some eggs (they could scramble of boil them for you), some salmon fume, some strange, mayonnaise filled shot glasses with some sort of seafood, some 2-3 types of frozen and then baked pastry, same ones every day, some juice, never enough and some fresh fruit, never enough either. Dinner a la cart at the main restaurant was a choice of the same 3 dishes, boring and not very well cooked, you always left sort of hungry. The buffet dinners were just as bad, nothing really fresh, even things that should have been local like lobster, were made from frozen (it was a common thread in Tahiti). the other restaurant was more expensive, you had to pay a lot extra on top of your regular meal coupon from the regular restaurant and the food was not a lot better, same ingredients! Some nights they would force the people with meals included in the stay to have their meals in an area of the restaurant that was far from the entertainment so the people who were paying would have the better parts of the restaurant! i thought that was rude.
Servers at both restaurants were strange only when the manager was on the premises they seemed to have an extra gear. One night they forgot to bring the desserts and when we reminded them, they told us they just ran out! Food is really expensive and bad. But you are trapped on this island: there are good restaurants on it, like Cher Roger (amazing!!!) but to get to it, a taxi costs about $100 and there are no buses to take you for dinners. transportation is really limited.

The resort, beach, amenities: the resort itself is in a beautiful spot. Its premises are well groomed and quiet. The beach is mixed sand and stones, not combed, having shoes on at all times is advisable, especially since the water is also alive with many creatures and corrals that are very sharp. There are chaise-lounges on the beach and the beach itself is totally private, of the hotel. There is snorkeling equipment free to take and also hydro-bicycles and canoes.

The island: Moorea is one amazing island. Its so breathtakingly beautiful I have no words to describe it. We rented a car for 2 days through the hotel and drove around it in amazement. Its gorgeous and the road that goes around it is good. If you are interested in pearls, buy them in Moorea not anywhere else, we shopped around and found the best quality and deals in Moorea, Ann Simone Shop. There is a juice factory also that you can visit, we never found it open, but it looked interesting from outside. Don't miss having lunch at Cher Roger, the location, food and atmosphere is unforgettable. Papeete is 15 mins. away by local plane or 1 hour by ferry if you desire to visit. We did, found it dirty and smelly wiht not much to see.

Overall, a wonderful island and resort, if you can get past the food within the resort! We aslo visited after Bora Bora (big disappointment and tourist trap and Taha'a Private Island (a real paradise, but small). We liked Moorea the best.

This hotel is absolutely gorgeous. We actually took a drive around the entire island yesterday, stopping at each of the nicer hotels and this one is by far the most exquisite looking. The only complaint we would have is that the service is horribly slow compared to the others. We have waited upwards of an hour at times for drinks to be served once ordered.