We chose Club Med Bora Bora for our honeymoon in August 2008. After reading some of the reviews, we were cautiously optimistic about going. We expected a hard bed (or 2 beds pushed together to make a king size bed), undercooked/raw food, and a basic room. We found all that to be true. However, the beds were no harder than what we have experienced elsewhere in the world. The raw food is part of the culture (i.e. sushi), and the chefs would cook your meat longer if you asked them to. The room might have been old, but it had a lot of character to it and they decorated it beautifully with hibiscus and other flowers before our arrival. We had a deluxe ocean view room. We had a small porch outside with a table and 2 chairs. We also had 2 lounge chairs in the sand right off of our porch. It was a beautiful spot to lounge around for the afternoon or stargaze at the brilliant night sky.
Overall, the resort was beautiful. The beaches were sandy and lined with palm trees. You can relax in one of the many hammocks along the paths. The drinks at the bar were adequate. The entertainment was kind of cheesy at times, but most of it was pretty good and it was something to do after dark. There is also a long pier where you can snorkel from, feed/observe the fish, or catch the pontoon boat several times a day to go to the motu. There is a sunset cruise (or should I say pontoon boat ride) two nights a week which we would recommend, although it is nothing fancy. The GO's bring along snacks and drinks, but we ended up with some beautiful photos from the sunset cruise.
The ride to the motu was very pretty and the water is so clear and blue. There is not a lot on the motu itself, but we made sure to always bring a bag with fruit, bottled water, water shoes, and towels. The sun was very hot on the motu and there wasn't much breeze. We spent our time out there in the water doing water aerobics or snorkeling. You had to watch where you walked because you share the water with a number of spiny sea urchins. The GO's also organize a picnic lunch at the motu once a week, which was very nice for a change of dining scenery.
We enjoyed walking outside on the paths and just taking in the scenery on the resort. There is a path to a lookout point called the Belvedere Trail which my husband said was beautiful. I don't like heights, so I didn't go. I guess the path was steep and pretty rugged to get there, but my husband said it was worth it. If you take this trail, make sure you ask for the key (which allows you access under the main road) at the desk before you go.
The food was very good for buffet food. There were always one or two selections at each meal where they would grill something fresh for you if you wanted that entree, and prepare it nicely on your plate. I love trying new foods, and most meals gave me the opportunity to do that. On the contrary, my husband is a very picky eater (a meat and potato man), but he found enough things that he liked and certainly didn't starve. I really enjoyed the salad bar and fresh fruit at most of the meals.
The GO's were friendly, and although English wasn't the primary language in Bora Bora (by the islanders, GO's, or other guests), most of them spoke English fairly well. We don't speak any French and we communicated just fine. A few of the GO's were especially nice and would sit down and talk to us for extended periods on their breaks.
We spent all 11 days on Bora Bora and had plenty of time to do several excursions while there. We would highly recommend spending the money and doing the Maohi Nui trip. It is a day long boat ride around the island. You make 4 different stops which include snorkeling, feeding/playing with the stingrays, and lunch in the water on a motu. The stingrays actually come right up on your chest because they want you to feed them. It was probably our favorite part of our entire trip! We would do the Maohi Nui trip again if we ever went back! We also took the Jeep 4X4 tour from the resort. The guide stopped at 4 different lookout points on the island. It was beautiful and gave a lot of history about Bora Bora. The only bad part of that trip was that we couldn't take the canopy off the back of the Jeep where we were sitting because one couple brought their 1 year old child along and didn't want her to be in the sun. I think we would have seen a lot more had the canopy been taken down the whole time. We also went on several dives while on Bora Bora. We chose Top Dive. They were very professional and picked us up right from the resort. There were 5 or 6 of us with one guide. Because we went on several dives, they got to know us and even gave us a free ride into town one day to do some shopping. We would HIGHLY recommend Top Dive.
One more thing to mention is that the island has a very high population of dogs roaming around. (Some of the islanders estimate about 6000 dogs on the island.) There are a couple that roam around on Club Med's property, but they are very nice and harmless, certainly nothing to be afraid of. However, at times, you can definitely hear barking in the distance. Some other people commented that they heard roosters all the time. We didn't hear the roosters, but we did hear dogs outside at times.
We chose to give Club Med Bora Bora a rating of "excellent" because of the reasonable cost. We saw other people who wrote "you get what you pay for", but we think that we got more than what we paid for and actually expected. It's no Hilton, but we weren't expecting a Hilton.
