In this extensive review, I will talk about how to get to the club, the superior room we stayed in, the sports offered, the motu, the lagoon excursion, and the restaurant. You can see the same review (with embedded images, and lots more of them then I uploaded here) at http://www.ianandwendy.com/OtherTrips/SouthPacific/Tahiti/TripReport.htm

Warning, before you go:

We never managed to get either of our bank cards to work. We have both Cirrus and Plus bank cards and they have worked faithfully all over the world. We tried to withdraw money using both cards in several banks in Papeete, several more in Vaitape, Bora Bora, and yet more in Moorea. They never worked. We finally did succeed in getting money out using a credit card (Visa). Of course this means we're stuck paying hefty cash advance fees. If you live in a oountry other than the US, you should consider establishing a positive balance on your credit card, and maybe more than one. We met many other people from other countries who had the same trouble we had. Make sure you know the PIN number for your cards and bring extra US dollars or Euros just in case. Many cheaper hotels and stores will not take credit cards.

Getting to Tahiti from California
My wife and I took a 3 week trip to the South Pacific in July of 2006. We visited the islands of Bora Bora, Moorea and Tahiti in French Polynesia, followed by Easter Island (Chile) and finally Rarotonga and Aitutaki of the Cook Islands.

The flight from San Francisco to Papeete is not a very long one. There are basically two ways to get there: either via LA or via Honolulu. LA was cheaper for us. The flight from LA took only 8 hours - a mere nothing, especially when compared to our last marathon flight to Delhi.

We flew Air New Zealand from LA. It was a comfortable flight with acceptable airline food - the seat configuration of the 767 was nice, in a 2 - 3 - 2 format, which guaranteed a 2 seat row for my wife and me.

Getting from Papeete to Bora Bora
Our first stop was Club Med Bora Bora. It might seem like an unusual destination for us, given our usual choices of Pensions and cheap backpacker hotels. Well, believe it or not, Club Med is the "cheap" option on Bora Bora. It is recommended by Lonely Planet as being the best deal/most affordable way to see Bora Bora. When we priced out staying at a cheaper hotel, then adding the price for meals, drinks, activities like sailing and snorkeling (all included at Club Med) it was far more expensive.

Papeete, where all the international flights arrive, is on the island of Tahiti. It is technically possible to take a ferry to go from Papeete to Bora Bora, but it takes something like 16 hours and it didn’t sound like the most comfortable boat. So, like everyone else, we opted for the very expensive Air Tahiti Nui option. It cost $400 per person for a 45 minute flight.

Upon arrival in Papeete, we had to pick up our bags and re-check in to our Air Tahiti Nui flight to Bora Bora. Check in was unbelievably slow. Although there were only about 5 of us in line, it took the checkin gate agent about 5 to 10 minutes for each person.

The Papeete airport (Faa) is a hot, open air building but has the conveniences of an internet café, a bank (which didn't work with any of our bank cards!) and some basic dining and shopping options. The flight to Bora Bora only takes 45 minutes, and the flight attendant announced the various islands as we passed them. Of course, all the good views were from the opposite side of the plane to the side we were on. (It is much better to be on the left side of the plane when going from Papeete to Bora Bora!)
Bora Bora Airport
Bora Bora Airport

The airport in Bora Bora is not on the main land. It is on a motu, a 20 minute boat ride from the main city of Vaitape. Some of the more expensive hotels pick up their guests directly from the airport. For the rest of us, the boat ride gives you a good introduction to the island - a free sightseeing trip covering most of the western side of the island.

In Vaitape, representatives from the various hotels and resorts meet their guests off the boat. We wanted to try to get cash out using the bank machines in town, so we asked the Club Med rep to hold on while we tried the 3 machines right next to the pier. No luck at any of them. ("Your bank has instructed us to return your card") During this time, our Club Med rep took off on us. Of course, we can hardly complain, as he wasn't even supposed to be giving us a ride - since our transfer wasn't technically included.

While we were waiting for the Club Med rep to come back, we watched outrigger canoe races, part of the Heiva Festival, which is an annual cultural festival celebrated throughout French Polynesia.

The shuttle to Club Med took about 10 minutes, on a pleasant ring road around the island.

Overview and Checkin
Checkin was quick - just confirmation of our voucher, and we were off to our room for a well deserved shower. The Club is small, only 150 rooms. Most are of "Superior" class. The difference between Superior class and Oceanview is minimal - The ocean views are maybe 30 feet closer to the beach than the (better) superior rooms. I had called ahead to request a better room, and I think it was worth calling - we had one of the best superior class rooms, a stone's throw from the beach.

The path around the village is well lit, and lush with vegetation. Even the farthest rooms are only about a maximum of a 10 minute walk from the center of the hotel (where the restaurant, pier, reception etc. are). The oceanview rooms often have no shade provided on the balcony - as compared to the superiors which are in the shade of the palms.

The Superior Room
The room is very smartly built. It's very big, with amenities like TV, A/C, and fridge (they call it a mini-bar, but it’s empty). The king-size bed is actually two singles stuck together, which don’t stay together. They would have done better to have a king-size feather mattress covering to lessen the gap. Or just gotten king size beds to begin with!

The bathroom is big, with a separate enclosed toilet. The shutters in the bathroom unfortunately don't close completely, which allows the mosquitoes in. The big screen door doesn't have netting either, so it's hard to sit with the door open without filling the room with mosquitoes. In addition, and more annoyingly, every time they fumigated the village (daily just after sunset), the smoke would pour in to our room - even with all the blinds and windows shut. Being on the beach didn't bring much relief either - the cloud of smoke inevitably billowed on to the beach and gassed anyone still there.

Other smart features of the room are a huge window/ledge in the shower for the shampoo/soap, more cabinet space than you could possibly need, two safes, and modern uplights embedded into the floor providing light for the room. (the room was still too dim for us at night though). There are lots of hooks, a clothesline in the shower (although nothing really ever dries effectively there, it's too humid). There are umbrellas right outside the door - an unfortunate necessity, even in the 'dry' season (it rained 4 out of 7 days we were there).

There is no carpet - a feature we always appreciate about Club Med. Tile floors are so much easier to keep clean, especially at such a high humidity level right next to the sea.

The negatives for the room are that they haven't decorated it that well - there is only one painting on the all-white walls. They need a faux-finish, or more paintings, to spruce up the room. The other negative is that the rooms are beginning to look a little tired. The grout is dirty, and in general the floor needs to be scrubbed, hard.

The TV only has 9 channels - CNN included, and the only English channel - but who needs TV? There is a kettle in the room, and they rent out an espresso maker if the walk to the bar is just too far to get your caffeine fix.

The Beach
The beach is better than we expected. After having read so many stories on the web about it being so small, coral sand, unswimmable, we wondered if we'd ended up at the same resort! Immediately around the central pier, the sand is soft white sand. Elsewhere in the resort, it is a coral sand (as are a lot of the beaches in Bora Bora). The length of the beach is fairly good - it would take about 10 minutes to walk the entire length, going at a good clip. The sand is a little rough and sandals/flip flops are definitely useful, but once you're in the water, you don't need them - the sand is nice and soft, but there are bits of coral you have to look out for.

Of course, that also means there are good snorkeling opportunities right off the beach. There are even some stairs built onto the pier where there is some beautiful schools of fish and an underwater tiki statue to be discovered.

Restaurant and Bar
The buffet restaurant is typical Club Med. Great desserts, mediocre wine, hit-and-miss meat, fantastic bread, etc. The seafood is very good - lots of evenings with shrimp, and for Bastille Day (July 14th) they pulled out ALL the stops, with oysters, lobster, etc.

Breakfast was probably the most disappointing meal. The only consistently good hot food was crepes. The hash browns were cold every day we tried them. Bacon was only sometimes on offer, and more often that not cold. Omelettes, even made to order, were consistently undercooked and runny, despite how much we asked for them to be cooked. For non-hot food, the bread is always excellent (croissant, chocolate bread, etc. all made fresh daily). There was always a good selection of fruit, too.

Lunch was mostly the same every day, with cheeseburgers, not-very-good fish, bread, wonderful cheese, etc.

Dinner was very good. They would always have some special dishes, around the theme of the day - Tahitian, French, Italian, Japanese, etc. The raw fish and meats were all excellent - I tried everything and not a single upset stomach or hint of food poisoning. Everything was being kept at the right temperature, and flies were not a problem.

Despite what other people have said about chickens and dogs being a problem at Club Med, we found it to be the opposite. Apparently they have made an effort to reduce the numbers. They never came in to the restaurant area, and the couple of dogs we saw were always very docile. There was a family of cats as well, and the children staying at the Club loved playing with the kittens.

The bar is now almost fully included, with the exception of some top-shelf hard liquor, champagne, and more expensive bottles of wine. Some of the barstaff were clueless, however, and didn’t know how to make some of the most basic drinks - but they were always receptive to being told what to do. There is some snack food available at the bar as well. (bags of chips) Although there isn't anyone serving drinks on the beach, they never seemed to care when we took our glasses out of the bar area. It was very nice to share a drink at the end of the pier as the day ended.

Water Sports
We took out kayaks several times and it was very pleasant. Because the Club is inside the lagoon, the water is very calm.

The sailing is well set up, with 5 hobie cats meaning there are plenty of sailboats for the size of the club. There are beginner lessons twice a day (included) unless there is a special sailing event that day. Twice a week, there is a sailing armada to an area outside the normally allowable sailing area.

Unfortunately while we were there the wind wasn't too cooperative for beginners - it was either too soft or too hard. Since there is lots of shallow coral in the lagoon, you have to be pretty careful with the boats.
There is also windsurfing, but we didn't try that. There seemeed to be plenty of boards though, and again, beginner lessons are offered.

The snorkeling was a little disappointing. We were excited at the advertised twice daily trips, but it turns out that these trips were to the same place every day - and also the same place that all the surrounding hotels go to. Unfortunately, the other hotels do not properly instruct their guests on the fragility of the coral, so we often saw other snorkelers walking all over the coral with their fins on. As a result, the coral is in pretty bad shape. We really didn't see much, although other people reported seeing octopuses and rays. The good news (for the coral) is that since all the hotels send their guests to the same place,there is just the one section of coral that is sacrificed.

The reason the snorkeling boat is limited to the same site is that Club Med only has one boat, and that is the boat that ferries people back and forth to the motu. So the boat most go out and come back fast enough to pick up the people on the motu.

Evening Entertainment
The nightly shows are normal Club Med High School level, although the traditional Polynesian fire and dance show was a nice treat (I'm sure the same troupe performs at the Sofitel and every other hotel, but it was still nice to see that Club Med is paying for them to put on a performance on site, instead of asking guests to pay an excursion fee to see it in town).

Another night was a "casino" night, which as far as we could see was just a night off for the staff.

The GM's (the guests)
When we arrived, the Club was at about 40% capacity. By the time we left, it was running at about 75%. However, it never even began to approach feeling full. There is so much space - on the beach, at the bar, in the restaurant - that it never felt crowded.

The guests at Club Med fell into roughly two categories: honeymooning Americans, and Europeans. There were some families there, but there are no activities for children, and it's questionable whether children would find someone their age to play with.

One of our concerns was that because the Club has now gone 'all-inclusive', there would be rowdy behaviour, and drunks. This was never the case. In one week there, we never saw a single person who was drunk. Maybe the bartenders just don't let it happen by refusing to serve - but I tend to think that the kind of people who would travel all the way to French Polynesia just aren't interested in getting drunk out of their minds.

The Club Med Motu

The impression we got from the advertising was that Club Med has it's own private motu that it shuttles guests to, partly to make up for the fact that the beach at the Club isn't that great. So, we were expecting this small little island, covered with soft white sand, looking on to the famous Bora Bora lagoon. Well, only the last part is right. The reality is that the motu is huge - we couldn't even see the end of it - and the land is divided up in to many parcels. Club Med has but one of these parcels. The beach is worse than the Club's beach - lots of coral, very narrow strip of sand, and if you walk outside of Club Med's parcel, the beach is even worse. Inland on the motu, we saw garbage. Lots of dogs - and not behaved as well as the dogs at the club. It wasn't even clear where Club Med's parcel ended and the other hotels' parcels began.

There are a couple of shelters on the Club Med part of the motu - but no access to water, bathrooms, etc. They run a picnic trip to the motu twice a week - which was nice, with a great BBQ - but the rest of the time - nothing. The motu generally has better weather then the main club, as the clouds tend to gather and get stuck around the mountain on Bora Bora, but the motu is far enough away not to be affected by this. In addition, since the motu is not in the shade of the mountain, it was a good way to extend the sunlight of the day by catching the 4:00 ferry over and taking the 5:00 ferry back.

The lagoon's water around the motu is absolutely beautiful. This is the water you see in all the Bora Bora brochures - that beautiful turquoise blue we've never seen anywhere else in the word.

The Excursion
We took the full day lagoon tour excurusion. It was not cheap ($110 per person) but was a great tour of the lagoon and a very pleasant day.

It is probably possible to get the same type of tour by going with one of the local operators instead of Club Med's. However, we liked the fact that Club Med was taking care of cancelling excursions in bad weather and rescheduling people. In addition, the other excursions offered (quad bike, shark feeding, etc. ) were all comparable to the rates that were in our Lonely Planet guide.

Also, while we were there, the phones from the Club weren't working, so the only way to make an outside call was to go to the front desk and have them call for you. Then a phone in the lobby would ring and you would be connected. Having them call so we could check out the competition seemed awkward.
Club Med Bora BoraClub Med Bora Bora
Lunch on a Motu

Basically, the excursion takes you around the island, stopping in a couple of places for snorkeling, stopping at a beautiful sandbar for photos and swimming, stopping to feed the rays, and eating lunch on a motu with your feet dangling in the water. The ray feeding was a lot of fun - the rays are not captive, but there's a group of them that have just been almost 'domesticated' by constant ray feeding excursions. The snorkeling was better than the snorkeling offered at the Club - but again, we were snorkeling in the same area as a lot of other boats. A moray eel is always hiding in the coral where they stop, and the tour operators take turns to feed the eel and get it to put on a nice show for their guests. After a while we were beginning to wonder if this thing was on a string.

Checkout
Checkout of the club wasn't exactly smooth. We followed our instructions dutifully, and left our baggage outside our door well in advance. After checking out, the chef du village and several GOs converged to wish us off, but there was no luggage to be found. It took about 10 minutes for them to track it down - with the Chef du Village getting visibly upset - and we almost missed our boat back to the airport. It turns out, the baggage handler is not used to mid-morning checkouts, because almost everyone checks out in the middle of the night, connecting to the Air France plane bound for LA. We were only going to Papeete.

Sept. 20th - Just got back from a week long trip to Bora Bora. I booked our all-inclusive room at Orbitz about 6 months ago and got a great deal of 350 a night (which, trust me, for Bora Bora is budget priced! The other hotels ranged from 500-1000 dollars PER night, it's totally insane). This includes all your food and alcohol - at another hotel, food alone could cost you this.

First of all, who cares about the room? The island of Bora Bora is like paradise on earth, crystal blue water, no waves as it is surrounded by a coral reef, beautiful fish, beautiful people, gorgeous green mountains,etc. If you are inside the room watching French TV all day, go outside!

The rooms at Club Med were fairly spartan but we had an ocean view even in the cheapest room - which was breathtaking. The air conditioner worked SO well! Showers have weakish water pressure and there was a tiny gecko visiting, but honestly, it's a tropical island, who cares. I think a lot of the bad reviews may come from people who haven't been to tropical islands before as there are mosquitos and lizards on all of them.

The food! The buffets were Vegas style and 3 times a day. Everything you could imagine was there. One night was Japanese themed night so it was all you can eat sushi! As with any buffet, there is the chance you will pick something you don't like, but the food overall was great. The bread tastes like what they have in France.

The GOs were wonderful! We made lots of acquaintances with all the Italian/Japanese/French tourists that we kept running into. It was nice to have a break from Americans as there weren't very many there. I highly recommened the Safari off-road tour as you get the most breathtaking views of Bora Bora. The Motu is the most perfect water for swimming - be sure to visit, there is a free ferry every few hours (see pics).

All in all, Club Med was wonderful. We plan to stay at another Club Med for our next vacation.

Overall, we really enjoyed Club Med Bora Bora. The atmosphere is relaxed, but lots of fun. Everything is taken care of - you just need yourselves! We will definitely go back.

What we liked: the all inclusive package was excellent value (and included 3 meals a day, snacks and drinks, including cocktails and spirits), the free snorkelling is amazing, the bar has a great atmosphere, as does the restaurant, the food is good quality and interesting and there is heaps of it. The entertainment at lunch by the Polynesians is great. We had an Oceanview room and it was air-conditioned, quiet, spacious and the bed was very comfortable.

We we didn't like: the GOs are so relaxed, they are borderline lazy - basically, they are more interested in each other (think Big Brother) than making sure guests are having a good time (the watersports GOs are the worst), the entertainment at night is amatuer and they have Polynesian dance shows only once a week. The showers in the rooms are awful as they have no water pressure (other people said this as well). The snorkelling gear is old and broken, so take your own.

If you go to Club Med Bora Bora, pay extra for the Maohi Nui boat ride as it is a wonderful experience of Polynesian culture and also do the shark feeding. August is not a really good month to go to Bora Bora if you like sun - it is often cloudy and rains sometimes and the wind is really strong.

Most of the guests were Italian or French, so English was a distant 3rd language, but readily spoken. It was a great holiday.

My wife and I went to CM Bora Bora for our 2nd anniversary. It took 24 hours to get there, but it was well worth the trip. The GO's would announce all the activities, but most people wouldn't get involved unless others did first. Do yourself a favor and get involved!
We thought the food was so-so. A lot of French influence. But we walked about a mile north and brought snacks back to the room. (We could NOT get a steak cooked well-done!)
The water off the beach was amazing! Take the motu tour (free). The water was so clear you could see the bottom all the way across. One travel agent we spoke to said there was no beach at the resort. There was a huge beach, but the sand was pretty hard and compact in many areas (we were told they have to truck it in).
We also dove with Top-Dive (highly recommended). They even accomodated us when we overslept for our second dive trip! We have dove at Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas but this blew them all out of the water! 100+ feet of visibility and literally millions of fish that you can only see in the South Pacific. Plenty of sharks, mantas, triggers, angels and octopi. Even if you're not certified, they will spend the time to help you and make your trip enjoyable.
The rooms were adequate with lots of room and closet space. The balcony was excellent as we spent nearly every evening on it sipping the free drinks and listening to island music.
Most of the guests were pleasant, but didn't really want to be bothered. People pretty much keep to themselves but exchange pleasantries readily. We spent a week at Breezes Runaway Bay in Jamaica and the crowd there wanted to get involved and meet all the guests. Very different in Bora Bora.
We rented a "Bugxter" for a day and toured the island by ourselves. A great way to see the whole island and loads of fun, too! I don't think it's possible to take a bad picture in Bora Bora. Every shot we took looks like a postcard! We also rented bicycles and rode to Matira point where the public beach was amazing (my wife finally got the courage to go topless because nearly everyone else there was).
If you're looking for inexpensive pearls, walk out the main gate and turn right. Walk about 1/4 mile to a small white shop on the hill. We ended up with 3 necklaces and several loose pearls and they mounted them while we waited (free of charge).
All-in-all, the trip was amazing. I think you really need to get off the resort to experience Bora Bora's beauty and how different it is from the USA. The guests and GO's are American and European but the people off the resort are Tahitian and there is a distinct difference in their attitudes. The Tahitians are lovely and friendly, just like the islands.