Our stay at the Hotel Bora Bora, after two weeks in Tikehau and Moorea, was extraordinary. In comparison to the Tikehau Pearl Beach Resort and the Sheraton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa, the Hotel Bora Bora stood out as a truly world-class experience.

The public relations director met us on our arrival with glasses of perfectly chilled champagne before leading us to our bungalow, a spacious suite with a large sitting room, an attractive bedroom, a dressing room, a large bath, and a big deck several paces from the lagoon. We were over water in Tikehau and Moorea, and our beach-side bungalow at Hotel Bora Bora was preferable in one significant respect: the sound of waves breaking on sand instead of sloshing against pilings. The entire bungalow, except for the bath, was paneled in raw red cedar, giving the bungalow a naturally aromatic ambiance. Two pareos arranged on the bed were gifts from the hotel, along with a nice bottle of chilled champagne and a large bowl of fresh papaya, apples, pears, mango, giant pink grapes, and pineapple.

The sitting room in our bungalow was sparsely furnished, and we wondered if some furniture had been removed: there was an empty space in the sitting room where I could picture a small table and chairs, which would have been nice for dining, and there was no bureau in either the bedroom or dressing room for folded clothes. The hangers had clips for trousers, and there was a slatted shelf over the hanger rail that was adequate but inconveniently high. The writing table and side tables in the sitting room were attractive French colonial reproductions, bamboo and black lacquer.

In general, the staff was exceptional: courteous, competent, and professional, the only disappointment being the dining room, where we were surprised to meet with inattention and even indifference. The food wasn't what we expected, either. After the first two nights, we went out. The concierge's recommendations were excellent.

The snorkeling right around the hotel is pretty good, and at night giant manta rays are attracted to the lights under the dock where the launches arrive and depart. We saw anywhere from one to three rays at a time every night... it was mesmerizing. I had heard that in recent years the hotel had been allowed somewhat to deteriorate. There is no sign of neglect or disrepair now. The grounds are beautiful and meticulously maintained. There were Pawleys Island hammocks everywhere. The feeling of the resort is one of established, quiet, relaxed, and understated elegance.

I can't recommend the Hotel Bora Bora highly enough.

Wow, where to begin?

My husband and I went there for the first leg of our honeymoon (next stop was Moorea Pearl Resort -which we did not enjoy nearly as much).

Rooms: We had Bungalow 25 (on the Matira Beach side). We often felt as though as we had the entire beach to ourselves and my husband absolutely fell in love love with the hammock. The rooms were nice, I did not find them to be in need of repair as some people have written. If I had to be picky, I would say the bathroom could use some updating. As for bugs, I did find a roach on the floor one morning, but I would hardly consider that a bug problem.

Staff: The staff at the Hotel Bora Bora were fantastic. I was so impressed on how quickly they learned our names and we were always greeeted as Mr. and Mrs. Faso walking around on the grounds...it was so nice, especially as newlyweds! The front desk staff were always willing to make dinner recommendations/reservations or help us with anything else we needed. They even went as far as call the local camera shop to see if they had a battery that would work in my camera.

Food: The food at the hotel is good, we ate there for nearly every lunch and a couple dinners and were never dissapointed. For lunch one day we went to Chez Ben's which is a quick walk from the hotel (turn right when coming out of the hotel - it is on the mountain side of the raod). My husband and I were a little worried at the sight of the restaurant (not more than a shack riddled with cats, dogs and chickens), but we sat down anyway and talked with Ben as we wipped us up our meal consisting of cheese casadillas and fish tacos. The food was good, but a bit more expensive than anticipated ($55 USD), but then again, welcome to Tahiti, the land of everything expensive. For dinner we tried Bloody Mary's - nothing fantastic, I would not go back, especially for what it cost us to eat there ($130 USD). We also went to the Yacht Club for dinner, I had the shrimp curry (can't remember what my husband had), but I do remember that we liked it. Lastly, on our last night we discovered the Bora Taina Hut, which we really enjoyed. Try the breadfruit gnochi for an appetizer - and the ribs were fantastic!

Excursions: On our second day we did the Lagoon Cruise on a 17ft Boston Whaler - it was just my husband and I (and our guide Moroto) - I have never seen my husband so impressed in his life. It is a six hour tour which includes shark feeding, sting ray feeding, snorkeling and lunch on a private Motu. It was the most amazing day ever. If you can swallow the price tag (almost $1,000 USD) then do it!!!! We also did the sunset cruise and submarine which we enjoyed.

Island: Bora Bora
Hotel: Hotel Bora Bora (HBB)
Room: Deep water OWB (#118)
Days: 5 days/4 nights
Flight: Moorea to Bora Bora on Air Tahiti with a stop at Rangaroa

We chose Hotel Bora Bora based on our travel agent’s recommendation. We really cannot say enough good things about this hotel and its staff. Everything was absolutely perfect. It has a great location for snorkeling (since it was the first hotel on the island) and wasn’t too far from restaurants or the market.

Hotel service- impeccable. We were met at the airport by a staff member who grabbed our bags and put us onto a private boat to the hotel. Hotel staff met us at the dock with glasses of champagne and checked us into the hotel in our bungalow (no need to go to the front desk). We ordered room service once during our stay and it arrived in a timely manner. Housekeeping was also great and efficient.

Room- Our OWB wasn’t ready, so we were given a garden bungalow to use in the interim. Amazing – 1,200 sq. ft, a huge bathroom and a private deck with a private pool. After seeing the size of the garden bungalow, we were slightly disappointed with the size of the OWB (smaller). However, our disappointment didn’t last long after we looked outside. The hotel only has 6 deep water OWBs, and 118 was, in our opinion, the best. Not only was it at the edge of the coral reef- there were so many fish but it had a great view of the different areas of the lagoon. The other deep OWBs couldn’t see as much of the different shades of the blue lagoon as 118. The shallow OWB probably gave you a better view of the beautiful shades of the lagoon, but didn’t offer reef or fish unless you swam out. We had numerous types of fish living under our bungalow and even saw an octopus and eel. Bungalow 118 had the best of both worlds, great views and great snorkeling.

One thing we’d like to address is the state of the hotel and the rooms. Prior to our trip, we read several comments saying that the hotel was getting shabby in its old age and didn’t live up to a 4/5 star rating. We’d have to disagree. It’s certainly true that the bungalows did not look as new as the ones at the IC Moorea. However, we though that was part of the charm, the history and the fact that we were paying for location. The grounds were in great shape and the staff is there to make sure everything was perfect. It certainly beat any 4/5 star hotel we’ve stayed in the US.

Activities- We didn’t do any of the excursions offered by the hotel because our OWB was so great that we didn’t want to leave! Plus, most of the activities offered were similar to the ones we did on Moorea (and also more expensive). Since the snorkeling was amazing at the hotel we didn’t feel like we needed to do anything else.

Food - Generally, we thought the food was better in Bora Bora than in Moorea, but could have been because of what restaurants we chose. Average dinner was $100 without alcohol. Again, we bought food at the local market (turn right from the entrance of the hotel and walk 30 minutes along the road) and made most of our breakfasts and lunches. There is a small fridge in the room to store yogurt, cold cuts, fruit, etc. For dinners we went out to local restaurants, below are our thoughts and ratings on each (excellent, very good, good, mediocre).

Yacht Club – very good
Bloody Mary’s – pretty good, they have daily catches which are then prepared to your liking, this seemed to be most American tourists’ favorite dining destination – probably because the service was closer to that of the US
Fare Nui - very good
Hotel Bora Bora restaurant hotel – excellent, by far the best meal we had in Tahiti. We wished we ate at the hotel restaurant for all the meals. FYI, the chef there is on a 6-month rotation, so Alex may not be there when you go.
We also had lunch at the more casual restaurant at the hotel (on the beach), which was also pretty good

General comments:
The pace on Bora Bora is far more leisurely than that of Moorea. We felt as though Moorea was an “activities” island whereas Bora Bora was more laidback. If we’re able to make it back to Tahiti, we’d probably skip Moorea and go to Bora Bora and there is no doubt that we’d go back to Hotel Bora Bora.

Bora Bora tips:
There is a full service market about a 30-minute walk towards the right when you exit HBB
There is free Internet access and a pool table but no TVs in the rooms
Buy the CD that is played in your room ($20). We play it all the time at home and it brings us back to Bungalow 118.
On Tuesday nights the manager hosts a cocktail hour for all guests
At night, starting around 8pm, the mantra rays come to feed at the docks. These animals are so beautiful to watch
We were advised not to buy black pearls in Bora Bora due to the markup vs. at Moorea or Tahiti
Free bread is available at the dock to feed the fish


General Tahiti tips:
If you go out to dinner, be prepared to have a leisurely dinner (2-3 hrs) - the free shuttle service to and from the restaurant will only go back to the hotel only after everyone in the shuttle group has finished their dinner
Tipping isn’t required at restaurants, but we did see signs saying that tips are appreciated. However, there wasn’t a line on the credit card receipt for tip so you must leave them in cash
Best dishes were generally the fish dishes. Wouldn’t recommend the steaks, shrimp or scallops- poor quality. Lots of people got pizza (why?!) but I suppose it is less expensive, but it never looked very appetizing.
No ATM accepted our Citibank ATM card so bring cash to exchange. We tried every bank in Moorea and at the airports (we watched other people get denied as well). Although major credit cards are accepted in most places, there are times when you’ll need cash – gas, lunches, groceries, some activities, sundries
Make sure to bring and wear sunblock. The sun is very strong and you will get burned if you don’t wear block
Bring some sort of shoes to wear in the water (Tevas, Crocs, etc) since there’s a lot of corral in the water
Absolutely did not run into any of the bug problems that we had read about from other reports
Bring your own snorkel gear so you don’t have use to use equipment dozens of people have already used
There is a borrowing library
Our Blackberry didn’t work (T-Mobile service), voice service may have worked but we never tried but data service didn’t work

We stayed at Hotel Bora Bora in September for our honeymoon, and although the staff was very friendly, we felt the hotel wasn't worth the price we paid - not a 5 start resort. After coming from Le Taha'a, this was definitely a disappointment. The bathrooms were very old looking and dirty, and our tub did not work. The furnishings were tired and sparse, and we had a lot of flies on our porch. We paid $700/night at Hotel Bora Bora and $900/night at Taha'a and we felt that Taha'a was by far the better price for what you got. Taha's was worth every penny. We wished we had stayed there for the whole trip. As a disclaimer, I think that if we hadn't had the amazing experience we had at Taha'a, we would have been happier wtih Hotel Bora Bora.

On the positive side, the staff and management was extremely friendly at Hotel Bora Bora, we liked the food, and they have the prettiest view of the lagoon on the island.

If you do go there, make sure that you request a bungalow as opposed to just taking what they give you, otherwise all the good ones will be taken from people that requested them. The 3 beach bungalows the farthest down the beach aren't great. Your best bet is to ask for a beach bungalow that is close to the lobby but not behind the overwater bungalows.

I heard that the Thalasso was very nice from some other couples we spoke to. I might also try the Sofitel Motu. Whatever you do, save Taha'a for last!