My husband and I spent two weeks in French Polynesia - the first week on the Paul Gauguin, and then the second week first on Moorea at the Pearl Resort and then at the Thalasso on Bora Bora. The hotel was beautiful and the rooms were huge - the suites all have 3 rooms - a living room, a bedroom and the bath. There are also two outside decks - one with a table and 2 chairs and 2 loungers and the lower deck with a shower.

We stayed in a diamond room - #123. It had a direct view of the mountain from the decks, the living room, the bedroom and even the tub. I had asked for the room they took the pictures from on their website figuring this one would have the best view. It was wonderful waking up to that every morning.

The service at first was great - no waiting to get our luggage or our room, but later during our stay, it seemed to lag. We ordered room service one night and the room wasn't cleaned the next day until 4 or 5pm. We ran out of towels too, and I had to call twice to get them to come clean the room.

Breakfast was included and it was very good. Lots of variety - custom made omelets, and a huge buffet - all you could eat. It was enough to last us for lunch too. We ate dinner there only one night - it was fine, but expensive, of course.

The best place we ate on Bora Bora was a small restaurant called Villa Mahana. We took the shuttle boat over to the Intercontinental Moana on Bora Bora and they sent a van over to pick us up. I had read about it on various forums, so I made reservations way in advance. I requested "the table at the top of the stairs" based on advice. It was beautiful and so romantic - set off by itself, surrounded by candles, flowers and looking down on a reflecting pool. You can sit on a couch covered in pillows or in chairs around the table. The food was delicious! My husband and I both tried the "Discovery Menu" and paid about 180 Euros total. I am not sure what that was in dollars, but I didn't care. The food was the best I have had in a long time and everything is expensive over there, so this was well worth it. It was just a lovely place - I wish I had made reservations there for every night. Next time I will know better.

Back to the Thalasso - the only thing I missed at this hotel was the fish. I loved snorkeling when we were on the cruise and when we went on excursions, so I was hoping for even just a few at the Thalasso, but I was disappointed. I had read that there were no fish, but I didn't realize how important the snorkeling would be for me. We did go to the Lagoonarium which is near the Thalasso, so we got to see fish there, but it would have been very cool to see them around the OWB.

I would still recommend this hotel, but perhaps next time, we might try the Sofitel Motu which is supposed to have great snorkeling. The rooms are probably not as luxurious as the Thalasso though. And we did have a GREAT view!

The most beautiful hotel currently in Bora Bora. (Well, OK the St. Regis may be slightly nicer, but it is WAY pricier, and the under construction Four Seasons looks GREAT, but won't open until 2008). Also, as an insider tip, the Four Seasons will actually look right at the burning garbage dump for the island of Bora Bora. Our hotel was slightly further away, and we didn't see it. It may be shocking to see a burning smoke cloud all day (and know it is garbage) if you pay premium money to stay at the new Four Seasons. The St. Regis, Four Seasons and Intercontinental Thalasso are all right next to each other on the nicest Motu on Bora Bora. It is beautiful. The Intercontinental has a free shuttle boat every hour to take you to the mainland (I don't know if the others do) so getting around is pretty easy. The bungalows were HUGE and so nice. When we arrived at the property, the front desk manager was there to greet us and one other couple that was on the same flight. He put us in a club car and gave us a driving tour of the resort property while another club car took our luggage. He then drove us directly to our overwater bungalow where we did our check-in right in our room. It was first-class service. No stop at a "front desk" necessary. Another Tip, if you can, request the "arm" on the left side of the resort - if you look at an ariel shot - as you will have a closer walk to the pool, restaurants, etc. Oh, I attached one photo of a rainbow....we were in French Polynesia for 8 days in July and the only day of clouds and intermittant rain was the last day of our stay (the day we took the photo).

Let me start by saying THANK YOU to everyone who posts their reviews on this site! Reading your reviews helped us prepare for this amazing trip.

My husband and I spent 14 unforgettable nights in French Polynesia. We flew in to Tahiti from LA and took a short 7 minute flight to our first destination, Moorea. What a beautiful island!!! I will post a review under Sheraton Moorea. We spent 5 nights there and headed for our 'main event' in Bora Bora.

Our travel agent recommended the Thalasso SPA in Bora Bora so we signed up for 9 nights. What a great location, amazing hotel, beautiful lagoon and overall unforgettable experience!

If you are considering Thalasso, you should know that the hotel staff will do everything in their power to WOW you. The hotel is impeccable! Super clean, so well maintained, very modern. We stayed over the water in villa 206. The villas (as they call them) are unbelievable! It was bigger than our condo! What you see on pictures does not even begin to describe the real thing!

In terms of food. I read some poor reviews about food and was wondering the whole time at Thalasso if the people who wrote them stayed at the same resort as we did. We had breakfast and dinner included and really enjoyed the food. We did bring some snacks from home (which you should as well). We also did a bit of shopping at the duty free for booze (which you should as well). Oh, and you must go to Bloody Mary's!!!

Please remember where you are planning to travel. You are going to be on an island that can be circled on a bicycle in two hours. You are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Things ARE EXPENSIVE there! Please accept it and do not complain about it! :)

The only slightly negative thing my husband has to say is the snorkeling was way better in Moorea. There has been a bit of construction going on around the Thalasso and the sand is not yet settled, so not too much fish. To compensate for the lack of fish outside our deck, we went on the shark and ray feeding excursion (which you must do!). Be sure to purchase the video too. It is pricey, but believe me, when you show it to your family and friends, you will be very happy you got it. Stories and pictures don't have the same effect.

We loved every minute of our honeymoon and cold not have picked a better spot!

Have an amazing trip!

We landed in Bora Bora and found the Intercontinental Thalasso desk, claimed our luggage and were off to our resort in Bora Bora. We had the boat to ourselves that morning so we walked from side to side, taking tons of pictures and enjoying the amazing views of Mt Otemanu and the lagoon.

The Room/Resort
We arrived to Thalasso and were thrilled- the resort looked beautiful! We were taken by cart for a quick tour of the resort and then went straight to our overwater villa for in- room check in. Our OWB was huge! We were in Diamond #230 at the end one of the rows. I was very happy with the location of the room and loved that we had the most amazing view of Mt Otemanu from our bottom and top deck! The water was pretty deep at our bungalow- maybe around 9-10 feet, so the rafts came in handy for floating around in the lagoon. We saw some fish swimming by every once in a while but usually they only came out at night and you could see them through the coffee window.

One piece of advice I would give is if you are looking to be able to walk out from your bungalow into the lagoon get one of the closer bungalows- the current is pretty strong and when we jumped in the water we would have to swim or paddle on our floats to make sure we weren’t heading for the rope. It is more relaxing to be able to have shallow water off the bungalow so you can just stand around- I guess it’s a personal preference. If you are looking to snorkel go to the area near the chapel and there are lots of little fish around there- but it won’t compare to going on an excursion to the coral gardens. It is great to have one of the bungalows on the end but honestly they all looked fantastic. They are all the same on the inside with different views. We loved our view BUT be prepared if this is what you want…it was a very long walk to go to dinner, the marina or the pool etc. We were always making sure we double checked all of our things so we wouldn’t have to walk back if we forgot anything… one day our key card wasn’t working and my husband had to take the long hike back to reception to get another one made (luckily they gave him a ride on the cart back!)

We did see some bugs at Thalasso- it is to be expected since it is a tropical location- there were flies outside on our deck for our room, they didn’t hurt anything but we didn’t really see any at our other resort. There were no problems with mosquitoes at our overwater but there were some down by the beach chairs so make sure you spray yourself if you are down there. We didn’t see or get bit by any at the pool or restaurants either.

One thing we did think was the room lacked a Polynesian feel. The room was contemporary and really great but there was definitely something missing for us. It’s hard to put your finger on what exactly it was about Thalasso- the grounds and rooms were all great but we just were left wanting something more. (luckily it was soon to come at Le Taha'a- seperate review posted under hotel....)

Restaurants:
The food at Thalasso was okay… it wasn’t fantastic but it was decent. We had breakfast included in our package and it consisted of a nice buffet with lots of choices. Dinner was either at the Sands or the Reef restaurants and the food selections were pretty good. One thing we did notice was the appetizers were pretty large. For some meals I wasn’t overly hungry and just got an appetizer and it was plenty for me. The Poisson Cru at The Sands was a good choice and is a huge appetizer! Unfortunately service at any of the restaurants was pretty sad! I know island time (I have traveled to many islands in my time)... but this was completely different. We definitely felt that the service in general at Thalasso was lacking. There was one day where we sat for about 45 min before even getting our order in…. they keep saying we’ll be back in just a moment but would never come.

Service…
Mediocre service- waitstaff very slow and many commuincation issues.... I wouldn’t say this had any negative impact on our stay but there is definitely a little bit of a communication issue with some of the staff at Thalasso. (Once you get a hold of the right person they will help you though….)

One thing we found to be quite annoying was taking the shuttle to the Le Moana to go to the main island. Some people may not mind this but we didn’t really care to take the trip every evening for dinner and found it to be irritating so the only dinner we went to was Villa Mahana. We did take it one other time to go souvenir shopping but in all honesty we just felt it was a long trip over. (When we were at the Le Meridien on our last trip the boat shuttle was much shorter…)

We did go to the main island for dinner to Villa Mahana- fantastic restaurant. Probably one of the top two dining experiences of our lives! Had the Royal Menu and it was outstanding.

Tours:
Moana Jet Boat Private Motu Picnic
Amazing! I would highly recommend this tour. If the cost is too high for the private tour there were many people we met that did the group tour and enjoyed it as well- but I would say do not miss this great adventure!

Spa:
Deep Ocean Spa
We had couples massages and a Deep Ocean Hydrotherapy Bath. The spa facilities are really nice and there are Jacuzzis, rain showers, steam room etc you can use on your spa day. We did think it was very beautiful and loved having the view to the fish from our massage but both of us thought the massages were just okay. One thing we did love was the Tea Room where you can sit and see the view of the ocean/reef and Tahaa in the far background! Lovely! It was definitely very peaceful and relaxing at the spa though and you can really make a day out of it if you use all the facilities. Hubbie and I did take a dip in the Deep Ocean Cold Water Plunge… wow talk about cold water!

Bora Bora overall was amazing again and the view to Mt Otemanu is so enchanting. Will we go back to Bora Bora?- yes! But we wouldn’t stay at IC Thalasso-
I think Thalasso is still a fantastic place and I would recommend it to people. Thalasso felt more modern with the soft house music playing in the background, the sleek lines and the very French feel. I think people who want that posh feel and aren’t really too concerned about having a resort that is very Polynesian would love Thalasso.

We would like a place with more Polynesian charm. We also want to stay on the island next time since our past 2 trips have been on motu resorts.