Full view
View all photos (960)960
Room & Suite (295)
Pool & Beach (86)
What is Travelers’ Choice?
Tripadvisor gives a Travelers’ Choice award to accommodations, attractions and restaurants that consistently earn great reviews from travelers and are ranked within the top 10% of properties on Tripadvisor.
About
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Value
Travelers' Choice
The Brando is a unique luxury resort on French Polynesia's breathtakingly beautiful private island of Tetiaroa - an atoll composed of a dozen small islands surrounding a sparkling lagoon 30 miles northeast of Tahiti. The Brando offers carefree luxury in the midst of pristine nature. With access to the island by private plane, the resort features 35 villas on white-sand beaches frequented by sea turtles, manta rays and exotic birds. The resort was designed to reflect Polynesian lifestyles and culture.
Read more
Property amenities
Free High Speed Internet (WiFi)
Pool
Fitness Center with Gym / Workout Room
Free breakfast
Beach
Tennis court
Babysitting
Children Activities (Kid / Family Friendly)
Wifi
Pool / beach towels
Infinity pool
Outdoor pool
Private pool
Bar / lounge
Restaurant
Breakfast available
Poolside bar
Free airport transportation
Airport transportation
Spa
Couples massage
Facial treatments
Full body massage
Massage
Concierge
Gift shop
Butler service
Dry cleaning
Laundry service
Show more
Room features
Bathrobes
Air conditioning
Private balcony
Room service
Safe
Minibar
Flatscreen TV
Room types
Ocean view
Suites
Good to know
HOTEL CLASS
HOTEL STYLE
Great View
Languages Spoken
French
Location
Full view
Contact
98702 French Polynesia
Getting there
Rental CarsSee all Tetiaroa rental cars
336Reviews64Q+A82Room tips
Reviews
Traveler rating
- 307
- 20
- 5
- 2
- 2
Time of year
Traveler type
Language
More
Selected filters
- Filter
- English
Popular mentions
+1
We just returned from a 10 night stay at The Brando. I can say 10 days was just not long enough. Upon arrival at Tahiti you are transferred to the Air Tetairoa terminal which is just next the the main airport terminal. There is a nice quiet lounge where you can relax and have some coffee or water. You then board a small plane for a short flight to the island. Once you land you are treated by the staff and get a quick tour of the resort, and then are taken to your villa. The Beach….We are beach people and our villa was on Mermaid Beach. We were thrilled. On Mermaid Beach you can walk out a hundred or more yards in sand… You can walk out to the swim platform and just relax. Everyday we walked up and down Mermaid and Turtle Beach.. the view of the ocean are spectacular. The beach’s, so private… As you walk past the villas they are all set back far enough that you cannot see anyone, yet, while you are in your villa, you can see the ocean. The villas…. Phenomenal. We have stayed at the St. Regis Overwater villas in Bora Bora….these villas are 110% better then the St. Regis. You enter to a sitting room with a fridge that is restocked with top of the line items daily. To one side is another room, the media room. To the other side is the bed room with master bath. My husband fell in love with the toilet and all the special operations it had :). The shower is quite spacious and to the side of the shower is a deck with an outdoor tub. Despite comments from other reviews, we felt that the bad was quite comfortable. Outdoor there is a gazebo, large deck, and pool. All quite spacious. The pool is large enough for the two rafts we brought to float in. And the views!!!!! Dining…All menus are on the iPad you have in your room. We had breakfast and lunch delivered to our gazebo daily. Breakfast and Lunch were ordered from the Beachcomber menu.We were never disappointed. Beachcombers - this was our favorite dining experience. Mainly because of the food choices and the Friday night dinner show. The goat cheese ravioli was to die for. The chocolate mouse….yum,yum, yum. Nami- Great show, great food. And a lot of it. Very quaint with a maximum of 8 guests. Les Mutines’- The presentation of the food is out of this world. And the food tastes even better than it looks. Nightlife.. there is Te Manu where you can watch the sunset and other than that.. we would not know about night life because after our rough day of massages and laying in the sun…. We would go to bed after dinner :) The Spa… I wanted to take our therapists home with us. We loved every treatment we had. I had 4 and my husband had 6. When we had them at the same time they arrange for us to be in the couples room. Tours.. My husband did the Green Tour and loved it. He learned so much about what The Brando is doing to be eco friendly. He was very impressed. More hotels should take notice of what The Brando does. The Ultimate Tour was fantastic. We learned about thee A Toll and what is was made up of. We visited and island that had the biggest and prettiest crabs I hav e ever seen … Coconut Crabs, saw lots of birds, and lots of baby birds, and the to end the tour visited another island and were able to go swimming in waste deep water with a pure sand bottom. Reef Tour - we got so close to the fish. We saw a black tip shark, the coral is amazing, we saw the biggest clams I have ever seen.. who knew clams could be colorful? Sunset Tour - We were taken by golf cart to the dock and take3n a a great tour of the atoll, all while snacking on appetizers and sipping on champagne. The staff knew our cocktails of choice and also packed these for our cruise. There are two shops .. on for jewelry and a gift shop… If you forget anything you can get any of you basic needs at the guest shop. Now to the best part.. the STAFF! They are all incredible… from housekeeping , to room service, to dining service, to tours…they all get a A+ from me. They remembers what you like and don’t like. They are ALL personable. I would like to call out everyone personally, but that would mean this review would exceed 5000 characters. But there is one person in particular, we nicknamed “Rainbow” ( one of the boat captains), that you.. you made us laugh and our snorkeling and Ultimate Tour tours of a lifetime This is a definite must visit place..it is beautiful.. is is special… it is one of a kind. Thank you Pacific For Less for helping arrange this fantastic trip. We are already planning our next trip back to The Brando.…
Read more
Date of stay: November 2021Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Helpful
This was our first visit to The Brando. We were celebrating wife’s birthday. The staff went all out and she had the best birthday ever. Thanks to Pacific for Less for recommending and planing an incredible trip. The staff is very attentive, professional, and friendly. The villas are spectacular, provide privacy, and opportunity to relax. Restaurants are varied in offerings and the food is exceptional at each. The activities available include paddle board, kayaking, outrigger, and snorkeling. The atoll and it’s waters are incredibly beautiful, photos don’t do it justice.
Read more
Date of stay: September 2021
Value
Service
Sleep Quality
1 Helpful vote
Helpful
First and foremost, the staff at The Brando is second to none and very disciplined and proactive thanks to excellent management by Mr. Bion. The vast majority are also very genuinely nice people, not just doing a job, from the cart drivers to the restaurant servers to the bar keepers and especially the Concierges. Timeri, our primary concierge was both very professional as well as very personable. This is what made the most difference for us, the personal attention and VIP treatment. They ALL wore masks when interacting with guests or in the buildings. We did not need masks most of the time. They test everyone that goes to the island with a quick test on Tahiti. About 50 of the staff out of 200 tested positive after the Delta variant hit Tahiti, so the staffing is less than usual. There were no impacts to the guests that I could detect. It was the best escape from COVID. Never really thought about it. Bob's bar learned to make my healthy green drink and prepared one most days for me and my wife. The Grasshopper mixed drink we got from Te Manu bar was the best I had ever tasted. A real treat. The food at the Beachcomer was good as well, depending on what you ordered. The sweet potato fries are to die for and they made soft-boiled eggs to my specs that were perfect. Good eggs too, like the best in the US. The lagoon fish was mostly Parrotfish, which was amazing the the vanilla/coconut white sauce. We also were lucky to get Jackfish one night at Les Mutines and this was even better. The infusion of vanilla and coconut at Les Mutines was heavenly. Like eating a tasty eyeball. The only downside to these restaurants is the limited menu. If you avoid Lamb and Beef, it is quite limited. The presentation of the food at Les Mutines and even the Beachcomer was artistic. The breads were excellent, hot and tasty, especially the croissants and the baggettes. Fresh baked. The jellies are really unusual and delicious, including the strawberry and pineapple. They also serve honey from their own bees, which evidently do not sting. The tours and activities were all excellent as well. I would highly recommend the Ultimate tour and the Reef Quest. All of the tour guides were enthusiastic and informative, some being from the Tetiaroa society, not the Brando staff. The Green Tour is highly recommended for those that can understand mechanical systems. It includes tours of the mechanical systems for cooling the buildings with seawater pumped from 900 feet depth as well as the recycling and multiple water systems, including grey water and drinking water. The power system is almost 100% green. If they purchase one more battery unit, they will power through the night without needing any diesel fueled generation. Totally carbon-free. If you do the Reef Quest in the high season (winter), I recommend a full-body rash guard to keep warm. We were also invited to attend a technical talk one evening by members of the Tetiaroa Society and colleagues about rat impact and eradication efforts on some of the other motus. Very enjoyable, passionate people trying to save species and coral. The accommodations (villas) were very fine, including top-drawer Italian sheets on the bed, however the maids like to short-sheet you, so we had to untuck them and pull them up very night. We discovered after the second day that there are secret doors on the front and back that can be opened in the evening to get cool fresh air flowing through. They are secure from the outside once closed. The electrical system is also a bit of a mystery until you figure it out. There is a master switch at the bedside that turns out all of the lights once you are in bed and if you forget this switch or accidently hit it, it can seem like you have no power to the lights. It would be beneficial to the guests if the persons escorting you to the villa would explain the light-switches and the hidden doors to new guests. The temperature in the villa was perfect once we got all three systems working properly. They all maintained 22 degrees C without issues, except for the bathroom, which was mostly too warm. There are no cooling registers in there, so it only gets cooling from the bedroom. As a result, we kept the sliding doors closed to the bathroom during the day to keep the heat in there until evening when we could open the secret doors and get the breeze to flow through. They provided fruit and bowls of nice grapes for snacking as well as nuts in the Villas. The Whale Watching Tour was different than expected. There is a bit of luck involved because they don't always spot the whales from shore. We did however spot three different Whale locations and got in the water from one of them, where I recorded the song of the whale, which was amazing and unexpected. Unfortunately it swam away from us, so didn't see it under water. We also saw another whale breech 3 times and then go under with another adult and a baby. When I tried to put on my scuba bootie to get into the water with fins, I encountered and rock in the toe of the boot, so I went in with my hand to remove it, only to find a crab holding tightly to my finger. The boat crew removed the crab-claw from my finger, which bled profusely, but recovered in a day or two. Scuba dive was interesting, with excellent dive-master. Saw a sleeping pregnant turtle up-close and also a large white-tip shark sleeping in a cave-like place. Did only a one tank in the afternoon and was compressed air, not NITROX. At high-tide, the lagoon has a lot of surprises, including a lone 7-8 pound bonefish rooting around for worms in the sand less than a foot off the shore. Also saw 2 giant Trevalys in front of the Beachcomer close to shore while having lunch there. Be very careful of the sun, which can be very intense there. Put SPF 50 sunscreen on every exposed surface or you will get burned. The bikes are handy and essential for saving time. If you are late, they will pick you up in 2 minutes in a golf cart. I found the fitness center to be more than sufficient and I was usually alone there. My wife loved the Spa and especially the head-to-toe massage. Definitely the best tropical vacation I have taken, but not the best snorkeling or diving. If the weather conditions would have permitted, the "canyon" dive I think would have been a really good one. I will be making plans to come back I think.…
Read more
Date of stay: August 2021
Rooms
Location
Service
Room Tip: The villas on Turtle Beach are preferred for the sunsets, the lagoon snorkeling and being more...
See more room tips
Helpful
Response from Myriam Pied, Autre at The Brando
Responded Sep 10, 2021
Dear Audioengr, Thank you so much for this detailed and fantastic review your words mean a lot for all the team, particularly in this difficult period we are all going over. We are so delighted to read that we have been "definitely the best tropical vacation" you have taken. Be assured that it has been an honor and a pleasure to welcome you and we hope to have the opportunity to see you back in our paradise. Best regards. MP
Read more
After 15 months at home due to COVID, it was almost overwhelming to be able to come back to one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. What a joy and dream come true to have all of the Brando offers at your fingertips, This was our 3rd time staying here (we always get a great deal booking thru Pacific For Less), and I must give the staff at the Brando huge kudos for re-starting on June 1st (after being subject to the challenges of a global pandemic). They waited an extra month after Tahiti opened to fully vaxxed US travels; taking time to ramp up to fully operational capacity. We arrived about two weeks after they re-opened. As expected, they were authentically "The Brando"...with the same wonderful service, thoughtful eco-driven ethos, excellent amenities on one of the most exceptionally beautiful islands in the world. Some tiny hiccups in attaining some supplies were par for the course, and were imperceptible to the guests. As guests, we were able to relax - be happy - no...make that be THRILLED and GRATEFUL - to be in paradise once again. Just heaven. …
Read more
Date of stay: June 2021
2 Helpful votes
Helpful
Response from Myriam Pied, Autre at The Brando
Responded Sep 10, 2021
Dear GTRDIVA, First of all, we are so sorry for the delay in answering you, we didn't receive the notification from T.A. at that moment and so we didn't see it. It was indeed a great pleasure to welcome you back at The Brando, even more in this particular "covid" period encouraging us for our reopening. We are very happy to read that you were able to relax, be happy, and enjoy the beauty of our Paradise. We look forward to having you back at the soonest. Best regards, MP
Read more
Fed up with Hawaii's continuous Safe Travel delays we booked a last minute ten day stay at The Brando which we have been eyeing for awhile now. The booking and subsequent communication prior to our trip was perfect- the staff is very professional and courteous. There is not much to add to all the five star reviews here- it was an amazing stay. The island is beautiful, the food good and varied, excellent and accommodating staff and the best villa I have ever experienced. Other than some minor 'lost in translation' issues it was just a wonderful getaway and we plan on returning. One interesting and unexpected experience: On our second night we were seated next to a couple at dinner who three days later we were informed that they both tested positive for Covid-19. Per Tahiti health requirements we were quarantined in our villa for two days until our tests came back negative and were released. The staff handled this professionally and of all the places one could be quarantined our villa had to be the best! Travelers beware: Even though visitors must have a negative Covid test 72 hours prior to arrival and a second mandatory test four days after arrival there is no inter-island testing requirements for tourists yet there is for residents. As in our situation the couple who tested positive spent their first few days in Bora Bora before transferring to The Brando. Tahiti is having an explosion of positive cases and they apparently picked it up there so always wear that mask and stay socially distant no matter where you are! Thank you to everyone at the Brando for our wonderful escape from the world!…
Read more
Date of stay: October 2020
Location
Service
Sleep Quality
Room Tip: They have sunset villas with rocky shores with great snorkeling or sunrise villas around a nice...
See more room tips
11 Helpful votes
Helpful
Response from Myriam Pied, Autre at The Brando
Responded Nov 17, 2020
Dear Kevin M, It is such a pleasure to hear back from you and even more when reading such a wonderful feedback. As a place designed for relaxing moments and total peace of mind, we aspire to personalize your stay for a stressless time. we hope that we have offered you a time capsule in this quitest place which we believe is greatly needed on this tough period. Details make perfection and perfection is not only a detail, we do our best to anticipate however, as you know, the hotel industr if full of surprises. On a personal note, i would like to thank you for being incredibly understanding during your quarantine and as you cleverly pointed out, we need to respect protective measures at all times. We are looking forward to welcoming you back soon for another escape to paradise. best regards. CP.
Read more
PRICE RANGE
$2,724 - $3,928 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
LOCATION
French PolynesiaSociety IslandsTahitiTetiaroa
NUMBER OF ROOMS
35
Is This Your Tripadvisor Listing?
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
Claim Your Listing Frequently Asked Questions about The Brando
What are some of the property amenities at The Brando?
Some of the more popular amenities offered include free wifi, free breakfast, and a pool.
Which room amenities are available at The Brando?
Top room amenities include a minibar, air conditioning, and a flat screen TV.
What food & drink options are available at The Brando?
Guests can enjoy free breakfast, an on-site restaurant, and a lounge during their stay.
Are there opportunities to exercise at The Brando?
Yes, guests have access to a pool and a fitness center during their stay.
Does The Brando have airport transportation?
Yes, The Brando offers airport transportation for guests. We recommend calling ahead to confirm details.
Are any cleaning services offered at The Brando?
Yes, dry cleaning and laundry service are offered to guests.
Does The Brando have any great views?
Yes, guests often enjoy the ocean view available here.