Honeymoonin' in Bora Bora

Overview

This was a trip of a lifetime. We loved every second of it. It is very far away so we would say to break up the travel as much as possible. Unless you are a great flyer then no worries for you!

In terms of location and being in French Polynesia, if you’re gonna fly all the way to these magical islands, you should go to Bora Bora. My sister-in-law went to Moorea for her honeymoon and she said her biggest regret was not going that extra little flight after flying so far. The island of Tahiti is also very different than the Bora-Bora island, it is much more main stream where are the islands in Bora-Bora are just the resorts, you don’t really leave and the seclusion and privacy you feel is unmatched.

We heard the rainy season begins in December in Bora-Bora, but seasons seem to be changing and that was clear on our trip. It rained a lot, and not just for an hour, for the entire day. I would say to travel more so between March and October and not risk being so close to rainy season. Rain bring mosquitos, and mosquitos bring a bad time.

We decided to stay at two different resorts while we were in Bora-Bora and it was because we wanted a few different experiences and we thought since we traveled so far we should try to see as much as we can.

We used Costco Travel to help book our trip. We didn’t even know that Costco had these services! When we started to look more deeply into them, we realized that they have a lot of travel packages, even some that aren’t shown on their site. Apparently, you are able to build your own type of package depending on the resorts that Costco partners with. We purchased a premium Costco membership which was $200 and so we had Costco privileges for the whole year and this was the only fee associated with using Costco.

If we booked the same exact trip on our own without using Costco, we basically wouldn’t have had food included. We had breakfast and a three-course dinner included at both resorts and it definitely was easiest this way. It is very expensive to dine in Bora-Bora and looking at the menu every night, if we had to pay, it would have been much more.

That being said, we paid for our flights with our credit card points. We 100% would recommend the Chase Reserve credit card for points. It has earned us so much over the past few years and we saved up these points for this moment

Tuesday, November 8th

We realized that flights to Tahiti were only certain days of the week. So we planned the days that we wanted to travel around these flights. We spent time in California before in order to break up the flights a bit and that was really a great call after realizing how long the flight is, around nine hours.

We do not recommend flying Air France. It was not a great experience, and we thought we were flying with Delta. Delta showcases Air France flights on their website so you are technically not flying with Delta. We would definitely recommend flying an alternative airline like United. We normally fly Delta for everything so this was a surprise and disappointing to say the least. The timing is what worked best for our journey.

Flight to PPT DEPART: LOS ANGELES, CA 11:30pm

ARRIVE: TAHITI, FRENCH POLYNESIA 6:10am **Wed 09NOV

The layover in Tahiti was fine, you are in customs for most of it. Do not plan a flight to be quickly out of Tahiti because you spend a lot of time in line at customs, like two hours.

We didn’t know what to do about alcohol for the trip because we heard it’s really expensive at the resorts. We read a blog that told us to buy duty-free alcohol at the Tahiti airport not in the US. It was super easy this way. If you are not big drinkers, both resorts left a bottle of champagne in our rooms for us free of charge for our honeymoon so we didn’t need to really buy any throughout the week!

After a short layover in Tahiti, we traveled to our final destination; the dreamland Bora Bora.

Flight to BOB DEPART: PPT 9:30 AM

Arrive in BOB: 10:20 AM

Air Tahiti operates an open-seating policy on its flights. Seats are not allocated at check-in. This means you can choose between a window or an aisle seat when you board the aircraft. You want to sit on the left side of the plane. This is the best view for coming into Bora-Bora. When you are waiting at the Tahiti airport to board your flight to Bora-Bora, you want to wait close to the gate so that you can get on the flight quickest. Apparently everybody knows this so they’re all trying to do the same.

You need to have airport transfers set up by your hotels prior to your arrival depending on where you stay it is included in your fees. Costco set this up for us.

We arrived at the Conrad Bora Bora Nui and we were greeted by the staff as our boat floated to the dock with peaceful island music playing. We were given welcome leis and drinks and were brought over to sit until we were checked in. Our bags were immediately taken from us and we didnt have to worry about carrying a single thing.

We booked the Horizon Pool Villa with the Daily buffet breakfast and Nightly three-course dinner. This resort was unbelievable. It was five stars and you could really tell why. The service was just perfect. There is a lot of walking around this area and on rainy days the golf carts can pick you up from wherever you are. They will do this not rainy days as well just to make your stay the absolute best! We picked to stay in the Horizon pool villa at this resort because we thought it looked amazing and very private and it was. The views were crazy and the amount of space that you have in your room was unheard of.

You are completely private up here. Nobody can see you but you can see them, and this was something that was super cool for us. You watch the sunset while gazing out at the horizon and it is so very peaceful.

The resort here is considered very upscale, everyone is so friendly and welcoming and always helping you at every point. There are so many things to do with daily activities like lei making or flower crowns or ukulele lessons, all included in your fees. I made a purse out of palms that we braided with locals teaching us how to do this. It was such a great experience.

You are also able to use any water sports that you would like to and there are tons of them. All included in your fees already. You are on a coral reef which is really cool for snorkeling for those interested as well as water sports. But you have to be careful, I fell on a piece of coral and had to disinfect the entire rest of the trip. Thankfully it did not get further infected but apparently coral is an instant infection and should be avoided at all costs.

There are a couple nights a week where there is French Polynesian entertainment like fire eating and dancing and that was very cool to experience. These are normally done at night near the restaurant and you can actually see sharks in the water at night which is breathtaking.

The only con that we will say is that there are a lot of mosquitoes higher up the hill than on the water. The mosquitoes in Bora-Bora are more intense than at home, our bug spray simply did not work. If you were to stay up in one of these villas you should get bug spray from somebody at the resort, like a local or at the restaurant ask for it. They don’t even have the helpful spray at the gift shop so we did get eaten at times. That was not pleasant even with how much we prepared for it.

The breakfast at this resort was almost my favorite part of the trip. There was tropical fruit everywhere being restocked at every moment, there were French pastries everywhere all freshly baked and unique every day. There was a crêpe making station and you were also able to order off of a menu on top of all of that. We had Belgian waffles, pancakes, and omelettes daily. We easily gain 10 pound each, but with no regrets.

We stayed at this resort from Wednesday to Tuesday which was the perfect amount of time to see and explore everything while being ready for a change of pace.

If you transfer in between hotels, you have to find your own way to get there. This was a surprise for us because we didn’t expect it to be so expensive. The concierge at the Conrad was able to do this for us easily but a private boat transfer is really the only option and it was $200 for a 10 minute boat ride. It was a pretty boat ride but wish there was an easier way to do this between islands.

Tuesday, November 16th

Our next hotel was Le Bora Bora by Pearl and we stayed in a Lagoon Overwater Bungalow with daily breakfast buffet, a complimentary Mini-bar, and a Nightly three-course dinner included for two adults.

This resort was done over last year, completely remodeled. Our room was amazing and it was on the ocean facing the sunset which was one of the only few rooms that had this unique view.

A bit smaller of a room than where we were at the Conrad but it is because you were in an overwater bungalow, which was simply breathtaking. You open the door to your own private deck with a hammock and a private dock. You can watch the stingrays, the fish, and the sharks at night. The water is crystal clear and you have an outdoor shower for when you get out to rinse off and cool off with the crazy heat. This room was simply amazing. You woke up a few feet from the water which you just dont do anywhere else in the world.

This resort was beautiful but much smaller than the Conrad and it had different vibes, it was less expensive by a lot. The views and rooms were so nice though! The difference in service was that you don’t really have that waiting on hand and foot aspect that the Conrad did. For example, we wanted a wine screw to open our wine bottle that we brought, and they tried to charge us an uncorking fee of $30, to open our own wine bottle, this wouldn’t of happened at the Conrad. But those are minor things in the grand scheme of things for sure.

Breakfast here was less lavish and huge, but it did the job. We didn’t have a bad meal at any point on this trip which was a great surprise for us because we were nervous about the food options being specifically seafood but there was more than enough options at every place.

Friday, November 18th

Check Out of Le Bora Bora by Pearl Resorts was a little less flexible of a process. Our flight was later in the evening to leave out of Tahiti and we spent most of the day just waiting to depart, if we could’ve left earlier we probably would’ve, but the flight times are just very unique. Since you have to check out of your room early, you don’t really have the space to be able to have a full day and then not shower or anything like that before heading to the airport.

Flight departs BOB to PPT: Fri, Nov 18 BOB to PPT

Depart: 6:05 PM BOB Arrive: 7:25 PM

Air Tahiti operates an open-seating policy on its flights. Seats are not allocated at check-in. This means you can choose between a window or an aisle seat when you board the aircraft. This time you want to be on the left side again to be able to see the sunset if you are departing at this time frame.

Flight from Tahiti to Salt Lake City: There is absolutely nothing to do at the Tahiti airport. Nowhere to eat or Wi-Fi, so don’t plan to be there too long if you can help it. There is a private club upstairs but Chase Reserve card members are no longer allowed because it would get to capacity. You basically need to be flying First Class for one of the airlines to get into the private, air conditioned club, otherwise prepare to wait.

Usually I am not a United fan, but this flight was really great. The plane was brand new and it was such a huge difference in our Air France flight on the way in.

Additionally, if you book a regular economy flight, which is what we did, call United the week before your flight and tell them it is your honeymoon. They upgraded us to an even more space row Which was $400 more free of charge. They would not upgrade to business or first class because that was thousands of dollars and really everyone is on their honeymoon. Air France didn’t do anything for us so that was something to note in our experience.

Overall, this experience was simply magical. A true dream with a lot of research that went into planning this fantastic trip of a lifetime.