Bora Bora (and Moorea?)

latefortheball

For those who have visited Bora Bora - did you visit any of the surrounding islands as well?

I want to relax as much as possible and not "island hop" too much, if at all. I'm okay with just spending time in Bora Bora (I would like to take that one flight where you don't have to spend overnight in Tahiti).

With that said, Moorea seems easy to get to from Bora Bora - I believe there is a ferry?... so IF we were to go anywhere else, that would probably be it.

So, my question - is Moorea worth visiting or should we just stay in Bora Bora for the entire trip? We will be coming from NY and probably be spending some time in LA just to break up the trip a little. Hubs has 2 weeks of vacation time to use for this trip. 

Thanks  

Jells2dot0

You can only get between Moorea and Tahiti via ferry. The flight from Moorea to Bora Bora is about 45-50 minutes. It's pretty easy to take the interisland flights, but if you wanted to not spend too much time in the air between one island and Bora Bora, I'd recommend Taha'a or Huahine. Taha'a will be the more expensive of the two and depending on the resort you stay at in Bora Bora, you can even take a helicopter transfer to Le Taha'a (there is also Vahine Island in Taha'a but it does not havea heliport.) Huahine will require an interisland flight. What island you stay on depends on budget and what you're looking to get out of your stay. Moorea is a lot like Bora Bora in terms of activity offerings and having several resorts to choose from. Moorea has a few land based activities that are different from Bora Bora. Huahine is Moorea 30 years ago. Mostly untouched and has some cool archaelogical sites Huahine is quiet and I'd go there if you want more of an authentic experience. Taha'a is super quiet. huahine's resorts are all on the main island, but Taha'a's are on motus. There is really nothing to do on the main island of Taha'a. Also, to get there via interisland flight, you land in Raiatea and then take a boat. The best activity in Taha'a is just to snorkel the coral garden on the side of the resort or just lounge in the gorgeous lagoons.

HorsePig

 I went to BB and Moorea last March.  It was an amazing trip. I am glad that we went to both islands. However, when I go again, I will just go to BB.  Moorea is a land island - the island itself is just gorgeous and there are lots of things to do like hiking, ATV, that sort of thing, in the interior of the island which is absolutely lush.  BB is more of a water island in that the interesting part of BB is...the water.  This is where we did most of our snorkeling, etc.

I didn't find the food on Moorea that great; the food on BB was ridiculous good.  And in general, and I know I am in the minority on this, I thought the people on BB were much nicer. 

There is not a ferry between the two islands, you must take an interisland flight. There is a ferry between Tahiti and Moorea, which is nice because you can then take a high speed catamaran to Marlon Brando's island (freaking beautiful, definitely a must do) from Tahiti if you want to get away from Moorea for a day.

Good luck!

bukah

What activities did you do on Moorea? Husband and I just booked a trip for October and are trying to decide what to do while there. 

Also do you know if any leave mid morning? We are taking the first ferry over (after red eye from la) amd understand we can't check in at the Hilton until 3 so was hoping to find something to do while we wait.

would LOVE  any suggestions for either Moorea or bora bora!!

thank you!! 

amyelise25

There were 15 minute flights all day going between Tahiti and Moorea.  You can do this instead of the ferry.  If your room isn't ready when you arrive in Moorea, you can always leave your luggage in storage and go exporing or hang by their beach/pool. 

We did a motu tour on both Moorea and BB.  The guides on the motu tour in Moorea were really entertaining.  We were out all day and it included a stop to swim with stingrays and sharks.  We went through Albert Tours for this.  We also booked a sunset catamran tour (with just one other couple) through the excurion desk at our resort (Moorea Pearl).  I don't remember the name of the company that did the tours.  I know that the other couple were staying at the Intercontinental. 

I also did an island tour for about $35.  I also booked this through the hotel, but there seemed to be lots of tour groups that you could book this through.  It was interesting.

I loved Moorea.  We ate at some amazing restaurants (they will pick you up from your resort).  Because it was pricey ($30/couple/trip) to leave our BB resort, we only did dinner in town one night at Bloody Mary's.  Otherwise we had good meals on the resort. 

We had amazing snorkeling off our bungalow in Moorea.  It was different, not better, than what we had in BB.  The coral garden area in BB (that we got to during a motu excursion) was exceptional.  You will save money doing excursion in Moorea.  Everyone raved about the ATV excursions in Moorea.  They take you up to a great overlook on a big hill.  I'm glad that we wait to do jet skiing in BB.  It was much more expensive ($300 per jet ski for 3 hours), but it just seemed like it was nicer. 

You'll have an amazing trip!  We went in October as well and it wasn't super crowded, just a little rain, and great air/water temps.

 

 

HorsePig

We also took the red eye from LA to Tahiti but we were able to check into our hotel as soon as we arrived in Moorea.  We stayed at the Sofitel on both islands and they were very accommodating.

Activities on Moorea...hmmm..we rented a car and drove around, rented ATVs - the interior of the island is amazing!  We also took the catamaran to Marlon Brando's island - definitely my favorite part of the trip.  On Bora Bora we took a sunset cruise, snorkeled - you have to go on a snorkeling excursion - Oh my Lord, it was amazing.  And of course, we did a lot of laying around. We had OWB on both islands, the rooms are beautiful, it was hard to leave

Jaje09182010

We did 3 days in Moorea and 4 in Bora Bora- there were a few things we liked a lot about Moorea- first off the costs were a little bit more reasonable, and we were able to travel around the island easier.... there also seemed to be a lot of activities, island tours, the pineapple factories, jam testings-

however Bora Bora was most beautiful, we stayed at the Four Seasons and never left the grounds- it was just absolutely perfect/best place I've ever been. Overall I think picking two islands could be fun!

chelsy31588

Went to BB and had to overnight in Tahiti. BB was AMAZING, so sad it was a year ago already. We did almost everything you could do, lots of water activities. My favorite activity was actually a tour it was an Eco-Tour we snorkled in the reef, then swam with sting rays and reef sharks and then went outside of the reef and swam in the open ocean with lemon sharks. I stayed on the boat for that last part as I wasn't confident in my swimming ability but H loved it. Bloody Mary's is an AWESOME restaurant we only went twice but I wish we had gone more, but it is a little spendy, however depending on which resort you are at they will pick you up and drop you off. Other activities done in BB were, atv, jet skiing, snorkling, rowing, shopping, dining outside of our hotel, wind surfing, luas, swimming, lounging. It was paradise!

Tahiti we were only in for a day and a half we took a tour to the mountains and it was really beautiful. We also explored the city and took the city bus which was not hard but we did have to ask some locals for help to find the right bus stop to get on. If you can you should go to the Carefour its a huge grocery store and load up on cheaper stuff before heading to BB.

Hope you enjoy your time.

PS Water is Spendy! We would try to go to local stores to find cheaper booze/water/snacks that worked out good!