I'm just getting started planning a trip to French Polynesia for May. So far I've booked 4 nights at the Moorea Hilton in an overwater bungalow. I may add one more night there, then plan for 3-4 nights in Bora Bora.
I'm considering just going with the Hilton in Bora Bora as well, but wanted to get opinions on possibly the St. Regis or other hotel options. If you've been to Bora Bora, where did you stay and did you love the hotel and OWB's there?
Also, what do you recommend for splitting up the days between Moorea and Bora Bora? In searching around a little it seems like people found more to do in Moorea so I thought perhaps we'd go with 1-2 days longer there than Bora Bora.
Re: Bora Bora hotels
I just stayed at the Hiltons on both islands. We loved the Hilton Moorea. But as for Bora Bora, I wouldn't recommend staying at the Hilton. I don't have anything bad to say about the hotel BUT it is not on the main land and we were told that sometime soon they are going to start charging for the shuttle boat ride to Viatape. Unless you plan on just staying at the hotel and not doing any excursions or checking out the town, then I think you should consider staying somewhere either on the mainland or somewhere that has a free shuttle.
We did 4 nights in each island and thought that was a good split. In Moorea we left the hotel to go on an ATV tour, and in Bora Bora we went parasailing and went on a lagoon tour w/snorkeling.
I keep meaning to write up my review. I'll hopefully be able to type it up in the next week or so.
We're one of the few people on the board who actually preferred Bora Bora - we spent more time there than Moorea and I was glad we did! Everything about it was just far more beautiful.
We stayed at the Sofitel Marara Beach and absolutely loved it. We liked being on the main island so we didn't have to worry about ferries bringing us back and forth at their convenience and we loved being over really deep water in the OWBs. The OWBs were HUGE there with a separate sunning deck and diving deck.