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A couple more French Polynesia Questions
I was thinking only going to Bora Bora because it will already take us 3 flights from Boston to get there. If we head on Moorea, it would be one more flight, packing up and checking-in to a new hotel. We would then only have 3-4 days at each hotel. Would you consider the inter-island flight to be a travel day, or was it pretty painless? Sometimes traveling around really tires me out and I'm looking for a relaxing vacation, and less sight seeing.
Also, what would you say the nicest hotel is in Bora Bora? I'm currently looking at the Intercontinental Thalasso. I tend to like a big resort as opposed to a more botique one. Also, if we do decide to add on Moorea, which hotel would you reccommend?
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Re: A couple more French Polynesia Questions
My choice would be the Hilton on Moorea.
As for BB, I think the three most highly regarded are the Four Seasons, the St. Regis and the IC Thalasso.
We leave in a month and a half. We are flying into Tahiti, taking the small plane to Moorea, staying six nights, then flying from Moorea to BB. You can't take a ferry to/from BB, you have to fly. We are flying between Tahiti and Moorea because it actually ended up being cheaper, coupled with the flight between Moorea and BB, than the ferry.
My thought is- if you are going all the way over there, why not try out a few different islands than just staying on one. BB is a water island, Moorea is the "land" island - probably the most beautiful "land" island in the world - it is an hour long flight, doesn't take all day (not like flying in the states) - well worth your time.
As far as hotels on Moorea - we are staying at the Sofitel. While probably not the "nicest" hotel in Moorea, it has the best view - of Tahiti. It also has the best beach. We are also staying at the Sofitel in Bora Bora.
Honestly, a direct inter-island flight between Moorea and Bora Bora is something like 30-40 minutes. It isn't a whole day of travel.
We flew into Tahiti on a red-eye; checked into the Le Meridien Tahiti (I had SPG points to burn) for four hours to crash, and took a ferry directly to Moorea that afternoon. The ferry (if you take the fast one) is about 25 minutes. We stayed at the Sofitel in Moorea in an overwater bungalow and it was great. The Sofitel and the Hilton are the two best resorts on the island.
If you spent 3 days on Moorea, you could do the ATV tour, spend one day snorkeling at the Sofitel (the snorkeling there off the bungalow was great; we didn't even snorkel off our bungalow in Bora Bora because there were no fish below it), and then spend your third day doing something else. Then you could book a flight to Bora Bora and spend 3-4 days there.
The airport is really close to the Sofitel - like a 10-minute drive - and there is basically no airport security, so you don't need to get there real far in advance. You just walk up to the check-in counter, drop your bags off, and then sit on a bench until they begin boarding. There is no security process, no metal detector, nothing, so it's really easy to travel.
In Bora Bora, we stayed at the Four Seasons and I would argue it's the best hotel on the island (I was told this by many locals as well). The reason for this is simply because it is the newest one - it appears (according to talking to many people there) that hotels get run down pretty quickly. It's also a Four Seasons so you can expect it to be very luxurious and to have incredible service.
We stayed four nights in Bora Bora and found that to be plenty sufficient. While Moorea is expensive, Bora Bora takes it to a whole new level and with most of the resorts, you won't have the option to conveniently leave them to eat off-property (in Moorea restaurants offer free shuttle service to pick you up at your hotel and take you home after). The reason is that most of the resorts in Bora Bora are on motus, not the main island, so you'll need to take a boat over to the main island if you want to eat. The Four Seasons charges approximately $40 a person for the boat trip in, so you're already spending $80 to go eat dinner on the island. Also, the snorkeling at the Four Seasons isn't anywhere as good as in Moorea; the hotel isn't actually located over a reef, so there are no fish beneath your bungalows. I think this is true for most the resorts in Bora Bora (except maybe the Sofitel, which I never did see while there and which, based on the prices, I am sketched out about). Anyway, point being - you'll need to book a tour if you want to go do some good snorkeling there, and they're kind of expensive (about $80 a person or so). The Four Seasons has a "lagoon" which you can snorkel in (and which they netted off so the fish / octopus / etc. that are in the lagoon don't leave) but it wasn't as cool as Moorea was.
To put some numbers around our costs for you (keep in mind we went in September which is prime season so prices were at their peak):
Our over-water bungalow at the Sofitel set us back $500 a night (we booked the best room they had there)
Our over-water bungalow at the Four Seasons set us back $1,700 a night (we booked a mountain-view overwater bungalow)
Our incidentals total (food, sunscreen, pair of sunglasses for DH, drinks, etc.) for four days in Bora Bora ran about $1,600 at the Four Seasons. That did not include a meal at La Villa Mahana on the main island (about $450) and a private day-long tour to the sharks and stingrays with lunch on a private motu ($1,300). It did include another snorkel tour we did, which was about $100 per person (book all your tours directly through the tour agencies and skip the hotels - they charge about 20% more). You pay $80 per person for the airport transfer to and from the airport to the Four Seasons and a sandwich, after the exchange rate, was about $30 for lunch. Also note that we are heavy travel drinkers, so that total might be a little higher than average as I always had wine with dinner, DH drank by the pool, and we ordered a handle of vodka to our room (if you're drinkers, buy alcohol in the duty free shops in LAX, then carry it with you the whole week as you will save SO MUCH MONEY just spiking your own drinks - we bought the handle because that was cheaper than ordering the drinks individually).
Food spend was probably comparable in Moorea, but since we went off-property we didn't get one large bill from the hotel so I never totaled it up.
Overall DH and I were happy we did the two different islands - I agree with PP who said you're flying a long freaking way, to a very expensive location, so you might as well maximize your time out there seeing different places. Moorea is beautiful and Bora Bora is stunning, but honestly I wouldn't have wanted to spend a week on either one of the islands by themselves. Unless you're a huge beach person (I'm not the type who lays out in the sun for a week straight)... then you might be fine in either, but I still think it would be a shame to not see both.
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about either island or the hotels we stayed in.
I also stayed at the Hilton in Moorea and would recommend it. Don't stay at the Hilton in Bora Bora, though (apparently they are going to start charging for the shuttle to Viatape which I think is totally unreasonable since they're on a separate island and I'm sure you'll want to go into town once or twice).
With the inter-island travel, the flights are an hour at most (that was from Moorea to Bora Bora), you still have plenty of time to to stuff on each island on your travel days.
Kimberly mentioned a good point - make sure you look at ALL the costs of the hotels, not just the nightly rate. I was shocked when I read that the 4S (and the St Regis, maybe) charges $80 roundtrip between their private motus and BB as well as charged for airport transfers. As Kimberly pointed out, if you want to go out to eat, your meal automatically costs $80 just to get to the restaurant. You can save a bundle if you watch these costs. We are staying on the Sofitel's private motu and we do not have to pay any transfer fees to get to the mainland. While I get that the Sofitel and the 4S aren't at all in the same league, we saved a ton of money by bundling the Sofitel BB and Moorea together. Money that will be used for excursions, jewelry, meals.....
I have been to almost every resort in both Moorea and Bora Bora. I think the resort choice depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for just outright best service and most luxurious, I'd go with the Four Seasons. As pps mentioned, it's the newest and it's the most service oriented. The St. Regis is not far behind. The Thalasso has a great view, but it's not quite at the same tier as the two below. The one thing about the Thalasso, though, is that you get the free shuttle between it and Le Moana and you can eat at Le Moana. If you're staying at the Thalasso, aim for the diamond OWBs.
In Moorea, I like the Hilton hands down just because of the snorkeling. However, if you want the best beach, head to the Sofitel. The InterContinental just went through a major renovation but the OWBs there are not completely over water and they block a lot of the views of the beach bungalows, which is the category to stay in there.
I could go on forever, but I'll leave it at that because the pps covered a lot!
Our wedding on Wilson Island!