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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Bora Bora/Moorea
Could anyone please recommend their travel agent or site used to book this trip? We're looking to do 4 nights on Moorea and 4 nights on Bora Bora. Ideally we'd like to avoid staying our first night in Papeete.
Also, please recommend any must see and do's for either island. Thanks in advance!
Re: Bora Bora/Moorea
Hi there - I will PM you the travel agent we used. We have used him for tons of trips. I researched BB and Moorea for nearly a year and he definitely found us much better deals than I was able to find online. Plus, he harrassed our hotels to no end and we ended up with free OWB upgrades. I love free stuff, especially when it involves OWB!
You can avoid your first night in Papeete if you take the red eye from LA to Tahiti. I believe it leaves LA at 11pm - you arrive in Papeete at 6am. Customs takes awhile but we were easily able to make our 8am flight to Moorea.
We stayed at the Sofitel properties on both islands - on BB, we stayed at the Sofitel Motu, not the Sofitel on the mainland. There is a pretty big difference. The Motu (Private Island) definitely provides more bang for your buck than the other properties on BB - the service is ridiculous - RIDICULOUS - and the boat ride to and from the mainland is free, even at night (this cannot be said for some of the other properties). The rooms were gorgeous - perfect view of Mt Otemanu. In Moorea, the Sofitel is definitely the least American of the other properties so there were very few Americans there - however, it is the only hotel on the west side of Moorea so you have gorgeous views of Tahiti night and day. The sun rising over Tahiti is something I will never ever forget. The snorkeling was pretty good too.
As far as excursions, my favorite excursion was a high speed catamaran from Tahiti to Marlon Brando's island. It was a 2 hour boat ride - so relaxing - and we saw so many dolphins playing in the ocean. Oh my! The island is something else - I am not even sure how to describe it. The island is made up of 12 tiny motus and because of the current, there are no beaches actually on the land..the beaches are in between the islands. It was so crazy cool...Just heart stopping gorgeous. Hot stopping hot as hell too.
We signed up for a 4x4 tour in Moorea but never quite made it - we were too busy laying around doing...nothing. The interior of Moorea is absolutely stunning and must be explored! We finally rented a car and took it to Belevedere look out - just gorgeous. I highly recommend taking an ATV or 4x4 tour to check out the interior.
In BB, we did a sunset cruise - Bora Bora Sunset Photo is what it is called. The captain took professional quality pics of us and the sunset. Plus, he is a native BB and gave us tons of facts about BB. We boated out to the coral reef - BB is all about the water, you have to see it. We also did a snorkeling excursion with Reef Discovery. It was fun too.
As far as restaurants, Mayflower in Moorea was our favorite. Overall, I didn't like the food in Moorea as much as BB. In BB, Villa Mahana was hands down our favorite restaurant and probably the best meal I have EVER had. Oh Lord. There was another restaurant - Kaina Hut, I think is what it was called - so freaking good.
But just be prepared because YOU WILL get the Tahiti flu - meaning, once you are home, you will be aching to go back. I am about to lose my freaking mind so we are in the process of major saving so we can head on back there. There isn't a word to describe how beautiful these islands are!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. We just went in March and spent 15 unforgetable days there. The FP forums on TA are extremely helpful too!
We went to Bora Bora for our honeymoon. Our travel agent was amazing. She was able to save us a lot more money than we could booking ourselves and H is usually awesome at finding great deals. Her name is Carol and email casivido at yorbalindatravel . com (no spaces of course) if you want to at least get a quote from her. She actually specializes in French Polynesia vacations.
As far as things to do in Bora Bora:
4x4 excursion
Sunset cruise
Scuba Diving
Snorkeling
Swimming with black tip reef sharks and sting rays.
Dinner at Bloody Mary's
Tahitian Pearls - If you are planning on getting some, go to Nyco's. We shopped around at all the stores and they are the most reasonable. They were super nice and very willing to educate you about the pearls and their grading. The other stores were glamorous but they were only there to sell and very pushy and overpriced too. Also the more pearls you buy then the cheaper they are. I got a ring and a full strand bracelet for a little over 2k. When we go back on our 10 year, I will get my necklace lol.
Hotel - We stayed at Bora Bora Resort and Spa and they were really nice, but Thalasso was our first choice. We changed our plans to go straight to Bora Bora about two months before and Thalasso was completely booked. So book in advance and definitely get the over water bungalow.
Flight - We live on the East Coast and flew to LAX in the morning, met up with some family (they live all over SoCal), took the red eye to Papeete, then boarded a little prop plane to Bora Bora a couple hours after we arrived. There was a boat that greeted us when we got to Bora Bora and they took us to our hotel.
Hope you have a great time there. We absolutely loved it and can't wait to go back.
If you're Costco members, you may also want to look into a deal through them. We used Liberty Travel and really don't feel like we saved money. In Moorea we did a ray feeding and a guided tour in the back of a truck. Both of those excursions were well worth the money. Villa Mahana is a beyond amazing restaurant on Bora Bora. Avoid Bloody Mary's, it is a tourist trap and the food is only so so. Lagoon Restaurant at the St. Regis is also really, really good.
Here is my review from trip advisor:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g294338-r73732669-French_Polynesia.html
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g1918344-d301841-r73374746-Hilton_Moorea_Lagoon_Resort_Spa-Papetoai_Moorea_Society_Islands.html
Our wedding on Wilson Island!
As an FYI, we were originally going to book with Costco but the travel agent I PM'd you about beat their price by $300. Further, he got us the free upgrades. I think the Costco customer service is pretty decent, but there's no way they would have sent email after email to ensure our free upgrades like our TA did.
As far as Bloody Mary's - I think that is a good place to go for drinks but I wouldn't eat there. The service is crap, the food is okay, there are much better places to eat on BB.
Another person mentioned pearls - we bought our Pearls at Eva Pearl on Moorea. We bought the pearls loose, then had them set by our jeweler friend while we arrived back in the states.