Anyone been? Any comments on a 6day/6day split?
hotels recommendations?
quirks / advice?
I know one thing: it’s expensive… beyond that for the time being (of course if it’s prohibitively expensive that’s another thing).
Thanks!!
Anyone been? Any comments on a 6day/6day split?
hotels recommendations?
quirks / advice?
I know one thing: it’s expensive… beyond that for the time being (of course if it’s prohibitively expensive that’s another thing).
Thanks!!
Went to both on our honeymoon, although that was back in 1995! Suspect both (especially Bora Bora) have been built up quite a bit more since then. Moorea is a decent sized island and well worth a moped ride around for a day, including going up to the top of the central peak. The ride up there takes you through some amazing landscape and foliage that looks like the land that time forgot and the view when you get to the top is absolutely amazing. Bora Bora is just a bicycle ride around with not much to see. However, we did a half day, 4 wheel drive, guided excursion up the hill and that was a lot of fun with amazing views. Of course, there is fabulous reef snorkelling/scuba diving at both places.
Make sure that you book full board as there aren’t really any dining options outside the hotel and the prices when you get there are eye watering.
I would also consider some of the other islands if you want something less commercialised. Places like Huahine are supposed to be much less spoilt although we didn’t visit them back in 95 and using the term “spoilt” probably overstates the level of development anyway. Huahine is also supposed to have good surfing if that’s of interest.
One thing to watch out for is overbooking in Bora Bora. We ended up spending an extra 2 nights on our honeymoon in Tahiti because our Bora Bora hotel had been overbooked. We were furious initially but it’s kind of hard to get too worked up when you’re on the beach in a beautiful hotel in Tahiti…! With hindsight, we should have spent more time exploring Tahiti itself, esepcially the northern part of the island as it’s supposed to be spectacular and completely unspoilt. I’d certainly take a chopper ride up there if I was going back.
Lastly, do pay the extra and make sure you get overwater bungalows. Swimming to breakfast every day is the way forward! You also largely avoid the cockroach issue that way…
Markye,
I went a couple of years ago. We spent our entire week on Bora Bora. We spoke to a few people that split time and they were split whether it was worth it. Both places you can explore the main island. Both have water activities. We have always chosen where we stay based on how much time we are going to utilize the room/facilities. If we are gone most of the time we will generally stay at a cheap to moderate accomodations. If we spend a good amount of time there, we will splurge. On Bora Bora we stayed at the Four Seasons in an over the water bungalow. It was a beautiful resort. We were going to stay at the Hilton (because we belong to the loyalty program), but they had construction going on there and didn’t want to be bothered by it after spending $$$ to be there. Use trip advisor to compare the places on the island. The one disappointing thing at our resort and perhaps the others, the over the water bungalows are over just sand. Not many rocks around for small reefs to develop which attract the fish. So the is beautiful, clear, warm water to look at and swim in, but not any marine life. Every once and awhile we would see a fish swim by. Where ever you stay ask if the have a bungalow near a reef, that is if you enjoy snorkeling. PS, we added a couple of days of Tahiti at the end, if you do the same, make sure it is before. It was disappointing doing it our way. We were spoiled coming back.
Re Eric’s point on overwater bungalows being over sand rather than reef, as I recall, the place we stayed in Moorea was about a hundred yard swim from the reef and there were plenty of fish there. Also, some of the hotels in Bora Bora are on the outer ring itself so I’m presuming that would make fora more interesting swim.
Either way, look out for the stone fish and make sure you take some shoes to swim in. Standing on one will put a serious dent in your holiday.
Thanks guys… I’ve heard that Bora Bora really IS that amazing… but the prices are astronomical compared to Moorea… thus the 6/6 split… at $1200/nt, 6 is painful, 12 nights is just too much
Anyhow, good advice re: overwater bungalows.
Question re: food. Are there markets you can buy food/wine at? did you ship stuff there? or just ate at the hotel?
Also, how good are the tours … i.e. island 4x4, sunset catamaran, whale/shark feeding etc?
Cheers!
I’m also looking at traveling here sometime in the near future (hopefully) - Moorea is cheaper, but more expensive to get to, by quite a lot, and requiring odd overnight stays to get the one plane that heads over there, no?
As for shark feeding, I think that’s a BAD idea! Why would one teach sharks to come near humans to eat?
We packed a few things, but ate at the hotel most of the time. A generous breakfast was included so we generally ate late and if we were hungry between, we ate our snacks. We went snorkeling which included swimming with sharks, I went scuba diving, and we went to the main island for the afternoon. It took about an hour to see and we had lunch there. If I did it again I would spend time hiking to some of the high peaks. There are a couple of restaurants on the main island, one is popular (name escapes me). It is owned/run by an American. It was ok, not special. At our resort the dinner menu changed and there were two different restaurants. We went to the spa a couple of times, swam in the hotel reef, and read several books.
Hey Todd, from my research, Moorea is a lot EASIER to get to… 45 min ferry (about $15) or a 10 min flight that’s about $150 return flight per person.
I believe Bora Bora is $450 return flight… and ferry takes a hella long time…
Moorea hotels - $350-800 for beach/OWB, and Bora is around $500 - 1500 for beach/OWB.
I wonder how much “better” Bora is… although from what I read, it really is worthwhile… decisions decisions…
I spent five nights each about 5 years ago, in OWB’s at both places.
For sheer beauty, Bora Bora can’t be beat if you are staying on the fringing lagoon. However, as a total package, we preferred Moorea.
Diving/snorkeling is better in Moorea.
Food is better in Moorea.
Prices are better in Moorea.
The split is a great way to go. Not sure why someone said “no dining options on Bora Bora”, we went out to dinner half the time we were there. Unfortunately, even though things seem very civilized there DO NOT DRINK THE WATER!! We learned too late. True for all the islands, the water table is very shallow, if they get an unusually high tide, then the drinking water get’s the wrong stuff mixed in.
By the way, we did the Cook Islands on the same trip and found it absolutely amazing!! If it wasn’t for the diving, we’d prefer it to French Polynesia (just being that much further away from the equator meant it wasn’t as much coral life).
Todd, check again. Moorea was significantly cheaper to get to than Bora Bora. Heck, you can ferry over.
The odd overnight connection is hard if not impossible to avoid. But I can’t believe there is only one flight these days.
PS We loved the shark feeding snorkel trip on Moorea. Loved the diving too!
PPS If you are advanced diver, check out Rangiroa. That’s an e-ticket ride!
Like the others, I highly recommend Bora Bora. We spent 2 nights in Tahiti and then 8 nights in Bora Bora for our honeymoon back in 2000. While we were there we met a couple who had spent 4 nights in Moorea followed by 5 nights in Bora Bora. They enjoyed visiting both islands but did say in hindsight they wished they had spent all of their time in Bora Bora.
Our time was split between Club Med and the Bora Bora hotel. Food/alcohol is very expensive on the island so we were happy a chunk of our time was at the all-inclusive Club Med. It definitely is not your typical Club Med, quite high end which is to be expected on the island. It was very relaxing but there was plenty to do if you were so inclined. When we moved over to the Bora Bora Hotel it was definitely nicer (with a price to match) but lacked the friendliness of Club Med. We did enjoy splitting the time between the two resorts. We had an overwater bungalow that was right next to a reef so could watch the fish through the floor.
We did a bunch of the tours around the island including:
-4x4 Island excursion…you get to see some WWII remains/canons, etc…
-Shark feeding/snorkeling adventure…highly recommended. Is it dangerous…yeah, probably. Only thing between you and the sharks is a piece of rope that you are hanging on to since the current is very strong there. With that said, to be 3 to 4 feet away from black tipped reef sharks is pretty amazing. My wife is still shocked, when looking at the pictures, that she actually got in the water. After the feeding you snorkel on the reef…amazing how quickly the sharks/stingrays disappear.
-Rented a scooter to go around the island…the North and East side of the islands is still quite desolate…dirt road for a stretch….at the time there were the remains of some failed resorts that were destroyed by a typhoon or two…of course a lot can change in 12 years.
-Picnic on a private motu….they give you all the stuff, drop you off on a small motu and then come back 4 hours later to pick you…on your honeymoon or just to get away with your significant other…nice way to spend some time!
-Sunset catamaran tour…really nice way to spend the evening.
-There are numerous reefs but some are further out and require a guided boat tour to get there…well worth it
-There are numerous diving excursions including a night dive with Manta Rays but as I’m not certified that wasn’t an option.
Completely disagree about the restaurants. With all of the resorts on the island, there is a plethora of nice restaurants to pick from albeit expensive. We were planning on returning for our 10th anniversary (went to Italy instead) but did notice when we were in the planning stage how many more resorts are there now than when we were. It looks every damn motu has a resort on it now. A restaurant not to miss, assuming it is still there, is Bloody Mary’s. One of our most memeroable meals ever…you pick out your own fish, you eat in a thatched building with a sand floor and sit on logs with cushions. Quite the place with a cool bar as I recall.
One day we will be back but it is much more of a hassle traveling from the East Coast…when we went we were in SanFran. Regardless it was avery memorable trip! Have a great trip!
We did Club Med Moorea 12+ years ago and it was fantastic, apparently the best beach on the whole island. Unfortunately they lost the land lease and the resort has been abandoned, which is really a shame. We took the ferry over from tahiti and it was a breeze.
My wife and I aren’t ones to lay out at the beach anymore so dont really have a reason to ever go back but we sure have great memories from that trip.
If you have never been to a Club Med, do yourself a favor and check it out. So cheap and so fun and always in great locations.