Looking back on my visit to Conrad Bora Bora Nui last month, a few things stand out as worth sharing:

BOOKING & GETTING THERE
We booked a total of four nights with two FNCs and 240,000 Honors points. Fifth night free was, sadly, not possible for us based on our arrival and departure dates and the limited schedule to fly from Tahiti to Auckland for the next leg of our trip. Oh well!

Conrad lists an 18,000 XPF (~$164 USD) roundtrip per adult for boat transfer from the airport to resort and back, though when we asked to prepay online, we were quoted and paid 15,000 XPF apiece. Prepaid online with the Aspire card in late 2023 to use up the last $250 resort credit before the new system kicked in for 2024. Took almost three weeks for the credit to trigger, but it worked.

Shortly after booking, Conrad reached out for flight details to coordinate our arrival and departure. Bora Bora airport is amazingly simple, as is the boat transfer process. We had our bags and were on the boat within about five minutes of landing.

CHECKING IN
After the obligatory lei, we got some cold towels and a nice tea drink to begin the check-in process.

Our check-in agent explicitly asked whether we wanted to choose free continental breakfast each day or an all-purpose, 7,000 XPF daily on-property credit for food, bev, spa, etc - but that's per room, not per person. At 5,700 XPF per person for breakfast, that's the best choice by far - though our check-in agent definitely seemed to be pushing the 7,000XPF credit instead.

Based on others who have stayed here recently, not everyone is explicitly getting this choice. Ask for it if it's not offered. Silly that such a high caliber property is playing these games but Hilton gonna Hilton.

TROPICAL POOL VILLA
I asked politely via email before arrival a few times for a complimentary upgrade to an overwater villa as a Diamond (plus my wife is Gold), but no go. In hindsight, it seemed like the property was fairly full our first few nights.

Instead, we were assigned a tropical pool villa on land, in this case on the far east side of the property near the walkway up to Mount Otemanu viewpoint. On paper, it's a disappointment. In practice, this villa might be even better. It's huge, with a separate living area and even bigger outdoor space with a good-sized plunge pool. And while some overwater villas definitely have seen better days, this was in perfect condition. Only real downside is that the (near-constant) landscaping across the grounds could be a bit loud.

Amenities were mostly Byredo, except for body wash which was the standard Hilton Crabtree & Evelyn - must be a supply chain issue? Bit weird but oh well.







OVERWATER VILLA
After asking the butler service again via text and being informed that we could only be upgraded to the next category (or pay $550ish USD per night for an overwater villa), we got a text mid-day after our second night informing us they'd upgraded us to an overwater villa. Score!

Yes, it's awesome. As I touched on earlier, there was quite a bit more wear in this villa and it's noticeably smaller. But who cares when this is your view and a neighbor sting ray swims out in front of your deck.

We were assigned villa #324, a King Deluxe Overwater villa on the furthest west (and biggest) pier of villas, not far from Kardashian-land with a view of Mount Otemanu (barely) peaking above the hills.






BREAKFAST
As I mentioned earlier, we were given the choice of daily continental breakfast for two or a 7,000-XPF-per-room credit. At 5,700XPF a day per person, breakfast was the right play.

Honestly, I'm still not sure what they mean by by "continental" breakfast. We freely grabbed both cold and hot items and they never said a word or charged us another dime. My gut says it's only the a la carte items (ie omelettes, eggs benedict) that incur an add-on, but I can't say that for sure.

Regardless, breakfast was the highlight of Conrad's dining for us - especially the daily croissants and other patisserie, which is on par with the best I've had from European bakeries. Plenty of other stuff to fill up on each morning as well, great spread. But yeah, the croissants...





DAILY HAPPY HOUR
They call it Golden Hour, and it's half off select (and otherwise exorbitantly expensive) drinks from 3-4 p.m. every day at the Tarava poolside bar. There are a handful of cocktails available for 1,500 XPF (~$13.70) though those never rotated. There are also beers for a relatively modest 475 XPF, or $4.33. A bottle of Billecart Salmon champagne for 8,645 XPF (~$79) struck us as a surprising bargain, as that's not too far off liquor store costs here in the U.S.

Staff are good and very much in on the game for those bold few who do some mass ordering to save. We saw one couple order a glass of champagne to drink, then a bottle of wine with a bucket and about six beers, taking it all back with them. Respect to the shamelessness.

Rather than charging it to the room (or splitting up our checkout bill on 2-3 credit cards), we paid a few Golden Hour bar tabs separately via credit card to use up $50 quarterly credits on the Hilton Surpass. Absolutely no problem to pay that way, and the credits kicked in seamlessly.

Here's the menu, surely subject to change without notice.





UPA UPA LOUNGE BAR
Sushi spot near the welcome area. The sushi is, unsurprisingly, on the pricey side: Think $10-15 for two pieces of nigiri and ~$120 for a combo big enough (maybe) to feed two. The quality is ... fine. We ate here twice and while the sashimi seemed pretty good, the rice was always a bit off. Overall, it would be our go-to dinner spot at Conrad but it's far from top-notch - a common theme with the dining at Conrad, if you ask me.

IRIATAI
The signature French restaurant. It was ... also fine. Not great, not bad, small portions, decent flavors, but overpriced for what it is, even in this setting. This was a one and done for us, though French cuisine, admittedly, does not tickle our collective fancy so much.

They really hammer making reservations at the restaurants but that must only be a problem during peak season - most of the restaurants were empty at night during our stay.

TAMURE
Beach grill for lunch, steakhouse for dinner by night, and site of the weekly Polynesian dinner show on Friday nights. We skipped the latter two and only ate lunch here.

Their poisson cru was, surprisingly, worse than the little jars you can get during breakfast - though obviously bigger. Their pizzas are pretty good, as is the fish sandwich. All $$$ (I'll let menus upthread stand) but yeah, you're in Bora Bora.

BANYAN
Closed for renovations when we were here, looks like it's back open as of March 12 while Tamure will be closed for dinner for the foreseeable future.

SERVICE
Aside from breakfast and *gestures broadly to overwater villas overlooking crystal blue water* this was the highlight of the property. You can't walk more than, like, 20 feet without hearing a chorus of "la Orana!" from staff. Everything felt genuine and warm. There were clearly a few new people working at restaurants who were still working on their English but their care and warmth offset any little hiccups.

OTHER LITTLE THINGS
SPF30 and SPF50 is available for free at the huts near the pool and Honors member beach. Why don't more resorts do this?
The sun don't play here, so use it. I've been a decent amount of very warm places (including places where the temperature gauge goes a good 30+ degrees higher) and Bora Bora still struck me as the hottest place I've ever been overall, even in what's technically "off-season."
There's a tennis court near the far west end of the property and while I went into it thinking it would be fun, it took all of about 15 minutes in the sun to realize most human beings would die playing tennis in the heat. Never saw it being used.
Walking up to Mount Otemanu viewpoint is a must. Beautiful.
We didn't splurge on spa treatments but the setting looks *chef's kiss*
Bikes are scattered all around the place, which is quite nice to get around. But many are marked reserved for specific villas and all but a few of them are rusting out. Still nice but seems like a relatively easy fix.
Kayaking around the resort was a real highlight, so do that. Same goes for snorkeling off the deck of our overwater villa. I'm no expert but the area around our villa (324) struck me as prime territory for seeing cool stuff underwater.

LA PLAGE BORA BORA BOAT RENTAL
Do this.




Seriously, it might have been the highlight of the whole trip. The 8am free boat from Conrad to Vaitape was perfect to get to port, hop in a La Plage-marked car, and get out on the water. Four hours was great, 5-6 might have been better. No boat license so we were restricted to the 6hp Quintrex boat, which was sufficient - though if you're dead set on circumventing the whole island, you'll need some more power.

A pontoon would have been more relaxing but the Quintrex is way more agile, meaning you can tail some rays around the bay. So fun.

We booked through Viator and covered the entire cost with Capital One Venture miles. Maybe my favorite redemption ever. Serious kudos to the various FTers upthread who recommended La Plage.

Grabbed lunch at The Lucky House just down the block from La Plage's office afterward, then killed an hour or two shopping for supplies (read as: wine) in Vaitape before catching the final free boat of the day back to Conrad.

CHECKING OUT
On our last night, staff dropped off a small folio with check-out instructions based upon our flight out of BOB - nice that they take the guesswork out of it, though they definitely err too far on the "get to the tiny airport with no security or passport control early" scale. Based on our timeline, our 12:45ish departure from the villa to checkout was a bit past the posted 12 p.m. checkout.

Settled up with a Hilton Aspire Card to use the first of two $200 resort credits. The whole shebang kicked in just a day after it posted.

FINAL THOUGHTS
I haven't been to the Maldives but after this, I'm not sure that I want to. The Conrad Bora Bora Nui offers everything that I, personally, am looking for: luxury accommodations including, yes, overwater villas, white-sand beaches next to crystal blue water, some leisurely water sports - all in an easier-to-reach location. While there's not a ton to do on the main island, the fact that you can get there and back for free gives you an extra level of freedom that I, personally, appreciate a lot.

Easily one of my top three hotel stays. If the Conrad leveled up the dining a bit more and/or brought down prices (let a man dream!), it would easily be #1.