Honeymoon - French Polynesia - Bora Bora and Tahaa
 

My fiancee and I decided on French Polynesia for our Honeymoon as neither of has been there before. Decided to do some research and after a few days came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to use a Travel Professional who has first hand knowledge, experience and is affiliated with the major travel programs (Virtuoso, Four Seasons, etc..). to book this special trip.

Our Wedding Planner recommended a Travel Agency that has the various affiliations, but I felt why not try to use a Travel Professional whose posts on Flyertalk I've found informative. In general, over the years, have found the Flyertalk community has provided extremely useful information [as well as entertainment].

So I did just that, went ahead and got in touch with the Travel Professional and they were kind enough to take us on as a client and book our Honeymoon for late April through mid May:
- Flights from LAX to the Resorts and back to LAX
- Le Taha'a Island Resort & Spa - 6 nights
- Four Seasons Bora Bora - 8 nights

I took care of booking our positioning flights from NYC <--> LAX.

Haven't booked our activities at Bora Bora yet, but am sure we'll want to do some. We have recommendations already but if anyone else has any recommendations would love to hear them also.

Both of us are looking forward to our wedding in late April and afterwards the honeymoon. I'll post an full review of our end to end experience once we get back.

Thanks

Here's my recommendation: don't stay so Lomg at either place. Got to thuatmos and moored. You'll be bored at tahaa and the food is terrible there. i spent 6 days in tahaa and it was three days many. If you stay for six days, work on your tennis, download several New Yorker issues on your iPad and save a tv series to binge watch.

split it up more. Seriously. If you use my ta who posts here and he said only two islands I'll slap him myself. Go to thuatmos for something a little more.

Pasinius will back me up on this.

I spent 10 days at the FS Bora Bora last year, and it was about 3 days too long for me. We only stayed here, as we were with friends for a wedding.

As a honeymooner, who tend to be more budget conscious, I would make sure you budget $500/day to stay at the FS. Food, drinks, trips, spa, laundry (we spent $450 over 10 days!) can add up fast at this resort.

Make sure your TA gets you free breakfast and early checkin, late checkout.

The best thing we did here was a tour with Tanoa on his very nice boat, almost certainly cheaper to book direct instead of through the FS concierge: http://www.tanoaprivatetour.com/

Yes, I agree with declinespecificinfo, even though he was possibly en route to Mars when he wrote that!

In Tahaa and Bora Bora you will be surrounded by honeymooners, if that's what you want. The scenery at both islands is surpassingly beautiful - I especially like the view of Bora Bora from Le Tahaa. That's about as near to Bora Bora I care to get these days. But, seriously, you should try and break the trip up a little and the best way to do this is to spend a few days at an atoll such as Tikehau which has two beautiful hotels - Ninamu and the Pearl. Or take a look at The Brando - not been there myself, but reports so far have been incredibly encouraging.

You will almost certainly have to spend a night or two on Tahiti itself. Don't regard that in a negative way - rent a car and drive the island, check out a few restaurants, including the roulottes on the waterfront. Tahiti is spectacular.

I would pick four islands for 14 days.

1. The airports there are laid back. It's not like a US airport where you need to be there four hours early and it wastes half your day with surly rent-a-cops, so the travel won't be a big time waster. Just wear the same swim trunks for 12 if you're worried about luggage.

2. If you like good food I understand that Vahine is better than Le Tahaa. I think Le Tahaa is still living off the laurels of hosting Bill gates 15 years ago. I would go to Vahine 100% over Le Tahaa.

3. I'd pick something around Thuatmos definitely and either Moorea or The Brando.

Activity wise, there is a great snorkeling trip with sharks, eels, etc... that all the hotels use (may have been Tinoa that we used). Do that. I really enjoyed the wave runner tour too. Snorkeling around both Le Tahaa and Four Seasons hotels will be a major let down, hence go to Thuatmos. Get a reservation for Villa Mahana ASAP. I'd recommend the FS over StR because it seemed like there were less honeymooners still not financially independent from their parents there. I seriously heard "my dad is paying for this, so I don't care how much this wine costs" several times at the St. Regis and thought, well here's a great start to a soon-to-come-divorce--a lack of financial prudence and independence!

At Le Taha'a play tennis, read and binge watch some show, and going to just two places would be a bit like watching Walker Texas Ranger rather than Breaking Bad.

~enroute to Mars

I think Thuatmos means Tuamotus, the island group which consists of lots of atolls, including Tikehau and Rangiroa.

:D

Personally I think how long you stay in those resorts is very personal...
as an example when I was in French Polinesia I had booked one week at St. Regis and one week cruise with Tia Moana...I then book 10 more days at the St. Regis in the same holiday.

Another time I had booked 10 days at Reethi Rha in Maldives and then booked 11 more days in a row ending staying in the same island for three weeks....great time we had!

As far as activities, I would recommend some private boat/yacht tour with some snorkeling/diving
We enjoied the copple parachuting (a boat with a rope take you up in the sky) which was lovely and gave a terrific view of the lagoon
We went out few nights for dinner in town but honestly nothing was really worth it
You can, and we did, rent a small boat and going around the lagoon by yourself but I found that extremely tricky...i lost the right path continuously :o and ended in low water areas where it was crazy to navigate

overall we just loved to be lazy all the time...love each other....go to the spa...swimming in turquoise water that you'll never see anywhere else....ordering fresh coconuts.....tropical fruits....champagne here and there...

Hope that helps...feel free to ask for any more info even if my experience is a bit dated...

I'm in the exact same boat as the OP. Also in northeast. Two weeks for honeymoon in late July and thinking of bora bora. Thanks for all the great suggestions in this thread.

We have not booked travel yet, but debating whether to fly solo or hire a TA.

What is the estimate cost of a two week trip to FP?

Honeymoon - French Polynesia - Bora Bora and Tahaa
 

10 nights with first/business class air, hotel, and transfers is around $30k.

We actually liked our stay at the Vahine Island Resort in Tahaa 2012 better than the FS BB (which was also great). The food outstanding and the service great, although I would not classify the resort as luxurious. The snorkeling at the resort much better than the FS which really does not have snorkeling due to the location. BB has some excellent snorkeling tours where you can often see manta rays.

Recently did site inspections at both Four Seasons Bora Bora and the InterContinental Thalasso, and Four Seasons was much better in terms of bungalow maintenance (beautifully appointed overwater bungalows at Four Seasons vs. moldy grout in the bathroom at the Thalasso, noisy air con, cheaper looking fixtures), service, airport transfer and amenities. We did like how close Thalasso was to Mount Otemanu, but the closer views didn't make up for the other shortfalls. Also saw more marine life around the Four Seasons overwater bungalows than at Thalasso, which is in very shallow water--even saw a shark and barracuda right underneath our FS bungalow. But agree that you'll want to take excursions around or outside of the lagoon to really see the marine life--we enjoyed snorkeling with Pure Snorkeling and diving with Dive N'Smile.

People still go to Thalasso? Surely only if they use points. I am a big fan of FS Bora Bora, though during construction a lot of damage has been done. The area was basically destroyed. This is even more obvious if you visit other island paradises, such as Amanpulo or the Maldives. Only now it's starting to come back again and FS is going to great lengths to support it.

These days, I'd combine FS Bora Bora with the Brando.

I miss Hotel Bora Bora ....

Me, too, especially when Monty Brown was GM.