May 30, 2019, 10:51 am
Last edit by: Astrophsx
Activity Calendar for 2022
Activities: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/f...lNr6yLgzMMIOsj
Spa: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/f...lNr6yLgzMMIOsj
Dining: https://www.taptastego.com/bobxr/con...9-4b793254db69
Booking
Activities: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/f...lNr6yLgzMMIOsj
Spa: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/f...lNr6yLgzMMIOsj
Dining: https://www.taptastego.com/bobxr/con...9-4b793254db69
Booking
Nights available on points:
- Open up 12 months out
- Availability seems to open up five weeks out.
Fees when booking on points:
- City Tax of 400 XPF for each night
Transportation
PPT-BOB Flights:
- Round trip $350-600 per person
- Premium ticket includes more checked baggage allowance, priority boarding (sit on the left side for island views), and drink on board.
- Air Tahiti is strict with their baggage allowance. Excess baggage is $1.5 per pound over the limit.
- The airline is known to weigh hand luggage if it has wheels or is larger than your typical backpack or purse.
- If you hand luggage is weighed and is over the limit it will need to be checked or items will need to be removed and relocated to your checked luggage.
- Carry-on items do not seemed to be tagged so the gate agents do not know what bags have been checked
- If you hand luggage is weighed and is over the limit it will need to be checked or items will need to be removed and relocated to your checked luggage.
- Checked bags are weighed at the BOB airport for your PPT return flight
- They seem to not be as strict with charging for excess weight
- Lap infants are charged 10%
- Check the minimum connection time. If you arrive early Air Tahiti is likely to move you to an early flight based upon availability free of charge.
- In March 2022 the domestic security was asking that passengers remove and leave any large bottles of liquid from their hand luggage. Sealed duty free alcohol seems to be the exception.
- Tip: Sometimes it is cheaper to pack alcohol and pay the $1.5 per pound excess luggage fee than to purchase duty free at LAX.
Boat Transfer as of April 2022:
- 14,000 XPF per person roundtrip
- Children are free (not sure if there is an age cutoff)
It would be rather difficult to take the free boat from the BOB airport to Vaitape and then take the complimentary shuttle to St Regis. You would need to carry your luggage and time your flights accordingly. This would also need to be coordinated with the property.
Rooms
Renovated Rooms:
101 - Deluxe Over Water Villa w/ view may be renovated
504 - Reefside
Royal Estate (currently under renovations)
Platinum Benefits (2022)
- Breakfast for two (property is firm on this and will not provide free breakfast for any additional adults in the room)
- Welcome amenity in the room
- Bottle of Champagne
- Light snacks / fruit
- Bottle of Champagne
- 10% off products with the St. Regis Resort logo at the gift shop
- 20% off Bloody Mary Cocktails at the Aparima Bar
- 20% off Cocktail of the Day
- St. Regis Sarong when you spend 15,000 xpf on products at the spa
- Bonus points when purchasing massages at the spa
Daily Gifts
- 8-night stay April 2022
- Day 1 - stuffed animals for kids
- Day 1 - Large tote bag with St. Regis Bora Bora logo w/ waterproof lining in room
- Day 2 - Day 7 Tahitian Oils next to bed
- Day 3 - Two fridge magnets
- Day 1 - stuffed animals for kids
Item you can request for free
- Pool floats can be loaned out from the main pool
- Snorkel gear
- Microwave can be put in room by room service free of charge
- Extra small bottles of water can be requested by the housekeeper while they are cleaning
- Coffee service to the room from the butler before 12pm
- Two pressed items per person any time of the day
- For infants
- Cribs
- Large bottles of water for formula
- Cribs
- For Kids
- Free meals at all restaurants
- Free ice cream
- Free room service (even items from the regular menu)
- Free meals at all restaurants
Things to bring
- Water shoes can be helpful in the lagoon and on some excursions
- Alcohol
- Mini fridge is empty and can store champagne
- Boxed wine is light weight and stores easily in fridge
- If you don't plan to spend a few hours on the main island you can purchase fresh juices as mixers
- Pre-mixed canned cocktails (like cutwater spirits) seemed to be popular at the main beach. Bring your own insulated tumbler and ask for a bucket of ice.
- Mini fridge is empty and can store champagne
The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort, French Polynesia [Master Thread]
Aug 29, 2020, 11:29 am
#1066
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: EDI/GLA
Programs: DL 2 MM Unobtainum | UA 1.1MM Gold | MR Bonvoy Titanium
Posts: 2,272
From what I see, there is about a $300 difference between Superior overwater and reefside regular rate (when both are available). But there is effectively no reefside award availability in advance and they want 60K - 80K XPF ($600+) per night copay for the upgrades to allow use of points. It's great value if you can secure the reefside however.
However I suspect they'll upgrade Elites from a Reefside Villa to a Superior if you're in luck.
Sep 4, 2020, 11:29 am
#1067
Join Date: Feb 2016
Posts: 244
Just finished a wonderful 6-night stay and here's our trip report:
Room / Upgrade
We booked Reefside Garden Villa on points and was offered a paid upgrade to an Overwater Premier Villa for 34,000XPF/night via email about one month out. This is most likely due to low occupancy from COVID-19. Pre-COVID, I think these rooms were going for over 100,000 XPF per night on upgrade fees.
The view from the Overwater Premier Villa was FABULOUS. While the layout of the room is a little strange/outdated, the overall condition is excellent for its age and the room is extremely spacious.
Elite Treatment
As lowly Gold members, we received a bottle of Billecart Salmon Brut (retails for 13,390XPF at the pool) and a nice display of macarons and fruits. This is much appreciated, compared to the sad gift of water and juice that we got as Diamond members at the Conrad
We also received 20% discount off cocktail of the day after 6PM (so at dinner), 20% off Bloody Marys, and 20% off 90-minute treatment at the spa. Under normal circumstances, I would have taken advantage of the 20% off at the spa, but I was told that all the amenities (steam room, jacuzzi, etc) are closed and mask is required during treatments, so I decided to skip it.
COVID-19 Precautions
The welcome lei and farewell seashell necklaces are now hung up on a stand near the door and you put it on yourself.
Bikes are now assigned to each villa. There's a tag on each bike to show which villa it belongs to so other guests don't take yours by mistake.
Upon checkin, we were offered 2 locally made reusable masks, 2 disposable masks, a bottle of surface disinfectant spray and a bottle of hand sanitizer.
Intl359Widget posted a nice picture here, although we didn't get the pouch, just the content in a plastic bag.
Masks are required at restaurants when you're not at your table and they have disposable masks at the hostess desk if you forgot to bring yours.
Hand sanitizer is readily available around the resort. They installed something similar to these in front of most entrances. I'm a germ freak so I always bring my own hand sanitizer (even pre-COVID) yet I didn't feel the need to carry it around at all here.
Te Pahu breakfast is now a la carte. You can order multiple items from the menu.
Food
Due to COVID, they now only have 1 restaurant open per night. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you make reservations as soon as you arrive, otherwise you're not eating until 8:30-9PM. There's also the Aparima Bar, but as far as I can tell they serve the same food as room service.
I was happy with the food quality compared to what I experienced at the Conrad. The one exception was the Asian restaurant (Bamboo), where the food tasted like Panda Express at 10x the price.
We did order the canoe breakfast one day. It was a super fun experience, but a little overpriced for what it is. I think for the price of the meal (around $120 per person), they could have included some sort of cooked to order eggs or some type of hot food, although I understand that they are somewhat limited with what they can carry on the canoe. We were offered a canoe ride while they were setting up the table, so maybe they could have had someone entering through the door with hot items while we were on the canoe?
Housekeeping
I think they did a fantastic job timing housekeeping service with our activities/dinners so our room can be cleaned while we were out.
Service
Service in general was excellent. We had 2 butlers - 1 who greeted us at checkin, and 1 who brought coffee to our room every morning. They have different uniforms, I'm thinking the one in the gray uniform who greeted us at checkin might be the head butler/some type of manager but I'm not certain. They were both fantastic.
Everyone that we encountered asked us how our stay was, what we had planned for the day, and offered suggestions that were catered to us. For example, the butler noticed that my husband had a big camera, so he pointed out the nice photo spots during our tour of the resort.
Random suggestions
The spa beach is open to all guests, you don't need to book a treatment to use it. Really nice, quiet spot to hang out and fantastic view.
There's also a dock not too far from the spa beach. We believe this is where the huge Napoleon fish likes to hang out.
There are lots of tour companies, but i highly suggest Lagoon Service. Probably the best tour guide we've ever had anywhere.
Room / Upgrade
We booked Reefside Garden Villa on points and was offered a paid upgrade to an Overwater Premier Villa for 34,000XPF/night via email about one month out. This is most likely due to low occupancy from COVID-19. Pre-COVID, I think these rooms were going for over 100,000 XPF per night on upgrade fees.
The view from the Overwater Premier Villa was FABULOUS. While the layout of the room is a little strange/outdated, the overall condition is excellent for its age and the room is extremely spacious.
Elite Treatment
As lowly Gold members, we received a bottle of Billecart Salmon Brut (retails for 13,390XPF at the pool) and a nice display of macarons and fruits. This is much appreciated, compared to the sad gift of water and juice that we got as Diamond members at the Conrad
We also received 20% discount off cocktail of the day after 6PM (so at dinner), 20% off Bloody Marys, and 20% off 90-minute treatment at the spa. Under normal circumstances, I would have taken advantage of the 20% off at the spa, but I was told that all the amenities (steam room, jacuzzi, etc) are closed and mask is required during treatments, so I decided to skip it.
COVID-19 Precautions
The welcome lei and farewell seashell necklaces are now hung up on a stand near the door and you put it on yourself.
Bikes are now assigned to each villa. There's a tag on each bike to show which villa it belongs to so other guests don't take yours by mistake.
Upon checkin, we were offered 2 locally made reusable masks, 2 disposable masks, a bottle of surface disinfectant spray and a bottle of hand sanitizer.
Intl359Widget posted a nice picture here, although we didn't get the pouch, just the content in a plastic bag.
Masks are required at restaurants when you're not at your table and they have disposable masks at the hostess desk if you forgot to bring yours.
Hand sanitizer is readily available around the resort. They installed something similar to these in front of most entrances. I'm a germ freak so I always bring my own hand sanitizer (even pre-COVID) yet I didn't feel the need to carry it around at all here.
Te Pahu breakfast is now a la carte. You can order multiple items from the menu.
Food
Due to COVID, they now only have 1 restaurant open per night. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you make reservations as soon as you arrive, otherwise you're not eating until 8:30-9PM. There's also the Aparima Bar, but as far as I can tell they serve the same food as room service.
I was happy with the food quality compared to what I experienced at the Conrad. The one exception was the Asian restaurant (Bamboo), where the food tasted like Panda Express at 10x the price.
We did order the canoe breakfast one day. It was a super fun experience, but a little overpriced for what it is. I think for the price of the meal (around $120 per person), they could have included some sort of cooked to order eggs or some type of hot food, although I understand that they are somewhat limited with what they can carry on the canoe. We were offered a canoe ride while they were setting up the table, so maybe they could have had someone entering through the door with hot items while we were on the canoe?
Housekeeping
I think they did a fantastic job timing housekeeping service with our activities/dinners so our room can be cleaned while we were out.
Service
Service in general was excellent. We had 2 butlers - 1 who greeted us at checkin, and 1 who brought coffee to our room every morning. They have different uniforms, I'm thinking the one in the gray uniform who greeted us at checkin might be the head butler/some type of manager but I'm not certain. They were both fantastic.
Everyone that we encountered asked us how our stay was, what we had planned for the day, and offered suggestions that were catered to us. For example, the butler noticed that my husband had a big camera, so he pointed out the nice photo spots during our tour of the resort.
Random suggestions
The spa beach is open to all guests, you don't need to book a treatment to use it. Really nice, quiet spot to hang out and fantastic view.
There's also a dock not too far from the spa beach. We believe this is where the huge Napoleon fish likes to hang out.
There are lots of tour companies, but i highly suggest Lagoon Service. Probably the best tour guide we've ever had anywhere.
Nov 16, 2020, 2:25 pm
#1070
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: In the air
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, Bonvoy LT Plat, Hilton Gold, GHA Tit, BA Gold, Turkish Elite
Posts: 8,719
They're very different in style. The Maldives is much more polished, but in a sort of soulless Dubai kind of way. Bora Bora (and the St Regis in particular) has more charm, but is also a bit less up to date and contemporary. Different people will have different preferences. Personally, both are just too mass market affluent for me but I'm glad that I've seen both the Maldives and Bora Bora.
Nov 17, 2020, 9:22 pm
#1072
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: MR-Amb, Hyatt-Globalist, AA-EXP
Posts: 1,744
I really enjoyed my trips to both, but I think I enjoyed Bora Bora a little bit more. The view of Mt. Otemanu is pretty incredible and I liked having a few more options as far as activities and dining. I also thought the trip to Bora Bora was a easier overall, but it is much harder to find business class availability on that flight vs. flights to the Maldives. The shorter flight from LAX, the smaller airport, and the forced layover in PPT seemed a little easier than my trip to the Maldives through the UAE.
Dec 7, 2020, 10:57 am
#1074
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: ORD
Posts: 701
Platinum member - Should I pay for upgrade or not?
Have an upcoming stay booked with points for April 2021. I contacted St Regis for upgrade options & they have given me different price options. So my confusion is should i pay for lowest OWV & hope to be upgraded to OWV with Mt View which would be a 2 category upgrade. The difference is about $600.
Have an upcoming stay booked with points for April 2021. I contacted St Regis for upgrade options & they have given me different price options. So my confusion is should i pay for lowest OWV & hope to be upgraded to OWV with Mt View which would be a 2 category upgrade. The difference is about $600.
Dec 10, 2020, 4:44 am
#1078
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: EDI/GLA
Programs: DL 2 MM Unobtainum | UA 1.1MM Gold | MR Bonvoy Titanium
Posts: 2,272
Dec 13, 2020, 2:39 pm
#1079
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: SFO
Posts: 642
I would roll the dice if you have status and wait for an upgrade at check-in. We did 10 nights in October, booked standard reef side and got upgraded to OWB day before totally free. Resorts are less than half full while Corona is happening, I imagine anyone with status can get an upgrade while occupancy is low.