How strict are they with regards to the shuttle boat timings? Would they be willing to drop us off an hour later or earlier than the posted timings?

Who exactly sent you the generic e-mail? You can call Marriott and they will confirm your arrival time and transfer. Also whoever you booked through if it was a travel agent should be able to confirm the times with the hotel. Anytime you make a booking you are typically required to enter the arrival details for the VT flight which you will be taking. If there is a schedule change in advance and you were notified by VT then you should send this info to your Travel Agent or Marriott or the hotel directly. The hotel also will likely monitor all flight arrivals. If you really want to make triple sure, just call the hotel or e-mail the front desk.

Thank you. I actually googled and found the concierge email address and emailed them to confirm my arrival flight.
I am here at the resort right now, it is simply incredible place! Weather has been perfect, everyday has been clear and sunny, even though a week ago forecast says raining everyday. Staff told me not to trust the weather forecast!

This is by far the best redemption of Marriott points I ever had, and my nightly upgrade cleared 5 days out. It was a long journey to get here from east coast of US, but I would be happy to return in a heartbeat!

Great. I found the service desks (both Front and Concierge) are very efficient. Yes my experience was similar, not just with the Resort but also the sensational sunny days captured here and some more here. Indeed, they change the forecasts at short notice on these islands, so the next day's forecast is typically the most accurate and wanes in precision the further out you look. Although the forecasts on the three primary websites I used when I was there was quite spot on and usually converged on most days!

Should you return to these islands or any French territory try meteo.pf which I referenced in my trip notes on the previous page, or meteofrance.com for other territories in addition to wunderground.com and meteoblue.com, but use yr.no as a very last "resort" pun intended as it is not that detailed. Windy.com is visually stunning and also a good choice which monitors several parameters in real time and gives a great satellite overview as shown below.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...edc60b45c5.jpg

Just following up on some previous posts regarding kids and the property now that we just got back. They did allow us to have our toddler (age 2) in our one room bungalow and provided a crib. I am thinking if your kid is not a crib, then they make you do the two bedroom as guests with older kids were in the two bedroom bungalows from what I could see. That being said, we found the resort really kid friendly. As I said, they provided us a crib already set up in the room when we arrived, the crib had a turtle stuffed animal in it, the room also had a bottle warmer set up and a little nemo bath toy. We saw other guests with kids at the property as well, ranging in age from 8 months to probably 10/12. We were there for a little over a week and there was always at least 4 other families at any time during our stay. They do offer a kids menu for kids up to 12 years and kids under (I think 6) eat free off of the kids menu. Our son is two so he ate free off the kids menu, the breakfast buffet and also was no charge for the Polynesian night. All the restaurant staff were very sweet and engaging with our toddler and often handed us to go boxes to grab some more apples or croissants from the breakfast buffet for our son to snack on later. They also would bring him colored pencils and coloring pages at most meals (we never asked, they just did it). The pool bar workers also went above and beyond for our son with little surprises and gifts (cookies, coconuts, etc.). I just wanted to share our experience, because I had read and experienced people's comments saying not to bring your toddler, that the resort wasn't kid friendly etc. and that isn't how we felt once we were there. Hope this info is helpful to someone!

This is so helpful as someone considering traveling with a crib-aged kid, I've been checking and hoping you would follow up!

Christmas at the Westin Bora Bora with kids
 

We spent 5 nights over the Christmas week with our kids, aged 4 and 6 so want to share our experience. I booked 2 rooms with points and we had 3 adults and 2 kids traveling so I had been researching, including following this forum, on adding a kid to the room. After reading reviews of how strict they enforced the maximum occupancy of 2 people per room for the award redemption rooms, I contacted the hotel to add my 4-year-old son to the room. They insisted that we need to upgrade the room to a “one bedroom” that can accommodate 3 people. After going back and forth negotiating, I had to pay to upgrade one of the rooms and cost $$$ for a lagoon suite with plunge pool. I also had a suite night upgrade requested but I didn't want to bet on that since it was Christmas week. 5 days before our arrival, I got an email that my suite night award was cleared and upgraded the other room to the premium Otemanu suite with plunge pool!!!

We stayed here when it was the Le Meridien back on 2019 so it was nice to see the differences. Also, we had stayed at every single 5* resorts in Bora Bora in our previous trips, this was our 4th time!

The arrival experience was okay, at least they were not chaotic as I read from previous posts. We got the Westin water bottle in the boat filled with iced-cold water so that was a nice touch; their bottles were high quality, I was surprised by that! However, I had to wait for next available reception desk to fill the paperwork. Unlike the Intercontinental, St. Regis, and Conrad that they come to you while you were seated to fill out the paperwork, this was definitely a “level down” from the luxury experience. As a Platinum member, I chose breakfast as the welcome gift and I asked about the kids, the receptionist said kids under 5 eat free while those aged 5-12 are 50% off the menu. That was great considering the restaurant prices in Bora Bora and I paid $$$ to add my son!

I will try to summarize important points here, for detailed reports and photos, see my blog: https://missvacation.net/2026/01/10/...a-bora-resort/

Food: much better than I anticipated by Bora Bora standards! At least each meal was edible! I will rank it as between the St Regis and Conrad. However, the lunch/dinner menu is the same at Varavara, their only restaurant that opens at lunch so it got very repetitive by the 3rd lunch! Also, the kid's menu is the same at Varavara and Tipanier!!! My biggest frustration was to battle each bill to get the correct discounts! At Varavara, the waitress wasn't even aware of the kids discount so she had to check with her manager, we ordered both the kids' meals from the kid's menu. At Tipanier, the waitress said only 50% from the regular menu for my daughter. For room service, there is no 50% for my daughter. Why don't they have a unify policy to simplify things???

For the Christmas Eve’s dinner, there were two options: Christmas Eve buffet at Tipanier or a set 5-course menu at Varavara. The special menus were published the night before and when I saw the buffet cost 35,200 xpf per person (that’s around $350 USD), I was shocked!!! I don’t see how great of a buffet that we can eat the money’s worth! The 5-course menu did not have a price so I called to ask….the receptionist said it’s the same 35,200 xpf. WHAT???? How can that be? I questioned him and asked him to check, he came back and said that is correct. Then, I asked, can we order room service? He said yes but the kitchen will be closed from 4 PM to 10 PM so we can only order before or after that. It was certainly the hotel’s tactic to get the most money out of guests!!! I confirmed again, it is not mandatory to have the buffet or set menu right, we can do room service instead? He said yes but best to order by 3 PM. I was relieved that the expensive dinner wasn't mandatory as like other resorts in Bora Bora and the Maldives, it saved me over a thousand dollars!!!

Service: while all the staff we encountered were nice and helpful, it was not the luxury level where you get a dedicated person or proactive on resolving things for you. We had the same waitress at breakfast and lunch and by the 3rd meal, she remembered our names and automatically take out the mango juice for my kids. You need to try their local brand, Rotui, mango juice, it is the best that I ever have!!! At the breakfast buffet, they only have the mango juice out 1 time in our 5 nights but you can ask for it!

Christmas special: Santa at the beach on Christmas Eve! Santa arrived on jetski so that was unique! Santa called up each kid’s name to get their present, it was so thoughtful of the hotel to do that!!! My kids got a bag of gummy bears and a card game appropriate for their age. Those card games were handy as both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were pouring rain so we spent most of the time in our rooms!

Activities: there was at least 1 activity per day: Polynesian dancing, shell craft, flower crown, coconut palm weaving, and pareo painting. We did all except for the Polynesian dancing and coconut palm weaving. Also note that all the activities and dinner need to be “reserved” from the Concierge, either by person at the Concierge Desk or by calling. Best to reserve the night before or morning as activities do have a limit of 25 guests!!!

Rooms: Our rooms were 229 (the lagoon view) and 230 (the premium Otemanu). Both were the exact same layout but facing the opposite side! Right after entrance is the bathroom, I like the “suite” layout more because the “bathroom” is its own section of the room. Whereas, the beach villas and entry level lagoon overwater bungalows, the double sink and tub are next to the bed! Everything looked new as it should be and modern! I much prefer this bathroom than the huge but outdated bathroom at St. Regis. Their toiletries are the local brand, not the Westin’s heavenly spa white tea ones. I found that their shampoo and body wash are watered down in the rooms!!! The same body wash bottle at the restaurants’ bathrooms was more thick!!! This felt cheap for a resort that charges over $1000 a night! The huge glass on the floor was my kids’ favorite area of the room besides the pool, they spotted a sea turtle, a stingray, and numerous fish at night so make sure you turn on the glass floor light at night to attract the sea life! The bed looked nice but the mattress was way too soft, it didn’t feel like a Westin’s heavenly bed at all. It felt like a 10+ year old mattress that the middle was sunken in!!! The plunge pool was decent size for our little kids. It was filled with saltwater and automatically emptied out every 48 hours for cleaning. The pool at the Otemanu View bungalow is in shade in early morning whereas in complete sun in the afternoon, the umbrella did not help due to the direction of the sun setting behind the mountain. Thus, we spent most afternoons in the pool at the lagoon view bungalow!

Main pool: there are 5 cabanas by the pool, free of charge on first come first served basis! Best to "reserve" one before breakfast as those quickly taken. The 2 cabanas on the left side of the pool have direct access to the pool and better views!

Check out: I asked about the possible late check out the day before, the receptionist said the details will be in the message that we can view from the TV tonight.
I checked the “message” on the TV screen and it said we need to check-out by noon for both rooms! I called reception and asked if there’s a day room available after the check-out, he said yes but only for 45 minutes. That won’t help much, especially with two little kids, what are we going to do for 4 hours??? He said best to call tomorrow morning when his manager is on duty. At breakfast, a manager came over to us and asked about our activity of the day. I said we are leaving today and I need to go to the reception after breakfast to see if we can get a day room for the rest of the afternoon to make things easier for our kids. She said she’ll go and work that out with the reception team. She came back and said all set, we can have the day room from noon till departure! The day room was the beach villa, room 102. It was nice to see its layout and the views.

Departure: At 4 PM, I called the reception to come pick up our luggage to the boat dock. Another couple was there and then the boat arrived. They loaded our luggage into the boat and time for us to depart. No staff was there to say goodbye, no gift, no seashell necklace, nothing!!! For a “luxury” hotel in Bora Bora, they didn’t make an effort to say goodbye to their guests while all other hotels have some form of goodbye from waving goodbyes from the team of staff to ceremonial seashell blowing.

Will I stay at the Westin the next time? Nope! Do I recommend the Westin? Yes, for first-timers for its views and new overwater bungalows. If the St. Regis gets renovated, I would return in a heartbeat!

We also spent 5 nights over the Christmas Week, as a group of 8.

The service at breakfast was pretty lackluster. Coffee orders were consistently incorrect. ex: We would order 5 iced vanilla latte's, and 3 plain iced latte's would show up, with the other two never to be seen. Another day, she took the coffee orders from some of us, and walked away, skipping a few. It was rather bizarre. We had 4 "status" breakfasts included, and would be paying for 4 more but some days all 8 of us wouldn't go for breakfast, but they'd still try charging us for the incorrect amount of people, and couldn't understand that we weren't all there. Breakfast itself was pretty good.

The food in general was WAY better than I expected, with everything being pretty decent, and a few things being pretty good. We did end up at the Christmas Eve buffet, which is the biggest rip off there is. They listed Lobster and King Crab on the menu (menu subject to change), but of course those things weren't available. There is no possible way to eat $350 worth of mediocre buffet food. The Christmas Buffet was, by far, our worst meal. We didn't ask about being able to order room service that night, as I was under the impression that it was mandatory, as it was listed on our reservations.

We took part in the rum tasting, wine tasting, and palm weaving, none of which were very exciting.

The rooms are new and modern. We booked on points, which was an amazing deal at 286,000 per room for the 5 nights. We ended up with two Premium Otemanu Overwater Villas with pools (via NUA's) and two Overwater Lagoon View Bungalow's, with the floor plan of the Villas being much nicer. We spent most of our days on one of the Villa decks, hanging out by the pool, or hopping into the ocean. Saw Turtles, Blacktip Sharks, Stingrays and Spotted Eagle Rays, either from our rooms, or from the walkways. I found the bed to be very comfortable, and slept quite well. The pillows were also nice. Every day they dropped off a little sweet treat, and a couple bottles of juice or iced tea.

Having stayed at the Four Seasons, and the St Regis previously, we preferred the Westin. The food was decent, and having bright, fresh, new rooms was nice.

I’m of the opinion that the Maldives is a better value trip. Yes Bora Bora has culture and a mountain in the middle but the beaches are not beautiful soft sand, there is coral in the water and with the exception of the Westin the other hotels are all old and dated.

I agree that points redemptions are fantastic value at the Westin and I can’t deny how gentle the water is for water sports/jet ski in good weather.

When I visited in Nov 24 it was horrible weather until the last day when it was perfect and calm. And I jet skied all the way around Bora Bora and that was a lot of fun seeing the different hotels and the fact is the water never got too choppy.

The Maldives however has better beaches and more modern hotels. Having visited the W in October and having had a great time I am planning to return the end of this year.

I’m sure when these hotels opened (with the exception of the Westin) 20 years ago it was an amazing place. Now not so much. Although again I don’t want to come across as too negative here. The resort is beautiful and the views are beautiful but I expected Bora Bora to feel like the Maldives but with a better view. Instead it feels like Thailand.

Still beautiful. But not as good as the hype.

Could anyone, that stayed at this renovated property, indicate what coffee machine they have in the villas. If the machine uses capsules, do they charge for them?

I love that you’re traveling thousands of miles and spending real or equivalent of thousands of dollars and are curious about coffee pods. That’s awesome.

They have Nespresso machines and they provide pods for free. We like coffee and are very picky, so we actually brought our own pods.

Staying 2 weeks on points and I still remember that the Thalasso IC, where I had a dozen stays, years ago, was charging a little fortune for the Nespresso capsules - 3 to 4 capsules a day for the both of us.
Not sure if it is awesome,. but we probably will already be over budget with the tours, meals, daily resort fees and air tickets.

Are you sure that they accept "real" (or reais) in French Polynesia?

Anyone know which type/size of Nespresso?

Unsure if AI is accurate:

AI OverviewThe Westin Bora Bora villas are equipped with Nespresso machines that provide complimentary capsules
. These machines typically use Nespresso Original pods. In addition to in-room coffee, guests have reported having access to various coffee options throughout the resort, including at the buffet, in the lounge, and at the pool bar.

Key Coffee Details:

• In-Room Machine: Nespresso capsule machines.
• Included Options: A selection of capsules is generally provided.
• Resort Options: Barista-made coffee, including lattes and cold brews, may be available at the Westin Club or other dining locations.
• Alternatives: If the in-room options are not sufficient, guests can find other coffee options throughout the resort.