CPMaverick

You seem to have this condescending attitude where everyone needs to have the 'luxury' experience or they should stay home in the trailer park.

Many posters did not ask about the luxury experience. They are asking about costs. To tell people the 'rock bottom' spend on Bora Bora is what YOU want to spend for a luxury experience is misleading and wrong. Yes, it is useful to let people know FP can be a very pricey place, particularly the resorts. But it is not useful to act as if these expensive resorts are the only possible option.

YVR Cockroach

My wife read something about the difference between Americans and Europeans (or at least/in particular French) visitors to the Society Islands. Americans want to stay in deluxe accommodation (resorts) and put up with crappy, overpriced food while the French prefer crappy but cheap accommodation which feature great and cheap home-cooked food.

I am aiming for the latter experience,

number_6

For that try Bali.

YVR Cockroach

Supposedly available in Tahiti too,but research an booking have to be conducted in French

Troopers

Take a look at the destinations that Air Tahiti serves. Earlier this year in FP earlier this year, I was surprised by the number of Europeans/French that were headed to other islands besides Bora Bora and Moorea.

YVR Cockroach

Got a (library) guide book and will do.

FWIW, is there a EU citizen line in PPT (not that French Polynesia is in the E.U.)?

Troopers

As a US citizen, we stood in the longer line when we arrived in PPT. There is a shorter line but don't recall who it was for.

flyingfkb

I believe you paid this much but as always in life there is often not the one single truth. After a bit of research I came up with more "normal" numbers around 150€ (2016) per day (let's add some inflation of 1.5% per year) and we that will be 154€ (176$) now . One thing is for sure all sources stated that Bora Bora is more expansive than other holiday destinations and certainly the luxury resorts have their high-end restaurants where you easily pay over 200€ for a set menu per person plus wine for 100€ and you end up with 500€ (573$) just for dinner. IMHO I believe that is is also possible to go without a set menu and pay much less.

pdragn78

Thanks for all the information! I'm considering French Polynesia for our 10 year anniversary in 2020, but not sure what island(s) to visit. I would love to go to Bora Bora or one of the other islands, but am somewhat concerned about costs. I also appreciate the suggestions for Cook Islands or Fiji which I never really considered until after reading this post.

I guess I'm looking for a luxurious experience but not quite at the point where I'm willing to drop 1-2 thousand USD per night for it. I read the budget pizza in Bora Bora blog and there were some great tips there- but that's not quite the honeymoon experience I am looking for. Perhaps I would consider it for a quick "budget" vacation when cheap flights available from LAX or SFO to PPT. Then I wouldn't feel so bad grocery shopping and staying in a 3 start hotel.

I'm still on the fence about French Polynesia for my 2020 honeymoon part 2. I'm will probably end up somewhere else in the south pacific that year (Fiji or Cook Islands). But will look back at this thread for tips and advice when I'm ready for Bora Bora! So please continue to post your experiences and travel tips. Thanks.

number_6

Some alternatives worth investigating:
- Langkawi (island in Malyasia on border of Thailand, has pristine jungle and thousand islands, great for boating). Much cheaper than Bora Bora for a similarly special experience but different
- Bali in a private villa. Very luxurious for <USD 500 per night and beautiful if you avoid the over-touristed parts of Bali.
- New Zealand. A bargain with the exchange rate for USD. Ranges from tropical to glaciers so you can have diverse vacation, pretty special.
- Lord Howe Island. Perfect honeymoon spot, but hard to get to; worth the effort.

pdragn78

Thanks for the suggestions. Per wikipedia Lord Howe Island only allows 400 tourists on the island at a time? Interesting, but may be too small for my tastes. I do like the idea of Bali and New Zealand is on my travel list as well. I've been to Thailand and would love to go again.

I know this is probably frowned upon on this website, but there seem to be various travel deals on websites like travel zoo and tahiti.com that offer island packages. They all include flight and 7 nightstay at 4-5 star hotels for 6-8,000 USD for two people. If I subtract out $2k for flights, that averages around 4k-6k per 7 days or roughly $600-$900/night and includes lodging, transfer flights, and daily breakfast plus 1-2 fancy dinners for the week. (I understand I would still need to pay for additional meals outside of this) If I were to price this out separately, it would be more than that plus I would have to spend time researching and booking everything separately.

I do have awards miles 200K American Airlines and 200K Chase Ultimate Awards points that I could use for flights/hotel, but award seats are 80k miles (0.012 cents/ mile) for economy round trip. I don't think that's the best use of miles on AA. Plus trying to match up hotel award availability for IHG hotels with flight award seats is proving to be difficult with test bookings for 2019. I think i may save my award points for a 2021 trip to South Korea (0.02-0.03 cents/mile valuation) with the whole family, but that's another post.

adampenrith

Aéroport de Tahiti gestionnaire des aéroports : Tahiti Faa'a, Bora Bora, Raiatea, Rangiroa. - Vols internationaux

will give you an idea who flys into PPT - note AA code shares on TN - Delta do on AF out of LAX and UA and Bee fly out of SFO