Escaping to the Southern Hemisphere: A Bora Bora Getaway
 

Welcome to my 2nd trip report! I previously went on a 3 week trip to Europe for my honeymoon which can be found here. I can say that it wasn't long afterwards that I was looking for the next destination. One thing I noted while reading trip reports and researching possible places is that there aren't many trip reports to Bora Bora. Many trip reporters in this section have extensively documented the experience of traveling to the Maldives on honeymoons, vacations, and anniversaries. If I were to venture a guess, it'd be due to the numerous carriers that provide an extremely comfortable long haul flight in premium cabins, allowing just a short hop over to the destination.

From the continental US, the flight to Tahiti is less magnificent. The main carrier, Air Tahiti Nui, operates flights with a business and economy cabin. I had accrued a significant amount of AA miles over the past year and wanted to burn some prior to the devaluation. But since I wanted to have another trip to Asia in August, I opted to fly economy at 37.5K miles per person one way compared to the 65K for business. For two people roundtrip, saving 110K was a savings of one Etihad apartment experience, and then some. Here's to hoping I can survive 8 hours in economy after recently getting a taste of some of the best F cabins on the last outing. For the hotel, I managed to piece together 6 consecutive nights at the Intercontinental Thalasso by checking availability at least 20 times a day over the last few months.

We began by taking the train from San Diego to Union Station in Los Angeles, where we were picked up and dropped off at LAX. Last time I flew out of TBIT, it was 2012, and I was pretty surprised by how much has changed.



After checking in, we hung out until it was time to board. Quite a bit of gate lice around.


Almost there!


Arriving at PPT, we had a short hop over to BOB to begin our stay in paradise. We had a slightly longer layover since the earlier flights to Bora Bora were booked. We ended up grabbing our luggage walking around outside a little bit before going through security.



Through security, and noticed this guy had his priorities straight! Turns out, he was just going to the food vendor in the terminal.


Finally time to board, we were led out to the tarmac for our Air Tahiti flight.


Arriving in BOB through the dirty window.


After getting off the plane, we opted for the expensive boat transfer. I knew we could take the shuttle to Vaitape, followed by a taxi to Intercontinental Le Moana, and finally a shuttle to Thalasso, but since we were going to "paradise" we opted to spend a little for the convenience of arriving directly.



And pulling into the Thalasso, where all the rooms are overwater bungalows.

pictures are fantastic. thank you...

Looks like a very idyllic location, can't wait for more:).

Those bungalows look incredible. Cannot wait for the rest.

Upon arriving, we were given a brief tour of the resort via a golf cart. Check-in was at 2PM and it was around 12:30 when we arrived. They sat us right by the water and went through some paperwork and safety briefings to sign. Being a platinum member via the IHG card, we were seated in a slightly sectioned off area which was nice. They bring out a cold towel and some refreshments to help cool you off.

Once that is squared away, they suggest you grab some food and return around 2PM for the check-in. We went to the Sands which is right next to the pool area. I had a Mahi Mahi sandwich and my wife had a shrimp caesar salad.

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After our meal, we went back to the check-in area to wait until the room was ready. They call your name and drive you out to your overwater bungalow. A few shots of the space are below. I'll upload the short video I took if I can remember to do so later on :)

View as you walk through the front door

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Living area on the left with the see through glass table

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Bedroom on the right with a nice large window and killer view to wake up to

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Bathroom area further to the right of the bedroom

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View from the deck with the chapel in the background

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For the rest of the day, we just relaxed and did some of the free activities like paddle boarding, pedal boating, kayaking, etc. There are also "cultural immersion" activities that go on at noon daily by the pool. We participated in one so far called the coconut show. Since we were the only 2 people, I participated in opening up coconuts in 2 different ways which was fun (other than being drenched in sweat).

Heading out right now...will add some more info/pictures later. Thanks for following!

Memories
 

We stayed at the IC Thalasso for our honeymoon a few years ago. It is fantastic! Make sure you go to Bloody Mary's and when you're there make sure you check out the bathroom!

We were there in October of 2010, is it too late to do a trip report?:cool:

Brings back memories for me as well. We went in November 2011 for our honeymoon. Stayed at the Sofitel private island though. I put together a trip report (sans pictures) which is kicking around somewhere on here.

Thanks for the tips! Any other suggestions for the rest of our stay? I did see a few Bora Bora trip reports when I searched, but definitely nowhere near the number of Maldives reports.

Some other pictures we took throughout the day of the resort:

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This is the path leading towards our bungalow, with Mount Otemanu in the distance.

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And a better shot of the chapel

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Happy hour runs from 5PM to 6PM where they offer 50% off the high prices. It wasn't anything special and we elected to have dinner at the Sands restaurant again the following night.

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On the topic of meals, we went for the 50% off offer at check-in, provided that you opt in for the duration of your stay. It is a fully fledged breakfast with many of your typical hash brown/potato, eggs, and bacon/sausage selection. In addition, there is an omelette station, waffles and crepes, assorted fruits, assorted meats and fish, and some Japanese offerings in the form of miso soup and some plain rice with pickled vegetables.

We did some more water activities and snapped more pictures. I learned to open coconuts during the cultural immersion activity and enjoyed the fruits of my labor afterwards (crappy Gopro picture)

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Still amazed at the IS on this lens. Hand-held shot at 1/6 shutter

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As mentioned preivously, dinner was at the Sands restaurant where I had a cuttlefish and squid ink linguine while the wife had a chicken dish made with coconut milk and rice. Both were very good and much better than the lunch we had the day previous.

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A few shots from this morning

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A short walk to the backside of the resort brings you to the outside of the lagoon

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After another cultural immersion activity, we hopped in the water for a few hours, lounged around in the hammocks, and watched the daily stingray feeding. Tonight is a Polynesian buffet night, so I'm excited to see what kinds of foods are on offer. We already had a few tastings of poisson cru, which is a Tahitian salad made with raw fish and coconut milk. We plan to head to Vaitape tomorrow, followed by a spa/massage treatment on Wednesday.

This is a fantastic trip report! My fiancé and I are in the middle of planning our honeymoon in bora bora and are trying to stay on points but with the Hilton being closed after September (we are going in November 2016) there are few options. How far out did you being looking for availability at thalasso?

It was at least 6 months out, if not longer when I started looking for rooms at the Thalasso. I was hoping to just get 3 nights, with anything more than that as a bonus. I was ecstatic when I ended up with all 6 nights about 3 weeks out from departure.

I originally had 2 nights booked at the Hilton as well, but we end up having to change the date and the availability wasn't there for redeeming the free night certs.

The Polynesian buffet wasn't all that great, but the plus side is we got to sample a lot of new foods. After about 3 plates worth of food, it was almost 8PM, which is when the dinner show starts. We stayed a little bit before leaving (we overheard some talk that audience members would be selected to participate in a dance, and since I can't dance to save my life, it was time to go).

Dessert and fresh fruits

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Salads made with different seafood

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Tuna sashimi

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Some shrimp with seared mahi mahi and tuna on the left

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Some more tuna (partially seared) and ham carving station on the rear left

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There was an offering of "coco punch" that was made with rum, passion fruit, and some other juices that was pretty good.

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And a picture of the show

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As mentioned earlier, we left early and had plans to retire for the night until we looked up and saw the clear skies dotted with stars. I have never seen anything like it living in a big city, so I grabbed my tripod and walked to the backside of the island again where there was a lot less light to capture some pictures. The view was simply stunning.

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Ok, that is one of the best night shots I've ever seen. Nicely done. :)

great
 

Great report.

That barely chilled plate of raw tuna looks like a no-go to me!:)

It's sitting on a huge bin of ice, was probably still swimming the morning of that dinner, and jumped out to me as one of the best-looking food items (of many good-looking ones) in the report! I'd personally have it as poke rather than sashimi, but now that's just splitting hairs.

A YMMV situation, I guess...

A good friend of mine stayed at that resort and just flew back with his family yesterday. Did you see a chubby white dude (probably tipsy) with a wife, older daughter, and younger twins (boy and girl)? Shot in the dark.

That fits the profile of a few people we saw. Surprisingly there are a good amount of people vacationing with kids.

We headed to Vaitape the next morning. There is a complimentary shuttle that runs to the Intercontinental Le Moana resort on the main island for guests. From there, a 15 minute or so bus ride takes you into the small town at a cost of approximately $15 per person. Arrangements can be made at the check-in/reception desk.

Waiting at the dock where the shuttle departs (this is also where the airport transfer arrives/departs).

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On the way to Le Moana

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The road that runs around the island with plenty of locals

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We did stop by the grocery store to pick up some snacks and water to save ourselves from the exorbitant prices at the resort. A 1.5L bottle of water was only a dollar or so versus $7 for a 1L. Some of the Tahitian beer selection available:

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Local bank

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Lots of souvenir and pearl stores as expected

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We had a little bit more than an hour before the shuttle took us back to Le Moana. The town itself isn't very big, about a minute in each direction from where we were dropped off by car. After a little bit of shopping, we head back on the bus and waited at the Le Moana dock.

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And heading back to Thalasso!

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The next 2 days we have booked a spa day and a jet ski tour (may not have many pictures, but we'll see).

We ordered room service the night we returned from town and they come in and set up either inside or outside. I honestly wasn't expecting the tablecloth and all, but it was also my first time ordering room service. Somebody please educate me whether this is the norm?

Both dishes had a coconut curry to go along with the rice. I found the seafood and vegetables quite tasty.

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The next day, we went to the spa facilities right when they opened at 0930. The massage I chose came with a choice of oils, and after taking a whiff of all three, settled on the papaya.

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We were given a small basket with a cloth of sorts to wrap around yourself if desired, and a pair of flip flops. A key to a locker was also provided. By scheduling a treatment, you are allowed full day access to all the facilities.

A view of the locker room with showers on the right behind each door.

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As you exit, an associate will give you a quick tour to show you where everything is at. To the left are the steam rooms and the cold plunge pool.

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Further along is a salt water swim pool (I think that's what it was labeled) and a narrow pool with jets that you walk through to massage your legs just to the left of the lounge chairs (2nd photo).

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There is also a tea room with refreshments and a relaxation room.

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We spent most of our time at the jacuzzi with this amazing view below. The massages are performed in the buildings on the left which have a see through floor cut out so you can view the fish. Pretty cool!

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We left briefly around noon to participate in another cultural immersion activity which was hat making. Unfortunately, due to the complexity, this was not something that we were able to make ourselves, but the hats look pretty awesome. We got a few people asking where we got them from when we were at the airport waiting for the flight back home.

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I should be finishing up the remainder of the report tomorrow. I won't have coverage of the A340 or the prop plane from BOB to PPT. At that point I was either trying to not move to stay cool, or catch some Zs on the trip home.

The final morning of our full day in Bora Bora, we head over to the docks where we had our jet ski tour reserved for 08:45. We were the only guests for that time slot departing from the Thalasso, so after a brief introduction, our tour guide Mana led us speeding towards Le Moana where a few other people were picked up. The tour takes approximately 2 hours at a cost of $275 per jet ski and takes you around the entire island with a few stops along the way. You get to see all the different resorts and some of the smaller motu. Our guide also pointed out the locations of some of the WW2 cannons that were never used. It was a great way to start off the day and we were lucky enough to avoid any rain that inhibited visibility of the beautiful scenery. Not so great picture from the GoPro below.

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Afterwards, we returned to our room for a quick rest before heading back over to the main island for lunch. We booked a scooter for 4 hours to get around through the concierge for $65. Of course our luck ran short here as it began to pour rain when we hopped onto the shuttle boat to Le Moana. As things began to lighten up, we grabbed some ponchos from the reception desk at Le Moana (where the scooter is picked up) and head off towards Bloody Marys for lunch. About 2 minutes after leaving, it started pouring again, but the ponchos did a decent job of keeping us dry. After wolfing down some fried fish and shrimp, we bought some shirts and decided to use the rest of our rental time to ride around the island. This gave us a different perspective and let us see the locals lived away from the glitz and glam of the resorts.

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Back side of Mount Otemanu

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It ended up taking an hour or so to cruise the island which was a great time. Compared to the cost of the other activities, I highly recommend doing this as it's cheap and lets you explore at your leisure. We caught the 4:15PM shuttle back to the Thalasso and ordered room service again. While hanging out on the deck, I setup the tripod again to get some more shots.

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On checkout day, I spent some more time in the lagoon taking in the beautiful view for one last time. Afterwards, we double checked with the front desk and confirmed they would not be able to offer us late checkout, so we packed up everything and head over to reception at 11AM. We were provided a day room (awesome amenity!) and the porter was sent to move our bags over while we went back to the pool.

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Some more fruity drinks

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Before we knew it, it was 2PM, time for the daily stingray feeding

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One of the seagulls hoping to catch some fish

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Knowing that our boat transfer to the airport was scheduled for 4:50PM, we did the whole lock and throw away the key thing that was part of the Garden of Love.

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Back to the day room (about 7x7 for the main space, plus a bathroom and shower) to change and shower.

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From there we caught our boat, and hopped on our flights home. It was hard to leave paradise, but it's back to reality on Monday. Now we can look forward to our round the world trip in August.

Thanks to everyone who read this report! It was a blast of a trip!

This is the next "exotic locale" on my list and both your pictures and TR in general certainly helped the cause! Thanks for another great TR!

Bora Bora looks a lot nicer now than 30 years ago when I was there.

The hotels were so so, the food was awful and the locals not friendly.

Thanks for the nice pictures.

Beautiful shots and great TR - my wife and I spent 5 nights at Le Moana last July/August.

We'd hoped to go to Thalasso but availability never opened up. On the flip side, being on the main island did make running to the local stores (for cheap bread, jam, fruit, beer, and rum!) much easier and saved us a bit of money; we were able to eat off-resort much easier, too.

How was the snorkeling at Thalasso? It was great at Le Moana - we heard it was better on our southern tip of the island.

BOB is definitely a great bucket list trip. Glad you guys enjoyed it, too!

That's a good thought. However, either by accident or sensibly on purpose, the OP did not spend any time at La Moana, which is an absolute dump and trades solely on its admittedly fabulous location and the better developed coral that end of the island. I hazard a guess that a goodly number of folks lounging at Thalasso are Moana guests ruing their booking decision.

You seriously make me so nostalgic of our time at the IC Thalasso. I'm not showing this report to my wife or else we'll be back before the year's end!

Really great photos!!

Good to see another San Diego FTer posting TR's, thanks for sharing ^

Thanks for all the comments. It was an excellent time and we would love to go back one day.

We only snorkeled a little bit on our second day but it wasn't bad at all. I wouldn't be able to make any comparisons though.

Very nice. I'd be curious if at the end of the day it was worth all the flying to get there...

It's only an 8 hour flight to PPT and a 50 minute flight from there to Bora Bora.

wow-amazing pictures

What camera / lenses?

Really fabulous photos of a truly stunning place. And yet... despite the glorious tropical water and gorgeous setting, I think I'd go nuts feeling so tied to the resort (especially where everything is so expensive). And there's only so many 'cultural immersion activities' I could be subjected to.

Did you feel there was enough to do, or did you also feel a little confined? (Of all the things you did, the scooter around the island had the most appeal for me.)

Also, I'd be curious to know if you spent much time on or under the water. Bora Bora always looks so amazing in the photos but how are the coral and beaches?

Amazing pictures Chongl, we're off on our Honeymoon soon and I have a rudimentary understanding of photography that extends to tweaking aperture, exposure etc. I've bought an RX100 iii to take with us but am nervous that my lack of ability will adversely affect the photos we end up with. Are most of your photos heavily edited when you get home, or are the settings just perfect?...

Thenks foк cool pics, i was there to

Thank you! I was using a Canon 6D with 24-70mm f/2.8L II and a rented 16-35mm f/4L IS.

For me, I could stare at the view from the deck all day, so I didn't feel confined. However, my favorite day by far was when we did the jet ski tour and rode the scooter around the island. There are many expensive activities you can book too like a helicopter tour or shark feedings, which we did none of (I guess I did the more boring version of things :)). Also, this vacation was a stark contrast to the last where we drove 1500 miles around Europe cramming in everything we could, so we didn't mind being able to sit back and truly "recharge" this time around.

For the water, I mostly stayed in the lagoon of the resort and didn't venture out much. I'm not much of a water person anymore after swimming competitively for many years :o

The RX100 III is an amazing camera. I used it quite a bit when I had one and it's great for its image quality while being portable and discreet. You could likely leave it on 'P' and get great results. I mostly just mess with the coloring and sharpness and don't know any of the fancier tricks that some of my pro friends use, but that's good enough for me. Remember to shoot in RAW and you'll have much more leeway in post-processing.

Memory is cheap, so use different compositions and snap away. Rather have the shot you wanted when you dig through than wish you had tried a few more (although I still come away with that feeling).

We spent our honeymoon in BB a few years back and your concerns of being "locked" to the resort are valid. Bora Bora can get pretty boring but for some reason laying out on the sun deck looking at the beautiful hues of blue makes things easier. If I were to give an suggestion it would be to spend a few nights on Moorea and a few nights on Bora Bora. Moorea is a much bigger island with a lot more things to do and it has a different feel to it as well.

Agreed...we did 4 nights on Moorea (Hilton) and 4 nights BB, split 1 at Le Moana and 3 at Thalasso. Honestly, we somewhat preferred Moorea to BB...

We spent 3 on BB and 3 on Moorea. I preferred Moorea as well. It's so beautiful and there is a lot more going on. With that being said, you can't beat the view of the Thalasso!

A bit too late to the party but very nice report :) Really enjoyed the pictures! Can't wait to get there - will be there in exactly two months time!