Bora Bora Travel Tips for the Ultimate Vacation
The adventure of a lifetime on Bora Bora
Above almost any other location on earth, Bora Bora is a top bucket-list travel destination. I recently had the amazing experience of traveling to Bora Bora, and I took my mic along to record some tips live from the island. This post is the show notes from that podcast episode, episode 25 of the Go Informed Podcast. And I’ve added a lot of other travel tips beyond just what I discuss in the episode.
You can listen to me talk about Bora Bora, LIVE from the Intercontinental Thalasso Resort, here:
Or listen on your favorite podcast app! Just search for the Go Informed Podcast.
- The adventure of a lifetime on Bora Bora
- Six things to know about visiting Bora Bora
- Traveling to Bora Bora
- Arriving on Bora Bora
- Where to stay on Bora Bora
- What to bring to Bora Bora
- Adventures on Bora Bora
- More fun facts about Bora Bora
- Yes it lives up to the hype
- Visiting the atoll of Rangiroa
- More tropical travel tips from Go Informed
Six things to know about visiting Bora Bora
Traveling to Bora Bora
Bora Bora is an island surrounded by an atoll, located in French Polynesia. This is in the southern hemisphere, very close to the equator.
To get there from the U.S. Mainland, visitors fly about 8 hours from LAX to Tahiti, then take another plane to Bora Bora. The flight between Tahiti and Bora Bora takes about an hour and is really scenic.
Traveling to Bora Bora is a big deal. Unless you’re from France, you’ll be going to a foreign country, so you’ll need a valid passport. The flight from LA to Tahiti’s a long one, usually overnight, and French is the official language.
Air Tahiti and Air Tahiti Nui
There are two different Air Tahiti airlines: Air Tahiti and Air Tahiti Nui. Each airline has its own website and its own ticketing.
Air Tahiti flies the small planes between all the French Polynesian islands. So this will be your airline when you fly to Bora Bora from Tahiti.
Air Tahiti Nui is the airline that flies overseas from Tahiti. (I found out that “Nui” means “Big” in the Tahitian language. So Air Tahiti Nui = Big Air Tahiti = they fly the big long-haul jets over the ocean).
You can also fly from LAX to Tahiti on Air France. But if you’re like us, you’ll be buying tickets on both Air Tahiti Nui and Air Tahiti.
Bora Bora flight tips
The airport code for Tahiti is PPT. This stands for Papeete, the name of the main city on the island of Tahiti. It’s pronounced like pop-ee-et-ay.
The flights between LAX and PPT are long and usually overnight. This is a very good time to try to find a deal or use air miles to upgrade to business class. It will really help you adjust, especially when you arrive in Tahiti and still have to wait around and fly another hour to Bora Bora.
Consider using a travel agent to book your trip. Between the multiple airlines, the foreign language, and all the different lodging options, your itinerary can be really complicated. And if anything goes wrong, you’ll be glad to have someone to call for help.
👉 Here are six simple tips that can help make any flight easier.
Arriving on Bora Bora
Bora Bora is more than just one island. It’s actually a main island surrounded by an atoll. The atoll is a series of narrow islands that ring a lagoon with the main island in the center. This is all because Bora Bora was once a huge volcano that has now sunk into the ocean. That ring of islands are the footprint of the volcano’s crater.
The islands that make up Bora Bora’s atoll are called motus (say “moh-too). And some of the best hotels in the world are located here.
Bora Bora’s airport (airport code BOB for you travel nerds) is also located on a motu. Which means that when you land here you are landing on a little island. And all that’s on this island is the airport!
As you might expect, the airport at Bora Bora is tiny. There aren’t really even any exterior walls. And to get anywhere from the airport you need a boat.
Bora Bora airport boat shuttles
No matter where you’re staying on Bora Bora, there are boat shuttles to take you there. If you’re staying on the main island, there is a free water taxi that goes from the airport to the main town of Vaitape (vie-top-ay). Collect your luggage at the baggage claim, then hand it over to the water taxi crew. They’ll wheel it onto the boat on a big cart and store it for the short ride. When you arrive in Vaitape they just wheel the cart off onto the dock for you to collect it.
By the way: Tipping is not a custom in French Polynesia. So don’t worry about tipping the crew.
If you are staying in any of the resorts located on a motu, those hotels have their own boats that will pick you up at the airport. Let your hotel know which flight you’re on and they will send a boat just for you.
In the airport each resort has a kiosk. When you arrive, look for your hotel’s kiosk and they will take care of you from there. There will probably be a charge for the boat transportation, even though your hotel is already crazy-expensive.
Taking a boat from the airport across the incredible blue lagoon is definitely the best airport shuttle experience I’ve ever had!
Where to stay on Bora Bora
As I discuss in the podcast episode, there are two main options for where to stay when you visit Bora Bora. You can choose to stay on the main island or on one of the motus. For our trip, we split our stay and did both. I think it was a great way to experience more of the island culture, and we kept our costs down by only staying at a resort for part of the time.
Staying on the main island
The main island of Bora Bora is small. There’s only one road, that rings the island, and it’s about 18 miles long. Most of Bora Bora’s population resides on the main island so this is where you’ll have more chance to see how typical people live.
There are lots of options for staying on the main island. You can choose from several luxury resorts, including the full overwater bungalow experience. You can stay in a smaller, European-style hotel or B&B. Or you can rent a place on your own through a service like VRBO.
We rented this house through VRBO for the first half of our Bora Bora stay. It was one of the original overwater bungalows, located on the main island across from the airport motu. Staying on our own, we rented a car, shopped at the grocery store in Vaitape, and explored a lot of Bora Bora independently.
Staying on the island, we noticed how the locals all wave to each other as they pass on the road. And we saw the (apparently impromptu) Polynesian band hanging out playing and singing in front of the grocery store. And the shoppers who stopped and sang along. We heard the neighbor’s dogs and roosters, but also their ukelele and singing in the evening.
Being literally on the water, we snorkeled off our deck and really got into the island vibe. And one day we hired a snorkel guide who picked us up in his boat right from our house!
Staying on a motu in Bora Bora
For the second half of our vacation, we splurged and stayed at the Intercontinental Bora Bora Resort Thalasso Spa. This was a dream vacation for me and it exceeded my high expectations.
(This seems like a good time to mention that none of the places/services/anything discussed here paid anything for my trip. This was a family vacation and nobody mentioned in this post even knew I have a blog or podcast. But if Intercontinental wants to send me on vacation I wouldn’t say no. Hint, hint).
I could either write a huge post about the Intercontinental Thalasso or I could just tell you that it really is as good as it looks on the website. It is absolutely beautiful, with every detail impeccably executed. To get there from the main island, we took a shuttle boat from the other Intercontinental (yes, there are two of them here – the other is the Intercontinental Le Moana) to the Thalasso.
When we arrived at the Intercontinental Thalasso, a reception manager met us at the boat with a golf cart, whisking us off to a table on the beach where we drank cold juice and filled out the registration paperwork. And the hotel manager came by to personally welcome us. This was basically the level of service we experienced the entire time.
By day 2, most of the restaurant staff knew our name. These hotels are small and the staff is like a family (or actually is family, as we found in many cases). If you dive, the Top Dive shop and dock is on the property. And the spa is absolutely amazing.
Of course our “room” was pretty spectacular too. It was an overwater bungalow with a view of the main island’s Mount Otemanu. The water at the bungalows is about 85 degrees, around 4 feet deep, with a sandy bottom. So when you feel like a dip, just climb down the ladder and wade around. It was pretty much the best swimming pool ever.
I can really see why Bora Bora is such a popular honeymoon destination. It’s super-isolated, you can literally just do nothing all day and feel good about it, and staying in a bungalow offers a ton of privacy.
What to bring to Bora Bora
There are a few things I suggest to bring that will make your trip better. If you’re traveling to Bora Bora for your honeymoon, consider adding these to your wedding registry.
Create an Amazon Wedding Registry Here
Looking for a wedding gift for Bora Bora honeymooners? Click here for my Bora Bora gift guide.
Kindle E-Reader
If you plan to do any reading on your trip, bring an e-reader. Because of their small planes and the short runways in these islands, Air Tahiti has weight restrictions on luggage – including carry-on bags. Hauling a bunch of books with you just isn’t practical. Plus, the few books we saw for sale, other than souvenirs, were in French.
A Kindle is lightweight and can hold as many books as you want. And if you want something new, you can easily download it at any time. We invested in Kindles before our trip and we used them constantly.
Underwater camera
If you go to Bora Bora, you have got to go in the water. Even if you don’t swim. Even if you’ve never snorkeled. Put on the snorkel gear and give it a try.
Bora Bora has some of the most amazing coral and sea creatures in the world. And if you get out there in the big blue, I guarantee you’re going to want to get some pictures or some video of the experience.
Especially if this is a honeymoon, having a nice camera along is really a must. I like having a small point-and-shoot that does everything. A Go-Pro is another way to capture your underwater experiences.
No matter what you choose, I highly recommend you bring something other than just your phone on this trip.
What else to bring to Bora Bora
You don’t need much else for your Bora Bora vacation, besides lots of swimwear and sunscreen. This is a very laid-back tropical destination. I brought some sundresses to wear when I wasn’t in my swimsuit and virtually never wore makeup.
Mosquitoes and no-see-ums can be pretty common in the evening. So if you tend to get bit, bring your favorite repellent and any other tactic that works for you. Bugs think my daughter is delicious, so she brought some leggings, socks, and a long-sleeve shirt for evenings. We soaked these clothes in Permethrin before we left which seems to help cut down on the bites.
Adventures on Bora Bora
While we were on Bora Bora, we had some great adventures with a couple of tour companies.
Top Dive
My husband and daughter are expert divers, and scuba diving was the main reason we went to Bora Bora. They spent multiple days diving with the local Top Dive team and had a great experience.
Part of the reason we chose the Intercontinental Thalasso was because Top Dive is located on the property. This was super-convenient and the service was great.
Hire a snorkel guide
This was a once-in-a-lifetime trip so we splurged and hired a snorkel boat and guide from Pure Snorkeling. Our guide Nui picked us up directly from our bungalow and took us to four different snorkel sites.
We saw manta rays, spotted eagle rays, tons of fish, and a coral garden that felt like it was part of “Finding Nemo”. Every one of these snorkel spots was only accessible by boat, and Nui’s local knowledge and sunny personality made the day even better.
We’re experienced snorkelers, but having a guide along helped us better understand what we’d see and where to go. And if you’re new to snorkeling, bringing your own guide means you’ll have an expert with you who can help out if you need it.
Plus Nui took us all the way around the island and told us about the history and culture. So not only did we have the best snorkeling day ever, we also got a boat ride and private Bora Bora island tour.
By the way, if you’re a coral lover, you need to add Wakatobi to your bucket list. Click here to see pictures and read my post about this incredible Indonesian resort.
More fun facts about Bora Bora
Although the official language is French, Tahitian is the more common language among locals. When sounding out a Tahitian word, a good rule of thumb is to pronounce every letter. For instance, Papeete in Tahiti is pronounced Pop-ee-et-ay.
Tahiti can refer to the island of Tahiti and to the entire French Polynesian chain. The indigenous population of the islands are Tahitians.
Bora Bora is in the same time zone as Hawaii.
Yes it lives up to the hype
Our experience in Bora Bora was absolutely magical, and I can unequivocally say it was worth every penny. If you’re looking for an exotic vacation with plenty of adventure and contentment, this truly is your ideal destination.
Visiting the atoll of Rangiroa
Besides Bora Bora, we also visited the amazing Tahitian atoll of Rangiroa.
Read all about our Rangiroa visit in this post: Rangiroa: French Polynesian Paradise
More tropical travel tips from Go Informed
Interested in other tropical destinations? Be sure to check out my tips for:
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