#85124 - 04/05/10 07:39 PM
3/23/2010 - 3/31/2010: Moorea and Bora Bora
|
jplee3
Junior Member
Registered: 03/04/10
Posts: 22
Loc: CA, USA
|
Moorea and Bora Bora 3/23/2010 - 3/31/2010
Finally, the long awaited honeymoon vacation has come and passed. All too quickly too! We spent 3 nights in Moorea and 5 nights in Bora Bora. I really enjoyed my time on both Islands. Of course, the water on Bora Bora was spectacular but only slightly better than Moorea I would say. To make things easier I'm going to do an itinerary-style summary of the trip.
3/23/2010 - We arrived in Papeete (Tahiti FAAA) at around 5am or so and found our travel agents waiting to guide us to the shuttle that would take us to the terminal for our Moorea flight. No issues with this, contrary to the experience of some friends of ours who couldn't find the agents. We got to the terminal for the Moorea flight around 6am or so and waited there until 7am to fly out. The flight to Moorea was super short and we got there within 30 minutes. From the Moorea airport we were driven by one of the local excursion buses/shuttles to our resort, the Pearl. The Pearl Moorea is a cozy little resort and feels a little more homier than say the Intercontinental. We were greeted with a refreshing lemonade/lime drink and after about 30 minutes or so of waiting for the check-in we finally got our room (garden view, which was just fine... a little on the smallish side) and we were able to relax a little. We walked to the strip of stores nearby just to get our bearings and hung around the resort for the remainder of the time. I snorkeled a little in the area of the lagoon where the entrance/exit for the kayaks, etc is - there's a platform over there with a ladder for access. I got bit by a fish too so after that experience I got out! We received a glass of champagne later in the afternoon as a special gift, which was nice.
3/24/2010 - Decided to rent a car across the way at Albert Tours. This came in extremely handy. Some say it's not worth it to rent a car, but I feel like it's really the best way to see the island as well as to stock up on food/supplies if need be. It takes about an hour to circle the island with so many places to stop off at. Personally, I highly recommend renting a car. Expensive, but worth it because of the flexibility. I'm not sure how Albert's rates compares with Avis, etc but it seemed pretty reasonable. We got one of those little Hyundai Getz - it worked out nicely. So much so that we extended the rental for another day. All in all it cost about $175 for both days. We drove up in anticipation of seeing the waterfall or "Cascade" but ended up not finding it. Later we discovered that it needed to have rained a bit beforehand in order to come across it. It didn't rain the entire time we were there. Otherwise, we circled the island and had a great time taking in the sights. We also made another stop at the nearby market to get bread, cheese, water, and other snacks.
3/25/2010 - Drove up to Belvedere Pt in the morning. Had some trouble finding it at first because I assumed it was on a dirt road. We eventually found it though :). Scheduled a "Meet and Greet" for my wife with a dolphin at the Moorea Dolphin Center (@ the IC hotel). She had a blast. I opted out - didn't want to pay another $175 to be in the water with a dolphin. I was close enough taking pictures 10 feet away ;) Snorkeled a little on the way back to the hotel and called it a day. I forgot to mention that we had a breakfast and dinner meal plan at the Pearl Moorea, which turned out to be helpful in not hunting for places to eat at. I don't think we ever ended up eating lunch on Moorea because we filled up on breakfast and that held us over till dinner (with the exception of some light snacks). The food at the Pearl was decent.
3/26/2010 - Packed up, got our shell necklaces, and headed to the Moorea airport for our 12pm'ish flight to Bora Bora. I was so excited about this. We got to Bora around 1-2pm and hopped on our boat to IC Le Moana. A cool experience like none other - getting taxied around by ferry everywhere! We finally got our room (Deluxe Beach Bungalow) which was pretty nice and spacious compared to the Pearl Moorea room. To my surprise, we received a handful of goodies due to my Ambassador membership: a platter of coconut, bottle of champagne, Vanilla tea, a Le Moana strap bag, a t-shirt for me, and a sarong for her. Very nice! We had a somewhat "private" beach but then I saw a girl walking across it at one point. I wanted to open the sliding glass door and yell "hey! get off our beach!" but opted not to. We waded out about 150 feet in search of fish and coral/rock and found a nice pile. All in 3 feet of water or less! Went back and rested up. We 'rented' (for free) "A Night at the Museum" from the boutique shop which was pretty cool. Walked over to Le Tiare market, which took a while, and got some bread, cheese and water to hold us over. For dinner we ate at Fare Manuia, which was very hearty. The poisson cru was probably the best we had. We both ordered steaks that we couldn't finish. Probably the most filling meal in terms of value.
3/27/2010 - Got up early to get the notable chocolate croissants from the nameless bakery across the way. At first I thought the girl wanted to charge me 3000cpf for two croissants! It turned out to be just 400cpf... After bumming around, we checked out of Le Moana and went over to Thalasso. First impressions of Thalasso: WOW, very nice. Very ritzy and frou-frou/shi-shi. Much more than Le Moana at least. I kinda noticed the crowd they cater to. Definitely not the crowd that I'm in! Had a few logistical problems with the Thalasso check-in. Essentially, they wanted to get more money from me and it *almost* seemed like they were trying to pull a fast one contrary to our prior arrangements. The manager, Raphael, tried to get us to stay in a Diamond bungalow the entire time for only 50,000cpf more. I declined and he said that we'd then have to move from the OW bungalow to a Coral suite villa in that case. When I told him the arrangement made online was for a Sapphire room the entire time he gave a confused look as if he didn't believe me. Of course, I completely forgot to print out a copy of my room reservations to bring with so I had no way to show this. Fortunately he came back and told us the good news that he would put us in a Diamond overwater bungalow. I probably should have done my homework on the rooms though because I just checked and the room we were in, 125, is actually a Sapphire room. So, while we did get what I originally paid for, it seems they didn't really want to give me the *best* per what Raphael was making it up to be. Needless to say, I don't intend to stay at Thalasso if I ever return to Bora Bora. And I think I'd recommend Le Moana over it in a heartbeat based on my initial impressions. The Thalasso rooms were especially nice, large, and spacious. Definitely the nicest accommodations of all the hotels, but at the expense of not-as-nice service or traditional Tahitian warmth at least. On the contrary, the staff seemed superficially too nice and even a little cold in our estimation. And at that point, I sort of wish we were still at Le Moana. The other thing that miffed me was the fact that the manager and his staff kept pushing us to eat lunch at the restaurant before checking into our room. They seemed very insistent and even dropped us off by the pool area while it was pouring rain, handed us an umbrella, and basically said "PEACE! Go eat some food at our expensive restaurant now, suckas!" We ended up sitting under an table w/ a straw hut to pass the time. And didn't feel very welcomed during the duration of our time waiting for check-in.
But I'll save the raving for later. Can't complain about being able to jump in the water right off the private deck of our bungalow, or catching papio (jack fish) from the deck (shh! I wasn't supposed to fish from my bungalow or through the coffee table! i only caught that one anyway). They also provided a couple complementary bottles of 1L Royale water and a fruit plated based on my Ambassador status. They also gave us a couple of nice IC Thalasso towels to take home. For dinner, we tried Le Bounty. I had chicken coconut curry and the wife had a steak. It was pretty good food. The poisson cru wasn't as good as Fare Manuia.
3/28/2010 - Sunday we scheduled a motu tour of the island with Pierrot through Keishi Tours. It was a wonderful experience. He picked us up around 10am and we made our first stop to feed the sharks and rays (and a barracuda!). My wife was disappointed that we didn't stay longer in that area. I guess we pretty much could have kept floating around as long as we wanted.... well, within reason. While going around we trolled a bit for fish but ended up not catching anything. Next stop was a reef area where Pierrot thought I might have some luck fishing from. I caught a small lizard fish and also gained some interest (possibly another papio) but no solid bites. Spent a good half hour there getting burned by the sun. Next stop was the Coral Gardens. Amazing! I've never seen anything like it. It's too bad my Kodak Playsport died the day before while I was testing it, because I was intending to use it to capture footage. Luckily I had my Canon SD900 w/ UW case on standby. Unfortunately, I used it so much that the battery died just as we were about to picnic :( In any case, the picnic was so nice. Pierrot fed us quite a bit of food as we were stuffed after: spiny lobster, steak, chicken, shrimp, salad, bread, fruit, champagne, etc... it was such a treat being able to eat like that over the foot of water where he set our table and chairs up. And with a beautiful view of Mt. Otemanu. It sure was expensive, but really one of those once in a lifetime things. I'm still miffed about not charging my camera up long enough as well as my other video cam dying on me the day before :( For dinner, we ate at the Kaina Hut and had the recommended breadfruit gnocchi. It was pretty good! Definitely a unique dish. I had the rack of lamb and my wife had the tuna steak. Both were decent. We wanted to try Villa Mahana but they were booked completely, unfortunately. Our driver who picked us up from Kaina Hut mentioned the average price would likely cost us $500, easily. I find it hard to believe but so it goes. Bloody Mary's was recommended a couple times but we wanted to avoid the hype of it all. I've read/heard enough mixed reviews to consider it a last resort/option. We didn't have enough time to check it out, but I'm fine with that.
3/29/2010 - I think I came down with something the day or two before and had bad chest congestion. We called asking what to do about medicine and they told us the only pharmacy is in Vaitape. So we figured it would be a good idea to make a day trip. We paid 990cpf each for the shuttle ride to Vaitape. Ibu was our bus driver - he gave us a brief tour and entertained us on our way. Apparently, he owns 25% of the island or something because he couldn't stop talking about all the land he grew fruits and vegetables on. Hey, it's a small island :) Got my medicine (roughly $30US btw!!!), got lunch at Chez Roti (awesome sandwiches and food at a very reasonable price), and perused a couple black pearl shops. Tons of tourists here :) We ended up not eating dinner for one reason or another but weren't very hungry.
3/30/2010 - Relaxed pretty much all day at Thalasso - played some tennis, canoed and fished (didn't catch anything), hung around the bungalow and facility, ate lunch at Sands restaurant (two cheeseburgers for about $40!), saw a few rays from the previous ray feeding, and stopped by the Deep Ocean Spa for a custom massage and treatment. The custom massages and use of facility came out to about $350. Pretty expensive, but when will I ever get another massage where I can look down over a glass floor and see tropical fish floating around. Pretty awesome. The Deep Ocean plunge was intense too - extremely cold. But very refreshing amidst the humid weather. The spa is a cool place but as with most everything else, overpriced :P We had dinner at Matira Beach restaurant. I had the surf and turf - filet of beef and lobster, while my wife had a deep sea fish (some sort of rockfish) with lemon and capers. Both were decent.
3/31/2010 - On the last day, and after our relaxing spa treatment, I for some reason decided biking around the island would be fun. So we rented bikes and spent 2.5 hours riding around the island. It was about 3000cpf to rent TWO bikes that we just had to return by 6pm the same day. This is across the street from IC Le Moana at the bakery where you can buy chocolate croissants. Needless to say, we were pretty darn sore. We finally got to Vaitape and stopped by the bigger supermarket there for drinks and water. Then we picked up a couple of those sandwiches + one for later (in case we got hungry at the airport etc) from Chez Roti. I decided we would keep biking through and just eat at Matira beach, which turned out to be further away than I thought. Lo and behold, it starts pouring rain as we are biking. Luckily, we found a random stop-off area with a hut and a few wood stumps to sit on and a great view of Mt Otemanu, and we stopped off and ate our sandwiches. After lunch, we continued biking back towards Le Moana but ended up stopping by the [black pearl] Farm where we were instantly greeted by a "Pearl consultant" who gave us a quick tour of the Farm and explained the black pearl manufacturing process. It was quite enlightening. Then at the end he sat us down in the retail part of the facility and tried to sell my wife pearls. We were somewhat close to getting a loose pearl but decided not to. It was just too expensive and my wife isn't much of a jewelry girl. Since we weren't quite in the mood to bargain either, we bailed. Fortunately, we made the right decision and got back in time for the ferry to Thalasso, otherwise we would have had to wait another few hours and this would have caused issues with missing our flight back home! We had a late-checkout from Thalasso around 4pm and from there got back to the airport and on to Papeete. I had the worst time at the PPT airport - it was extremely humid, and I sweat a lot, and we were standing in the check-in line for an hour and a half. I was miserable. On top of that, our flight was delayed at PPT for one hour and because of mechanical issues we were waiting on the tarmac for another hour. In any case, I was ready to go back home. We arrived to LAX around 10am or so but it took almost an hour to dock at the gate. Then it took almost another hour to get our luggage. We didn't get back home-home until the end of the day after visiting with the wife's family, etc. I was extremely tired.
It was a great trip but exhausting in many ways. In short, I think I probably wouldn't mind going back to Moorea for sure. It reminded me a lot of Maui, but a much less commercialized and 'rural' Maui :) I really like it there. If I were to ever go back to Bora Bora, I would most likely stay at Le Moana and avoid Thalasso completely. While it was a nice experience, it's not worth dealing with the semi pseudo snobbery. I probably should have done 1-2 nights at Thalasso max and the rest at Le Moana. Ah well.
Other lessons learned:
- [from my wife] use wheeled luggage! We were carrying big backpacks/duffels, which it seems most women don't prefer...!
- Charge your camera before any important excursion where you actually want to capture memories! Or bring a spare battery or camera at least! I'm still kicking myself for not just bringing my SLR with me.
- Make sure you print out ALL documentation of your stay at hotels, etc. Don't assume anything!
- Stay healthy before your travel so as to avoid getting sick. It will really help with the experience! :D
- Do NOT use the Kodak Playsport! It will randomly die after extended underwater usage. Pay more money for a durable waterproof unit or case for your camera.
- Be aware that most restaurants charge at least 400cpf + for a 1L bottle of water. Some friends refused drinks and rushed back to their hotel rooms to drink the water they bought for 95cpf, which kinda makes sense. But we just couldn't hang like that. Especially with eating out in Bora Bora most of the time.
- Double check your hotel, restaurant, etc bills. I don't know if some places try to pull the fleece over your eyes or if they just make 'honest' mistakes. Benefit of the doubt... benefit of the doubt.
- Water shoes are a MUST here. Trust me.
- Avoid booking activities through the hotel. You can save a lot more booking ahead of time via email or calling while there.
- Make use of Skype if you are going to buy internet time
- Make reservations for Villa Mahana BEFORE you leave for the trip.
Edited by jplee3 (04/05/10 08:37 PM)
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#85125 - 04/05/10 08:28 PM
Re: 3/23/2010 - 3/31/2010: Moorea and Bora Bora
[Re: jplee3]
|
Gary & Cath
Expert Advisor
Registered: 04/01/06
Posts: 1243
Loc: Wollongong, Australia
|
Welcome back jplee - glad to hear you had a good time. We also experienced your "problems" at Thalasso (I was worried it was just us at the time but have heard similar stories since). The private picnics are the best and even though they cost $$$ it is worth it - especially since it was your honeymoon. Thank you so much for your detailed report.
_________________________
Is there anything better than a sipping a Tahitian Mai Tai on an Overwater Bungalow in FP?
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#85129 - 04/06/10 07:04 AM
Re: 3/23/2010 - 3/31/2010: Moorea and Bora Bora
[Re: Gary & Cath]
|
Old Wife
Expert Advisor
Registered: 02/21/03
Posts: 2302
Loc: Burlington, Ontario, Canada
|
Great trip report and good tips! We prefer more basic accommodations over the fancy, frou-frou kind. And there's way less (or no) pressure to spend more when you stay more basic. Too bad you got sick there, but I'm glad the meds were cheap. We, too, love Moorea (and Huahine) over Bora Bora (but I still think everyone should go to Bora Bora at least once in a lifetime)!
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#85132 - 04/06/10 09:52 AM
Re: 3/23/2010 - 3/31/2010: Moorea and Bora Bora
[Re: Old Wife]
|
Patti.
Expert Advisor
Registered: 03/28/04
Posts: 2376
Loc: Las Vegas, NV
|
Great report jplee. Too bad you didn't have a better experience at the Thalasso. Overall, my opinion of Bora Bora is not good. It's absolutely beautiful...but not a place I'd choose to return to. The other islands are much more friendly and have a personality that Bora just doesn't seem to have (or has lost).
For your return...I always bring an extra battery for each camera (and chip)....I also re-charge mine every night. The heat and humidity really seem to take their toll on the battery charge. I had something similar happen and missed out on a once in a life time pic because of a dead battery. I come overprepared no!
Also, yes bring copies of all your hotel/transport prices...just in case. I always do.....you just never know.
Wheeled luggage is the best invention EVER!
And for the airport in Papeete...the trick is dress as lightly as possible....if you need warmer clothes for your trip home, put them on AFTER you board the plane. AND...have a bottle of water to drink while you are waiting....and maybe a little something to munch on. My first time there I got completely sick to my stomach from being so overheated waiting in line. I was so close to either losing my lunch or passing out it wasn't funny.
Again, glad to hear you had a great time.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#85133 - 04/06/10 11:11 AM
Re: 3/23/2010 - 3/31/2010: Moorea and Bora Bora
[Re: Patti.]
|
jplee3
Junior Member
Registered: 03/04/10
Posts: 22
Loc: CA, USA
|
Thanks all for the replies! Bora Bora definitely is a once in a lifetime kind of place for my wife and I. The water is amazing but it's a shame to have to pay so much for it and at the expense of such mediocre service. Bora Bora seems to cater more to the Japanese and European crowd who have lots of money to spend. It seems the French like things to be very exquisite. Bora Bora is a prime example of this. And with the filming of Couples Retreat, it seems to be turning into more of a hotspot for Americans. I imagine it'll lose its sense of appeal and luster in the next 30 years. And I bet the water won't be nearly as nice by then :P Of course, I imagine prices will stay the same or increase too :)
In any case, I should have purchased another battery for the camera or at least brought my other camera along in case. Ughhh... luckily [I suppose], our tour guide had his cellphone with a camera built-in so he took some pics. The trick now is depending on him or his sons to figure out how to get the pics off his phone LOL.
At the airport I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, but the t-shirt was cotton. I would have been much better off wearing a shirt other than a cotton one :( Also, it didn't help that we were carrying around bags vs wheeling them around. Ah well....
Edited by jplee3 (04/06/10 11:12 AM)
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#85137 - 04/06/10 01:00 PM
Re: 3/23/2010 - 3/31/2010: Moorea and Bora Bora
[Re: jplee3]
|
spotbeagle
Member
Registered: 09/11/06
Posts: 358
Loc: California
|
Thanks for posting your trip report.
I loved Bora Bora, but part of that may be that I had the opportunity to stay at HBB before it's closing. I'll be back to FP someday, and maybe even to Bora Bora, but I'd also like to try some of the other islands and Raimiti really sounds fun.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#85140 - 04/06/10 02:46 PM
Re: 3/23/2010 - 3/31/2010: Moorea and Bora Bora
[Re: spotbeagle]
|
Gary & Cath
Expert Advisor
Registered: 04/01/06
Posts: 1243
Loc: Wollongong, Australia
|
Cath and I will always keep going back to Bora bora because we were married there. Usually try different resorts but went back to Le Meridien for our 10th anniversary and walked on the same beach where we got married (and even left some of the ashes from our black German Shepherd boy, Jett, there). Next trip is back to Pearl - service catered for the snobs but extra down-to-earth for even us plebs! We've got 4 Seasons on the radar, but excluding a lottery win, it will be a 3 year saving up holiday. Taha'a is still our benchmark, but, for the Society Islands, Bora Bora (in my opinion) still has the best diving, but not at anywhere near the same level as the Tuamotus (Tikehau in particular). We always go the half board so we don't have to worry about opening the wallet or finding transfers - just us. If there is lobster on the menu - I'm happy. Where are the photos, jplee3? I would love to see them. Especially if you have U/W shots.
_________________________
Is there anything better than a sipping a Tahitian Mai Tai on an Overwater Bungalow in FP?
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#85141 - 04/06/10 02:59 PM
Re: 3/23/2010 - 3/31/2010: Moorea and Bora Bora
[Re: Gary & Cath]
|
jplee3
Junior Member
Registered: 03/04/10
Posts: 22
Loc: CA, USA
|
[quote=Gary & Cath]Cath and I will always keep going back to Bora bora because we were married there. Usually try different resorts but went back to Le Meridien for our 10th anniversary and walked on the same beach where we got married (and even left some of the ashes from our black German Shepherd boy, Jett, there). Next trip is back to Pearl - service catered for the snobs but extra down-to-earth for even us plebs! We've got 4 Seasons on the radar, but excluding a lottery win, it will be a 3 year saving up holiday. Taha'a is still our benchmark, but, for the Society Islands, Bora Bora (in my opinion) still has the best diving, but not at anywhere near the same level as the Tuamotus (Tikehau in particular). We always go the half board so we don't have to worry about opening the wallet or finding transfers - just us. If there is lobster on the menu - I'm happy. We're are the photos, jplee3? I would love to see them. Especially if you have U/W shots. [/quote]
Heh... I think the only time I may go back to Bora is if I ever decide to live there...! Hey, it's not out of question. My dad says there's a possibility I'm 1/16th Polynesian. No wonder I feel so at home on boats and when I'm on islands. Well, minus the tendency towards sunburn.
I took a ton of pics/videos. Will try to post them up *somewhere* - I need to find a good site to use. Good storage, fast, and free of charge. That's not gonna be easy :)
Edited by jplee3 (04/06/10 03:00 PM)
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#85142 - 04/06/10 03:19 PM
Re: 3/23/2010 - 3/31/2010: Moorea and Bora Bora
[Re: jplee3]
|
Gary & Cath
Expert Advisor
Registered: 04/01/06
Posts: 1243
Loc: Wollongong, Australia
|
I am sure someone here will be able to suggest a good website for you (we are with Kodak but we have to make a small purchase every year or so :))
_________________________
Is there anything better than a sipping a Tahitian Mai Tai on an Overwater Bungalow in FP?
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#85144 - 04/06/10 03:38 PM
Re: 3/23/2010 - 3/31/2010: Moorea and Bora Bora
[Re: Gary & Cath]
|
jplee3
Junior Member
Registered: 03/04/10
Posts: 22
Loc: CA, USA
|
[quote=Gary & Cath]I am sure someone here will be able to suggest a good website for you (we are with Kodak but we have to make a small purchase every year or so :)) [/quote]
I'll have to hunt around for something :)
Ugh, don't even mention Kodak - I'm so miffed about the Playsport dying on me in the middle of the trip. And even more so about their support [or lack thereof] to repair/replace it. >:(
I guess it could have happened to anybody, right? :(
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
Moderator: BarbiJKM, hamara, DenverJoe, Poehere
|
6653 Members
15 Forums
10176 Topics
90579 Posts
Max Online: 98 @ 03/09/11 04:15 PM
|
|
0 registered
and 8 anonymous users online.
|
|
|
