Weddingbee boards

I've gotten a quote from a travel agent for about $10k for 8 nights, 5 in Moorea in a garden suite and then 3 nights in Bora Bora in an over-water bungalo...we're still deciding if we want to go this route.  I want to surf and the waters there are very calm!

ahhhhhh............this is where we want to go! I'm thinking maybe only Morea and Tahiti, since Bora Bora is an extra $800 and an extra plane ride to get all the way out there.

We came back from our honeymoon to Tahiti/Moorea/Bora Bora in October.

HIGHLY HIGHLY recommended! But expensive. After shopping around with various travel agents, we booked through Costco. Stayed at the Hilton in Moorea and Bora Bora.

Recs:

Moorea. Rent a car/scooter from Albert's rentals (he's the cheapest on the island. Make sure you work your way up to Belvedere lookout point. You'll have an amazing romantic view of the mountain ranges and Opunohu Bay and Cook's Bay. There are two roads leading up; through the village area of Pao Pao or through Opunohu Bay. Take the Opunohu Bay route. We went up through Pao Pao and down Opuohu. Unfortunately the road through Pao Pao ends about 1.5 miles after the turnoff from the main island road and turns into dirt road. Not cool when we were in this tiny little car. We also went during their high season and given that it's their rainy season, it must be a muddy mess.

Food wise, we loved finding the local joints. Snack Mahana was a fav, it is near Opunohu Bay towards the Intercontinental on the coast side. Islanders seem to not run on set time schedules as the banks would randomly be open and not. Same place with most "Snack" shops. They're open during the day from about 11-2:30 or when the food runs out. The roulette trucks open around 5PM and go late. Highly recommended Roulette Jules and Claudine in Pao Pao. The peppercorn mahi mahi was to die for and the portionwere 2-3 times larger than the pretentious European run "high end restaurants."

We booked the shark and ray snorkel tour through Albert's and also did the Dolphin Apnea swim with Intercontinental. Island is worth driving around (it's small) but best snorkeling options were right off of the Hilton. Try to get Gold status through their Visa or other options; we were booked in Garden Bungalow via Costco and I called ahead to let them know my Hilton Card number (I read on other sites that they have problem pulling up the membership) We got two levels of free upgrades in Moorea. Try to stay in OWB facing the west side since there are strong East-West trade winds that blow through.

Crepe bar at Hilton was pricey but delicious; check out the reef sharks that swim around there at night since the staff throw extra leftoevers down to feed the fish. Grab a beach bag and take some extra bread during the breakfasts so that you can snorkel and feed your fish. The hotels do have snorkel gear for you to use for free but they're not that great. We brought out own; make sure to buy anti fog solution; we had a major problem with fogging and was glad to bring it with us. Sunscreen is extremely pricey out there; we brought two tubes and ran out since we were constantly reapplying. if you're out there to snorkel, a rashguard is highly recommended so you don't end up with weird tans! I spent the day snorkeling in my rashguard and sunbathed on our patio; snorkeling was snorkeling and tanning was tanning.

Good places to eat: Aloo Pizza! Delicious seared tuna pizza; neopolitan style!

BORA BORA!!

Beautiful place!!! LOVED IT! But since all the resorts are on Motus, it was a hassle to get onto the main island. We were booked in the 100's OWB bungalows in Hilton since we had enough of the sunset views in Moorea. (Moorea sunset views are prettier!) Hilton upgraded us again in Bora Bora and we got a huge OWB with a view of Mt. Otemanu.

Food:

Moorea: free breakfast with Hilton gold and we ate at the local haunts and Rudy's. Rudy's was a rip off and the service was horrendous. Parrotfish that everyone raves about didn't really knock my socks off. The crepe dessert was amazing though.

Bora Bora: We opted for the dinner package. There are two restaurants there, one is a casual one and the other is their high end one. High end one requires reservations but your meal package includes most of the entrees. The pricier ones require an additional surcharge. We left Bora Bora one day to ferry over to Vaitepe to tour the island otherwise spent most of our time on the resort.

Booked the shark/coral reef/ray snorkel in Bora Bora. Snorkeling in Bora Bora was better than Moorea; there were larger schools of fish. Water depth off of Moorea OWB was about 4 ft in the entire resort; great place to get used to snorkeling. Bora Bora was much deeper; about 10-12 feet. You can definitely skinny dip and jump off your balcony at night!!

Message me if you need more tips! :)

Oh yeah... if you learn the basic Tahitian language for "greeting" and "thank you" it goes a long way.

Ia orana = hello (used morning day and night) pronounced : "YO-lana"

Mauru'uru = thank you "MAH-loo-loo"

Last note... if you're in Bora Bora Hilton, look for Tapu the pool attendant. He'll peel and crack open coconuts for you for free!

@angie.derek.anderson: save up for it!! we got married last year in dec (hitting one year this weekend!!!) ironically in HMB (saw your tag) and we didn't go until this sept-oct.

@Dressed obsessed: which resorts are you staying at?

@angie.derek.anderson: high peak travel season is anywhere between May-Oct, Nov-April is their rainy season so things will be a lot cheaper then. (flights/hotels, etc)

@Dressed obsessed: OMG! You're gonna love it!!! Try to finaggle an upgrade at the Moorea Hilton. The OWBs in Moorea were sig smaller than Bora Bora's but the views and convenience was better! The sunset in Moorea was BEAUTIFUL!!!

@alkoiv24: honestly in Moorea, it was quite sleepy. Keep in mind that Tahiti time is the same time zone as Hawaii... so while it was 10PM, we were getting sleepy.

There aren't really any clubs/night life on Moorea and in Bora Bora if you're on a motu (island) resort, chances are it's pretty low key. Bring your Kindle, hang out with your husband. The dinners tend to drag out a bit, so our typical night included catching the sunset, going for dinner (lasts about 2-2.5 hours since they do the three course meal with the meal package) and then walking around the resort and heading back to the bungalow. We attempted to snorkel at night and some couples we met skinnydipped by jumping off of their balcony. I think Papeete has more of a nightlife if that's what you're looking for.

@Dressed obsessed: totally get where you're coming from! we booked the garden bungalow thinking the same but LOVED that upgrade. i think aside from the air tahiti nui business class upgrade, the moorea OWB bungalow was our second fav upgrade. ;) the convenience of just dropping into the ocean when we wanted to and laying out on the patio tanning and overlooking the lagoon, ocean and resort was amazing!

@Dressed obsessed: PM sent ;)

@vreelans: we did go over 8K... but keep in mind that we went during peak season. :(

We vacationed there years ago.  Now, it is more accessable and affordable than when I went.  Even Livingsocial has a deal right now!!!  It is not at Bora Bora but.. hey it is beautiful there.  http://www.livingsocial.com/escapes/221986-polynesian-island-bungalow   Also check out Costco's travel.

For those who are planning to go to FP, opt out for a meal package.  It is really expensive.  Also, pack lots of snacks and things.  ENJOY!!

@CrispyRN: CONGRATULATIONS!!! It is by far one of our most memorable trips... and Hubs and I think fondly back on it all the time. :)

-Definitely hike up to the top of the hill for the "million dollar view." Unless you live in Hawaii, go early in the trip since our US time change makes it so that we can get up super early in Tahiti to catch the sunrise. (I noted that you're also in SF area! So we're about 2 hours behind FP)
-If you have the dinner meal plan, make sure to make reservations ahead of time for the Iriatai Restaurant. I'd even suggest just booking all of them and cancel if you decide to eat elsewhere. The standard included meal is at Tamure, which is awesome too but not as formal. Try to get Hilton Gold status if you don't have it. Gold gives you Breakfast so you only have to buy the dinner package
-Drop by the cabana, they have all sorts of activities such as coconut cracking. Tapu the beach guy is awesome at cracking open coconuts for you to drink from (for free!)
-Make an appointment for them to take you out on the seacat thing... It's pretty cool!
-Walk over to the 300's OWB and catch the sunset out there
-If you plan on eating in Vaitepe, I think the last "free" ferry is around 3 or 4pm; anything after that you'll have to pay a "surcharge" it's the resort's way of forcing you to eat on the motu. There's a medium sized supermarket to the left of the boat dock. We picked up some snacks and goodies there to munch on in the hotel room.
-Matira Beach was pretty... there's a hole in the wall locals joint called Snack Matira and the food there was awesome.
-Bloody Mary's!
-Don't book the excursions from the hotel; they're the most expensive! I can try to find the names of the companies that we got our tours through and you can contact them directly to make bookings.
-Bring your own snorkel gear... the stuff they had at the resort wasn't that great so we were glad we had brought our own. Anti fog gel helps A LOT!
-SUNSCREEN! - We had to restock and it was sooo freaking expensive!
Are you only staying in Bora Bora? or island hopping? :)

@cupcake728: we swam with the sharks; both in Moorea and Bora Bora. Moorea was a good warm up for us since there were sting rays and reef sharks. In Bora Bora, our excursion took us out past the reef and we swam with reef sharks, some sort of other shark that I forgot the name, all the while there were large lemon sharks swimming around below us - it was awesome! The excursion also combined with sting ray feeding and petting in both islands.