July 2015 – 6 days with the kids and Dave’s sister and mom
Paradise. Not much we can say that will do this beautiful place justice. There’s a reason we named our dog Bora Bora after we visited here. There wasn’t as much to plan for this trip, so this article is mostly about sharing some pictures and inspiring you to deal with the long flight and high prices and to visit this incredible island.
First, think for a second about what would you do with a big work bonus? Lucky for us, Dave’s sister is extremely generous and decided to take the family on vacation to Bora Bora to join in her dream of staying in a hut over the water. We can never tell her enough how amazing she is for that once in a lifetime experience.
We spent 5 luxurious days at the Four Seasons. The highlight is definitely just sitting on the beach and staring at the green covered peak of Mount Otemanu and being mesmerized by the color of the water in the lagoon.
We are definitely not budget travelers, but we don’t usually stay at high-end hotels or eat at the fanciest restaurants so that we have enough money to travel a lot and splurge on the activities of the trip since those are the things that are more important to us. However, holy-shmoly, the level of service at this hotel is astounding. They picked us up in a private boat at the airport, had welcome drinks waiting for us when we got to the hotel, and gave us a tour of the property. And to top it off, they had upgraded us free of charge to a larger room with its own private plunge pool. Plus there were the daily towels in the shape of animals, and for the kids, there were stuffed manta ray toys and robes just their size. We were also amazed that they had people raking the beach multiple times a day to keep everything perfect.
The only downfall was the food. It was fine but extremely expensive since it’s an island and there is no real way to get to the main town or other resorts without a water taxi. Our first lunch was in these cute little tents near the pool with tasty and expensive tropical drinks and $20 hot dogs.
We did go to La Villa Mahana for dinner one night on the main island. If we had known it was going to be so amazing, and that the resort restaurants were so expensive, we probably would have eaten there at least 2 nights. At the time the price was about $100 per adult for a fixed menu (they do have a la carte options), which really wasn’t that much more than the resort restaurants and it was such a unique and delicious experience. It’s a husband and wife team running the restaurant, with their adorable daughter hanging around since it is also their home. After taking the water taxi the restaurant organized to pick us up at the dock and brought us back after dinner.
We were lucky to be there during the Heiva, a Polynesian dance and music event for the local people to celebrate their culture, which takes place during the summer. It was more authentic than the shows intended for the resorts. We went to town to watch it one night and ate dinner at one of the pop-up restaurants.
These were some of the activities we did:
- Snorkel with Reef Discovery – Since the kids were small, we did snorkeling rather than diving, but we still saw amazing sea life. In addition to the colorful reefs and parrotfish in the lagoon, we got to see reef sharks and manta rays! They were very patient particularly considering Sally doesn’t swim but still wanted to see some of the sea life.
- Jeep 4×4 safari with Vavau around the island, for breathtaking views and to see the rest of the island.
- The Four Seasons also employs a marine biologist, and we snorkeled through the lagoon on their property with him and he pointed out all of the animals living in the water there including where they are raising coral.
Logistics
- We flew from Chicago to LA to Tahiti, and then a small plane into Bora Bora with incredible views of the lagoon from above. Not an easy trip, but so worth it. On the way back we flew from Bora Bora to Tahiti to Honolulu.
- The hotel picked us up via boat from the airport and it’s all water, so there was no need for a rental car.
Since we were so far into the Pacific, and it was just too expensive to stay for very long, we decided to extend the trip with additional days in Kauai, Hawaii on our way back. We debated which island to visit first, and we ended up going to Bora Bora first. If we did it over, we might have done it the other way around, because Kauai itself is one of the most beautiful places on earth, but we had quickly grown accustomed to being pampered at a 5-star resort while sleeping in our bungalow over the water and we probably would have been more blown-away by Kauai if we had arrived there directly from Chicago.
The Avventura 