Join me on my dream adventure to this majestic island. I’ve written this Bora Bora travel blog in the hopes that it will help you on your own journey to this island paradise. I will include honest reviews with many tips learned from my experience.

Welcome!

Hi, my name is Wan and I love everything travel. I spend my spare time researching and planning all aspects of travel. Most recently I’ve been learning about traveling using points redemption and wow, there is so much information to absorb! Recently I took a dream trip to Bora Bora with my husband, Todd. It was so amazing that I was motivated to write this blog to share my experience and what I’ve learned along the way. I hope this blog inspires you to visit this amazing island or maybe find your own piece of heaven on earth.

Bora Bora has always been a far-fetched dream trip of mine. I had actually been there before in 1998 but I had been itching to go back for years. I was also young and didn’t remember a whole lot so I needed to do it again. Well, it finally happened 25 years later!

What precipitated this trip was Alaska Airline’s announcement that they were discontinuing their partnership with Emirates Airlines. You see, I had been saving my Alaska miles for years in hopes of using them to fly first class on an Emirates A380 aircraft. You can imagine my disappointment when this announcement was made, but this is when I learned of Alaska Air’s new partnership with Air Tahiti Nui. Let the planning begin!

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Schedules, Dates, and Flights, Oh My!

Tackling dates and flights was my first priority and I wanted to get started right away as I was planning on using my Alaska Airlines miles, and finding availability can often be challenging. Add to that my work schedule and limited time off and I had quite an obstacle on my hands.

After several days of searching for availability for Air Tahiti Nui on Alaska’s website, availability for Friday, May 26, 2023 and returning Saturday, June 3rd popped up on 8/19/22. It was for premium economy outbound and business class inbound on ATN’s Dreamliner Boeing 787-9. Premium economy was 45,000 points per person, and business class was 60,000 points per person, both red eye flights. The dates were perfect as I would save one PTO day since it was over Memorial Day weekend. I went ahead and booked it all online and it cost me $158.74 in taxes and fees. The next day I requested my days off at work and as it was nine months ahead it wasn’t a problem, thankfully.

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Where were we going to stay?

After spending countless hours researching resorts on Bora Bora, I settled on the Four Seasons. Here were my reasons:

• Beautiful, large, modern rooms with huge picture windows from the bedroom and tub.
• Known for excellent service
• Beautifully manicured grounds
• Lagoonarium
• Good food

I got in touch with Costco as I have heard that they had unbeatable prices for Bora Bora. Unfortunately they could not give me a quote for this resort because it was too early and they didn’t have their 2023 contract with them yet. So I emailed Tahiti Legends, whom I had used 25 years ago, and they quoted just over $12k with all transfers in a lagoon view overwater bungalow, but without international airfare, interisland airfare, or meals. My budget was around $10k for this trip (Bora Bora is expensive!) and the $12k didn’t even include any meals yet.

I went back to the drawing board because I wanted to get something booked and didn’t want to wait around for Costco to renew their contract with Four Seasons. I considered the St. Regis but I honestly was not a fan of their bungalows and didn’t think it was worth the upcharge to stay there, although I’m sure I would have been pleased with their impeccable service (including butler!). I looked at the Conrad and loved their bungalows but didn’t care for their location. I was leaning towards the Le Bora Bora Pearl because they had recently renovated their bungalows during the pandemic, but I wasn’t sold on their location either. This left me with the Intercontinental Thalasso Resort and Spa. I didn’t love the way their bungalows looked, but I LOVED the location…smack dab in front of Mt. Otemanu. It doesn’t get more Instagrammable than this!

I called Costco back and got a quote for a lagoon view overwater bungalow and it was just under $9k AND included breakfast and dinner! I also got a quote for Le Bora Bora Pearl, but they were more expensive for some reason (technically they are a 4 star resort and Thalasso is a 5 star. I suspect it had to do with the dates and the recent renovation). I then got curious and asked about their sister property, Intercontinental Le Moana which is located on the main island. I played around with possibly staying here as well since we are foodies and would love to try the restaurants on the main island (the Thalasso is on a motu (a reef islet) and we would have to pay for a shuttle boat to and from the main island). My only concern was that it is a much older property (first in Bora Bora). In fact, when I contacted Tahiti Legends about a quote here, they told me they were currently not booking clients at this resort because they feel it is in need of a renovation. That didn’t scare me away so I did some more research on the property. It seemed those that thought the property was “dated” were expecting a modern, polished look and feel. Le Moana seemed more of a traditional Polynesian style resort with it’s woven walls and more traditional decor. So I thought about doing a “split stay”; 3 nights at Le Moana and 4 nights at Thalasso. Costco quoted me $6820.92 for a beach bungalow(not overwater) at Le Moana, and a lagoon view OWB at Thalasso. This included daily breakfast at both resorts and dinner for the 4 nights at Thalasso. It was perfect and well within my budget so I booked it. Costco only required $200 for the deposit, with the rest being due in April of 2023.

Finalizing the Details

After booking, I continued to learn all I could about both resorts. I also needed to book our flight from San Antonio to Los Angeles and back, and a one night stay in Los Angeles as that is where we were flying out of to Papeete, Tahiti Friday night. Side note: we are also big Disney fans so decided to do one day at Disneyland before catching our flight to Tahiti. I also had to book the interisland flights to and from Tahiti and Bora Bora. There was so much to do!

TIP! I found a nonstop flight on Southwest Airlines that worked perfectly for leaving after work on Thursday for $233.99 per person. This was booked back in January of 2023 and I regularly continued to check the price as SWA will give flight credits back if the price goes down. In April the price went down to $199.98 per person. Yay! From this point on, the price only went up.

For our interisland flights between Papeete and Bora Bora, I had Costco book that for me as their prices were the same as on Air Tahiti’s website (note that the interisland airline is Air Tahiti and the international airline is Air Tahiti NUI). Anyway, these flights were really expensive but there weren’t many other options. There was Air Moana, but they were still pretty new and had cancelled some flights recently so I didn’t want to book with them. Our roundtrip flight cost $792.21 for the both of us, and it’s only a 45 minute flight, yikes!

Back in March I also joined IHG’s Ambassador Program for $200 which is good for one year. It’s basically a paid status. The benefits are:

• Guaranteed one category room upgrade
• Guaranteed extended 4pm check-out
• Complimentary weekend night*
• Platinum Elite status in IHG^® One Rewards, and the corresponding benefits
• Restaurants & bars credit of up to USD20 for every stay*
• Complimentary mineral water
• Complimentary internet
• Dedicated check-in area
• Single room rate for double occupancy
• Mainland China Only: Complimentary breakfast for one each night you stay

The catch is that if you carefully read the T&C’s you will see that these benefits do not apply to any properties in French Polynesia. After doing some research it seemed that people had varying successes and these benefits were inconsistent at best when it comes to French Polynesia. I thought it was worth a try, and if nothing else I could still use a free weekend night at another IHG property. I have used this before in Hong Kong and got a great upgrade there so I was willing to try it again.

Change in Plans

About 2 weeks prior to our trip Todd became concerned that he would not be able to sleep on our redeye to Bora Bora in premium economy (of course he’d wait till the last minute to say something). He was concerned that he’d be so jet lagged that he would miss the first couple of days in paradise.

When I originally made the booking the redeye was the only option, but Air Tahiti Nui had since added another flight leaving from LAX to BOB at 4:30pm and arriving at 9:45PM. A quick search on Alaska’s website showed availability for this flight in business class so I called up Alaska to get our flight changed. An additional 15,000 miles each and $3 later we were on the new flight! I have to be honest, I was excited about the upgrade, but this meant that I had to cancel our day trip to Disneyland, which was disappointing. So I cancelled our park pass for the day, our car rental, and our Best Western Plus Anaheim Inn reservation.

I had to find a place closer to LAX for our preflight night so I booked a one night stay at the Hilton LAX directly through Hilton.com for $163.04 on 5/14/23. I’m also a Hilton Gold member (a perk from my Amex Platinum card), so I get an $18 pp daily food and beverage credit, room upgrades based on availability, and sometimes free bottles of water. Generally you can only get these perks when you book direct through the hotel’s website. Hey, every little perk helps right?

I also booked a one night stay at the Hilton Tahiti since we were now overnighting in Tahiti and not on the aircraft. I used Hotels.com to book this room since we had a $220 credit to use up, otherwise I would have booked direct. This booking included breakfast and our out of pocket price was $172.99. I was happy with that!

It’s Time to Head Out!

After over 9 months of anticipation, the day was finally here! After the both of us wrapped things up with work on Thursday, May 25th we took a Lyft to the San Antonio airport. We have Clear and TSA Precheck which helped make going through security a breeze. Our flight was uneventful and on time. We arrived at LAX at 8:00PM, grabbed our bags, and headed to the shuttle area where the Hilton shuttle was there and waiting…what amazing timing! Unfortunately LAX is going through some major construction and it seems like arrivals and departures were on the same level. There was so much traffic at the airport that it took almost 25 minutes to do all of the pickups at the different terminals and finally arrive at Hilton LAX. In hindsight, it really didn’t take that long, but I guess I was antsy to start our vacation!

I had checked in the day prior using the Hilton app and was able to choose a room on the 9th floor with runway views…not sure if that was an upgrade or not but I had booked a standard room without a runway view. When we got to the room I had to send Todd out for waters as there weren’t any. He said he asked someone where the vending machines were and they told him to just go to the front desk and they would just give him the waters. Yay!

The room was older but comfortable and clean…perfect for a preflight night.

The next morning we went downstairs and had breakfast and used up our $36 food credit. The restaurant was really nice and the food was really good, no complaints here. We hung out in our room until our noon check out time, then headed to the airport. The shuttle going in was much faster and going through security was again super easy with Clear.

TIP: Air Tahiti Nui does not participate in TSA precheck so we had to go through the regular line. Clear got us to the front of the regular line so it wasn’t too bad but it was still annoying to have to remove our shoes and take out our liquids and electronics, ugh.

Lounges

Oh, when we checked in with Air Tahiti Nui they also gave us our lounge passes so we had access to the Star Alliance lounge which was pretty nice. I really liked their outdoor terrace. Food and beverage was fine. Actually, I had 2 servings of the chicken curry because it was really good. It was a busy lounge but we had no problem finding seating for two. Since boarding time wasn’t until 3:30pm, we decided to lounge hop to the Amex Centurion Lounge. This was around 2:00pm and there was a 45 minute wait to get in. They put us on their texting list and we went back up to the Star Alliance lounge. Our text finally came through around 40 minutes later and we went back downstairs and basically checked out the food options and sat down to snack a bit more. This lounge was much smaller than the Star Alliance lounge but was still really nice though busy.

TIP: The Amex Platinum Card will get you access to their Centurion lounges.

Boarding

Around 3:15pm we finally headed to gate 221 to board our very first business class flight. The gate agents set out these big moveable signs…there were three of them. One for Poerava Business, Moana Premium, and Moana Economy. They lined everyone up in front of each sign at the same time so it was pretty chaotic. I’m not really sure why they did it this way, but there were plenty of people who didn’t know which line to get in to. At the business class line there was an agent checking everyone’s boarding passes to expedite boarding I guess. I wasn’t paying attention to the other lines as there seemed to be tons of people just milling about, looking lost. Didn’t matter as we were boarded within minutes of opening and we were sitting in our fancy lie flat seats!

Food and Service

We were seats 5k and 5L with a restroom just behind us but it wasn’t a problem. The food was excellent and there was so much of it! Dinner was a tray of snacks, then a tray of appetizers, then the main entree, followed by a tray of desserts. Since the flight was about 8 hours, they fed us another meal before we landed, and I was still full from the first meal! They also had a seemingly unlimited bread basket as well.

The service on the flight was amazing. We were given tiare flowers and the whole cabin smelled amazing. The flight attendants were attentive without being intrusive and were so genuinely friendly and gracious. We felt so spoiled for sure.

Seats

Business class on Air Tahiti Nui has lie flat seats. They were a bit more narrow than I was expecting but I still slept really well. The pillow provided was so soft and comfortable and the blanket was really plush and cozy. I was able to sleep on my back and my side with no problem. The footwell is a bit narrow so if you are a tall person this might bother you. Todd is 6’4″ but he made it work. The media screen was nice and big and had a remote control. I actually didn’t use it much since I mostly slept and ate the whole time. I think Todd stayed up the whole time playing on his iPad. The color choices on the plane were beautiful shades of blue, just like French Polynesia. You can be sure that your vacation starts when you board this aircraft!

TIP: Row 4 on this aircraft does not have windows so choose wisely! There is also wifi onboard but you have to pay for it. We each got a code via email for 10 MB free, which wasn’t much. I used it for texting.

Arrival to Papeete,Tahiti

We arrived in Tahiti a few minutes early and since we were among the first to deplane, customs was a breeze, basically just a stamp, then off we went to get our bags which we waited about ten minutes for. We were then greeted by a nice lady from Marama Tours, the company Costco uses for arrivals. She gave us leis and gave us instructions for the next morning. We stopped to get local currency out of the ATM of $200 USD. The exchange rate was about 115 XPF to $1 USD so we figured out approximate costs by just moving two decimals left.

We headed to the taxi stand and confirmed a $25 USD cab ride to the Hilton Tahiti, about a 5 minute ride from the airport. Todd tried to pay him in XPF but he wanted dollars. Oh well, whatever. Check-in took a while even though there was only one party in front of us. There was only one staff member working the front desk at this hour and the people before us were taking forever doing their thing, and they weren’t even checking in or out. We finally got to our room and it was nice and modern but seemed kind of bare, like very minimalist. I must have been pretty out of it because I didn’t take any pictures of the room.

We were so tired we just went straight to sleep as it was around 4am back in San Antonio.

Good Morning Tahiti!

We woke up around 5:30am to get ready for breakfast at 6:30am before heading back to the airport for our 8:45am flight to Bora Bora. We had some time to kill before breakfast opened so we walked around the resort. This hotel is beautiful and the pool is huge with beautiful views. For a brief second I wished I planned to spend just a little more time here, but then reminded myself I would be in Bora Bora in a couple of hours.

Breakfast was delicious and included. Fruit was fresh and plentiful and we sat outside as the weather was perfect. There were fish swimming about just off the deck.

Off to Bora Bora!

After breakfast we headed back to our room to grab our bags and head to the lobby. There were a couple of taxi’s waiting out front and valet helped us grab one to take to the airport. I think we ended up paying $25 USD cash for the 5 minute ride.

We arrived at the airport and made our way to the Air Tahiti counter. The airport is really small so it’s almost impossible to get lost. We checked our bags in (1 large hard-sided suitcase and 2 carry-on size hard-sided suitcases). The maximum weight was 50lbs and they were all under. I thought we were allowed 1 checked bag each but they didn’t charge us for the 3rd bag. We also never had to weigh our backpacks that we were carrying on with us. Some people have reported that they would weight carryons.

There’s a McDonald’s in the terminal so I had to take a picture. I’m glad we already had breakfast as options for food were pretty limited. Aside from the McDonald’s there was a small cafe but we didn’t check it out.

We were pretty early to the airport so there wasn’t much of a line to check in or to get through security. I did have a hiccup when security made me toss out my used bottle of sunblock that I had in my backpack because it said 6oz on the outside but it clearly had no more than 2oz at most in there! TSA never gave me any issues, but alas they made me toss it. After the fact, Todd suggested I tell them that I’ll squeeze out into the trash whatever amount they want until it’s satisfactory to them. Yeah, I’m not getting passive aggressive with their security for a couple ounces of sunblock, no thanks!

We found our “gate”….there were only three, and sat around and waited for about an hour before boarding. We made sure to pay attention when they announced boarding so we could be one of the first to board and sit on the left side! Those who paid for priority boarding and those with children were invited to board first in a separate line (there were only about 10 people). We were first in line in the regular line and had no problem getting seats in front on the plane on the left side. Most who boarded first tend to sit in the back so they could get out first. This wasn’t a big deal to us because the plane is small and we deplaned within minutes.

We passed by several islands on our 45 minute flight and as soon as Bora Bora came into view it was hard to contain my excitement. A lot of our view was intermittently obscured by clouds so I took whatever photos I could when there was a break. The flight went by super fast which was good because the seats were hard and not very comfortable. They served mango juice on the flight (it was pineapple on our return flight), and no other beverages, snacks, or services were offered. Still wrapping my mind around spending almost $400 each roundtrip for this flight that was 45 minutes long! I guess the views made it worth it.

TIP: Get ready to line up when they call for boarding so you can get a seat on the left side of the aircraft.

Ia orana Bora Bora!

We landed in no time and could feel the lovely island welcome us with open arms. The weather seemed perfect, the air seemed fresh with the scent of tiare all around. We made our way into the airport and made our way to the Intercontinental checkin “kiosk”.

There were about 3 couples/families in line in front of us but it went quickly while we were busy taking it all in. The open-air airport had a nice breeze going through and everyone was all smiles. It was easy to see that everyone was so excited to be there to start their adventure. The Intercontinental representative checked us in and gave fragrant leis to wear, along with 2 glass bottles of Evian…very nice touch. We were directed to the luggage bay which was literally 20 feet away. Our bags were already there and we handed them off to our boat captain. He showed us where to wait while he finished grabbing more bags. We didn’t mind….I mean look at this view!

After about ten minutes we boarded and were on our way!

Welcome to the Intercontinental Le Moana

We have finally arrived! We were greeted at the boat dock and were taken as a group (I think there were about ten of us) on a quick tour of the property, then to the hotel lobby where we were given fruit smoothies to sip on while we waited to get checked in. Oh, we were all also given the all-important wifi password as well, haha.

Any way the process did seem to take a while but we didn’t mind as we just took in the beauty all around us. They opened the slider doors and let in the breeze as it was a pretty windy day and it felt so nice….there is no AC in the lobby, it’s all open-air. Finally, a young gentleman came up to us and thanked us for being IHG Ambassador members, and had us fill out a check-in form which was a bit strange since it was all information they should have already had, but everyone had to fill one out. He also asked to see my Costco booking itinerary which I only had in my email but I was able to email it to him without issue. About 15 minutes later he came back and said our room was not yet ready and apologized profusely (it was only around 11AM and official check-in time was 3PM). We told him no problem, we would go eat lunch at Lucky House which was just around the corner. He gave us buzzers like the ones you’re given at restaurants to let you know when your table was ready. Todd handed his backpack over to bell services and we were off!

Lucky House

We were excited to try out this place as I’ve read so many good things about it. We were pretty early for lunch so there were only 2 other tables at the time. I ordered the fish sandwich, which seemed to be some type of swordfish, and Todd ordered a Hawaiian pizza….in French Polynesia. The fish sandwich was amazing and the grilled fish was fresh. It was stacked with tomato, lettuce, and onion. It also came with a side of fries which were nice and crispy. Todd said his pizza hit the spot. They do have a stone pizza oven so I was expecting it to be pretty good. We ordered a bottle of Evian and the total bill came to $61.43 USD, a bargain for Bora Bora.

Our buzzer still hadn’t gone off but we made our way back to the hotel which was about a 3 minute walk, if that. We checked with the front desk and our room was still not ready so we meandered around the property, checking things out. There was a small pool with views of the beach and lagoon, and well as a “community” room that had a ping pong table and a pool table. There was also a bookshelf where travelers could borrow/take/exchange books….it was so quaint! We eventually returned to the lobby and sat back down in the cushy chairs. Not too long after (around 1PM), a lovely person by the name of Stephanie from Paris introduced herself and told us she would be taking us to our room! (Our buzzer never did go off.)

She chatted with us as we followed her along the beautiful gardens on our way to our beach bungalow. As we rounded a corner we came to the entrance of the boardwalk to the lagoon. I stopped her and told her that we were going the wrong way, that we had booked a beach bungalow. She smiled and said, “Oh, we upgraded you, I hope that is okay…”. I looked at Todd and hesitated because we had both been looking forward to experiencing the beach bungalow since we were already moving to an overwater bungalow for the second half of our trip. She noticed our hesitation and said, “Would you prefer the beach bungalow?” I quickly came to my senses. I mean, I would be insane to turn down an upgrade like this. So I quickly said an overwater bungalow sounds amazing and off we went. I didn’t put much thought into where our bungalow was, but we kept walking and walking and walking, and arrived at OWB #36.

The location was perfect, about midway from the main area of the resort and the end of the pontoon. It was nicely distanced from other bungalows. Stephanie gave us a tour of the room and it was a nice comfortable size with a separate living area and bedroom, and a nice sized closet and bathroom, with two sinks, a separate shower and tub, and a separate water closet (toilet room). The deck was large and the view was phenomenal, but I believe it honestly is great from anywhere here. There is a glass window coffee table where you can view fish from the living room. It also slides open for feeding.

There were gifts left for us in the room that included two Bora Bora reusable water bottles. These were gorgeous and can be used with cold water dispensers found throughout the property. There was also a Le Moana tee shirt in size medium, and a pareo. There was also a fruit plate that was delivered later in the afternoon. They were all such nice touches and really appreciated.

We had reservations at St. James tonight with a 5:30PM pick up at our hotel so we unpacked a bit and relaxed until it was time to head out to dinner. We were on the fence about booking St. James vs. La Villa Mahana since both had really good reviews and the food and service seemed similar. I chose St. James because of the location on the water, which La Villa Mahana did not have. Between the two of us we ordered the lagoon fish which was parrot fish, and the swordfish. Everything was very fresh and tasty. The service was a bit slow but we tried to be chill about it…we were on vacation after all. Food and tip came to $158.71 USD.

ATV ISLAND TOUR

The next morning we had an an ATV tour that I had booked on Viator.com about a week prior to our arrival with Bora Bora Atv-Quad Tours. The cost was $254.99 for the two of us on one ATV, which we prepaid. We use Rakuten to get 10% points back which we use to credit to our American Express Member Rewards account. That’s basically 2550 points for doing nothing! We also got a small discount for booking two tours through Viator (we also booked a full-day lagoon tour) through them. Checking my Viator account upon return, I also have a Viator rewards amount of $33.28 to use in the next 6 months.

Pick up was at 8:30AM and we headed to the front of the lobby for pickup. We sat down at one of the benches and waited for about 10 minutes. Someone from the front desk came over to ask us which tour we were waiting for. He called the company for us and they told him they were running a bit behind but they would be here closer to 9AM. We appreciated the assistance from front desk without even asking. I had my phone on airplane mode the whole time so I was hoping not to have to make/receive any calls!

Our ride showed up and it was an open-air pickup truck with 2 other couples already on it. We hopped on and everyone introduced themselves and off we went! It was about a ten minute ride to the “garage”. We met up with another 3 couples at this garage and our 2 guides gave us all a quick explanation of our vehicles, then fitted us for helmets.

The ATVs are big and sturdy and actually really comfortable. We headed out in an organized manner and enjoyed the breeze.

We drove our ATVs on the main road for about 20 minutes before we ventured up the mountain. The views from the top were phenomenal. We got a quick history lesson about the island, but it was mostly about taking Instagrammable photos! We spent about 15-20 minutes at the top before we made our way back down and continued our adventure to learn about coconut shelling and eat fresh fruit! Our guides prepared some fresh snacks for us including pineapple, coconut, and pummelo.

After approximately 3 hours, our tour ended and it was time to head to Lucky House for lunch! We were dropped off at our hotel and we walked over to Lucky House. This time Todd had the fish burger and I had the seafood pasta. Everything was delish, and the bill came to $54.11 USD.

After lunch we headed back to Le Moana and went for a refreshing swim which felt so nice after the ATV tour. The water around the bungalows were ridiculously clear, even on a windy day.

BORA BORA BEACH CLUB

Dinner tonight was at Bora Bora Beach Club. We walked there in just under ten minutes in the dark as the sun had already set around 6:30PM. We didn’t make reservations, but we were seated anyway. I ordered parrotfish again, and Todd ordered the special which was grilled lobster. I think the lobster was just okay, but the fish was good. We had a couple bottles of water and one cocktail and the bill came to $135.27USD

We headed back to our resort and look who we found in our bungalow!

RAIN AND RELAXATION

It rained off and on most of the night and it continued to rain in the morning, so we relaxed in our bungalow until the rain showers broke some and we headed to the main area of the hotel for breakfast.

Breakfast is a buffet and included in our package. There’s an omelette station and freshly made crepes(so good) and waffles.

TIP: Cappuccinos are included! Also try the local Tahitian honey. I wish I had bought some to take home!

We then hung out in the lobby and ordered a beverage and just chilled.

Guess where we went for lunch? Yup, Lucky House! Todd got the fish burger again, and I tried their house pizza which was so good. It had pepperoni, ground sausage, olives, and capers. We had several bottles of water and our bill came to $59.52USD.

We then headed to the small market across the street and bought two ice cream cones for $8.12USD, and headed back to the resort. We borrowed standup paddle boards and paddled around the lagoon, and spent more time snorkeling around our bungalow.

The day prior, we had concierge book us a reservation for Bloody Mary’s tonight. Our pickup was scheduled for 5.30PM. We did have to pay a $10 per person transportation fee and as I understand, most of the restaurants on the island used to offer free transportation but that is no longer the case.

Although Bloody Mary’s seems to get mixed reviews and is considered touristy, we found the food and service at dinner to be great! Upon arrival we were taken to a display of the day’s offerings for that evening, from seafood to steak.

We selected the shrimp tempura appetizer, Todd ordered the swordfish, and I had the lagoon fish. Everything was excellent but the swordfish was by far the best entree we have had on this trip. It was so tasty that if you close your eyes you’d think you were eating a ribeye steak. This meal cost $127.15 with no alcohol, just bottled water. Not bad at all. The ambience was great…a chill vibe with live music.

INTERCONTINENTAL THALASSO

Today’s the day we transfer to the IHG Bora Bora Thalasso Resort! I was so excited and was glad that I booked two different resorts even though we had to repack. Some people see it as a wasted day of vacation, but I don’t see it that way. I like being able to experience variety on my vacations and I like the feel of a vacation reset…it makes me feel like my vacation has been extended.

Our checkout time was at 11:00AM and we had preplanned our boat transfer time with concierge for 11:45AM. We had breakfast and came back to the room to pack our things up. We pack light and with packing cubes so it was pretty quick and easy. We received an “eviction notice” the night prior to checkout which detailed what to do the next day. We were instructed to have our luggage ready to be picked up by 10:45AM, and finalize checkout at the front desk. We also had some time to head to the small resort gift shop and pick up a few gifts before heading to the boat dock.

We were with one other couple transferring to the Thalasso and we were whisked away (on time) across the lagoon without much fanfare, except for the wind in our hair and the fresh scent of the ocean permeating our nostrils. We soaked in the views and upon arrival we were greeted by a blow of a conch shell, and whisked away again in a golf cart with the other couple we arrived with. We were given a brief tour of the resort as we made our way to the lobby where we checked-in.

The nice gentleman who checked us in at the desk asked for our Costco itinerary again, and I pulled it up for him in PDF format on my phone. He just kind of glanced at it, so I’m not sure why both resorts asked for this. Any how, we put down a credit card and were guided to a beautiful seating area with the most amazing view of Mt. Otemanu….to fill out more forms. At least they brought us cold, tiare-scented washcloths and a really delicious vanilla iced tea to enjoy. I would later become addicted to this iced tea and ordered it with almost every meal.

Unfortunately our room wasn’t ready as it was only around 12:30PM and checkin was at 3PM. There was no offer of a day room or anything and we didn’t ask. We were too excited to explore so off we went.

We walked everywhere and checked out every nook and cranny of the resort. We checked out the secret garden, found an organic garden, checked out the “backside” of the resort (oceanside), found a ping pong table, a wedding chapel, and the list goes on. Oh, we also stopped at the concierge desk and booked all of our dining for the next four nights. Actually it was just our dinner reservations as breakfast is a buffet and was included with our Costco package. Lunch is walk-in, which we never had because we were always so full from breakfast. We had no problems getting the first seating at the two different restaurants, Sands and The Reef. We like to eat early and it was odd that the restaurants don’t open until 6:30PM, especially when the sun set at around 5:45PM while we were there.

We headed back to the lobby around 2PM to hang out and wait for our room. About 15 minutes later a gentleman came by and asked us our last name, disappeared for about 10 minutes, then reappeared to let us know our room was ready. Another lady appeared and took us in a golf cart to our room! The timing was perfect because as soon as we arrived to bungalow #246, the skies opened up and the rain came down. We were given a tour of our room and boy was it magnificent. I pretty much knew what to expect from all of my research, but I think Todd was pretty surprised. It was massive and beautiful, with a separate living room, bedroom, closet, water closet, and bathroom. We had booked a lagoon view OWB and that is what we got. No status upgrade like at Le Moana, but our view was great and from our deck we could sit and marvel at Mt. Otemanu.

There were supposed to be 2 bottles of water left in the fridge for us, and the lady that gave us our room tour was shocked that housekeeping had not left any in there when she opened the fridge to show us….said that was the first time that had happened to her. About 15 minutes after she left, someone delivered our waters to us in the pouring rain. They could have totally waited for the rain to stop, but then again, it rained for almost 3 hours straight. We didn’t mind as we unpacked and relaxed in our amazing bungalow, and snacked on a fruit plate that was on the coffee table.

Before we knew it, it was time to head for our dinner reservation at The Reef. Lucky for us, the rain had stopped just in time. The menu was fairly small, but had a decent variety. Our server explained the menu to us and said since dinner was included in our package, we could each select an appetizer, entree, and dessert. That was a lot of food! I told our server that our Costco package actually said it included a 2 course meal, not 3, but he assured us it was fine, and wasn’t sure why the Costco packages say that. When I booked with Costco, I noticed that the packages during low season specified 3 course meals, and starting in April, I guess what they consider the start of higher season, it specified 2 course meals, and the package prices were more expensive. I was also a bit concerned about how they dealt with the bill because at the end of our dinner, they brought us the bill with the actual cost of what we ordered, broken down like in a regular restaurant. Our server said to not worry about it, the correct amount will get taken off on our final hotel bill. I was still a bit concerned as I had envisioned having to spend precious time debating with the front desk at checkout over the food bill. And almost every dinner cost around $250USD, without alcohol. I’m glad we rarely drink!

Anyway, the food was good. Nothing bad, but nothing memorable. Nothing that I would dream about upon my return home. Between the two of us we ordered the ahi tuna, salad, seafood stew, fruit plate, and a chocolate pyramid dessert. There was one more entree, but for some reason I don’t have a photo and I can’t remember what it was.

After dinner we made our way back to our room and enjoyed the peaceful starry night sky.

FULL DAY SNORKELING/LAGOON TOUR

The next morning after breakfast, we headed over to the boat dock around 8:45AM for our 9AM pickup. I had booked a tour with Lagoon Services through Viator about a week before we left home. The cost for this was $332.76USD for the 2 of us. I had booked the full day lagoon tour with sharks and stingrays that included lunch on a motu. This is by far a must-do. It was easily my most favorite activity/tour. We hopped on the boat with one other couple from the Thalasso, and we picked up two more couples at the Maitai Hotel, and Hotel Royal Bora Bora. It was nice getting a glimpse of some of the other hotels on the island.

The winds have been pretty steady since we arrived and today was no exception. We weren’t able to go to the “usual” coral gardens across the way from Le Moana so instead we went to a “secondary” coral garden up north where the waters were a little bit calmer and visibility a little better. The water and the sea life were stunning and abundant. We went to a couple of different spots to meet up with black-tipped reef sharks and stingrays.

We were then taken to a private motu where a super delicious lunch was waiting for us. We were all given handmade plates to fill up with grilled fish, chicken, steak, and all sorts of sides, fresh fruit, coconut bread, and banana pudding dessert! My favorite was the chicken and I normally never willfully order chicken when I go out to eat. It tasted like it was teriyaki-glazed and was so yummy. We shared picnic tables in the water, with fish circling our ankles and a resident stingray swimming back and forth. There was water and soda for beverages. After lunch we got a very entertaining lesson on all things coconut….the different stages of a coconut, how to open them, how to make coconut milk, braiding the fronds for a variety of uses from hats to shoes to plates. Coconut trees are basically the ultimate natural resource.

The private island itself is beautiful and very well-kept. There is a clean restroom to use, and everything there was just perfect. You can tell they worked hard to keep it this way.

We had some time to wander around a little bit and our guide Roberto told us that there were baby sharks around so off we went to find them. They were super cute, only about a foot and a half long.

We got back to our resort to shower and rest, and take in the sunset from our bungalow. Phenomenal!

Dinner was at the Sands, and we enjoyed the food a bit more here than The Reef. It’s beach front and a bit more casual, but really lovely. I mean, just look at this view from our table!

Between the two of us we had a cold whipped corn appetizer, caesar salad, steak, and swordfish. Desserts were a fruit parfait and chocolate mousse. The fruit parfait was AMAZING. I’m glad we ordered it with dinner because we saw it at the pool-side menu at lunch and it was $25USD!

Overall, we enjoyed this restaurant and went to concierge afterwards and changed tomorrow’s dinner from The Reef to Sands.

CANOE BREAKFAST

The next morning we had room service scheduled to bring us breakfast on a canoe! When we were making our initial dinner reservations with concierge, they had us fill out a breakfast form to choose what we wanted to have delivered. I booked this through concierge about 3 weeks in advance because it was something I really wanted to do. It was expensive at $250USD for the two of us, and we don’t get a credit from skipping our breakfast buffet that was included in our package. It’s not everyday that someone brings me breakfast on a canoe though, so I wanted to do it, and I’m so glad I did.

We were told they would come between 8-8:30AM (you can choose a time slot when you book it). We got a phone call around 8:15AM to let us know they were on their way. I opened the slider doors letting the fresh air in and within a couple of minutes they arrived!

They did a beautiful set up of our table with a white table cloth and beautiful flowers…such a perfect arrangement. While she set up for breakfast, we were whisked away on a short canoe ride around the lagoon. Breakfast was absolutely delicious and so filling. We both had omelettes, one with cheese and one without. Sides were bacon and sausage, hash browns, tons of fruit, pastries, juice, and tea.

Can we say best breakfast ever?! We felt so pampered and spoiled. Sure beats eating a boring bowl of oatmeal at my desk every morning back home! I highly recommend this breakfast experience. It’s very expensive, but it’s worth every penny. This was our day for true relaxation as we had a couple’s massage booked for 1:30PM! We hung out in our bungalow and just chilled until it was time to head out.

DEEP OCEAN SPA

I had booked the “Marine Romance” package with concierge about 3 weeks prior to our arrival . This was an 80 minute couples massage with about 20 minutes in a soaking tub, and full use of the spa facilities for the day. The cost was $684.41 USD which I thought was reasonable for Bora Bora. We have paid close to $500 USD for a couples massage on Disney cruises before so it didn’t seem too bad.

We arrived at the spa and checked in. They gave us little tote bags that had a pareo and flip flops to change into. I made my way to the ladies locker room and changed into my bathing suit and threw the pareo around me and met up with Todd in the waiting area. We wandered around the facilities a bit and about ten minutes later our massage therapists came and got us.

The massage bungalows are huge and amazing! The tub was large and surrounded by beautiful flowers, and of course it smelled amazing in there. We had three essential oils to choose from for the tub and were given champagne to enjoy, but we asked for juice instead since we don’t drink much. They brought us a pineapple juice and mango juice, and left us alone for about 20 minutes.

After our relaxing soak we showered (there was a shower in the bungalow), and got ready for our massages! The massage itself was amazing, not the best I’ve ever had, but it was great and a little different as they used some sort of bumpy stones part of the time (not hot stones). There is a window underneath the massage tables where you can watch the fish as you’re getting rubbed. It was hard for me to relax because I loved watching all the different fish that swam by. It was such a cool experience and one I would totally do again.

When our massage was over we headed to the steam room for a while. Well, not really a while because I probably lasted less than 5 minutes in there. It was so hot and I’m a wuss. There was a polar plunge pool that was freezing cold (can’t remember how many degrees), but I managed to plunge myself up to my neck for 0.001 second before I jumped back out. Todd went in only to his waist barely and jumped back out, so I won. We then headed over the the “walking” pool where there were jets that get your ankles, knees, and hips as you walked along. Very cool! There were multiple seating areas with hot tubs, but we didn’t use any of those. There was also a large tea room with a self-serve bar of hot teas and cold iced teas. We relaxed in the tea room for a bit and listened to the sounds of the ocean. It was fantastic.

Overall, I would 100% have this service again, even if I wasn’t staying here. There were more expensive couples massages that included facial scrubs and body wraps and such, but the “Marine Romance” package was plenty for us.

DINNER AT THE SANDS AGAIN

We headed to dinner a bit early just so we could watch the sunset from “Sunset Theater” before our dinner at 6:30PM. It’s basically an outdoor area with bar service right in front of Mt. Otemanu. We ordered some non-alcoholic beverages and soaked it all in. There was a musician and the vibe was chill and romantic with couples slow dancing, and the views amazing.

Dinner was right next door and tonight they had a “prime rib” special, which was included in our meal package, which was surprising as it was around $100 USD on the menu. It wasn’t like prime rib that we know of in the States, but it was more like grilled steak. It was massive and there was well over 25 oz of meat for one person! It tasted good but definitely not the best steak I’ve had. We also had the ahi tuna. There was so much food, we couldn’t finish it all.

After dinner we slowly made our way back to our bungalow, enjoying the sights along the way. It was a gorgeous night…

PARASAILING WITH BORA BORA PARASAIL

Ok, so this is something I booked about a month in advance and prepaid. The cost was $440.14 USD for the two of us. We had it originally booked for the morning of Monday, May 29th, 2023 but it was cancelled due to rain. So with the help of concierge at Le Moana we rebooked it for the morning of Friday, June 2nd. The weather seemed fine so we packed our day bag, stopped at the breakfast buffet for some food, and headed over to the boat dock. Well, we should have called first because when we arrived at the dock, a lady from concierge was waiting for us to let us know that the excursion was postponed until 12:30PM because of lack of wind. She said they tried to reach us in our bungalow. Well, we were probably at breakfast so we missed the memo. A strange thing about the phones at both Intercontinental hotels here was that there was no voicemail service so you could not leave messages. Kind of bizarre, and would have come in handy in cases like this but oh well. We walked back to our room and relaxed until it was time to go. We watched a boat with a parasail go by from our room so that was a good sign for later.

I was about to call concierge when the phone rang and they confirmed we were good to go for the afternoon parasailing and that someone was on their way to pick us up in a golf cart, as well as another couple on the same excursion.

We had parasailed multiple times before but only in the Bahamas. Doing this in Bora Bora beats it by a long shot. I’m 100% sure that we can’t get views like this anywhere else!

The excursion was about 2 hours long total, and we spent about 25 minutes in the air. We had to pay for transportation from Thalasso to Le Moana for $37.50 USD per person round trip, which was kind of a bummer because we were originally supposed to do this excursion from Le Moana before it got cancelled. But that’s the risk we take with parasailing…it gets cancelled often.

TIP: Book parasailing early in your trip in case it gets cancelled or postponed. This will give you more opportunities to rebook while you’re still there.

After the excursion we were dropped off at the Le Moana dock. We only had about 40 minutes before the next shuttle back to Thalasso so we rushed over to Lucky House for a quick bite. We love this place. Todd ordered the fish burger AGAIN, and I ordered the seafood pasta AGAIN. When we finished eating I went up to the bar to pay, otherwise we would have missed our boat transfer, and the next one wasn’t until 5:30PM and we were tired. We literally ran back to the boat dock with 1 minute to spare, and the boat transfer left on time.

LAST DINNER

Last days of a vacation is always sad, but we had such an amazing time here we knew we’d be back.

Our last dinner was Polynesian night at The Reef. It’s a buffet and the spread is amazing. The taste of the food was just okay, but the presentation was fabulous, and there was a lot of variety. The show was great and was longer than I anticipated. There were no fire dancers at this one unfortunately, but it was still great.

OUR LAST DAY BEFORE OUR FLIGHT HOME

We did not get late checkout here per our “eviction notice” that we received the night before. We were instructed to have our packed bags ready for bell services by 10:40AM. The letter also said we would have access to a day room 45 minutes prior to our 4:55PM departure to the airport to catch our 6:15PM flight to Tahiti. I had originally contacted concierge prior to our arrival requesting a late checkout, and when we checked in, the front desk noted our request and said they would try their best, but couldn’t guarantee anything. I was aware that Ambassador status with IHG doesn’t apply when booking through a 3rd party like Costco, but it never hurts to try.

Anyway, it didn’t matter because we had another great day at the resort. We missed breakfast because we slept in and were busy packing to have our things ready for 10:40AM. We had to pack our day bag, a change of clothes for our red-eye to Los Angeles, and another change of clothes for when we landed because we had a seven hour layover in Los Angeles before our flight to San Antonio.

Checkout was a little disorganized. When we arrived there was a line of about 4 couples waiting to checkout. We decided to sit down and wait in the lounge area next do the front desk. We weren’t in rush. When the line disappeared I went up to the front desk and tried to check out, but the lady said she would come get me for checkout as she had to check some people in first, who were just arriving. No biggie, I sat back down and waited. About 30 minutes went by and people came and went, no one came to look for us, so I went back up to the front desk. By then it had been over an hour waiting to check out. I should have just stood in that line from the beginning. Anyway, she seemed sort of flustered but printed out our bill and I told her I was going to sit back down with it so I could go over it. I was concerned about the dinner charges. Our bill was $603.84 USD which was much less than I expected. Everything looked good so I put $250 on my Amex Platinum card to get $40 credit back from an IHG promotion for spending $250 minimum. I put the rest on my Costco Visa to get 3% Costco cash back for travel purchases. She then confirmed that we would have access to a day room to shower and change, 1 hour before our boat transfer (the letter actually said 45 minutes, haha).

We decided to hang out at the infinity pool which we rarely do on vacation. We’re usually too busy with activities, but the pool here is so picturesque. I’m glad our flight wasn’t until the evening.

Since we missed breakfast, we were hungry and ordered a $40 burger to share, which we had to put on our credit card since we had already checked out. I ordered a vanilla iced tea, and Todd ordered a virgin strawberry margarita. The burger was just okay, the fries were thin and crispy, just how I like them. We swam in the pool, and I took more photos and just soaked it all in while I could. It was our last few hours here! The pool boys were also making hats using palm fronds so Todd asked him to make one for me while I swam in the pool. I loved it so much, I walked over with a $10 bill and discretely thanked him for my beautiful hat. He seemed shocked, then thankful. I was going to try to get this hat home one way or another.

At one point Todd wanted to listen to his audio books and realized he left his headphones in his backpack. He went to the front desk to get access to his backpack from whereever they store luggage, and I guess they gave him the key to our day room. It was only around 1PM at this point and I was surprised that we already had access. He said he went to the day room and all of our luggage was already in there! I wish they would have told us earlier so I could have used the restroom in there. We wouldn’t have known the room was ready if Todd hadn’t asked about getting access to our bags.

When it was time to leave we packed up our things and headed to the day room to shower and change before our long flights home. The room was really cute and the AC was blasting! It was perfect. It had a closet, a cushioned bench with a coffee table, a shower, sink and toilet. It had soap, shampoo, towels, and a hairdryer too. All hotels should have these day rooms or transit rooms!

Before we headed to the boat dock we stopped by the secret garden and attached our locks and threw away the key in the tiki. We didn’t have ours engraved nor did we have a permanent marker with us but that’s okay. We’ll do another one in the future.

I bought our gold lock on Amazon for around $11 but you can also buy them in the gift shop at the resort. They sold the red heart ones for $17, and they probably have Sharpies you can use. In case I forget to mention later, the gift shop also sells fish food for about $10USD. There were no fish under our bungalow here but we fed the fish in the lagoonarium and there was plenty of action. In comparison, Le Moana had a ton of fish under our bungalow.

We made our way to the boat dock and were whisked away to the airport with about 6 other very sad people. We enjoyed the scenery and shades of blue one last time. Upon docking at the airport we took one more photo at the dock before we headed inside. It was windy!

Our boat captain unloaded our luggage and we said farewell and headed to the Air Tahiti ticket counter to check in . There was a short line of 2 other couples so it went quickly. We checked all three bags in and went to the “terminal” to wait. I spotted a little cafe/kiosk and stopped to take a look as I was getting pretty hungry. There was a bag of Cheetos and for some reason that sounded so good so I bought it for $10.50 USD. Yikes! It totally hit the spot though. I also got a strawberry Fanta for $5.50. Todd just rolled his eyes.

Soon we boarded our flight and sat on the right side of the plane. It didn’t matter much because it was already dark.

IA ORANA AGAIN TAHITI

We arrived in Tahiti in the blink of an eye, around 7PM. The airport was crowded and chaotic. It looked like there were 4 flights leaving close to the same time. We lugged our bags to the Air Tahiti Nui check-in desks and couldn’t tell what line was for what. I finally snaked my way through the crowd and asked an agent, who asked where I was headed. I told her Los Angeles and she directed me to a line, so we made our way over there and waited a bit. The security lady checked our passports and flight information and told us we were in the wrong line, and the line for our flight hasn’t even started yet. She said it wouldn’t open until 8:30-9PM. Fortunately, the Tahiti airport had just opened up a new automated luggage storage service at the end of May. We rented a large locker for just under $35 USD (yikes!) and our large luggage, 2 carryons, and a backpack fit in there. And my hat!

I had read some reviews about a restaurant near the airport called Restaurant Ocean that was supposedly within walking distance, and some Chinese food sounded great! I had only had half a burger all day and a few french fries. I looked it up on Google maps but it was difficulty to see how you can actually walk there from the airport without getting run over, and it was dark. So Todd suggested we just pay for a cab. Our cab driver basically said we could walk there but with the language barrier it was hard to understand her directions, so we just asked her how much to take us there and she told us $15. It literally was across the street from the airport but the path to drive there wasn’t quite straight. When she dropped us off we gave her $20 USD and she showed us how to walk back when we were done.

As soon as we walked into the place we could tell the meal was going to be good. It was full of locals! We were seated and given English menus. Our server spoke a little bit of English and she was super friendly. We ordered a bottle of water, Todd ordered the chicken chow mein, and I ordered the chicken fried rice with salted fish. Everything was so good but the chow mein was the star. I totally forgot to take pictures of our food as we were so hungry we dug right in. I did manage to take pictures of the menu though, on our way out.

Prices were really reasonable and we’ll definitely make this our go-to place from now on whenever we have a layover in Tahiti. I think we got there and back in less than an hour.

To get back to the airport you go right as you exit the restaurant, then cross the street towards the airport parking lot. You then follow a path down towards the parking lot…there are stairs, you can’t miss it. You then cross one more road and you are in the parking lot! Now just make your way to the check-in area.

When we got back to the airport our line still hadn’t opened yet so we got our luggage and waited. When they finally opened around 9PM we were one of the first to check in because we were flying business class. We got our boarding passes and went to security, which was not yet opened. We waited some more and were first in line when they did finally open about 30 minutes later. After security we went left and headed up the stairs at the very end of the terminal to head to the Air Tahiti Nui Lounge. It’s the only lounge in the whole airport, and thank goodness we had access because the airport was crowded and hot! The lounge is the only place that has AC. When we arrived we were one of the first ones there.

It was a decent size for a small airport and the food offerings were just small snacks for the most part. Charcuterie stuff, cookies, crackers, and Cup ‘O Noodles! Todd was ecstatic because he loves those, haha. He had a beef one, and later on when they restocked they put out shrimp ones. Although since I was still full from Restaurant Ocean, when they put out pistachio macarons, I had to have one as they are my favorite! No bar, but they had water, sodas, bottled wine and beer. And a cappuccino machine. It was a great place to relax for a while, as our flight didn’t start boarding until 11:15PM. Going back downstairs was a system shock as it was so crowded and hot with lines everywhere. It’s like they schedule flights to leave all at once. There were multiple flights to LAX within minutes of each other, and a flight or two to Paris, and Seattle that I could see.

We couldn’t wait to board and go to bed!

They actually served a light dinner just after takeoff, but I was still stuffed from dinner and lounge snacks, that I passed, and just went to bed. Todd stayed up and ate though, haha. This trip was the first time flying in lay-flat seats so I made sure to soak up the awesomeness of it. I mean, who knew when the next time I’d be able to book another one again like this? I asked for an extra pillow and went right to sleep. I did have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and had to step awkwardly over Todd since I had the window seat and he was asleep, but I’m still nimble, haha. I didn’t wake up again until morning when they gently woke us up for breakfast. I didn’t take any pictures of the food because I was still sleepy and in a daze, but I did remember they offered a choice of an omelette or french toast. We both had the omelette. Todd told me that in the middle of the night he asked a flight attendant if he could move to row 1 to sleep because the foot wells were larger, and there was no one in that row. I hadn’t even realized he moved over there.

I was kind of sad when we landed at LAX because I loved sleeping on that flight and it was just awesome and worth the scrimping and saving and planning and using extra points. Plus the “real” world awaits behind that metal door, and I was so not ready.

BACK IN THE USA

We had a seven hour layover as the only nonstop flights from LAX to SAT were earlier in the morning or in the evening. Our flight landed at 10:15AM so it was too late for the early flights. Our flight’s departure was at 5:30PM on Delta. I booked first class because it was only $100 more each and included a checked bag, and I didn’t want to sit in the middle seat. Seven hours in an airport sounded like torture, but it actually was relaxing and went by quickly with lounge access, thanks to our Amex Platinum cards.

We disembarked and got our luggage and made our way to customs. We have Global Entry so it made going through customs completely painless. We just scanned in our passports and were ushered through.

Oh, my frond hat! The flight attendant told me that customs may not allow it, but she didn’t know for sure. So we put it in our carryon bag, being careful not to crush it. Well, customs didn’t ask us anything at all. We didn’t even have to stop.

Another thing I was worried about was having to have our luggage with us the entire time. We thought maybe we’d head out of the airport for lunch or something, but didn’t know what to do with luggage. We considered renting a car too. Well, in the end I decided to just play it by ear.

Once through customs we were directed to an area to recheck our bags through. I thought we may have been way too early to do this but we were able to check our bags here with zero issue, which was awesome!

We decided to try out a Delta Sky Club lounge since we were flying Delta and had our Amex Platinum card. Since we were connecting through, we should have been able to bypass the 3 hour rule that most lounges have. They will only let you in a lounge no more than 3 hours prior to your flight time unless you are connecting.

We had some problem finding a lounge but finally made it. LAX is under major construction. When the lady checked us in she told us we actually didn’t have access yet because the connecting flight had to be with a partner airline, which I did not know. Air Tahiti Nui was not a partner airline, unfortunately. No worries, we’ll try the Amex Centurion lounge!

We traversed almost 3 miles throughout LAX on our lounge hopping adventures. Todd wasn’t sure if we could get through security in the TBIT international terminal because our flight was domestic, but we got through no problem. He was so surprised! We also had Clear and TSA pre-check so hopping from one terminal to another was not a big deal.

The Centurion lounge let us in with no problem. We just had to show our IDs, Platinum cards, and boarding passes (and boarding passes from our previous flight, so don’t throw those away!). The lady that checked us in offered us free spa passes which we gratefully accepted. It was for a 15 minute massage, all free plus tips. We didn’t know how much we needed it after traveling for so long.

We headed to the quiet/sleep room and spent most of our time in there. There are seven loungers in a darkened room with starry skies. Todd played games on his iPad and I played games on my phone. We got up several times to get lunch and snacks of course.

With about 3 hours left before our flight to San Antonio we decided to head back to the Delta lounge. We did have to go through security again, but it was quick with Clear and TSA pre-check. We were given access this time as it was within 3 hours of our flight.

This lounge was great and seemed pretty new. It’s indoor/outdoor which was great as we took a seat outside and looked for more snacks. I walked around the lounge as it is pretty big and found many shower rooms. The restrooms were really nice. The food was good (they had a yummy Korean chicken), but about an hour later, closer to dinner time, they brought out a taco bar with all the fixings and that was excellent. We spent about an hour in here before heading to the gate to board our flight home.

Domestic first class is such a stark contrast and disappointment compared to international business/first class. We were not impressed with the barely-there service, our boxed turkey croissant sandwich….and no table linens, no silverware or glassware….take me back on Air Tahiti Nui! At least we sat in row one and were the first to get off the plane when we landed. After 3 hours we were back where it all began…the little San Antonio Airport. Our bags came out relatively quickly and we took a Lyft back home, arriving around 10:30PM.

The next day we got to pick up this little nugget…

Dash was happy to see us but he soon settled in for a long nap, tired from playing all week at doggy daycare.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Some might say Bora Bora is on their bucket list. It certainly feels like it’s an expensive, far-fetched dream to be able to go there, and in a way, it absolutely is. However, with some, okay a LOT, of planning, saving, working extra shifts, and determination, anyone can make it there. It’s a place like no other, and it would be a shame to live this one life we have and not be able to see it. Move it up on your priority list. Make it a goal in the near future. It is absolutely worth it.

MISCELLANEOUS TIPS THAT COME TO MIND

• If you book with Costco, keep checking back with them to see if the price has dropped. They may give you a credit back. Ours only got more expensive.
• Signup for IHG’s rewards program and pay for the $200 Ambassador status because you’ll never know what each individual hotel will offer you. We got an upgrade at Le Moana, and no upgrade at Thalasso.
• If you book through Costco, have them add your IHG membership number to your reservation. Do the same directly with IHG, have them add your reservation number to your IHG account. You will normally not get any IHG perks since you’re booking through a third party, but you never know and it never hurts to try. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that they gave us over 180,000 IHG points for our stay, when we shouldn’t have received any at all.
• Bring bug spray if you’re prone to bites. I was bitten on the main island, but not on the motu.

THE FUTURE

We both agree that we have to make another trip back here at some point. We both also agree that we love Le Moana, and would stay there again. It’s the first hotel in Bora Bora and it feels true and authentic to the Polynesian culture. The atmosphere there just felt local and real, and you can feel the soul of the island there. The pros greatly outweighed the cons here and while we enjoyed the Thalasso as well, we would both rather go back to Le Moana. Let the planning begin again!