French Polynesia (Tahiti) 2022 Trip Summary

A view of the overwater bungalows at the St. Regis resort in Bora Bora with M. Otemanu in the background
The view of Mt. Otemanu from our bedroom in an overwater bungalow
Enjoying the bay at St. Regis with our paddleboards
Playing on a Hobie Cat in the bay at St. Regis, Bora Bora
The lagoon for swimming/snorkeling at St. Regis, Bora Bora
the swim-up-bar at St. Regis, Bora Bora

TRIP DETAILS

Trip length (including travel days) - 11 days

Time of year - July

Countries visited - French Polynesia

Cities/Locations visited and time in each:

  • Tahiti - 1 night

  • Bora Bora - 4 nights

  • Rangiroa - 4 nights

PATH WE TOOK

Fly from Denver thru San Francisco to Tahiti

Taxi between airport and hotel on Tahiti for a quick overnight stay

Fly from Tahiti to Bora Bora

Water taxi to/from resort

Fly from Bora Bora to Rangiroa

Hotel pickup from airport, walk, and rental bikes to get around island

Fly from Rangiroa thru Tahiti, thru San Francisco, and back to Denver

HIGHLIGHTS

Our top highlight from the trip was simply relaxing at and enjoying the St. Regis resort in Bora Bora, and all it had to offer.

We were also pretty stoked to scuba dive with a Giant Reef Manta Ray (Bora Bora) and with Dolphins (Rangiroa)! If you plan on diving on more than one island, definitely check out the Te Moana Diving Pass - it’ll save a bunch of money: https://www.temoanadiving.com/en/

OUR NOT-SO-FAVORITE THINGS

The resort in Rangiroa (Kia Ora) didn’t have mosquito netting around the bed - and our private bungalow on the beach wasn’t bug-tight. So we ended up using bug spray before bed and trying to keep covered to avoid being bit all night long!

NOTES

Interesting to note - we hadn’t really thought about this before our trip (but should have)…we would guess that 75% of the visitors to Rangiroa - maybe a little less in Bora Bora but still a high percentage - were French speaking and actually from France. As a French territory, this makes sense, however we were shocked at how many people made the extraordinarily long trip from France to Los Angeles to French Polynesia. As a result of this, the primary spoken languages we heard were French and Tahitian. Some service staff struggled with English though it never created an issue and someone was always on hand who could help translate.

Air Tahiti offered very well organized and frequent flights to/from all the surrounding islands. Check out the Air Tahiti Multi-Island Pass for the most efficient airfare once you arrive in Tahiti. We did the 3-island Pass which took us from Tahiti to Bora Bora to Rangiroa and back to Tahiti on our selected days: https://www.airtahiti.com/en/airpass-fares.

We were able to coordinate our travel home to be all in one fell swoop - Rangiroa to Tahiti to SFO to DEN. While it made for a long day, we avoided having to do another overnight stay on our way back to Denver.

WHY WE PICKED THIS LOCATION

Bora Bora had been on the top of our travel list for a while. With our love of the ocean and the great scuba diving here, it was definitely a great option.

We had a big birthday to celebrate in 2022, so we were willing to spend more than usual (plus all of our built-up hotel points) for the overwater bungalow in Bora Bora.

The timing worked well for an 11 day trip (though of course we would have loved to visit another island and spend a few more days too!).