Helping you and your family save money on your vacations to Disney and beyond
Let me get this out of the way up front: there are very few cheap eating options in Bora Bora. I’ll touch on some ways to save money on food in a later post, but this post is going to focus on the eating options in the Intercontinental Thalasso. When you stay at a resort in Bora Bora – odds are you’re going to spend a lot of time eating the food there, so hopefully this will help if you’re trying to make a decision!
For our six night stay in Bora Bora, we spent the entire time at the Intercontinental Thalasso – all with points earned from credit card bonuses and purchased points (detailed here). Considering our room was retailing for over $1000/night the week we were there, we ended up saving a boat load of money. After checking in, it was time to see our Emerald Overwater suite. We were not disappointed.
So, once you arrive in Tahiti (Papeete, to be exact), you still aren’t in Bora Bora yet. Most people don’t stay on the island of Tahiti, instead they go to one of the neighboring islands where the water is more picturesque, though I hear Tahiti has some nice cultural aspects to explore. With the exception of Moorea which you can reach by ferry and island cruises, you need to fly Air Tahiti, not to be confused with Air Tahiti Nui which we took from LAX, to get from island to island. It’s not cheap: the cost was $400 round trip per person to and from Bora Bora. Air Tahiti definitely has the monopoly thing down pat. This post will discuss our Air Tahiti flights and getting into and checking in at the Intercontinental Thalasso.
The only way to get directly from North America to Tahiti is via Air Tahiti Nui – an airline that has a fleet of five Airbus 340s. Three of the five planes have remodeled cabins with new seats in both business class and economy – but it’s pretty much luck of the draw which cabin you get. After three totally kind of annoying domestic connections on US Airways and an hour at the new Tom Bradley International Terminal in LAX, Jess and I were ready for our flight to the South Pacific. Unfortunately, we drew the short straw and ended up on one of Air Tahiti Nui’s old business class – better than coach but a far cry from some of the newer international business class cabins out there. Apologies in advance, I didn’t take too many pictures – I was so exhausted by that point I just needed to relax!
One year ago, we were waking up every 3-4 hours with a newborn baby in the house. One week ago, we were jumping off the deck attached to our overwater bungalow in Bora Bora while grandparents were watching our one year old. Believe it or not, situation one was integral in enabling situation two to happen. Jess and I spent a week in Bora Bora over President’s week – here’s how we made it happen.