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Le Bora Bora
by Pearl Resorts
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THE STAY
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The short answer
At a glance
Motu Tevairoa, with the mountain straight ahead
An overwater resort on its own motu facing Mount Otemanu, for honeymooners who want the view and not the invoice.
We landed at nine in the morning, which is five hours before check-in, and I had already decided I was going to be fine about it. The airport at Bora Bora sits out on Motu Mute on the reef, so there is no road, and everyone comes off the plane and walks down to a dock. The Le Bora Bora boat was about ten minutes – the shortest run of any resort on the island, and the reason the transfer cost us eighty dollars each round trip when friends who stayed at the St Regis paid closer to three hundred.
They put a crown of flowers on my head and a lei around my neck before I had my bag off the boat, handed us both a cold drink, and then, because our bungalow was not ready, gave us a different room to shower and change in. I had been travelling for the better part of two days. I cannot tell you how much that mattered.
The resort is on Motu Tevairoa, northwest in the lagoon, which puts the mountain directly in front of you rather than off to one side, and puts the sunrise over it. It is also the easiest resort to get to Vaitape from, which matters more than you think when you want a grocery shop and a normal price for a bottle of water.
The Vibe
Barefoot Luxury, Secluded & Private
This was Bora Bora Pearl Beach Resort and Spa until a multi-million-dollar refurbishment, after which it reopened as Le Bora Bora by Pearl Resorts. We stayed in March 2022, not long after it came back, and were among the first guests – which I only realised when I noticed how new everything still smelled.
Since then it has collected the two credentials that matter. It is a Relais et Chateaux member, and it holds two MICHELIN Keys, awarded in the Guide’s first Oceania hotel selection and retained for a second consecutive year. French Polynesia has only five Key holders in total – The Brando with three, and two each for the St Regis, the Four Seasons, Le Taha’a and this.
That is the part worth sitting with. It is the least expensive of those five by a wide margin, and the inspectors put it in the same bracket.
The walk out, which never got old over six nights
Thatch, timber and the lagoon underneath
Steps straight down into the water from the deck
Sunrise on the mountain side, which this resort gets and most do not
The pier, and the best view on the property
Room 305, an Otemanu Overwater Bungalow, and the view from the bed was the mountain with nothing in front of it at all.
Polynesian in the traditional way – wood carvings, woven panels, a palette of timber and cream rather than anything designed to photograph. A king bed, a chair, a small sofa, and a deck with steps down into the water, a hammock and two loungers on it. There is a glass panel set into the floor so you can lie there and watch your own patch of reef, which sounds like a gimmick and is not; we left the light on under it one evening and sat watching fish for an hour.
On privacy: you can see your neighbours if they are in the water, and a little of their deck. You cannot see into anyone’s room – the glass doors have a mirrored privacy treatment, which I appreciated more than I expected to. The bungalows are close enough together that if total seclusion is the thing you are paying for, this is not the resort.
Housekeeping came three times a day. Every single time we came back the room had been put right and decorated – at one point there was a heart made of rose petals and a sign for the honeymoon, and a fruit platter, and a small bottle of champagne with two glasses. The minibar was restocked daily and free: local beer, juices, sodas, crisps, a Nespresso machine with pods, and a bucket of ice. The Tahitian floral body oil and lotion were refilled every day too, and I brought a bottle home.
Close together – worth knowing before you book
The lagoon changes colour about six times on the way to the reef
Six nights, in March
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This is where I have to be straight with you, because it is the one part of the stay I would not rate five.
There are four outlets. Otemanu is the main room, open-air on the top floor, with the lagoon and the mountain in front of you – breakfast there is included and it is excellent: a la carte, made-to-order lattes, an omelette station, and a long table of fruit. Mondays and Fridays there is a Polynesian buffet with a live show. Poerava is the fine-dining room, indoors, intimate, dinner only and capped at twenty guests, so book it on arrival. Miki Miki is the casual poolside and beach option, and where we ate most often. Manuia is the swim-up bar and Uaina is a small indoor wine bar doing sushi with a view of the mountain.
The bar was genuinely good and ran a daily happy hour at half price, which we used more than once. Room service three times a day was lovely. But the dinners were the weak point – the prices are reasonable by Bora Bora standards and the quality was fine, and that is the problem. As someone who plans trips around food, I found a lot of it bland and lacking depth. Breakfast carried the week.
Tavai Spa sits beside a lily-pad lake, which is a strange and lovely thing to walk past on a motu, with a sauna, a steam room, rain showers and an air-conditioned gym attached.
But the real wellness here is free and nobody books it. The resort’s own coral reef is directly off the beach and the snorkelling is extraordinary – I have snorkelled in a lot of places and this was the most alive reef I have swum over, dense with fish, properly intact. And then there is the sandbar: a stretch of lagoon that runs out from the private beach for what feels like hundreds of feet, waist-deep or less depending on the tide. I am five foot two and I could sit down in it and still have the water at my waist, and walk out and out and out.
Swimming at sunrise, with the mountain going gold behind the bungalows and nobody else awake, is the thing I will carry.
Dinner. The breakfast is excellent, the bar is good and the room service is a pleasure, but the evening food was repeatedly bland – under-seasoned, no depth, nothing I would order again. At a resort this size on a motu you are largely captive to it, and over six nights that adds up. Current guest reviews say the same thing: of all the subratings, value is the lowest, and the dining is where that lands.
- Privacy
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- Honeymoons
The poisson cru class. It is one of the free daily group activities and it was my favourite hour of the week – raw tuna cured in lime and coconut milk, taught properly, and I have made it at home a dozen times since. The flower-crown making is the other one and it is just as good.
And set an alarm one morning. Swim off the beach at sunrise, when the sun comes up on the mountain side and the lagoon is glass and there is nobody else out. Most guests sleep through the single best thing this resort has.
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Check-in is 2pm and we arrived at 9am; they let us in early and gave us a room to shower in while ours was prepared. Ask – do not assume, but ask.
Check your itemised bill at checkout. There was a line on ours we did not recognise; we flagged it at the desk and it came off immediately, with no argument.
Ask for an Otemanu category bungalow specifically, not just overwater – it is the one that faces the mountain head-on. And book Poerava on arrival; twenty seats go quickly.
There is a free shuttle boat to Vaitape. Get the schedule from the concierge on day one.
value added perks
with booking with Coco Tran:
- Daily Breakfast for Two, Per Bedroom
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- Welcome Amenity
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- Hotel Credit: USD 100
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- One Category Room Upgrade at Time of Arrival, Based on Availability
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- Early Check-In/Late Check-Out, Based on Availability
I would stay here again, and I do not say that about most places I review. Of the five MICHELIN Key holders in French Polynesia it is the cheapest by a long way, and it is the one with the shortest, least expensive boat transfer, the best sunrise orientation and a reef you can swim to from your own beach.
Who it is not for: anyone whose trip is built around dinner, and anyone who needs real seclusion – the bungalows sit close together and you will see your neighbours. Go to the St Regis if the villa itself is the point, or the Four Seasons if you want a faultless operation and do not mind paying for it.
For a honeymoon, which is what mine was, this is the one I would book again. We paid on points. I would happily have paid cash.