Define Fettle Travels: Moorea & Bora Bora (French Polynesia)
A recap of our travels to Moorea & Bora Bora located within the beautiful French Polynesian Islands equipped with where we stayed, what we did, our food recommendations and the most gorgeous views we’ve ever seen.
Okay, okayyyy. I suppose 4 months is a long enough period of suspense building up to the GRAND REVEAL of our Moorea & Bora Bora recap -- I was just waiting for the perfect time ya know? Like in the middle of a pandemic when international travel isn’t happening, local travel has taken a huge hit and we’re all just DYING to know when and where we will even be able to travel. Cruel timing? Probably. But I finally found the motivation to write this so I have no other choice than to go with it or you’ll never get the full deets of this insane experience.
One of the biggest questions we got when deciding to travel to Moorea & Bora Bora besides “where is that?” was HOW did you decide to go there?! Wellll… first of all, we knew that we wanted to hit up somewhere warm and tropical for our 1 year anniversary (insert all of the cry face and heart emojis -- jk that’s NOT me) because our anniversary is in March. If you live in the midwest you already know why we’d want to get far away and if you don’t… let’s just put it bluntly. Winters are long and cold AF so by the middle/end of it people are flocking out of here ready to walk barefoot and access that vitamin D without 15 extra pounds of clothing on. Our second criteria was that it needed to be shorter than a 12hr plane ride because I have limited vacation time at the J.O.B and we had plans (pre-COVID) to take multiple other trips in 2020, which brings me to our third criteria… airfare needed to be below $1000/person. Our fourth and final criteria was that it needed to be somewhere completely new. If you don’t already know this about our traveling style, we don’t like to visit the same place more than once because let’s be honest… there are so many amazing places to experience in this world and we want to see them ALL [hey, it’s good to have goals].
I vetted out some options and while Tahiti (the largest of the French Polynesian Islands) was on the list, it wasn’t a serious contender because flights were well over our ideal budget. I settled on Aruba however Austin wasn’t thrilled with that option so he kept searching and our discussions about it quieted but then on Black Friday flights to Tahiti dropped significantly and we bought tickets on the spot. Honestly, it was an extremely quick decision and for maybe an hour after we were thinking “what did we just do?!” but the fear vanished almost immediately and outside of our destination wedding and month long honeymoon to Bali, it was probably our next best decision!
DESTINATIONS:
Tahiti: Early on a Thursday morning we flew from Minneapolis to San Francisco, had a decent sized layover, then flew from SF to Tahiti and because of the time difference we were still able to land late Thursday night. We booked a cheap room through Airbnb for that night in Tahiti and the owner even picked us up from the airport which was awesome! The room basically acted as a place for us to shower and sleep because after a full night of sleep, we woke up Friday and headed to catch the ferry over to Moorea (a small but b e a u t i f u l island off the coast of Tahiti) as that’s where we were spending the first half of our trip. The ferry ride was a breeze as it only took 45 minutes and had food/beverages and AC!!!
Moorea: Once to the Moorea, we had to wait a decent chunk of time to find a taxi to take us to the resort so I’d definitely suggest pre-planning to rent a car if possible. For reference, (and because we did up renting a car) it was roughly $75 per day for our own car.
We arrived at the resort around mid-afternoon on Friday. We immediately checked in and had a few cocktails next to the beach then unpacked, enjoyed our amazing room, showered up, went to dinner at the hotel, watched the sunset (I can’t even BEGIN to describe how amazing both the sunrises and sunsets were here… unbelievable) and crashed hard after another long day of travel.
The next morning, we got up and enjoyed our coffee on our private dock over the lagoon with the most gorgeous mountains in the background while watching so many different assortments of fish swim by; sharks, sting rays, puffer fish, and thousands of others. Then we headed to the gym, grabbed breakfast and afterwards Austin scooped up our rental car so we could head over to the Lagoonarium to catch the shark feeding AKA swim with the sharks.
PRO TIP: Make sure you check the time of the feedings during the day or you could be waiting solo for the boat for a long time.
I was honestly pretty scared for this because it’s something I’ve never come close to experiencing before but it was AMAZING. It’s really just a small islet off the coast of Moorea where they feed sharks two times a day every day so the sharks linger around waiting for their chum all day. When we arrived, it was still about an hour out from feeding time so we were able to snorkel around the area and my heart literally stopped with every shark I saw. Let’s stop right there and clarify that these sharks were mostly blacktip reef sharks and not hammerheads or great whites however, it’s the ocean so you never know what you’re going to come across. But really, there were SO many sharks and it was a wild experience to be existing right alongside of them in their natural habitat. At feeding time, there were multiple situations when I was within inches of sharks going after their food and I thought many times they were going to run directly into me - so crazy. To calm things down towards the end of our time, the stingrays came out to say “hello” and swam with us, let us pet them and truly acted like pets -- they were so friendly!
That night, we made reservations for Rudy’s based on a ton of recommendations and they did not disappoint. They provided our transportation, their staff was the most friendly I’ve ever met (including Rudy himself), and the food and drinks were top notch. I had the parrot fish and it was the best seafood I’ve ever had, desert was bomb, don’t ask questions, just go. And once back at the hotel we spent some serious time watching the sharks and stingrays swim through the lagoon/underneath our bungalow -- one of my favorite things was having these normally insane sights right outside our doorstep.
Sunday is a day of rest on the island as religion is something they take very seriously. This means that a lot of the shops, excursions, etc. both within the hotels and across the island are closed so plan your trip accordingly. For us, we did find a small place to have breakfast (nothing special) then we hung out snorkeling, paddle boarding and enjoying the hotel/lagoon for most of the afternoon. As the daylight came closer to a close we headed up to Belvedere Mountain (a view you must see) then watched the sunset on the beach shores which seems to be what ALL of the locals do every night. Afterwards, we lucked out again in the dinner department when we walked into Le Lezard (another hot spot on the island) without a reservation and they made space for us. Another amazing spot for fresh ass seafood, just bring your bug spray (and you might want it for Belvedere Mountain too).
Monday morning we returned the car, packed our stuff and headed to the Moorea airport to catch our 45’ flight (including 1 stop) on a teeny tiny plane to Bora Bora.
While in Moorea we stayed in an over the water bungalow at the Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa where the location and the lagoon were top notch!! There was some construction going on and the food at the hotel was meh, HOWEVER I’d go back in a heartbeat for that freakin’ lagoon, the amazing local food and honestly some of the best views I’ve ever taken in.
Bora Bora: This second stop was not in our original plans because if you know anything about Bora Bora, you know how expensive it is to get there. This was NOT an area that we found a great deal on flights however we figured if we were already this close we might as well swing by and say hey;) Once we arrived at the airport in Bora Bora, which is located on an islet, we were picked up by our resort via boat since other than airplane, that’s the only way to access the airport. From there, it was a short 15 minute ride to Le Meridien Bora Bora which is located on the motu across from the main island of Bora Bora.
FYI: We opted to stay in a beach front bungalow rather than again doing an over the water villa because a) the beach bungalow actually looked nicer to us and b) the beach bungalow was much cheaper than the over the water villa and it was 100% the right choice. I’m so glad we opted for the over the water option in Moorea vs Bora Bora because the lagoon was so much more clear (as in you could always see the ocean floor), their outdoor spaces/private docks were much larger and the snorkeling was 1000% better. I’m not knocking Le Meridien, I’m just being honest and letting you know that the over the water option at our resort in Moorea was MUCH better than in Bora Bora.
Once we got a tour of the property and were shown our room for the rest of the week, we still had plenty of time in the day so we ate lunch, unpacked and hung at the beach until we were ready for dinner. Contrary to the food at the resort in Moorea, Le Meridien actually had some really great options to choose from and thus we opted to eat all of our meals at the resort rather than paying for a boat ride to the main island, paying for transportation while there & trying to find meals that we would both enjoy. It was much easier and actually ended up being cheaper for us as well.
While this was not the original plan, it ended up that for the entirety of our stay in Bora Bora, we chilled and enjoyed our time at the resort. We had initially planned to scuba dive but we screwed up and didn’t get our open water certifications beforehand (we dove in Bali but not enough to get certified) which a) limited where and how deep we could dive and b) added an extra day of training to the dives themselves c) would have doubled the cost of a dive w/ certifications so…. We said “next time” and plan to complete our open water certifications ASAP so we can dive wherever from now on.
Luckily, the resort had a lot of amenities to keep us busy; kayaking, paddle boarding, an amazing beach overlooking Mount Otemanu and best of all was that Le Meridien is home to the Bora Bora Turtle Center (a turtle sanctuary)!! We caught every sunrise, stole (shot) some epic photos, read, relaxed and spent a ton of time with the turtles. If you go, I highly recommend taking part both in the feeding program & the healing hour which is where you (as in just Austin & I) were able to snorkel with the sea turtles (and eels, puffer fish and so many other kinds of fish) in their private sanctuary. It was such a cool experience and the people who work there are full of knowledge so make sure you spend a good amount of time talking to them and learning more about the amazing work they do!!
Honestly, some people say that just chilling on a beach is “too boring” for them but it was exactly what we needed on the back half of this trip. A giant dose of Vitamin D, Vitamin Sea and lots of R&R in the most beautiful of places.
I said at the beginning of this that we don’t return to destinations we’ve already traveled but we’re buying a house in Moorea (eventually) so… that tells you a) that we’ll be returning and b) just how WORTH IT this trip really was. I can’t recommend either of these places enough, they are unlike anywhere we’ve ever been & I truly hope that every single one of you are able to experience the beauty and serenity of these places within your lifetime.
If you have questions about anything, I am more than happy to help so please reach out at britany@definefettle.com. I would love to hear from you and help in any way possible.
Happy Travels!
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