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There is simply too much to say about the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa to fit into one blog post so I’m going to split this review up into more manageable sizes.
In this section of the review I’m going to focus on the transfer from the airport to the resort, the check-in process and our first look around the resort grounds and its amenities. Other blog posts will cover the accommodation, the dining and how we booked our trip.
Note: There are two InterContinental resorts in Bora Bora – IC La Moana and IC Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa. This review is for the second of those properties which I’ll be referring to as the InterContinental Bora Bora for the purposes of this review.
Location
Bora Bora is part of a group of islands (French Polynesia) which sit in a remarkably isolated part of the Pacific ocean (click image to expand).
And when you get to the main island in French Polynesia (Tahiti), Bora Bora is still a distance to the North West:
Bora Bora itself is a series of small islands circling one larger central island:
Arrival Into Bora Bora
Bora Bora airport is as small as I imagined it would be and we got a great view of the narrow strip of land on which it sits as we were coming in to land:
Bora Bora airport (BOB) from the air
Once you’re on the ground it’s a short walk from the aircraft to the main airport building (which isn’t much larger than an average sized shop).
Bora Bora Airport – Main Building
As with most small airports, you walk into the main building through the same doors that departing passengers use to exit so you walk though a small gate area when you first get inside.
Once through the gate area you’re immediately in the arrivals area where a number of the resorts have desks with representatives waiting to greet their arriving guests. The InterContinental Bora Bora’s desk was one of the first ones we saw.
Arrivals Area Bora Bora Airport
The resort’s agent welcomed us to Bora Bora with the customary lei and handed us luggage tags for our checked baggage (which we did not yet have).
The next step in what turned out to be a reasonably efficient process, was to pick up our checked bags from the collection area a few feet away from the resorts’ desks, tag them and then hand them back to the resort’s agent who handled them from there.
Transfer To The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort
There are two primary ways of getting to the InterContinental Bora Bora:
One is inexpensive and involves the free Air Tahiti shuttle boat to Vaitape (on the main island of Bora Bora) followed by a 10-12 minute taxi ride to the InterContinental La Mona followed by a free shuttle from the La Moana resort to the InterContinental Bora Bora.
The second costs $60/person (each way) and involves the resort’s own shuttle boat.
As thrifty as I like to be I knew that at this stage of our travels we wouldn’t want to turn a 20 minute boat ride into a tour of Bora Bora…..not after an overnight flight from LA, a few hours at the airport in Tahiti and a 50 minute flight over to Bora Bora. So I had pre-booked the hotel’s shuttle boat.
The boats for the various resorts dock right up against the airport’s arrivals area so there isn’t exactly far to walk…..
Bora Bora airport dock – to the right is the arrivals area
….and, after a wait of around 15 minutes, our nondescript transport arrived:
InterContinental Bora Bora Shuttle Boat
I wouldn’t exactly call it luxurious…..
InterContinental Bora Bora Shuttle Boat
…but there was more then enough room onboard for everyone (I think we had 12 passengers and one driver onboard) and the ride over to the resort didn’t take longer than 20 minutes.
We passed a couple of resorts as we headed towards the InterContinental Bora Bora but it was only when our resort’s overwater bungalows came into view that the whole trip suddenly began to become real…..
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa
…and the jet lag and tiredness quickly dropped away as we got closer to the resort’s jetty and we were greeted by a blow on a conch shell.
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa
Arrival At the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa
Once on dry land we were picked up by a golf cart and driven on a brief tour of the resort (pictures later) before being dropped off at the resort’s reception building.
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa
Here’s a map of the resort to give you an idea of where everything is located (click to enlarge)….
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Resort Map
….the resort’s dock (or “marina” as they call it) is labelled “A” towards the right side of the diagram and the reception building is labelled “B”.
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Reception Desk
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – One of the seating areas at reception
At reception we were greeted by a member of staff who ushered us over to a seating area overlooking the lagoon…..
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Seating area at reception
…and offered us scented cold towels and ice tea infused with Tahitian Vanilla:
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Cold towels and Iced Tea with Tahitian Vanilla
Both were very welcome as, although still only around 9am, it was getting hotter and more humid.
There were only two members of staff available to check in the twelve of us who had arrived on the boat but, luckily, Joanna and I were third couple in line to be checked-in so the wait wasn’t too bad.
The only issue we had at check-in was apparently down to a misunderstanding:
A few days before our arrival I had called up the resort to check on a few things and, thanks to suggestions from Flyertalk, the dining options were high on my list of questions. I was told that upon arrival we’d have the choice of paying for half-board or just going for the half-price breakfast option….. but when it came to checking in it turned out that the half-board option isn’t available to those on award night stays. Mildly annoying but no more than that. I’ll go into more detail on this when I write the post on the various dining options at the resort.
That misunderstanding aside, check-in was pretty smooth.
Post Check-in
At this point it wasn’t even 10:30am and with the official check-in time not until 2pm I was beginning to wonder what we could do to (a) freshen up after a lot of hours in planes and airports and (b) get changed. Luckily the resort was ready for this – very ready.
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort has a building equipped with a number of dayrooms (just across from the reception area – building C on the resort map) and we were allocated one of them as soon as check-in formalities had been concluded.
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Dayrooms
Shortly after arriving at our day room a bellman showed up with our luggage and we were all set.
The dayroom wasn’t particularly large but it was nicely air-conditioned and was more than enough to suit our needs.
There was a sofa/padded bench and a side table….
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Dayroom
….a good-sized wardrobe……
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Dayroom
…a bathroom…..
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Dayroom
…and, most importantly of all, a shower!
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Dayroom
The really big bonus in all of this was that the dayroom wasn’t just ours until we’d freshened up…it was ours until the resort had our room ready and that was fantastic.
It was still a few hours before we’d have our allocated room so the fact that we had a place to rest and cool down (in between walks around the resort) really got our visit to a great start.
All that there was left to do was to spend the next few hours taking a look around the resort and enjoy finally being in Bora Bora.
The Resort
I may as well get this next bit out of the way now – the resort is gorgeous and beautifully maintained but no photo I’m capable of taking does the place justice…so bear that in mind as you view the pictures I took.
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – View of Bora Bora’s central island
The pool area sits at the heart of the resort but, thanks to the gorgeous lagoon on which the resort is built, is probably one the least used pools I’ve come across (at least while we were there):
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Pool Area
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Pool Area
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Pool Area
Just past the pool is the narrow beach that the resort sits on:
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach
Bora Bora doesn’t actually have any real beaches – at least not what most people would call beaches – they’re more like strips of sand and that’s why most of the resorts have a lot of overwater bungalows.
Nevertheless, what there was of the beach was very nicely looked after and there were more than enough places to sit or lie down while enjoying the fantastic surroundings:
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach
You can even have lunch and dinner on the beach if you so choose:
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach Dining
If you have an aversion to sand but still want to enjoy the views you get from the beach, the resort caters for you too – there’s a grass area set just behind the beach with more loungers and hammocks:
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach
The beach even hints at some of the activities you can do while you’re at the resort:
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach
As well as the pool and the enormous lagoon that the resort sits on, the InterContinental has incorporated a few closed-in lagoon areas which beautify the surroundings:
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Lagoon with wedding chapel
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Seating around one of the smaller lagoons
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Small lagoon with wedding chapel
Even some of the rooms from the Thalasso Spa overlook their own lagoon with coral farms and hundreds of juvenile reef fish.
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Spa rooms overlooking a lagoon
It’s hard to overstate just how nice the resort looks and how much effort is clearly put into maintaining it to very high standards (they even rake the beach!). It was a great place just to walk around.
After having some lunch in the restaurant by the beach and relaxing and taking in the scenery we headed back to reception to get an update on our room – it was ready. The time was just about 2pm and we were finally going to see what an InterContinental Bora Bora overwater bungalow was like. Would it live up to the hype and expectations? I’ll post details later in the week 🙂
[…] you can book with IHG Rewards points – and this is part 2 of the review of the resort. In part 1 of the review I looked at the location of the resort, the arrivals process, our check-in and the first impressions […]