Because of its fame and beauty, little Bora Bora is a playground for the well-to-do, the occasional celeb, and honeymooners blowing a wad. Though some travel industry professionals think the half-atoll/half-mountain is already overbuilt and overpriced, if you've never been here before, you'll still be able to appreciate why James A. Michener named it the world's most beautiful island.
Lying 230km (143 miles) northwest of Tahiti, Bora Bora is a middle-aged island consisting of a high center completely surrounded by a lagoon, enclosed by coral reef. What gives the island its beauty is its combination of sand-fringed motus (small islets) along the outer reef, the multihued lagoon cutting deep bays into the central high island, and Bora Bora's trademark -- the towering basaltic tombstone known as Mount Otemanu (725m/2,379 ft.). Next to Otemanu is the more normal-looking Mount Pahia (660m/2,165 ft.). Because the mountains are relatively low, Bora Bora doesn't get as much rain as Tahiti, Moorea, and Raiatea.
Vaitape is the main village on the island's west coast and sits opposite Teavanui Pass, the only entrance through the coral reef into the lagoon. This is the focal point for island life and your visit.
One of the best beaches in French Polynesia stretches for more than 3km (2 miles) around a flat, coconut-studded peninsula known as Matira Point, which juts out from the island's southern end.
Fast Facts
- Coming Ashore -- Cruise ships anchor in the lagoon and tender to Vaitape.
- Language -- Tahitians speak a blend of French and Tahitian. English is a popular language, too, especially in touristy Bora Bora. Most people speak English un petit peu; that is, a little bit.
- Currency -- Local currency is the French Polynesian Franc (CPF). At press time, 1 CPF=US11¢, or US$1=88.90CPF.
- Information -- The Bora Bora Comité du Tourisme, B.P. 144, Vaitape, Bora Bora (tel./fax 67-76-36), has an office in the large building on the north side of the Vaitape wharf.
- Calling from the U.S. -- Dial (011), then the international country code for French Polynesia (689) and then the six-digit phone number.
Getting Around
There is no public transportation system on Bora Bora, but there are other options: Taxi, rental car, bike, or your own two feet.
Europcar (tel. 800/227-7368 or 67-70-15; www.europcar.com) and a local firm Fare-Piti Rent a Car (tel. 76-65-28) have offices at Vaitape wharf where cruise-ship tenders come ashore. Fare-Piti also rents scooters, and both agencies rent bicycles. Bikes cost about 1,300CFP ($15) for 2 hours and 1,500 ($17) for eight hours. Scooters cost about 6,000CFP ($67) for four hours and 7,000 ($79) for eight hours.
Except for a short stretch on the east cost, the 32km (19 miles) of road around Bora Bora are paved. Most of the roads are flat, but be very cautious on the unpaved portion, which climbs a steep hill. Drive or ride slowly and carefully, and always be on the lookout for pigs, chickens, pedestrians, and dogs.
Taxis do not patrol Bora Bora looking for passengers, but several firms have transport licenses, which means they can come get you when you call. Restaurants will contact a taxi for you, or you can phone Charley Taruoura (tel. 67-64-37 or 78-27-71), Otemanu Tours (tel. 67-70-49), or Jacques Isnard (tel. 67-72-25). Taxis aren't metered, so be sure to agree on a fare with the driver before setting out.
Best Cruiseline Shore Excursions
Coral Preservation and Snorkeling Program ($139, 3 hours): Denis Schneider, who has a doctorate in marine biology, is your guide during this educational snorkel program. During a 45-minute guided tour, you'll snorkel in a coral garden and help collect damaged coral. Then it's off to the Bora Bora Pearl Beach Resort's coral nursery to see how the damaged corals are restored and returned to the water. The tour builds in some time to relax and sunbathe at the resort's beach before transferring back to your ship.
Land and Sea safari with snorkeling ($89, 3 1/2 hours): This is a tour in three acts: Ride to the top of Pahonu Hill in a 4x4 for a view of the lagoon and neighboring islands, head back down and transfer to a canoe for some snorkeling, and then sit back and relax in your canoe as it heads back to the ship.
Tapu and Toopua two-tank dive: ($142, 3 1/2 hours): Both sites offer a reef mount extending nearly 100 feet underwater. Among the fish making their home here: Black-tip sharks, lemon sharks and moray eels.
Bora Bora Island tour by "Le Truck" ($49, 3 hours): The island's colorful open-air trucks, typically used as buses, serve as your vehicle for a guided tour around Bora Bora.
Motu Islet Lagoon Cruise ($79, 3 hours): There's no big history lesson here and no real exertion either, except when you climb in and out of the 40-foot boat that serves as your tour transportation. The boat whisks you around Bora Bora's world-famous lagoon before depositing you on a motu (a little island) for an 1 1/2 hour of swimming and sunbathing (or you can pop down a tropical fruit or two). Lounge around on the beach and gaze up at Bora Bora's distinctive peaks as you contemplate about how jealous your friends would be if they knew what you were up to.
On Your Own: The Circle Line Tour
Begin at the wharf in Vaitape, where there's a monument to French yachtsman Alain Gerbault, who sailed his boat around the world between 1923 and 1929 and lived to write a book about it (thus adding to Bora Bora's fame). From the wharf, head counterclockwise around the island on its main road. The road soon curves along the shore of Povai Bay, where mounts Otemanu and Pahia tower over you. Take your time as you make your way along this bay; the views here are the best on Bora Bora. When you reach the area around Bloody Mary's Restaurant, stop for a killer view, back across the water, of Mount Otemanu.
Hanging out at Bloody Mary's Restaurant & Bar, in Povai Bay (tel. 67-72-86), is as much a part of the Bora Bora experience as is taking a lagoon excursion. Lunch at this seafood specialist is offered from 11am to 3pm; if your ship is staying in Bora Bora overnight consider making reservations for dinner (or just stop in for a drink). Ceiling fans, colored spotlights, and stalks of dried bamboo dangle from a large thatch roof over a floor of fine white sand. The butcher-block tables are made of coconut-palm lumber, and the seats are sections of palm trunks cut into stools.
The road climbs the small headland, where a huge banyan tree marks the entrance to the Hotel Bora Bora on Raititi Point, then runs smoothly along curving Matira Beach, one of the South Pacific's finest. You can do some good snorkeling just off the end of the beach closest to the hotel.
When the road curves sharply to the left, look for a narrow paved road to the right. This leads to Matira Point, the low, sandy, coconut-studded peninsula that extends out from Bora Bora's south end. Down this track about 50 yards is a public beach on the west side of the peninsula, opposite the Inter-Continental Bora Bora Beachcomber Resort. The lagoon is shallow all the way out to the reef at this point, but the bottom is smooth and sandy. Up the east coast, you'll pass through the island's busy hotel and restaurant district before climbing a steep hill above Club Med. A trail cuts off to the right on the north side of the hill and goes to the Aehautai Marae, one of several old temples on Bora Bora. This particular one has a great view of Mount Otemanu and the blue outlines of Raiatea and Tahaa islands beyond the motus on the reef.
Continuing on, you will head through a long stretch of coconut plantations before entering Anau, a typical Polynesian village with a large church, a general store, and tin-roofed houses crouched along the road.
The road goes over two hills at Point Haamaire, the main island's easternmost extremity, about 4km (2 1/2 miles) north of Anau village. Between the two hills on the lagoon side of the road stands Aehautai Marae, a restored temple. Out on the point is Taharuu Marae, which has a great view of the lagoon. The Americans installed more naval guns in the hills above the point.
On the deserted northwest coast you will ride through several miles of coconut plantations pockmarked by thousands of holes made by the land crabs known as tupas. After turning at the northernmost point, you pass a group of over water bungalows and another group of houses, which climb the hill. Some of these are expensive condominiums; the others are part of defunct project that was to have been a Hyatt resort. Across the lagoon are Motu Mute and the airport.
Faanui Bay was used during World War II as an Allied naval base. It's not marked, but the U.S. Navy's Seabees built the concrete wharf on the north shore as a seaplane ramp. Just beyond the main shipping wharf at the point on the south side of Faanui Bay is the restored Marotetini Marae, which in pre-European days was dedicated to navigators. In his novel Hawaii, James Michener had his fictional Polynesians leave this point to discover and settle the Hawaiian Islands. Nearby are tombs in which members of Bora Bora's former royal family are buried. If you look offshore at this point, you'll see the only pass into the lagoon. The remains of two U.S. guns that guarded it stand on the hill above but are best visited on a safari tour.
As you enter Vaitape, Magasin Chin Lee is a major gathering place for local residents. It's a good place to soak up some island culture while trimming your thirst with a cold bottle of Eau Royale water.
Lagoon Outings
If you have your heart set on a particular pastime (diving, say), then double-check with tour providers before you get to the island. Some of these operators work directly with the cruise lines and they might not be able to accommodate you unless you book their tours through the shore excursion desk onboard.
Some excursions go to the Bora Bora Lagoonarium (tel. 67-71-34), a fenced-in underwater area off a motu near Le Meridien Bora Bora, where you can swim with (and maybe even ride) the manta rays and observe the sharks (which are on the other side of the fence here). The Lagoonarium is open Sunday to Friday.
Certified and noncertified scuba divers alike can swim among the islands coral heads, sharks, rays, eels, and some 1,000 species of colorful tropical fishes out in the lagoon. Both 30-minute introductory courses and one-tank lagoon dives cost about 6,500CFP ($73), and open-water and night dives are priced at 8,000CFP ($90). Adjacent to Hotel Bora Bora, friendly dive operators Michel and Anne Condesse offer morning, afternoon, and evening dives from their Bora Diving Center (tel. 67-71-84; www.boradive.com). They provide buoyancy compensators, fins, snorkels, wetsuits, regulators, and all other equipment (but be prepared for the metric system; depth and pressure gauges display measurements in meters and kilograms). The island's other major dive operator, TOPdive Bora Bora (tel. 60-50-50; www.topdive.com), also has top-of-the line equipment and some of the best dive boats in French Polynesia. Its base is on the northern outskirts of Vaitape.
For combined sailing and fishing, American Richard Postma's Tara Vana (tel. 800/200-1213 in the U.S., or 67-77-79; www.taravana.com) is the world's first sail-powered luxury game fishing boat. Sailing or fishing costs from 90,000CFP ($1,000) for a half day.
You don't have to stay at the Bora Bora Beach Club (tel. 60-59-50) to use their equipment and facilities, but you do have to pay a fee. You can go water-skiing, sail on Hobie Cats, paddle canoes, and get a bird's-eye view of the lagoon while hanging below a parasail.
Shopping
Local artisans display their straw hats, pareus, and other handicraft items at Bora Bora I Te Fanau Tahi (no phone), in the large hall at the Vaitape wharf. It's always open when cruise ships are in the lagoon. Boutique Bora Bora in Vaitape, opposite the ferry wharf, tel. 67-79-72, caters to the cruise ship crowd. This store has more T-shirts and pareus than most others here, plus it sells woodcarvings, books, calendars, curios, and a few black pearls. It's a good place to stock up on Hinano beer glasses. It's open Monday through Saturday 8am to 5:30pm.
In a white house next to Le Jardin Gauguin, 1.5km (1 mile) north of Hotel Bora Bora in Povai Bay, Boutique Gauguin (tel. 67-76-67), offers a selection of handicrafts, clothing, and black pearls in addition to curio items such as ashtrays and coasters featuring the works of Paul Gauguin. Some of its pareus are particularly artistic. It's open daily from 9am to 6pm.
Matira Pearls, on the east side of Matira Point (tel. 67-79-14), is one of the best places on the islands to shop for black pearls. it's operated by two Americans -- Steve Fearon, whose family once owned a piece of Hotel Bora Bora, and Steve Donnatin, who's been living here since 1984. Unlike other stores, the customized settings here are designed to emphasize the pearl, not the gold. The shop also has a selection of bathing suits, aloha shirts, and T-shirts. It's open Monday through Saturday 9am to 5:30pm.
In addition to black pearls and woodcarvings, Moana Arts & Pearls, on Raititi Point near Hotel Bora Bora (tel. 67-66-00), carries some of the dramatic works of noted photographer Erwin Christian, who settled in the islands in the 1960s. You will inevitably see Erwin's photos in numerous books and on many postcards. It's open Monday through Saturday 9am to 5:30pm.
Great Restaurants and Local Bars
A meal at Bloody Mary's Restaurant & Bar, in Povai Bay (tel. 67-72-86) is almost a requisite Bora Bora experience. When ships are in port, a lunch menu featuring burgers, fish-and-ships, and salads is served; dinner features excellent steaks and seafood. Reservations are strongly recommended for dinner. Main courses at lunch cost 950CFP to 1,400CFP ($9.50-$14); you'll pay 2,600CFP to 5,000CFP ($26-$50) for dinner.
The Matira Bar & Restaurant, Matira (tel. 67-70-51) literally hangs over the beach and is an excellent spot for a lagoonside lunch. The menu features good Cantonese cuisine that won't bust your budget. Main courses: 1,200CFP-2,000CFP ($12-$20).
