Intercontinental Tahiti Review: One of the Best Resorts on the Island

The Intercontinental Tahiti is one of just two chain resorts that offer up a taste of paradise on the island. Surprisingly, it’s close to the airport.

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Booking

Based on flight availability between the United States and Tahiti, we needed to spend two nights on Tahiti. The decision of where to stay ultimately came down to either the Hilton Hotel Tahiti or the Intercontinental Tahiti Resort & Spa. While both hotels had options that fit a family of four, the base level rooms at each hotel only fit two.

I wasn’t thrilled about the thought of paying 80,000 Hilton points per night per room. So, instead I booked via Delta Stays. I had three credits to use at a hotel booked via Delta Stays with all the Delta Amex credit cards I had. That left me with some creativity to use them on this stay.

One room would be booked as a two-night stay, using up one $200 credit.
A second room would be booked as two back-to-back one-night stays, using up both a $250 credit and a $200 credit.

After credits, the total cost was $878 for two rooms, two nights each (or just under $220/night). Without discount, it would have been $1,528 (or $382/night)–not as easy a decision to make but not terrible. It might have been cheaper to pick a hotel that didn’t require two rooms, but we wanted a chance to check out the resort.

Earning IHG points (and Delta Stays credit)

Full disclosure: in this section are refer-a-friend links where I may earn some points for referring. There is no requirement to use the below referral links to apply but note your offer may differ when going directly to the card issuer.

There were nights available for IHG points when we stayed here. Free nights vary in cost each night, but you might be able to find them for 79,000 points each night. We’ve seen other nights cost above 100,000 points each, so happy hunting.

If you’d like to earn some IHG points to stay here, check out the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card (refer-a-friend link). Right now, you could earn 140,000 IHG points for spending $3,000 in the first three months of opening the account. Not a bad option for just a $99 annual fee. That’s close to earning enough for up to two nights here.

If you want to instead stock up on Delta Stay credits, you can choose any of the Delta Platinum or Reserve credit cards (personal or business):

Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card comes with a $150 Delta Stays credit
Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business Card (refer-a-friend link) comes with a $200 Delta Stays credit
Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card comes with a $200 Delta Stays credit
Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business Card (refer-a-friend link) comes with a $250 Delta Stays credit

Arrival and First Impressions of the Intercontinental Tahiti

When we landed, we made our way over to the taxi stand. Thankfully, we knew where we were going since we just did it on our visit to the Kon Tiki Tahiti. There is a sign that helps explain the taxi pricing, which should be followed if you’re getting picked up from the airport.

We made our way over to the end of the taxi stand… and waited. It took at least half an hour for enough taxis to show up. There was a phone at the taxi stand, but picking it up just gave a dial tone with no instructions on who to call. The phone did ring while we were standing there, but it was just someone calling to complain about a ride. All I could say was that the caller had the wrong person, but that person insisted on chatting with me, imploring me to help. If only I could!

Anyways, we made it over to the Intercontinental after a very short five minute drive. We probably could have walked the distance, but didn’t want to handle both the luggage and the kids.

The lobby has a tall ceiling and plenty of fresh air.

We made our way over to the check-in line. We showed up at 2:30, before the official check-in time. One of the rooms was ready, so we took it. Thankfully, the hotel stuck us in connecting rooms, which made it easy. The front desk also said breakfast was included in our rate. I knew that wasn’t the case as I didn’t book the breakfast rate, and I turned out to be correct.

The front desk also cheerfully handed out some coconut bites as a light bite during the check-in process.

Somehow our IHG status was picked up

The hotel agent thanked me for my Platinum status …wait what? Nowhere in the booking process did it ask for my IHG loyalty number. I certainly didn’t reach out to the hotel to let them know my number. But here the hotel figured it out on their own. Maybe it’s because my name and email address exactly matched my IHG loyalty account? They even matched up Jenn’s information on their own too.

Sure enough, after the stay I would earn both Delta SkyMiles and IHG points for the stay. An unexpected benefit but an awesome bonus!

IHG Platinum benefits

Let’s take a moment to review the official benefits of IHG Platinum status at the Intercontinental Tahiti.

Welcome amenity at check-in (two drink coupons per night)
Complimentary upgrade, if available
Late check-out, if available
Free internet

While I didn’t get a complimentary upgrade, Jenn did. Due to available rooms at the Intercontinental Tahiti, I had to book her in a lower category room, while I was in the “high floor” room. But the hotel still put us in connecting rooms and said it was no problem to place us on the higher floor. I’ll take that. All we needed was to stick together.

If you read the terms of the drink coupons, it sounds like they’re only good for a beer, a glass of wine, or a non-alcoholic beverage. But they’re actually valid on practically any drink, including smoothies, mocktails, and cocktails. Just show the ticket and ask what you can get.

Map of hotel rooms at the Intercontinental Tahiti

For those wanting to see a map of all rooms at the Intercontinental Tahiti, refer to the image below. There are some overwater bungalows available. The price of these are much lower than what they cost on Bora Bora. Most rooms at the property feel like what I could best describe as a standard Hawaiian resort.

The room

We walked through the pathway from the front desk to the room.

We quickly got over to our rooms for this stay, 316 and 317. We’ll describe the layout for room 317 but the two are mirror images of each other.

Inside, we found a nice, firm king-sized bed. The room had a very clean feeling, with no carpet and plenty of shades of white.

The chair acted as a bit of an accent chair with the bold, green leaves. The desk has that layer of glass on it, making it a pain to use an optical mouse. There is a coffee machine on the desk should you need it.

Inside the desk, there’s also a mini-fridge, filled with two bottles of water.

Across from the bed is a long bench perfect for storing luggage. Above it was a modest-sized TV. We didn’t use the TV–a common theme among our hotel stays–so I can’t comment on the programming.

Next to the bed were a variety of outlets. It’s convenient they have the US outlets and the EU versions, though it would be more convenient to make them all universal outlets.

The connecting room door was surprisingly nicely decorated. Far too often, the doors stand out as an eyesore but the padded look of these doors added to the aesthetics of the room.

Each room had a small balcony with a table and two chairs. And, look, an ash tray. Been a while since I’ve seen one of those in a hotel room. Thankfully, the room did not smell of cigarette smoke at all.

The view from the room was of the ocean and the water sports area.

You can also get views of Moorea from the room. That’s neat waking up and seeing Moorea when stepping just outside.

Bathroom

The bathroom is rather compact, but didn’t feel cramped, if that makes sense. Just inside is a small sink and countertop. There is a hairdryer here too, but it’s not very effective.

Across from the sink is a small closet where you can hang up your clothes and store your items. Given how few hangers they give, they clearly don’t expect most guests to stay here a long time.

And then in the corner is a shower and toilet.

Inside the shower, you really get a sense of how tight the space is. It was still plenty of space for us to wash the kids.

The toiletries in the shower weren’t branded. They were just OK.

Wi-Fi

We did immediately try to connect to the Wi-Fi. It was surprisingly difficult to connect on our cell phones. That’s because the splash screen came up very briefly and failed, but I randomly caught a glimpse of the reivernet.com website that showed. So entering that into the browser made the internet work. Tricky.

The internet speeds weren’t enough for most people, but far better than what we had at the St. Regis Bora Bora. So, we were happy.

Pillow menu

Want a choice of pillows for your stay? The Intercontinental Tahiti has a collection of pillows from which you can request.

We didn’t need any pillows, but it’s never a bad thing when hotels make alternative options available, especially for those with allergies.

Other notices from the hotel

There was a notice in the room regarding swarming mayflies. We didn’t see any at the property–either outdoors or inside our room. Not sure if something was lost in translation, but it seems interesting that should we see them, the recommendation is to “turn off the lights in order to avoid your room to be invaded”. Do they just move from room to room to see who might be home and break in? Sounds like a scary movie plotline that hasn’t been explored.

The night before departure, we received some mail under the door. It’s been a while since we saw that. I fully expected it to be a bill, but it was just a reminder to give the front desk a ring if transportation was necessary. At check-in, they asked already if we needed a taxi to the airport, which was good to get because we left quite early. I’m glad they call a standard taxi and not a luxury car service.

Recommendation: Yes

We’ll talk separately about the food and activities at the Intercontinental Tahiti, but we enjoyed our time here. It’s not as luxurious as our prior stay at the St. Regis Bora Bora, but it was a good transition for us back to the real world. It’s still a great property in its own right, and it’s well worth the price we paid. It’s conveniently close to the airport, but otherwise will require a taxi ride practically anywhere else you want to go on the island. That’s a fair trade off to stay at a nicer property.

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