Trip Introduction: Summer in a Bora Bora Paradise

~ Chris Wada

For our latest international adventure, we made our way down to French Polynesia to explore both Tahiti and Bora Bora with the kids.

Out on a snorkel boat in the waters surrounding Bora Bora

This trip occurred in June 2025.

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Reason for the trip

Bora Bora has always been on our radar as a place we would love to visit. We’ve known others who have gone and fell in love with the region. In that sense, it was sort of an unofficial bucket list location. We don’t have a real bucket list, rather just a list of places we’d love to visit one day.

We know Bora Bora best as a popular honeymoon destination, but here we are bringing the kids along. Would kids be welcomed? That’s something that I wondered in the back of my mind. It was a question more if other guests wouldn’t mind the kids and if activities are open to having them. Well, we ended up finding out that other guests (many honeymooners) would chat with them. And Char even made friends with a young girl her age who spoke no English. Have no doubt, families are welcome here.

It was the third major trip in a row that involved us at a beach. First was our trip to The Bahamas last November. Then came our Caribbean cruise this past April. I wasn’t sure how those beach vacations would turn out, so I wanted to hedge my bets a little. I knew this trip would be perfect beach weather with pristine beaches (and it was!). No, we won’t be making it four beach trips in a row, as I figure we’re good for a while.

Flights

Can I just start by saying this is a difficult route to find with points? There aren’t many airlines offering service and award seats are just tough to find. And then trying to find four seats? It’s a challenge. I ended up changing my booked flights in both directions multiple times. Remember to always improve what you have.

United Polaris SFO-PPT

On the flight to Tahiti (PPT), we flew United Polaris out of SFO. We paid 85,000 United miles per person for the one-way flight in business class. I detailed the process a bit in a separate post. We had flights booked for 170,000 miles but several days before the flight, I saw that the price dropped in half. Always improve. Of course, our flight was delayed a good four hours heading to PPT, so we were a bit concerned that we weren’t going to make it at the time. But we got to spend plenty of time at the Polaris SFO lounge at least.

Air Moana and Air Tahiti

Once in Tahiti, we needed to get to and from Bora Bora (BOB). On the outbound, we flew Air Moana, which flew a triangle route and briefly stopped in Moorea (MOZ). On the inbound, we flew Air Tahiti nonstop. Both flights are pretty comparable, and I was able to book both using the travel credit from our Capital One Venture X cards. It’s cool saving money when we can. No, I didn’t book with points.

The flights themselves are pretty basic with no frills. While you could book premium seats, there’s almost no benefit in doing so. You’ll get early boarding (but will be the last to get off since everyone exits at the back. You get extra baggage but we didn’t need it. And the seats are the same as everyone else’s. So just book yourself in the regular cabin.

Air France business class PPT-LAX

On the flight home to LAX, we flew Air France in business class, booked with cash. I originally booked this flight using Amex points with the points 35% points refund feature on the Amex Platinum Business card. The flight cost $6,900 for the four of us, and so the feature would have cost us only 448,503 points. But I hit a snag–it auto-attached my Air France number when I didn’t want it to do that. So I had to cancel and rebook with cash out of concern the fare would disappear. The flight itself was very pleasant with a nicer cabin than the last time we flew Air France.

Hotels

The main point of this trip was to spend time in Bora Bora. But based on the timing of our flights, we needed an overnight in Tahiti on the inbound and a two-night stay on the outbound.

Boutique Kon Tiki Hotel

Since we were only here for a single night, I debated staying at the Hilton, which many regard as one of the two best properties on the island. But fitting four in a single room is very expensive, and I didn’t want to spend too much money buying two rooms. I also debated the Tahiti Airport Hotel, but it requires a walk up a rather steep slope through a road that sometimes is closed. So instead I turned to this hotel, which was booked with cash.

The hotel gave us a chance to see a little bit of the city of Papeete, which isn’t a bad spot to stay. There is a small kitchen setup in the room we booked and we didn’t need to book two rooms. The hotel is walkable to other places in the city, but do know that the party was raging until the wee hours of the morning. It didn’t bother us that much since the room had a set of two sliding glass doors. That helps.

St. Regis Bora Bora

I’ve heard various reports that the hotel has lost some of its charm over the years. But I also heard that they treat children well. So that last bit ultimately swayed my decision to stay here. We paid for the room with 538,000 Marriott points + 222,800 XPF (roughly $2,100US) to book into a room that fits the four of us. Sadly, while the hotel used to have a kids club when we booked our room, it had since closed down. That was disappointing.

I have to look at the hotel relative to its price tag. It has a great hard product and we found the food incredibly delicious at each hotel. Service was a bit of a mixed bag, however. Some requests didn’t show up when promised or even never showed up. We had two great butlers at the start of the trip, but their break coincided with the last two days of our trip. And service significantly dropped from there. It really makes me wonder how the experience can vary so greatly between who is assigned to your room.

We’ll break down our thoughts a bit more when we get to this post.

Intercontinental Tahiti

On our second visit to Tahiti, we stayed at the Intercontinental Tahiti, which required us to pay for two rooms. I did so with a bunch of Delta Amex credits. Somehow they picked up our IHG numbers despite me putting down my Delta SkyMiles number on the reservation. Perhaps it’s the name match plus using the same email for the stay? But whatever the reason, they extended the benefits of my Platinum and Jenn’s Gold status to this stay. We even earned IHG points after the stay. What a pleasant surprise!

One of the pools at the hotel was down for construction, but otherwise we enjoyed the stay. It’s a great resort for families. The hard product isn’t as polished as what was on the St. Regis Bora Bora, but service felt more consistent and prices are much lower. It would feel a bit of a waste to stay here for just one night, so a minimum of two nights is recommended.

Thanks for reading along

We’ll get more into the activities we did and the food we had both at the hotel and on the island. But before we get to all the individual posts, we just wanted to extend our thanks to you, the reader. We’re appreciative that you want to read along on our adventures. Hope it helps you when planning your own adventures!

As always, we will give you the good along with the bad to help you make an informed decision for yourselves.

Thanks!

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