The third island on our 17-day honeymoon in French Polynesia was Bora Bora. I had always dreamed of visiting this island. From the numerous shades of blues in the water, to the variety of sea life and the luxurious overwater bungalows, Bora Bora has something for everyone. The main island of Bora Bora is surrounded by several tiny barrier islands, called motus. In between the main island and the motus, the water is crystal clear and calm with tons of reef to explore. 

Most of the luxurious resorts are located on the outer motus, but we wanted to see the main island as well. For this reason, we decided to split our stay in Bora Bora into two parts: three days would be spent at an Airbnb on the main island, followed by two days at an overwater bungalow on a motu.

Day 1

Getting to our Airbnb

The Bora Bora airport is located on one of the motus, so you will need to take a boat to get to the main island or one of the other motus if you’re staying at a resort. The airport provides a free shuttle to the main island. We had arranged a taxi pickup with our Airbnb host a couple days before our arrival date. The driver was waiting for us when we arrived in the town of Vaitape. Our Airbnb was on the southern tip of the island, next to Matira Beach. The taxi ride took about 25 minutes to get there.

Check in

We met our Airbnb host at our place, and she walked us through the house. We then walked to the nearest grocery store to get some food for breakfasts and bottled water.

Dinner at Lucky House

Our meal at Lucky House was one of our favorites of the entire trip! We’d made a reservation beforehand for 6:30. When we arrived, there weren’t many people there yet, but it got busy around 7. For dinner, we split a Caesar salad, and each got the scallops with shrimp risotto. Dessert was creme brulee served in a coconut shell. Amazing!!

Day 2

Snorkeling Tour with Lagoon Services

One of the most highly recommended activities in Bora Bora is a sharks and stingrays snorkeling tour. We chose to go with Lagoon Services. This was one of our favorite days of our trip!

Pickup from Hotel

There are multiple Lagoon Services boats, and where you are staying will decide which boat you’ll be on. Since we were staying in an Airbnb across the street from the Intercontinental, I originally thought we could be picked up from there. However, the resort does not let the public in to use their dock, so we ended up having to meet the boat at Hotel Maitai Polynesia, about a 10-minute walk from our Airbnb. Two Lagoon Services boats arrived around 9:20 and we jumped on the boat that had our name on their list. Our guide explained that we would be taking a tour all the way around the island, with four stops. 

Stop 1: Snorkeling with Sharks and Stingrays

Our driver parked the boat in the bluest water I’ve ever seen. Our guide hopped out, and the water was about chest deep. A stingray immediately swam over to the guide because she recognized him! He said she comes up to him every time they stop there. He put his arms out and she swam right into them and just stayed there. We were all able to pet her and take turns holding her ourselves. This was such a magical experience!

After we’d gotten our fill of holding the stingray, we put our snorkels on and swam around, surrounded by dozens of sharks and stingrays. The sharks are blacktip reef sharks and are not interested in humans whatsoever. They all swim right past you as if you’re just another big fish. I could’ve stayed in this place all day.

Stop 2: Snorkeling with Sharks in the Open Ocean

Our guide explained that we’d be going out of the reef into the open ocean to snorkel with sharks next. I wondered how that was different from what we’d just done. As soon as they parked the boat, at least a few dozen sharks started circling our boat. The water was deep here, so they gave us fins to swim more easily. Those who needed life jackets got them. 

We jumped in, which felt a little unnatural since there were so many sharks swimming around. As soon as I put my face in the water, I was blown away by how BLUE the water was. We were surrounded by (friendly) sharks, and it was just such a unique experience. This was my favorite stop of the day. Most of the other people had gotten back on the boat, but Mike and I swam around for over an hour, diving down deeper and loving every minute.

Stop 3: Coral Garden

Our last snorkeling stop was back inside the reef, next to the motu with the airport. They parked the boat right next to the reef so we could get out and adjust our snorkels. The water was just deep enough to swim through the reef and see all the amazing colorful fish. Our guide had some dead fish that he gave to all of us, which attracted tons of fish to come eat out of our hands. It felt like we were inside an aquarium!

Stop 4: Polynesian Buffet

The final stop of the day was the most delicious: an authentic Polynesian buffet, with all sorts of delicacies. We loaded up our palm leaf plates and enjoyed listening to our guide and another boat’s guide sing and play ukulele. After lunch, they taught us how to make the palm leaf plates, how to open a coconut, and a variety of other things. It was a great way to experience the Polynesian culture. The guides absolutely loved sharing this with us so we could understand their way of life. They loaded us back up on the boats and dropped us off back at the hotel dock around 3:30pm. It was a long, amazing day!

Dinner 

We weren’t very hungry for dinner, but we’d made reservations at Bora Bora Beach Club. We were very underwhelmed by our experience here. The service was extremely slow – it took 30 minutes for anyone to even talk to us once we were sitting at our table. We ordered drinks and they came when we were almost done eating. The drinks and the food were just average, not anything special. I would not recommend coming here based on my experience. 

Day 3

Explore the Island

We wanted to spend our third day exploring the island. The Airbnb we stayed at had bikes we could use. We planned to bike around the entire perimeter of the island, which is about 20 miles and flat. 

We started out on the early side, taking advantage of the cooler morning air for our ride. We’d gotten about two miles from the Airbnb and the chain on my bike broke. This was such a bummer! It was fortunate that we weren’t any further, because we had to walk the bike back. There were other bikes at our Airbnb, but they had flat tires. When we realized using the Airbnb bikes wasn’t an option, we had to come up with a plan B . We decided to rent a small car for the day to take out and explore. There was an Avis rental shop about a mile from where we were staying. I called and they said they had cars available. We walked there, but by the time we arrived, they had rented everything out for the day. At this point it was getting really hot, and we didn’t want to rent a bike. We decided to just take a taxi into town and get lunch and do some shopping. It was frustrating we ended up wasting most of our morning!

Vaitape

We texted the taxi driver who had picked us up from the airport and he drove us to the town of Vaitape. We started our afternoon at Aloe Cafe for lunch. I got a fish burger and Mike got a hamburger. Both were good! We then spent an hour or so shopping. Up until this point, we had not found many souvenirs worth spending our money on. That changed here. There were several good shops, and we got a few souvenirs to take back home. The cutest shop was called Bora Bora Original – definitely worth checking out! There is also a fairly big grocery store in town that would be good to stop at if you’re planning on cooking.

We stopped at Iaorana Gelato before heading back to the Airbnb. They didn’t have a ton of flavor options, but it was cool and refreshing on this sweltering day. We texted our taxi driver and spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach by our Airbnb.

Matira Beach

This is the most beautiful beach on the main island, and we were so lucky to be staying right by it. Our Airbnb had stairs leading down to the beach, so we laid on the chairs by the house and then took a dip in the ocean. The water was so refreshing!

After we’d had our fill of sunshine, we did some laundry at our Airbnb and then picked up a ready-to-eat meal at the grocery store nearby and ate at the house. We started packing up our suitcases before our trip to the overwater bungalows the next morning!

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