Tags
AXON award, Bora Bora, Hilton, Hilton Bora Bora, Oceania, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Tahiti, Travel Hacking
Editor’s note: This is the first of three posts on the Hilton Bora Bora. Check out our other posts here:
After our evening of cold croque monsieurs in Tahiti, Mrs. Selfish and I awoke early the next day and boarded a plane for Bora Bora, one of the most beautiful (and expensive) places on Earth.
Having read good things about the Hilton Bora Bora, I was anxious to check out our new home for 5 nights – an overwater bungalow in some of the most magnificent waters I’d ever seen. I booked the stay before the Hilton Honors great devaluation using an AXON award and an extra night, so the total came to 195,000 HHonors points.
Getting there and check-in
Getting to Tahiti itself can be quite difficult on miles and points, though flyertalk has several threads devoted to the topic as I mentioned yesterday.
Once you’ve reached Tahiti the intra-island flight from to Bora Bora is costly at roughly ~$450 round trip. Air Tahiti Nui has multiple flights a day starting in the early morning and ending mid-evening, but unfortunately none of these accept points or miles, just cold hard cash.
Pro-tip: Sit on the left side of the plane for stellar views of Bora Bora
After landing, you have two options for getting to the Hilton Bora Bora: a) take Hilton’s fancy speedboat to the property for roughly $125 per person round trip, b) take the boat into Viatape (the main town) and then catch Hilton’s boat from there for roughly $8 round trip. While we chose option B, we ended up giving our bags to crew of Hilton’s speedboat, which they brought to the hotel for us. I highly recommend this option.
Getting to Bora Bora proved more difficult than most destinations: with 2 flights to Tahiti, a plane to Bora Bora, a shuttle boat to Viatape, and a boat to the Hilton Bora Bora, but man is it worth it.
Bora Bora is easily the most beautiful beach destination we’ve ever been to, beating out Koh Samui, Bali, Danang, and Cancun. Since Mrs. Selfish and I wanted to maximize our time at the resort, we took a late-morning flight in, and an early evening flight out and boy was I glad we did, the Hilton Bora Bora is gorgeous.
Check-in was quick and painless – after confirming our identities we were escorted by golf cart to our room, room 105.
After our brief stay at El Nido in Palawan, Mrs. Selfish and I were keen on staying in another Overwater Bungalow. The standard award at the Hilton Bora Bora is a lagoon view suite, and an upgrade will only land you a garden villa. While the villas are quite nice, the water in Bora Bora is perhaps its most outstanding feature, so I decided to contact the hotel itself.
After some minor back and forth bargaining, we decided to pay the 22000 XPF a night to upgrade to a deluxe overwater bungalow. The resort has both standard and deluxe overwater bungalows, with the standards costing ~11000 XPF a night. Unfortunately, you can’t pay to upgrade to those ahead of time, but if you come during a low season your chances of finding a standard OWB are pretty good.
Since we ended up upgrading to a deluxe OWB, I requested room 105, which was highly recommended on flyertalk thanks to its spectacular view of the volcano.
The Room
Our overwater bungalow was spectacular. Seriously, pictures can’t do this thing justice.
The bungalow, while a little dated, is pretty well equipped with three distinct areas – a living room, bedroom, and bathroom. The bathroom has separate his and hers sinks, a giant bath tub, and separate rooms for the shower and toilet.
The bungalow sits above about 10 – 12 feet of lagoon seawater, and is home to thousands of tiny fish. Since each OWB is equipped with lights, its easy to attract the fish to your bungalow, which you can view from one of four downward facing windows. We repeatedly smuggled out small rolls of bread and cereal from breakfast to feed the fish, though the hotel also has fish food you can purchase.
As a gold member, Mrs. Selfish received a bottle of Evian water and a plate of baked goods, which were alright.
The most spectacular feature, however, was the deck, which came with an amazing view of the volcano.
The Grounds
The Hilton Bora Bora is located on a very beautiful stretch of land, facing out away from Bora Bora. We spent a large part of the visit gawking over how beautiful everything was.
Things got even more beautiful during sunrise, since the sun rose right next to the volcano.
And sunset…
Breakfast
Breakfast at the Hilton Bora Bora is pretty much your standard continental fare, though there are a few made to order dishes. Breakfast is served until about 10:30 every morning in the quasi-outside dining area by the pool and is free to Hilton gold and diamond members.
While not the best breakfast food I’ve had at a hotel, it’s hard to argue with the price.
Conclusion
The Hilton Bora Bora is mile & point hoarder’s dream hotel, and a great aspirational property. With perfect views and amazing weather (especially in the June-July season), it’s impossible not to be seduced by its charm. This was easily the best beach destination we’ve been to, and even though we just returned, I’m already itching to go back.
Over the next few days I’ll talk more about food and activities around Bora Bora. Stay tuned!
Carbohydrates don’t really exist in the ocean. You likely killed some of those small fish by feeding them bread. You travel a lot. There’s no excuse to not know this.
Yikes, fair point. Surprisingly, I had never heard that before. Apparently bread can make fish constipated because of the yeast, which in turn makes them easier prey for other fish. I won’t be feeding fish in the future.
I will be staying at this property next July 2014. I was offered an upgrade on an award stay from Lagoon view to Standard OWB for 44000 XPF total for 4 nights. Is the standard worth it? Or should I wait to get there for a better deal?
The deluxe has a better view, but the rooms are comparable, so unless you’re willing to pay double (22000 XPF) a night, I’d go ahead and lock down the standard. That being said, it’s hard to go wrong with any OWB there – I would just try to make sure you get one facing the lagoon.
Mr Selfish,
Will you try Maldives next time? I do think Bali, Koh Samui, Danang are totally out of question, only Maldives could be compare with Bora Bora.
By the way, this is really nice blog!
Thanks! We’re planning on staying at the Conrad Maldives in November – I currently have a three night award stay on hold there. Do you have recommendations?
Oh ! This is great. But please consider you need to pay approximately USD400 per person on seaplane transfer and this is a long way to getting there, three nights maybe a bit too short. If you could extends you stay with real money, I am highly recommended you book at least three more nights at Retreat Water Villa, it’s stunning compare with other type of Water Villas located in small island side, and you may keep staying at Standard Beach Villa on reward nights. If you won’t be able to extend your stay, then upgrade to Retreat Water Villa from your reward nights. The location of Retreat Water Villas are much pretty then all other type of Water Villas.
I am scheduled to stay in this property in July 2014 and they want to charge me 30000 XPF pe night for an upgrade to a bungalow. I am using an AXON award and I am a gold member.
Did they say what type of bungalow? There are 4 types.
I’d also ask them to clarify whether or not it costs that much in 2013 – i.e. is the price going up only because you’re going next year. You can also chance it and pay to upgrade when you arrive, which would give you access to the standard bungalow – which should be about half the price of the deluxe.
That is the price for a deluxe OWB. They did not offer any other bungalow in their email.
Thanks for the suggestions
I agree, the Hilton is beautiful. Next time you should try Four Seasons – it’s devine!
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@Kim – Bora Bora did all the heavy lifting, I just pointed the camera. 🙂
@Jonathan – it’s well worth a visit. We definitely enjoyed it more than SE Asian beaches. It’s much harder to get to, however.
Wow. I am so jealous. I would love to go to Bora Bora.
Beautiful pictures!