Best Water Bungalows?

Hi everyone!

My soon to be hubby and I are in the process of researching our honeymoon to Tahiti. We plan to sail on the PG on July 13th, but before we board, we would like to spend a few nights in one of the water bungalows.

My question concerns which island is the best to do this (in terms of both quality and price). Originially, I wanted to find a resort in Tahiti that offers this service, but the more and more I read the boards, people seem to gravitate to the other islands (Moorea and Bora Bora).

So what would you all suggest??

Thank you in advance for your input!!

Moorea is easier to get to, and cheaper than Bora Bora. It's a fantastically beautiful island too.

Great choice for a honeymoon!

Use Papetee as a transit point - a night coming and going - pick any other island for the honeymoon!!!

I echo Wendy on the last post - but for something a little different check out Huahine.

For the ultimate splutge - Le Tahaa resort also.

Oh, well if you really want to splurge, try Manihi! We did a beach bungalow there almost 10 years ago and it was a dream. OWB are to die for, and the resort is (at least was), lovely. It's one of the Pearl chain, very remote and romantic.

There are a few rules about OWBs: You want an overwater bungalow that has a sensational view of the lagoon or the mountains because you don't want a view of your neighboring OWBs. For a long time only one OWB offered that on Bora Bora and that was at the Bora Bora Hotel, currently closed for renovations. The Pearl offers one or two like that. Generally speaking, Moorea's OWBs are like housing estates with poor views and six inches of water below you. Manihi used to be good; forget Rangiroa. I've not been to Taha'a. Also, remember this: OWBs are environmentally damaging, they kill coral, they drive fish away, increase hotel capacity at the expense of natural beauty, and they have ruined Bora Bora and Moorea for ever. The Maldives have gone down a similar path of self-destruction. I now regret staying in them and would never stay in them again.

Fletcher, thanks for saying this. I'm so glad that they are waking up and restricting construction, although there has been rampant development in Bora Bora.

As I said, our beach bungalow on Manihi was magic, and I highly recommend them, if current reviews of the Manihi Pearl are good. You said something disparaging about Manihi--has the coral degraded, or has the hotel just gotten tired? Since then, and knowing the damage they cause, I have never wanted to try an OWB.

We stayed at the Intercontinental on Tahiti & loved it.

I can also safley report that the OWB's were not built over coral, they were over rock & sand. The coral was much further out.

If you look at the pictures of most of the OWB's in these islands they are constructed over SAND not coral, so don't condem them all as evil enviromental damaging structures. I would be more concerned about boaters haphazardly dropping anchors and disposing of waste.

For us, the OWB was a few wonderful nights of a lifetime in paradise & we will not let a couple of enviromental zealots ruin it for us!! :mad:

If you want to try an OWB .. do it & you will never regret it! We don't!!

We stayed at the Intercontinental on Tahiti & loved it.

 

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Were you in one of their Motu OWBs or in a Lagoon OWB ?

 

I am an Ambassador Club Member and hope to get Upgraded from Motu to Lagoon with no price differential.

 

Any comments about the difference between the two locations would be appreciated.

 

Anybody else have success with Ambassador Club Upgrades and what other amenities ( free Internet time, late Check-out etc.) did they offer ?

 

Thanks:)

dlhamlten-

I joined the Ambassador Club last week in order to hopefully receive an upgrade and late check-out at the Intercontinental Papeete. I was able to book a motu OWB for $370 before taxes for one night pre-cruise and then a second night post-cruise. If you haven't booked yet, it looked like a great price. It required full prepayment. Our trip is in July, so will be glad to post my experience with upgrades if my trip is before yours. By the way, it looks like we're neighbors, as I live in Kennesaw.

dlhamlten-

 

I joined the Ambassador Club last week in order to hopefully receive an upgrade and late check-out at the Intercontinental Papeete. I was able to book a motu OWB for $370 before taxes for one night pre-cruise and then a second night post-cruise. If you haven't booked yet, it looked like a great price. It required full prepayment. Our trip is in July, so will be glad to post my experience with upgrades if my trip is before yours. By the way, it looks like we're neighbors, as I live in Kennesaw.

We are leaving two weeks from today after visiting relatives in LA., so I will try to provide you Feedback about our Ambassador experience. We Booked a Post-cruise two night Package through PG Cruises and their Agent assures me all the Ambassador Club upgrades will apply when we check-in since the owner of the Intercontinental now owns the Ship. She had our Club Number added to the Reservation, so we shall see.

Although many say that Papeete OWBs aren't as nice as on other Islands, it will be the best Over Water Bungalow we have ever had the experience of enjoying. ;)

That's great that you'll be able to break up the trip with some time in LA since it's quite a haul from the East Coast. I wish that our trip was next month rather than in July given the weather that we've been having. I'll look forward to hearing about your experience at the Intercontinental, as well as on the PG!

Although many say that Papeete OWBs aren't as nice as on other Islands, it will be the best Over Water Bungalow we have ever had the experience of enjoying. ;)

The OWBs at the Intercontinental are hardly inviting, in my view. This hotel was originally a Travelodge and was built in 1974. It was later renamed the Tahiti Beachcomber and expanded its rooms quite quickly. As with many hotels on Tahiti, the lack of a beach was a drawback for many potential visitors, so a beach was built and then that ridiculous "motu" was built from concrete so that the hotel might compete with the genuine article on Bora Bora and Moorea. This construction enabled the hotel to increase capacity without invading its restricted land and also enabled it to charge premium room rates for thatched huts built on a mound of builders' slurry. Enjoy!

We stayed in the Motu & greatly enjoyed the experience.

I would have to agree that may of the other islands OWB did look more inviteing, however we enjoyed them just the same. We had just completed a 10 day cruise on the Tahitian Princess and it was very convenient to do the OWB on Tahiti. Besides, it was also one of the more ecomomical ones at the time.

Every day I would snorkel about 75' off shore where the coral was and took many pictures of the fish & coral. Just loved it!!!

The Lagoon OWB are larger, but they are also fairly far way from the remainer of the facility. If you don't mind a bit extra walk, a little added privacy plus the extra $ they may be worth it.

I hope that this helps.

While not for our honeymoon, we have booked the same 7/13 cruise for our 30th anniversary. We are coming in early, spending 5 nights in an OWB on Moorea at the Hilton. We have to overnight the first night in Tahiti and we will take the ferry in the morning.

If you look at the tripadvisor forum for French Polynesia you can see some reviews of the Hilton. We chose the Hilton on Moorea because we can take a quick ferry there, vs. and expensive flight. Also, the Hilton seems to get great reviews as one of the best spots for snorkeling.

You may want to also add your name to the roll call for this cruise.

We greatly prefer the OWB's on Bora Bora at the Intercontinental--neither side is good at the IC Tahiti--although I would say that the Panorama rooms are pretty good depending on where they are. We have always had free rooms and upgrades with IC--

Nancy:D

I would agree, the Panorama Rooms are pretty nice at the IC.

Big rooms & great view if you are at the far end.

We have just returned from our memorable Paul Gauguin cruise with 236 other Passengers and wanted to keep my promise about reporting our impressions.

To begin, this was our first and perhaps our only trip to FP and stay in an Over Water Bungalow, so I don't have the benefit of the same comparisons and perspectives of others who have been there more.

However, the Intercontinental totally exceeded our expectations and was a truly amazing experience. I would encourage others considering it to take a good look because it is as nice as its website shows - in our opinion. Yes, of course it is in a less remote and perhaps less romantic setting than OWBs on other Islands, but if you had awakened to the largest and most beautiful full rainbow we have ever seen framing the cloud-crowned Moorea across the Lagoon you would not be unhappy........

Yes, we were in probably one of their finest OWBs - in the Lagoon -but the older and slightly smaller Motu OWBs looked nice and most Panorama View Rooms would have amazing views as well. We followed CruiseCritic advice and joined The Gold Ambassador Club for one-year at $ 150 which gave us a Free Guaranteed Upgrade from Motu price to Lagoon, Free internet time, daily Water Bottles, a Free In-Room Pay Movie, and late Check-Out. The new owner of the PG Ship also owns the Intercontinentals and will honor your Benefits.

The Post Cruise Package was purchased thru PG Cruises and part of this was the ability to stay in the Bungalow until we were picked up for the 10 minute ride to the Airport. The ATN Flight out was @ 10:00 PM and we left the Hotel at 7:45 which means you had access to the OWB and whole facility and lugguage for the whole day rather than a Day room hassle. After disembarking the Ship @ 12:30 PM the last day, we were in our OWB before 1 PM.

The Hotel has a Shuttle for about $ 10 Per Person Round Trip into Papeete which was very interesting because of the Public Market Marche. The Infinity Pools, Swim-up Bar and Lagoonarium at the Intercontinental were all special.

Overall, very glad to have stayed there and if ever lucky enough and rich enough to visit FP again, perhaps we would try the St. Regis on Bora Bora where the movie stars film....:rolleyes:

You have pretty much summed up our opioion of the OWB at the Intercontinental a few years ago. We just loved it too!

When we become rich (not famous) perhaps we can also visit the OWB on Bora Bora or better yet the Rangiora atol or Tahaa. Those locations were both unbelievably beautiful, somewhat remote and the snorkelling in these areas was the best that I have ever done. Staying in an OWB to make it a dream come true!!!

We didnt cruise, but we stayed in an OWB on both Bora Bora (Bora Bora Nui) and on Tahaa (where we vacationed with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, imagine that surprise as you basically bump into one another on the walkway!). Anyway, Bora Bora Nui has excellent LARGE OWB with a super private deck (upper and lower). I dont have anything bad to say about the OWB! MUCH bigger than we expected and definitely luxury. The bathroom was basically as big as the rest of the bungalo. Fairly good snorkeling right off your private dock since there are several spots of reef nearby (do not misunderstand - This is not great snorkeling, to be certain I have done much better snorkeling, but considering you can wake up, dive in, and see some fish, this was fun!).

The OWB on Tahaa was also excellent - smaller, but still plenty of room. (Im sure they have deluxe OWB as well that would be larger) but since we had just come from the HUGE OWB on Bora Bora, it was considered small here..truly it was the size of an average hotel room...we ended up with a hut about middle of the way in the stretch of bungalos, but the water was very shallow - maybe chest high. Also no reef nearby so snorkeling wasnt great - although there were still some fish. Kayaks were available for free at both resorts which was fun to try but really was a ride to nowhere. I think the cruises might offer a day trip to Tahaa because we noticed a group of people come by every couple of days and have lunch IN the water (plastic chairs, etc set up by their crew). Tahaa also has a private spa room facing a small pond. Since theres not much to do here, we went for it! The beach on Tahaa was super small, but considering youll be on the beach with about 20 people, it was just fine!

As a whole, I am glad we did the OWB for the easy of getting in the water and climbing right back on your private dock...but the glass viewing areas are super small and not convenient to look down thru due to placement in the room) and to be honest, you dont see anything - virtually no fish at all...even when we threw food down. Worth doing for sure...but more for the ease of getting in the water and a little snorkeling than anything else.:cool:

Oh and definitely check the weather/temp for when you plan to go. We went the first week of November and it was pretty HOT. Im from Virginia so we're used to humidity! BUT we also have ACs that we can escape to...ACs are not at the top of their list in FP it seems...in Tahaa we never were able to get the room down to a comfortable temperature - it was just too hot!