Review: InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Arrival & The Resort

InterContinental Bora Bora Resort And Thalasso Spa
InterContinental Bora Bora Resort And Thalasso Spa

TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.

Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published.

There is simply too much to say about the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa to fit into one blog post so I’m going to split this review up into more manageable sizes.

In this section of the review I’m going to focus on the transfer from the airport to the resort, the check-in process and our first look around the resort grounds and its amenities. Other blog posts will cover the accommodation, the dining and how we booked our trip.

Note: There are two InterContinental resorts in Bora Bora – IC La Moana and IC Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa. This review is for the second of those properties which I’ll be referring to as the InterContinental Bora Bora for the purposes of this review.

Location

Bora Bora is part of a group of islands (French Polynesia) which sit in a remarkably isolated part of the Pacific ocean (click image to expand).

bora-bora-location

And when you get to the main island in French Polynesia (Tahiti), Bora Bora is still a distance to the North West:

bora-bora-location-french-polynesia

Bora Bora itself is a series of small islands circling one larger central island:

intercontinental-bora-bora-resort

Arrival Into Bora Bora

Bora Bora airport is as small as I imagined it would be and we got a great view of the narrow strip of land on which it sits as we were coming in to land:

Air Tahiti ReviewBora Bora airport (BOB) from the air

Once you’re on the ground it’s a short walk from the aircraft to the main airport building (which isn’t much larger than an average sized shop).

air-tahiti - 60Bora Bora Airport – Main Building

As with most small airports, you walk into the main building through the same doors that departing passengers use to exit so you walk though a small gate area when you first get inside.

Once through the gate area you’re immediately in the arrivals area where a number of the resorts have desks with representatives waiting to greet their arriving guests. The InterContinental Bora Bora’s desk was one of the first ones we saw.

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 128Arrivals Area Bora Bora Airport

The resort’s agent welcomed us to Bora Bora with the customary lei and handed us luggage tags for our checked baggage (which we did not yet have).

intercontinental-bora-bora-tags

The next step in what turned out to be a reasonably efficient process, was to pick up our checked bags from the collection area a few feet away from the resorts’ desks, tag them and then hand them back to the resort’s agent who handled them from there.

Transfer To The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort

There are two primary ways of getting to the InterContinental Bora Bora:

One is inexpensive and involves the free Air Tahiti shuttle boat to Vaitape (on the main island of Bora Bora) followed by a 10-12 minute taxi ride to the InterContinental La Mona followed by a free shuttle from the La Moana resort to the InterContinental Bora Bora.

The second costs $60/person (each way) and involves the resort’s own shuttle boat.

As thrifty as I like to be I knew that at this stage of our travels we wouldn’t want to turn a 20 minute boat ride into a tour of Bora Bora…..not after an overnight flight from LA, a few hours at the airport in Tahiti and a 50 minute flight over to Bora Bora. So I had pre-booked the hotel’s shuttle boat.

The boats for the various resorts dock right up against the airport’s arrivals area so there isn’t exactly far to walk…..

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 003Bora Bora airport dock – to the right is the arrivals area

….and, after a wait of around 15 minutes, our nondescript transport arrived:

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 004InterContinental Bora Bora Shuttle Boat

I wouldn’t exactly call it luxurious…..

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 007InterContinental Bora Bora Shuttle Boat

…but there was more then enough room onboard for everyone (I think we had 12 passengers and one driver onboard) and the ride over to the resort didn’t take longer than 20 minutes.

We passed a couple of resorts as we headed towards the InterContinental Bora Bora but it was only when our resort’s overwater bungalows came into view that the whole trip suddenly began to become real…..

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 017The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa

…and the jet lag and tiredness quickly dropped away as we got closer to the resort’s jetty and we were greeted by a blow on a conch shell.

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 398 - Version 2The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa

Arrival At the InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa

Once on dry land we were picked up by a golf cart and driven on a brief tour of the resort (pictures later) before being dropped off at the resort’s reception building.

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 018The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa

Here’s a map of the resort to give you an idea of where everything is located (click to enlarge)….

intercontinental-bora-bora-resort-thalasso-spaThe InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Resort Map

….the resort’s dock (or “marina” as they call it) is labelled “A” towards the right side of the diagram and the reception building is labelled “B”.

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 084The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Reception Desk

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 083The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – One of the seating areas at reception

At reception we were greeted by a member of staff who ushered us over to a seating area overlooking the lagoon…..

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 085The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Seating area at reception

…and offered us scented cold towels and ice tea infused with Tahitian Vanilla:

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 021The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Cold towels and Iced Tea with Tahitian Vanilla

Both were very welcome as, although still only around 9am, it was getting hotter and more humid.

There were only two members of staff available to check in the twelve of us who had arrived on the boat but, luckily, Joanna and I were third couple in line to be checked-in so the wait wasn’t too bad.

The only issue we had at check-in was apparently down to a misunderstanding:

A few days before our arrival I had called up the resort to check on a few things and, thanks to suggestions from Flyertalk, the dining options were high on my list of questions. I was told that upon arrival we’d have the choice of paying for half-board or just going for the half-price breakfast option….. but when it came to checking in it turned out that the half-board option isn’t available to those on award night stays. Mildly annoying but no more than that. I’ll go into more detail on this when I write the post on the various dining options at the resort.

That misunderstanding aside, check-in was pretty smooth.

Post Check-in

At this point it wasn’t even 10:30am and with the official check-in time not until 2pm I was beginning to wonder what we could do to (a) freshen up after a lot of hours in planes and airports and (b) get changed. Luckily the resort was ready for this – very ready.

The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort has a building equipped with a number of dayrooms (just across from the reception area – building C on the resort map) and we were allocated one of them as soon as check-in formalities had been concluded.

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 134The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Dayrooms

Shortly after arriving at our day room a bellman showed up with our luggage and we were all set.

The dayroom wasn’t particularly large but it was nicely air-conditioned and was more than enough to suit our needs.

There was a sofa/padded bench and a side table….

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 151The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Dayroom

….a good-sized wardrobe……

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 132The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Dayroom

…a bathroom…..

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 026The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Dayroom

…and, most importantly of all, a shower!

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 131The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Dayroom

The really big bonus in all of this was that the dayroom wasn’t just ours until we’d freshened up…it was ours until the resort had our room ready and that was fantastic.

It was still a few hours before we’d have our allocated room so the fact that we had a place to rest and cool down (in between walks around the resort) really got our visit to a great start.

All that there was left to do was to spend the next few hours taking a look around the resort and enjoy finally being in Bora Bora.

The Resort

I may as well get this next bit out of the way now – the resort is gorgeous and beautifully maintained but no photo I’m capable of taking does the place justice…so bear that in mind as you view the pictures I took.

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 022The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – View of Bora Bora’s central island

The pool area sits at the heart of the resort but, thanks to the gorgeous lagoon on which the resort is built, is probably one the least used pools I’ve come across (at least while we were there):

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 320The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Pool Area

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 031The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Pool Area

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 032The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Pool Area

Just past the pool is the narrow beach that the resort sits on:

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 358The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach

Bora Bora doesn’t actually have any real beaches – at least not what most people would call beaches – they’re more like strips of sand and that’s why most of the resorts have a lot of overwater bungalows.

Nevertheless, what there was of the beach was very nicely looked after and there were more than enough places to sit or lie down while enjoying the fantastic surroundings:

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 157The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 144The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 357The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 150The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 159The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach

You can even have lunch and dinner on the beach if you so choose:

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 324The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach Dining

If you have an aversion to sand but still want to enjoy the views you get from the beach, the resort caters for you too – there’s a grass area set just behind the beach with more loungers and hammocks:

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 271The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach

The beach even hints at some of the activities you can do while you’re at the resort:

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 034The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Beach

As well as the pool and the enormous lagoon that the resort sits on, the InterContinental has incorporated a few closed-in lagoon areas which beautify the surroundings:

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 039The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Lagoon with wedding chapel

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 042The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Seating around one of the smaller lagoons

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 072The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Small lagoon with wedding chapel

Even some of the rooms from the Thalasso Spa overlook their own lagoon with coral farms and hundreds of juvenile reef fish.

intecontinental-bora-bora-thalasso-spa - 326The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa – Spa rooms overlooking a lagoon

It’s hard to overstate just how nice the resort looks and how much effort is clearly put into maintaining it to very high standards (they even rake the beach!). It was a great place just to walk around.

After having some lunch in the restaurant by the beach and relaxing and taking in the scenery we headed back to reception to get an update on our room – it was ready. The time was just about 2pm and we were finally going to see what an InterContinental Bora Bora overwater bungalow was like. Would it live up to the hype and expectations?  I’ll post details later in the week 🙂

1 COMMENT

Comments are closed.