the most famous overwater bungalows in the South Pacific are those in French Polynesia, there are others farther to the west that are worth consideration. Vanuatu is a group of islands located north of New Zealand and northeast of Australia, making it a popular holiday location for people from those countries.
Though it’s not part of French Polynesia, this is another country the French claimed in the late 19th Century, but the British did as well so both French and English are commonly spoken, especially at resorts.
In celebrating their 10 year anniversary, the crowd favorite Banyan Tree Mayakoba Resort has announced that they are expanding the resort to not only house more land based rooms, but 6 overwater villas as well. This news is great for travelers eyeing the coastal town of Playa del Carmen as a future travel destination as they’ll have even more room categories to select from.
But not only is the resort adding overwater villas to its list of room choices, but new resort features as well.
After a successful opening of their overwater bungalows at their Sandals Royal Caribbean Resort in Montego Bay, Sandals Resort International is ready to do it again with the re-branding of their Sandals Whitehouse European Village & Spa into the Sandals South Coast. This resort will be the company’s second overwater bungalow resort in Jamaica.
The current beachfront property spans 50 acres within a nature preserve and offers guests land rooms to enjoy as well as a rather long list of amenities and features.
Just east of Bora Bora lies the most intimate of all overwater bungalow resorts in the South Pacific. With only 9 total rooms, 6 of which are at the edge of a private 23-acre island and the other 3 of which are magnificent overwater bungalows just out over the lagoon, this is as mellow and low-key as things get at a resort hotel.
This week we are featuring this splendid resort because in addition to everything else it has going for it, it’s quite reasonably priced as well.
Maldives is already one of the most unusual and magical holiday destinations in the world, particularly as home to about two-thirds of the world’s overwater bungalows.
But for those who want to take the sea-life observation one step further than watching through a glass panel in your bungalow floor, you can dine at the world’s first undersea restaurant at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island Resort.
Open since 2005, the Ithaa Undersea Restaurant is made of all glass and has 180-degree views of the magnificent tropical sea and plant life.
The resort brand, LUX Collective is currently undergoing the initial construction stages of a new resort that will be open to visitors at the end of 2024. This overwater resort, the Luxnam Phu Quoc Resort, will house both land based rooms and those over the water. In total, there will be 126 villas, with 109 being overwater villas. In addition, it should be noted that the suites will range from 1 bedroom, all the way up to 5 bedrooms.
Set to open in November, 2016, the Sandals Royal Caribbean Resort is already proving itself a big hit with bookings placed into the months of 2017 well before its opening date. At first there were only 5 overwater bungalows to choose from, however, a recent announcement by Sandals details the opening of 12 new overwater bungalows with bookings available for those rooms starting the 1st of February, 2017.
These rooms will represent a different suite category, the Over-the-Water Private Island Butler Honeymoon Bungalows.
One of the larger private-island resorts in the Maldives, the Vilamendhoo Island Resort & Spa only added its 30 Jacuzzi Water Villas in late 2010, so everything is still new and pristine. There are 154 rooms and villas on the island as well, and with that size there are great benefits for guests, not least of which is a very reasonable price compared to similar water bungalows in the Maldives.
When it comes to overwater bungalows anywhere near the Caribbean, the pattern lately has been to announce them long before they are ready to break ground. That wouldn’t be so bad if not for the fact that years seem to go by and ground is never broken. Getting funding AND government approval for construction at the same time has been a major challenge, but not for the project we recently learned about.
Evidently there had been rumors in 2013 that Disney would be adding up to 20 overwater bungalows to its Disney’s Polynesian Resort complex in Lake Buena Vista (near Orlando) as part of a major 2-year renovation.
this overwater bungalow of the week feature we like to mix in some good-value resorts with a few “fantasy” resorts that most of us couldn’t dream of ever affording. This week we are highlighting what most people consider to be the finest resort in the South Pacific – the St. Regis Bora Bora Resort.
This 5-star deluxe property has 77 overwater villas along with 14 island rooms, and none of them is likely to be available for under US$1,000 per night.