Until about 2010, the resort with the most overwater bungalows in the world was the Four Seasons Bora Bora with 100 overwater rooms. Then the AVANI Sepang Gold Coast Resort opened just south of the Kuala Lumpur Airport and it looked unbeatable with its mind-blowing 392 Water Villas (some of which share a structure). Move over, AVANI Sepang, because the Lexis Hibiscus Port Dickson Resort is open and it has an amazing 522 water villas, each complete with a private plunge pool.
continuing series we are going to jump over to Asia, where they usually call these things “water villas” instead of overwater bungalows. The Maldives, which is just southwest of India, is actually home to about two-thirds of all the overwater bungalows in the world, and this week’s resort is one of many that offers fantastic value.
The Maldives is very popular with Europeans since it’s an easy overnight flight from anywhere in the region, but it’s a tougher sell for Americans since the flight even from Los Angeles will take an entire day.
week’s featured overwater bungalow is not among the largest or most glamorous in the South Pacific, but it’s an extremely popular resort for a few key reasons that many people will want to consider.
The InterContinental Tahiti Resort has 32 overwater bungalow in addition to over 200 other rooms, making it one of the largest resorts of any kind in French Polynesia. Perhaps its best selling points are that it’s quite reasonably priced, and it’s very close to the Tahiti Airport without being too close.
Everybody loves photographs of overwater bungalows, especially the aerial shots that show all the rooms lined up over the turquoise lagoon, but obviously those don’t really tell you much about what it’s like to stay in these glorious hotel rooms.
The good news is that many guests are so thrilled with their bungalow that they’ve recorded guided video tours of them. There are 9 overwater bungalow resorts on Bora Bora itself, and I’ve collected the best video for each of them and put them below.
As fond as we all are of drooling over photos of Bora Bora resorts, we are in the age where everyone is walking around with a video camera all the time. Needless to say, you can tell a lot about a resort hotel on video that you can’t get a good sense of in photos alone, so we’ve collected the best video tours of all the Bora Bora resorts below.
There are nine different luxury resorts on the French Polynesian island of Bora Bora that have overwater villas.
The beautiful South Pacific island of Bora Bora is home to many great overwater resorts, including the famed InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa. This resort and spa combo grants visitors a beautiful room alongside many great resort amenities and nearby activities. Though the resort is already is home to some impressive rooms situated over the lagoon, in December, there will be four new rooms coming to the resort. These two bedroom suites are designed for small groups and will be perfect for your next overwater vacation.
This week we are highlighting one of the handful of Maldives resorts that promotes what they call a “No news, no shoes” policy. The Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu is a luxurious private-island resort where the emphasis is on being casual and comfortable rather than fancy and posh.
This style is perfect for those who might have to wear a suit every day during their normal life and the last thing they want to do on holiday is to dress up for dinner on a tropical island.
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.
many of us, a large photo of an overwater bungalow resort is as close as we are likely to ever get to them. We are adding photo galleries to each resort page, starting with Bora Bora and Moorea, so I’ve been spending many hours lately going through these magnificent and inspirational images.
I think most of us are easily hypnotized by the aerial photos of the resorts, but one particular photo I came across hit me in a different way so I thought I’d share it with everyone.
There’s no getting around the fact that overwater bungalows are expensive, and websites and brochures do the best job they can at showing things in their best light. But since they all make them sound so nice it’s hard to be confident that the resort you choose is as wonderful as it’s made out to be. For that reason we are collecting the best home-made video tours of every resort possible, so you’ll be able to see exactly what the rooms look like when real people stay there.