Serving as one of the world’s most popular and famous tropical islands, a vacation on the island of Bali brings in most of the tourists that power Indonesia’s tourism. When looking into vacationing here, you may become a bit confused on whether or not there are any overwater bungalows on-site. This is because there is a resort, Club Bali Hai, that claims to have invented the first overwater bungalows.
What you’ll find however, is that resort is on the island of Moorea, just off Tahiti, in the South Pacific, thousands of kilometers from Indonesia.
Now that you’ve decided you’d like to take a vacation in an overwater bungalow or water villa, the first step is to try to figure out where to even begin. So, how does one start the planning process? This is the single most common question we get at this site, and it’s understandable because these amazing accommodations are only common within a few parts of the world.
Another complication for most of us that makes planning a bit more difficult is that overwater bungalows are among the most expensive hotel rooms in the world.
You are looking for the most secluded and romantic possible hotel for your honeymoon, then an overwater bungalow or water villa is the perfect choice. These beautiful hotel rooms are so popular with honeymoon couples that it’s likely many of them would not exist if not for the newlyweds.
Almost all of these resorts are in the tropics, so they nearly guarantee perfect weather all year round, and they are all in stunning natural settings that will be impossible to forget, especially when combined with your romantic holiday.
There’s good and bad news for those looking for all-inclusive overwater bungalow and water villa resorts, depending on which part of the world you live in. The bad news for many people is that there are no all-inclusive Bora Bora, Moorea, or Tahiti resorts that include all meals and alcohol in the room rate. Everything else is good news because most activities and services are indeed included in the room rate.
However, if you can get to the Maldives, which is home to most of the world’s overwater, all-inclusive, private villa resorts, you’ll have plenty of excellent options that include meals, alcohol, and even premium alcohol in some cases.
The AVANI Sepang Goldcoast Resort opened in 2011 with much higher room rates and the early reviews were quite poor, but they have been getting steadily better ever since, and room rates are now very appealing for a “water villa.” So I booked myself 2 nights here as part of a short trip to Malaysia, after two nights in Kuala Lumpur.
The AVANI Sepang Goldcoast Resort has 392 water villas, which made it by far the largest such resort in the world until a nearby competitor called the Lexis Hibiscus Port Dickson recently opened with 522 water villas.
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.
Most international tourism into Cambodia centers around the stunning Angkor Wat temple complex just outside of Siem Reap in the north of the country, but increasing numbers are also heading to Cambodia’s beaches and jungle areas as well. There are now two very unusual resorts with overwater villas in Cambodia, although at opposite ends of the price spectrum.
The vast majority of the overwater bungalows in Asia are located in the Maldives, just southwest of India.
In the past week two separate water-villa resorts have been tapped for prestigious honors within the hotel industry. Both are in Asia and both already had a great reputation so these recognitions are really no surprise, but still it should give potential guests just that much more confidence in both of them.
The year 2011 has been a big one for the overwater bungalow and water villa industry, with nearly a dozen new resorts having opened or having added brand new overwater rooms. Not surprisingly, the year 2012 looks to be shaping up at least as big with a wide variety of highly anticipated projects opening or reopening.
Among the more notable openings in 2011 have been the massive Golden Palm Tree Resort just south of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, with nearly 400 water villas.
I’ve written a longer explanation of all-inclusive overwater bungalow resorts, but this seems to be an extremely common question so I’ve decided to offer a short and simple explanation that should help people find exactly what they are looking for more quickly.
It’s no secret that these overwater bungalow and water villa resorts are expensive, so it appears that many people are very interested in knowing almost exactly how much the holiday will cost before they choose a resort.