Getting to Bora Bora

As we’ve mentioned up above, getting to Bora Bora is pretty simple because there really is only one practical way of getting to the island. First thing you’ll want to do is get to Tahiti. This process is further explained in the article linked above, but the very short version of it is that you’ll most likely find yourself flying from Los Angeles to Tahiti, and with that, it’ll probably be on Air Tahiti Nui or maybe Air France.

You can book your entire journey to and from Bora Bora on any travel-booking website. The best, and most popular, flights from Los Angeles to Tahiti like to leave around 11:40pm and arrive in Tahiti around 5am in the morning. This takes a bit over 8 hours when considering the time zone change. Flights from Tahiti to Bora Bora, as well as all the other islands in French Polynesia, start departing at around 6:45am, which makes for a pretty short layover.

When flying into Tahiti, most likely you’ll find yourself on Air Tahiti Nui, which is an international airline that flies large jumbo jets. After that flight is completed, you’ll then change planes so that you can board Air Tahiti, which is the domestic airline of turbo-prop jets, and thus, is not affiliated with the international one you see commercials for. Because the airlines do work together with their schedules, if the long-haul flight is a bit late, thankfully the island planes will wait for them. However, you’ll need to get your luggage and go through Customs and Immigration in Tahiti.

When you book your flights, you’ll find that there are around 7 flights per day from Tahiti to Bora Bora, starting at 6:45am and the last one going out at around 5:10pm. Most of these flights go nonstop to Bora Bora, but a few of them do stop off at another island for 15 minutes in order to drop off and pick up other passengers. A nonstop flight will average about 45 minutes, whereas one that makes a stop will take around 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Again, you can book your entire journey for a single fare, and that will choose the most efficient connecting flight for you, or perhaps give you options of connecting flights, with longer layovers usually saving you a good bit of money.

If you’d like, you can also book the Air Tahiti flights in person once you have arrived on-site. The prices are the same no matter which way you do it, making it so that you can book separately on the Air Tahiti website, as well. These inter-island services all over the world usually operate in the manner that buses or ferries do, meaning that locals use them frequently for a variety of things. Because of this, there’s almost always a few seats available last minute, and even if this one is full then the next one an hour later should have seats.

One thing that’s very popular amongst honeymooning couples is to stay at 2 or more different resorts that are housed on different islands over the course of around 7 to 14 days. Doing this allows couples a chance to experience the beauty of an island before traveling to another to experience a whole different set of features. Unlike the Maldives, the islands and resorts in the South Pacific are actually pretty different from one another. With this pointed out, you’ll find that for the small cost of an extra Air Tahiti flight or two, people can get a lot more out of their trip.

There are actually two resorts with overwater bungalows on Tahiti itself, making Tahiti an option as well, but honestly the best choices on the other islands are on Moorea, which is very close to Tahiti and reachable by a 30-minute ferry ride, or the overwater bungalows elsewhere in the South Pacific. All of them are easy to reach with an Air Tahiti flight.

Photo by scalleja on Flickr