Getting to Bora Bora

People consider the island of Bora Bora to be the most beautiful spot on planet earth. Part of the appeal is its remoteness and solitude, both of which you'll definitely appreciate once you arrive, especially for a honeymoon trip. The downside to the remoteness part is that Bora Bora is not a place that you can reach quickly or cheaply unless you are already in French Polynesia.

The good news is that it's straightforward so there aren't a lot of agonizing choices to ponder over. Those who want to experience the Bora Bora overwater bungalow resorts, which are arguably the finest in the entire world, are only a few clicks away from booking their hotel and flights as well.

Getting to Bora Bora Island

As mentioned above, this is simple because there is really only one practical way of doing it. First off you’ll need to get to Tahiti. This process is explained in the article linked above, but the short version is that you’ll almost certainly be flying from Los Angeles to Tahiti, and it’ll probably be on Air Tahiti Nui or possibly Air France. Unless you are coming from Australia or Asia, you’ll be flying through Los Angeles, and this includes those starting from Europe.

You can book your entire journey on any travel-booking website. The best and most popular flights from Los Angeles to Tahiti leave around 11:40pm and arrive in Tahiti around 5am in the morning, taking a bit over 8 hours including the time zone change. Flights from Tahiti to Bora Bora (and all the other islands in French Polynesia) start going out around 6:45am, so this is a pretty short layover.

The flight from Tahiti to Bora Bora

You’ll probably be flying into Tahiti on Air Tahiti Nui, which is an international airline that flies huge and comfortable jumbo jets, but then you’ll change planes to board Air Tahiti, which is the domestic airline of turbo-prop jets, and is not affiliated with the international one. Obviously, they work together with their schedules, so if the long-haul flight is a bit late the island planes will wait for them, but still you’ll need to get your luggage and go through Customs and Immigration in Tahiti anyway.

There are about 7 flights per day from Tahiti to Bora Bora, starting at 6:45am and the last one going out at 5:10pm. Most go nonstop to Bora Bora, but a few of them stop off at another island for 15 minutes to drop off and pick up passengers. A nonstop flight will take about 45 minutes, and one that stops will take about 1 hour and 20 minutes altogether.

Again, you can book your entire journey for one 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 bit of money.

You can also book the Air Tahiti flights in person once you arrive. The prices are actually the same either way, so you can book separately on the Air Tahiti website as well. These inter-island services all over the world usually operate like buses or ferries in that locals use them frequently for a variety of things, so there’s almost always a few seats available at the last minute, and even if this one is full then the next one an hour later will have seats.

A multi-island vacation?

An especially popular thing for honeymoon couples to do is to stay at 2 or more different resorts on different islands over the course of 7 to 14 days. This obviously gives couples a chance to experience the beauty of one island and then a different set of features at another. Unlike the Maldives, the islands and resorts in the South Pacific are quite different from one another. So for the small extra 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, so that’s an option, but honestly the best choices on 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