Overnight from Papeete to Bora Bora

[Texaggie]

Hello:

Originally our ship was suppose to stop at Bora Bora, but due to changes in the law we are not now. Ship is too large. Anyway, I do not know that I will be in the area in the future and being advanced age, ie older, I was considering taking a flight to Bora Bora and staying the night. It is high on my bucket list. Has anyone done this? Are the flights reliable? Is Bora Bora more beautiful than the other islands? I would appreciate any insights on this.

 

[57redbird]

18 minutes ago, Texaggie said:

Hello:

Originally our ship was suppose to stop at Bora Bora, but due to changes in the law we are not now. Ship is too large. Anyway, I do not know that I will be in the area in the future and being advanced age, ie older, I was considering taking a flight to Bora Bora and staying the night. It is high on my bucket list. Has anyone done this? Are the flights reliable? Is Bora Bora more beautiful than the other islands? I would appreciate any insights on this.

 

That's an interesting idea....following....

[Mah Jongg]

2 hours ago, Texaggie said:

Hello:

Originally our ship was suppose to stop at Bora Bora, but due to changes in the law we are not now. Ship is too large. Anyway, I do not know that I will be in the area in the future and being advanced age, ie older, I was considering taking a flight to Bora Bora and staying the night. It is high on my bucket list. Has anyone done this? Are the flights reliable? Is Bora Bora more beautiful than the other islands? I would appreciate any insights on this.

 

We might be interested too.

Been there many years ago. Very beautiful. Just don't know if it is feasible.

[Tahitianbigkahuna]

Glad Bora Bora finally enacted what they've thought about doing for many years. My understanding  the goal is to eliminate ship size to under 1000 passengers and eventually only allow a total of 1000 cruise guest combined between all ships. 

 

Windstar, PG, Aranui, Ponant and other smaller ships such as the older R3 and R4  will be the new norm in some of the islands of FP..

 

Larger than 1250 is held to Tahiti, Raiatea and Moorea .... and Moorea my follow something similar to Bora Bora very soon. 

 

I was on Bora Bora last October and a HAL ship with 2500 was there at the same time  .... IMO it was a mess and impacted others not on the ship as far as available excursions, rental availability and the town of Vaitape was overloaded ....

 

To answer your question ... Bora Bora is all about the lagoon though there are many other lagoons in FP that rival but don't have the backdrop of Mount Otemanu .... Bora Bora has become much more commercialized - touristy

 

IMO the most beautiful island as far as the land is Moorea, Huahine and Tahaa. The Marquesas' are beautiful in their own way but you have no lagoons. 

 

Hope that helps

Edited December 31, 2022 by Tahitianbigkahuna

[ChrisC101]

When is Bora Bora supposed to do this?  Would be great if they did, we haven’t been back for 19 years but going this year and it was already getting bad then when there were under 1/2 the OWB and ships that go through now.

[Tahitianbigkahuna]

1 hour ago, ChrisC101 said:

When is Bora Bora supposed to do this?  Would be great if they did, we haven’t been back for 19 years but going this year and it was already getting bad then when there were under 1/2 the OWB and ships that go through now.

It's being phased in over a few years ... each year it tightens a bit more on the size of ship and the overall cruisers allowed on the islands at any given time.

[Travelexpert35]

I flew from Papeete to Bora Bora on Air Tahiti and I believe it’s a 50min flight. Small aircraft and the views were spectacular from the plane. The airfare is showing approx $369 USD return. The hotels will meet you by boat. This was always on my bucket list. I was on a familiarization trip so I swear we visited every hotel in Bora Bora by boat. It was an awesome trip. 

Edited January 5, 2023 by Travelexpert35
To add info

[Texaggie]

On 12/31/2022 at 1:43 PM, Tahitianbigkahuna said:

Glad Bora Bora finally enacted what they've thought about doing for many years. My understanding  the goal is to eliminate ship size to under 1000 passengers and eventually only allow a total of 1000 cruise guest combined between all ships. 

 

Windstar, PG, Aranui, Ponant and other smaller ships such as the older R3 and R4  will be the new norm in some of the islands of FP..

 

Larger than 1250 is held to Tahiti, Raiatea and Moorea .... and Moorea my follow something similar to Bora Bora very soon. 

 

I was on Bora Bora last October and a HAL ship with 2500 was there at the same time  .... IMO it was a mess and impacted others not on the ship as far as available excursions, rental availability and the town of Vaitape was overloaded ....

 

To answer your question ... Bora Bora is all about the lagoon though there are many other lagoons in FP that rival but don't have the backdrop of Mount Otemanu .... Bora Bora has become much more commercialized - touristy

 

IMO the most beautiful island as far as the land is Moorea, Huahine and Tahaa. The Marquesas' are beautiful in their own way but you have no lagoons. 

 

Hope that helps

Thank you! That is good to know. In doing a little research, I had read that land wise Moorea rivaled Bora Bora. We have decided not to do the overnight to Bora Bora. Definitely, think it could be done, but there is always the possible problem with air travel and we felt like we could better use the island that we were on. I think if we love the islands, which I have a feeling we will, then we will just have to go back on a smaller cruise line or do a land trip.

I appreciate a community that tries to preserve their natural surroundings and way of life. When I was in college I studied in Florence, Italy. It was amazing. Twenty years later, it was a port stop on a cruise. My husband and I made the bus trip to the city. I was so disappointed and it almost ruined my memories of this beautiful city. It was very Americanized and touristy as well as just plain too crowded.  Of course, Florence is a large city, so we got away from the popular sights, and it became the charming Italian city place that I remembered. It would be difficult for a small island to recover like that.

[Tahitianbigkahuna]

4 hours ago, Texaggie said:

Thank you! That is good to know. In doing a little research, I had read that land wise Moorea rivaled Bora Bora. We have decided not to do the overnight to Bora Bora. Definitely, think it could be done, but there is always the possible problem with air travel and we felt like we could better use the island that we were on. I think if we love the islands, which I have a feeling we will, then we will just have to go back on a smaller cruise line or do a land trip.

I appreciate a community that tries to preserve their natural surroundings and way of life. When I was in college I studied in Florence, Italy. It was amazing. Twenty years later, it was a port stop on a cruise. My husband and I made the bus trip to the city. I was so disappointed and it almost ruined my memories of this beautiful city. It was very Americanized and touristy as well as just plain too crowded.  Of course, Florence is a large city, so we got away from the popular sights, and it became the charming Italian city place that I remembered. It would be difficult for a small island to recover like that.

 

Interestingly we will visit Florence via small cruise ship this fall ... but we will spend some time in smaller towns in Italy ...