We spent 5 nights over the Christmas holiday week at my favorite tropical island – Bora Bora! When I saw that the newly rebuilt (used to be Le Meridien) opened as the Westin Bora Bora, and the points rate was around 80K Marriott points per night over the Christmas week, I immediately booked 2 rooms for 5 nights (5th night free with points redemption)! The room I booked was the lagoon view overwater bungalow. I originally saved up those Marriott points for the JW Marriott Masai Mara Lodge in Kenya in 2024 but the hotel cancelled our reservation due to the flood. I wanted to spend those Marriott points before they devalue (usually without notice) so I did not hesitate and booked the Westin Bora Bora. It was an amazing deal given the cash price is over $1500 per night over the Christmas week and it was actually cheaper (in points) than other tropical island resorts in the Caribbean! Also, I had a suite night award certificate that was due to expire at the end of the year so I applied that to one of the room, hoping we could get a great upgrade (I had low hope of that since Christmas week is the busiest week of the year), fingers-crossed! I asked Jason how about Christmas in Bora Bora? He was totally down for that!!!
After reading reviews of how strict they enforced the maximum occupancy of 2 people per room for the award redemption rooms, I contacted the hotel to add my 4-year-old son to the room. They insisted that we need to upgrade the room to a “one bedroom” that can accommodate 3 people. After going back and forth negotiating, I had to pay to upgrade one of the rooms and cost $$$ for a lagoon suite with plunge pool. 5 days before our arrival, I got an email that my suite night award was cleared and upgraded the other room to the premium Otemanu suite with plunge pool!!!
For the flights, I found award availability from LAX to Tahiti (PPT) on Saturday night of Dec. 20th and arriving early morning on Sunday. This was great because all the flights that I had taken in the past to Tahiti always arrived late at night so we had to spend the night in Tahiti. This time, we could head to Bora Bora right away! Since our last visit to French Polynesia, a new domestic airline, Air Moana, started operations which lowered the price for the round-trip flight from Tahiti to Bora Bora…..$300 versus $500+! That was quite a saving for 5 people!
Air Moana was okay for a short flight, same aircraft as Air Tahiti’s propeller plane fleet. The major difference was that they assigned seat when check-in so it was no longer the fight to be first in line in boarding so you can take the left window seat! Also, even though you can check-in online and get the boarding pass, you’ll need to check your carry-on luggage if over 5 kg! Their check-in counter is located at the international terminal side of the building!!! We were assigned seats 5 A, B, C, D and 6 D. Rows 1-4 were “premium” so extra $$ for those.
We took the 8 AM flight, it was on time, and they served a yummy chocolate croissant during the short flight. They serve the local juice brand, Rotui, but only had the tropical juice mix, no mango juice 🙁
We flew over Raiatea and Taha’a when approaching Bora Bora. I pointed to my daughter and she was super excited to see the islands below:
The iconic landing view of Bora Bora!
After landing, the kids had a bathroom break while Jason collected our luggage. The staff from Westin came to greet us with leis and tagged our bags. We headed to Westin’s boat and off we went along with 3 other couples/families. The eye-blinding turquoise lagoon of Bora Bora, ahhhh Bora Bora still looked so beautiful even at the 4th time!!!
The staff also gave us a water bottle each with Westin branding filled with iced-cold water! They were thoughtful, and their water bottles looked high-end and durable!
The kids loved the boat ride. I bought my daughter a kid’s camera that can also print in black & white, she was having a blast taking photos herself!
Our boat docked and the staff walked us to the reception……the quiet beach and the main swimming pool on the back:
The newly built overwater bungalows:
It was a short walk to the reception, there were seats inside with AC while waiting to do the check-in paperwork. The staff brought flower-infused cold towel and a juice mix drink; they were refreshing! We walked out to the balcony and this was the view:
Inside the reception with 3 receptionists working. After a few minutes, I headed up to the next available desk to fill the paperwork. Unlike the Intercontinental, St. Regis, and Conrad that they come to you while you were seated to fill out the paperwork, this was definitely a “level down” from the luxury experience. As a Platinum member, I chose breakfast as the welcome gift and was told that kids under 5 eat free while those aged 5-12 are 50% off the menu. That was great considering the restaurant prices in Bora Bora and I paid $$$ to add my son!
I was given a card with the map of the resort and the back of it has QR codes for the weekly activity and restaurant menus. You can also check out their menus and weekly activity online: https://thewestinboraboraresortandspa.bowo.app/pages/8326 The activities rotate during the week: Polynesian dancing, shell craft, flower crown, coconut palm weaving, and pareo painting. We did all except for the Polynesian dancing and coconut palm weaving. Also note that all the activities and dinner need to be “reserved” from the Concierge, either by person at the Concierge Desk or by calling. Best to reserve the night before or morning as activities do have a limit of 25 guests!!!
Our rooms were 229 (the lagoon view) and 230 (the premium Otemanu) but both were not ready yet early in the morning. We waited at the reception to review the activities and menus, took some photos, a staff came to me and said one of our rooms is ready and he’ll give us a tour of the hotel…GREAT! He walked us around the main building where the reception was located, next to it is O’A Bar then the Concierge Desk. Beneath the Concierge Desk is Maere Restaurant (their fine-dining restaurant opens for dinner weekdays) and next to it down the stair is Tipanier Restaurant (opens for breakfast and dinner). Down from the reception at the beach is Varavara Restaurant (the only restaurant that opens for lunch and dinner).
Tipanier Restaurant faces the resort’s lagoon. I think this is the same as back in the Le Meridien days.
We hopped into the buggy and pointed us the right side of the path to the spa, gym, and turtle center. Whereas, the left side of the path to the 200’s overwater bungalows, where our rooms are located. Our premium Otemanu overwater bungalow, room 230, was ready and here are the photos. It was the exact same layout as the lagoon view room 229 but facing the opposite side! Right after entrance is the bathroom, I like the “suite” layout more because the “bathroom” is its own section of the room. Whereas, the beach villas and entry level lagoon overwater bungalows, the double sink and tub are next to the bed! Everything looked new as it should be and modern! I much prefer this bathroom than the huge but outdated bathroom at St. Regis.
The shower and toilet rooms on each side of the tub. Their toiletries are the local brand, not the Westin’s heavenly spa white tea ones. I found that their shampoo and body wash are watered down in the rooms!!! The same body wash bottle at the restaurants’ bathrooms was more thick!!! This felt cheap for a resort that charges over $1000 a night!!!
The closet room was big enough for all our luggage! The Westin beach bag is yours to keep which was decent, not as nice/functional as the one at the St. Regis.
The sofa was new and comfortable; this extra space allowed to accomodate a 3rd person.
The huge glass on the floor was my kids’ favorite area of the room besides the pool, they spotted a sea turtle, a stingray, and numerous fish at night! The first thing my daughter did in the room was take a selfie of herself on the glass floor!
The bed looked nice but the mattress was way too soft, it didn’t feel like a Westin’s heavenly bed at all. It felt like a 10+ year old mattress that the middle was sunken in!!!
Our welcome treats (part of the “resort fee”). I told the staff that we don’t drink alcohol and if it’s possible to exchange it for juice instead. He said he’ll ask….(St. Regis’ butler would say of course). On the table was the weekly activity sheet (the activities were complimentary as part of the “resort fee”).
The deck with the plunge pool and the unbelievable views of Mount Otemanu! We joked that this view cost $1000 a night (the cash price difference for the lagoon view versus the mountain view rooms).
Overall, the room was modern with Bluetooth speakers, plenty of plugs, and great lighting (unlike the dark room at the St. Regis). I would rate the room 8/10, points deducted for the mattress and the watered-down shampoo and body wash! No time to waste and take advantage of the best morning lights, we changed and went out to take photos!!! But before we went out, I called the Concierge Desk to reserve the flower crown activity this afternoon at 3 PM and they only have 4 spaces left; that was fine – Jason and my son could “share”.
For the best photos of the mountain as the backdrop, it is best to take photos between 10 AM to 1 PM when the sun illuminates the mountain and the turquoise colors of the lagoon.
The other side facing the St. Regis:
The most common fish that we saw in the lagoon:
We walked to the deck to take photos with the Westin sign:
No island beats Bora Bora’s lagoon and views! We traveled to Seychelles last year and in my opinion, Bora Bora is #1!!! Aitutaki in the Cook Islands is #2!!!
The kids enjoyed looking at the fish on the deck, the water is crystal clear!
To take a break from the strong sun, we headed to Varavara Restaurant for lunch, it opens at noon and we were there 10 minutes before that. Varavara has the best view and the lowest price tag! The causal restaurant has half the tables on the beach and half up on the platform. The first meal, we had it on the beach as it was cool but it was not practical with small kids.
We ordered the pepperoni pizza (3900 xpf) and korma chicken (3900 xpf) to share. For the kids, we ordered from the kid’s menu (not posted online so I took a photo here): the rigatoni pasta (2500 xpf), cheeseburger (2000 xpf), fruits plate for my son (1600 xpf), and mango juice (800 xpf each). My son’s meal was free and my daughter’s was 50% off. The mango juice was from the local brand, Rotui, the best mango juice that I have ever had so a must in French Polynesia!!! The kids agreed that it was delicious 😀
The dishes from the kid’s menu was actually the same portion as the regular menu and cheaper (I was surprised when I saw the burger). The korma chicken was a little bit overcooked and not much curry taste to it. The pizza was fine, the pasta and burger were actually decent. The food quality was much better than I anticipated and the prices were fair by Bora Bora standard and also the gov tax and 5% service charge were included in the price! We had leftovers (most of the meals), which we took back to the room.
For each bill, it was a battle to settle on the correct charges for my kids! The first lunch bill, there was no discount, I told the waitress that my son should be free because he is under 5 and my daughter should be 50% off. She wasn’t even aware of this so she went to confirm with her manager. She came back and said yes and adjusted the bill; I had to point out which should be free and which should be 50% off.
After lunch, my kids were eager to jump into the plunge pool so I quickly went to the reception to ask if our other room is ready which it was. I got the key cards and we walked back to our rooms. The bikes parked outside the main building complex, we didn’t ride on them because we had our kids but they looked nice (compared to the old ones at the St. Regis years ago).
I snap quick photos along the way of course! The beach area facing the St. Regis side:
The overwater boardwalk to the 200’s bungalows, the deck is on the left side:
The kids were changing on the other bungalow while I walked across to room 229 for photos before they made a mess. I was happy to see that they had changed out the champagne to juices from my request and they did the same for the other room!
This bungalow has the same layout as the other one except the pool was facing the lagoon (St. Regis side) instead of the mountain, The colors of the water were beautiful in the afternoon, and when the umbrella was opened, it provided shade versus the mountain view room has no shade until the sun set behind the mountain (later in the afternoon)! Thus, we hang out in the lagoon view room’s pool in the early afternoons.
My kids were eager to jump in without even changing first!
They loved the plunge pool, big enough for them! The pool was filled with saltwater, it auto empty out every 48 hr for cleaning and refill.
By 2:30 PM, I got them out of the pool, shower them and then walked to the O’A Bar for the flower crown making. I signed up for 4 people but were only given two headbands and the guys made a necklace instead. They certainly don’t have enough headbands for all participants. I did flower crown making in our previous stays at other hotels where we made the crown by roping the ribbon around the leaves and flowers from scratch. At the Westin, they made it super easy, the headbands were already made by the “teachers”. All we needed to do was stick the flowers into the headbands via toothpicks!
The colorful tropical flowers in Polynesia:
Brenda was our “teacher” for all the activities that we participated.
My daughter enjoyed selecting the flowers and stick them to the headband:
Ta-da, the finished flower crown:
The mountain was in shade by the late afternoon so we walked over to the resort’s lagoon for photos with the flower crown.
I created my own headband from roping the ribbon around the leaves and then stick the flowers….not as professional as the ones that made from Brenda.
After the flower crown making activity, we went back to our Otemanu view bungalow to rest and enjoy the views. The sun was setting behind the Otemanu:
We made a dinner reservation at Veravera at 6 PM and on our walk to the restaurant, my sharp-eyed daughter spotted a stingray!
Although the sunset wasn’t colorful, it gave a golden glow over the mountain.
My mom was still full from lunch so she skipped dinner, she said if she’s hungry, she can eat the leftovers from lunch. Our dinner at Varavara, we sat at the table on the platform, we didn’t get any mosquito bites except for Jason! He ran back to the room to get the bug spray, he always attracted bugs!!! The kids couldn’t wait for the delicious mango juice; they had it every meal!
The dinner menu is the same as the lunch menu at Varavara and also the kid’s menu. We were running out of choices by the 2nd day! I ordered the pasta but added shrimps (+600 xpf) and asked if it’s possible to substitute with spaghetti…nope, they don’t have spaghetti!
For my son, we ordered the mahi mahi with steamed rice (2800 xpf), which was the only dish that had steamed rice which he needed along with the fruit plate:
Since my daughter doesn’t like that type of pasta, we ordered a fried-rice side for her, we asked if they can add extra eggs to the rice and they did! The side of fried rice was 600 xpf. The fries were included with Jason’s ribeye and they all liked the fries LOL.
Jason ordered the ribeye steak (5900 xpf), the steak was thin and they did cook it to medium so it was not bad (unlike the super well-done one he had at the Four Seasons last time).
The battle of the bill again, the waiter did know about the children’s discount but I had to point out the drinks for the kids to apply the discount. It took him a while to get the correct bill back so by that time, my daughter already fall asleep! Night at Bora Bora was so peaceful, we could hear the waves and see the stars on our walk back to our room. It was a long day of travel to get to Bora Bora so we had a great night’s sleep despite the mattress being uncomfortable!
Day 2: sunrise from our lagoon view overwater bungalow, it was a calm morning:
I got ready and went over to my mom and kids’ bungalow, the kiddos dipped their feet into the pool on their pajamas LOL! I got them changed into their swimsuit and floaties and they had an hour or so of fun in the pool.
By 8 AM, they got a quick shower and changed to go to breakfast (Jason skipped that). Breakfast is located at the Tipanier Restaurant and as a Marriott Platinum member, I chose the breakfast buffet as the welcome amenity. You can also order a la carte if you don’t get free breakfast to save some money. The buffet spread wasn’t impressive; there were a few hot items like the usual sausage, scrambled eggs, and rice/fried rice.
There was miso soup where you can add your own tofu, seaweed, etc. Next to the miso soup was a pot of dim sum, which they rotated each day: the chicken siu mai were burned, the spring rolls were super oily, and the best we had was the fried shrimp dumplings that were edible! There was a salad table with cold cuts and also the local Tahitian-style raw fish with coconut milk.
There were pancakes (not so good), French toast (looked different but pretty good), and Tahitian donuts.
The fruits table were mixed fruit salad, ripe pineapple, passion fruit, grapes, mangos (sometimes not ripe), watermelon, and apples:
The pastry table has different flavors of croissants. We liked the pistachio the first day but never see that again so that rotates each day along with strawberry, raspberry, and raspberry chocolate. However, their croissants were not crunchy (unlike the ones we had in France) so I was wondering if they were freshly made or ordered from somewhere.
I forgot a photo of the juice station but I was disappointed that they did not have mango juice! They had orange, pineapple, and two types of detox mixed juices. Only until the last day I saw mango juice!!! The same waitress at Veravera worked at the breakfast buffet and saw us. I asked her if there’s mango juice and she said she’ll go get them for the kids 🙂 My daughter was happy for mango juice, yay! We picked up flowers on our way to breakfast and she loved them in her hair haha!
As we were having breakfast, the restaurant manager came and said to me that the breakfast was included for one adult and one kid in room 229, my son is free, so the other adult will need to pay. I said that made no sense, the welcome amenity is free breakfast for 2 people so why can’t they apply that for the 2 adults and then my daughter will be 50%? She said she’ll go ask…. a few minutes later, she came back and said they “took care of that” but it was an “exception”. I don’t get why, shouldn’t that be logical to apply for 2 adults? Anyways, I found out that they even waived the charge for my daughter so I never see the breakfast bill for the entire stay 😀
After breakfast, we met up with Jason and “reserved” the cabana by the pool. There are 5 of them, 3 on the other side of the pool and 2 of them here. They are first-come first-served and best thing: FREE unlike other beach resorts in the Caribbean that you have to pay a hefty premium to rent for the day! You “reserve” them by placing your personal item there such as the hotel’s beach bag. They do have a sign that if the cabana is not occupied for more than 45 minutes, the resort reserves the right to remove your belongings and let other guests to use it, which was fair. You need to “reserve” them before heading to breakfast because after breakfast, will all be taken! We were lucky that there was one left after we had breakfast. The cabana provided shade, a big comfortable beach bed, and direct access to the pool!
The beach bar staff came by a few times if we need anything so they were attentive! The hotel also provides free sunscreen (both spf 30 and 50) and aloe gel at the beach/pool bar and the activity hut. The pool was large and hardly any guests in there. The side near our cabana is very shallow so perfect for our kids! This pool is also saltwater.
We walked along the beach for photos, there are swings at the beach bar:
Photos with Bora Bora’s famous lagoon and Mount Otemanu, of course!
We walked all the way to the 300’s overwater bungalows. The 300’s overwater bungalows have a more closer view of the mountain than the 200’s. I am not sure how it’ll look in the bunaglows though.
We didn’t walk further into the 300’s overwater bungalows, we turned to the resort’s lagoon side:
We walked toward the beach bungalows to the other side of the resort’s lagoon, which faced the mountain. The sand here was compacted so not a beach where my kids can make a sandcastle. I was glad that I booked the overwater bungalow instead of the beach bungalow.
The beach was quite dirty from the washups.
Then, we walked to the chapel, it has great views of the mountain and the resort’s lagoon.
Tipanier Restaurant and the main resort building complex across the lagoon:
The chapel looked like an overwater bungalow from the outside, the corals here looked great and plenty of fish:
We went in the chapel and the strong AC inside was a relief from the hot sun! There’s also a huge glass floor panel inside the chapel with a lot more fish than the overwater bungalows. The chapel has been rebuilt since it used to have a deck and a longer glass panel (see my Le Meridien Bora Bora post: https://missvacation.net/2019/03/30/le-meridien-bora-bora/)
Lots of sea urchins near the wall and geez I don’t know what that is that looked like a snake!!!
Across from the chapel is the lagoon for the turtle center but no turtles in there for the 5 nights! The staff at the turtle center said they’ll “bring” out a turtle to the lagoon for turtle feeding at 11 AM. We always missed that and not in the activity sheet so I assumed it’s a paid activity that you need to reserve for?
Continued on crossed the bridge is the gym that my mom spent most of the mornings in:
She said it got busy later in the morning!
Across from the gym is the Westin Heavenly Spa. We went in to ask the staff to help us call a buggy, the kids were tired with walking by then! They enjoyed watching the koi fish circling around.
After we got back to the room, changed into our swimwear, and headed back out to Varavara for lunch. We tried the pizza from the kid’s menu to see if it’s the full size or kid’s size, it was the kid size!
Jason and I both ordered the shrimp roll (3900 xpf); it was pretty good except that it had kimchi, it tasted much better the 2nd time we ordered it without the kimchi!
The kids did not like the pizza so we had more than half left and while I was battling with the bill amount again, I asked the waiter for a box so I can take the leftover pizza back to the room. He took the pizza and I waited so long for the “leftover box”. I asked multiple times about the pizza and then I gave up! I was on my way out and someone called me “Mrs. Mei, your pizza” LOL they made a new one! I guess the waiter didn’t pay attention and throw away the leftover pizza so they made a new one (a better one with pepperoni). Despite the incorrect bill amount, I always tipped extra 5-10% because the same waitress serving us was so kind, she automatically brought out the mango juice for my kids each time – breakfast and lunch!
After lunch, we spent the afternoon at the main pool.
And the beach:
I got the stand-up paddling board from the activity hut and gave my kids a ride; my son loved it!
At around 4 PM, I went back to the room to shower first because it took me longer to wash my hair. Then, Jason took the kids back to the room to shower. For dinner, we made a reservation at Tipanier at 6 PM. My mom skipped dinner again, she has the whole pizza and she usually has a full lunch and a very light dinner at home. At Tipanier, we could feel the mosquitoes flying around so we had to apply the insect repellent. We were seated and I asked the waitress about the kids discount so that she know and not needing to battle with the bill again. She said that kids under 5 is free from the kid’s menu and for my daughter, it’s only 50% off the regular menu (now that is different)! I don’t know why the Westin makes it so complicated with different rules!
The amuse-bouche was a coconut soup; it was good actually. My kids didn’t like it at all so we both had 2 little bowls.
I ordered the beef tenderloin (6300 xpf) and added foie gras (1500 xpf extra); the foie gras appetizer alone was 5400 xpf and I had no idea how big it is, but it cost too much for an appetizer! It turned out the portion was good enough for me! The beef tenderloin was cooked medium and juicy.
Jason ordered the lamb (6700 xpf) and he said it was not bad. So far, our meals at the Westin were much better than the meals we had in previous trips in Bora Bora in terms of quality!
I ordered the linguini (4800 xpf) for my daughter, see they have linguini pasta at the resort, why couldn’t they substitute it at lunch? The sauce was weird so my daughter only took a few bites.
I ordered the cheeseburger from the kid’s menu for my son and it took forever to come. When it finally came, I gave him a bite and he said “spicy”. Urg, they put spicy mayo sauce on it!!! I flagged down the waitress and told her that my son can’t eat spicy food. She apologized and had the kitchen to remake it. How can they mess up on that when the kid’s menu cheeseburger has no mentioning of spicy mayo sauce? The remake took forever to come too and by the time it came, my son already fallen asleep, GRRR! I asked for a box to go and for the bill. Yep, once again, I need to point out what should be discounted sigh!!!
We asked the staff to call us a buggy to get back to our rooms, our kids had already fallen asleep!
Day 3: The day started with a quick passing rain and then a rainbow appeared! The kids were super excited to go to the deck and took photos of it! How magical it was!
Jason even got into the pool for photos, doesn’t this look so cool?
As our usual drill, we got the kids ready, went to breakfast, photo time, and then play time at the pool and beach!
My daughter took better photos than my mom even if I positioned her; her hands moved when clicking the shutter button! My daughter took this one:
This was one of the few taken by my mom where our feet weren’t cut off or too much sky or land.
Moments like this were priceless!
After some quick photos, my son wanted a ride again so we went back to change and headed back to the beach.
They pretended this to be a prison LOL!
Then, we spent the morning at the main pool:
For lunch, it was Varavara again and we got so sick of the same menu by day 3! I tried to be creative….I ordered the Caesar salad (2000 xpf) from the kid’s menu for my daughter and mahi mahi with steamed rice for my son. The $20 Caesar salad was only 5 pieces of romaine lettuce, I asked the waitress where is the parmesan chicken? She said it doesn’t come with chicken…what…but the menu said so! She checked the menu again and said oh so she had the kitchen to make the chicken!!! The chicken was surprisingly tender so I cut into smaller pieces and mixed it with steamed rice for the kids to share.
I ordered the pasta again but this time the sauce was different, it was pesto-based! At least that was good for a change! Same story, I had to battle with the bill to get the correct discount, I don’t get why the same waitress couldn’t figure this out by the 3rd day!
After lunch, we spent the afternoon in the pool in our lagoon view bungalow and once the pool was fully in shade, the water temp was too “cold” for my daughter so we hopped into the pool in the Otemanu view bungalow.
For dinner, we stayed in the room and had instant noodles that we brought for the trip. I figured by the middle of the 5-night stay, we would miss Asian food so much that we rather have instant noodle. It was a great decision, the instant noodles tasted so much better than the repetitive dishes we had!
Day 4: Christmas Eve! It was cloudy and raining on and off! Without the sun, it was too cold to dip in the pool so we stayed in our room most of the day. We brought stuff for the kids to play to keep them entertained when bad weather so it worked out! I checked the AA website and saw that there are 5+ award business class seats available for the later flight out of Tahiti, I talked to Jason about that and decided to change the flight. I spent almost an hour on the phone with AA to change our flights but it was well worth it (originally, I was able to get 4 business class seats and 1 in premium economy).
In the afternoon, we did the flower crown making again because Santa will be at the beach at 4 PM so it will look nice wearing the flower crown. The 2nd time making the crown, we got so much better at it 😉
After making our beautiful flower crowns, we went to the beach to take some photos while waiting for Santa to come.
Santa arrived in style!!!
The kids were excited to see Santa and asked why Santa’s boots were different LOL!!! Beach style 😉
Santa called up each kid’s name to get their present, wow I wasn’t expecting this, it was so thoughtful of the hotel to do that!!! When my son’s name was called, he was so shy that we had to walk with him up to Santa to get his gift. My daughter was next:
A photo with Santa and their gifts 😀 My daughter said it was the best Christmas ever (she said that each year) haha!
The kids were eager to open their gifts first thing when we got back to our room! They got a gummy pack and a card game appropriate for their age! Those were super handy as we were “stuck” in our room the next two days due to the weather!
For the Christmas Eve’s dinner, there were two options: Christmas Eve buffet at Tipanier or a set 5-course menu at Varavara. The special menus were published the night before and when I saw the buffet cost 35,200 xpf per person (that’s around $350 USD), I was shocked!!! I don’t see how great of a buffet that we can eat the money’s worth! The 5-course menu did not have a price so I called to ask….the receptionist said it’s the same 35,200 xpf. WHAT???? How can that be? I questioned him and asked him to check, he came back and said that is correct. Then, I asked, can we order room service? He said yes but the kitchen will be closed from 4 PM to 10 PM so we can only order before or after that. It was certainly the hotel’s tactic to get the most money out of guests!!! I confirmed again, it is not mandatory to have the buffet or set menu right, we can do room service instead? He said yes but best to order by 3 PM. Therefore, we made the plan to order room service before we head out to the flower crown making activity and Jason stayed in the room to sign the bill. When I called to order, I asked for the kid’s discount and this time, the guy said under 5 is free and no discount for over 5 years old (no 50% off), they really have different rules and make it complicated, don’t they?
Here are the Christmas Eve menus:
Our cold dinner but better than paying a thousand dollars for our dinner!
While having dinner, someone rang our doorbell, a special Christmas gift from the hotel…..a huge chocolate that looked like a record! No way we could finish that and would be melted by the time we get home so we didn’t take that with us. We spent our Christmas Eve in the room playing the new card games with our kids, they enjoyed it!
Day 5: Christmas Day! Those Christmas-themed pastries were super cute in breakfast and my kids wanted more of the candycane-looking chocolate.
Another stuck in our room day, it poured here and there! The banana-looking sign was funny!
For today’s activity, they had pareo painting in the morning at 11 AM at the swing area on the beach. Luckily, the rain stopped so we were able to walk out to the beach to join the activity. I was surprised to see that not only they setup the pareo painting (dying), they also setup shell crafts at the swing! Aparently there were two activities today, maybe special for Christmas Day?
They splitted us up into two groups: one to shell craft and another to pareo painting. We started with pareo painting. The instructors, Brenda again, demostrated the steps. First, dip the cloth into the water to get it wet. Then, put it in the color bath of your choice: 1, 2, 3, or more colors. Lay it flat on the table for 15 minutes before using the brush to paint patterns from templates. Last, hang it to dry.
We dipped the cloth in the lagoon so it was saltwater lol….
We tried with 3 colors and the painting part was harder than it looked because the paints were spreading everywhere, so hard to get a clear pattern.
Our pareos (4 on the left side):
Next, we switched to the shell crafts, by this time, all the photo frames were taken so not many choices left 🙁 We picked the jewelry box, my daughter loved those arts and crafts so she was very focused and insisted on filling the edges with small shells. She was too small for the glue gun so I had to do the work to glue one by one!
We took the full hour to finish both activities so then it was time for lunch. We left our pareos there to dry and will pick them up after lunch. Lunch at Varavara, I ordered the korma chicken and it tasted and looked better this time!
Jason ordered the poke bowl, it looked very nice too! We ordered the same old same old dishes for our kids – the Caesar salad and mahi mahi with steamed rice!
Guess what, time for the bill, I questioned again. The manager came and said the 50% off only applies for the regular menu, not the kid’s menu. Sorry that they were wrong for the past few days and her manager corrected them! Wow she couldn’t tell me before I placed the order? To make me feel better, she said she didn’t put in the mango juice so those were free. Their inconsistencies drove me nuts, they have been opened for a year now and couldn’t get the policy straight??? When we were about to leave, it poured like cats and dogs! Uh-oh our pareos….we waited till the rain stopped and then walked to the beach to get our pareos. They took them to the Concierge Desk! So we walked to the Concierge Desk to pick up our pareos and then a quick visit to the reception to ask if we can have a late check tomorrow as our flight is at 5:45 PM. She said the check-out details will be displayed on the TV tonight.
We walked back to the beach to find seashells and on the way, I took photos of the 3 cabanas on the right side of the pool, I didn’t get a chance to take photos before! Those do not have “direct access” to the pool so the best cabanas are the ones on the left side!
The 2 cabanas on the left side that have direct access to the pool and better view of the mountain in my opinion!
The main pool:
My daughter found a big shell!
She got scared and surprised to see a hermit crab, her first time!
They were cleaning up the washups from the past two days of rough wave and weather on the beach:
We went back to our room and the rain started again. The whole day was pouring here and there so we played the card games and kept our kids entertained. For dinner, we went to Varavara and ordered our usual dishes, nothing new! After we got back to our room after dinner, I checked the “message” on the TV screen and it said we need to check-out by noon for both rooms! I called reception and asked if there’s a day room available after the check-out, he said yes but only for 45 minutes. That won’t help much, especially with two little kids, what are we going to do for 4 hours??? He said best to call tomorrow morning when his manager is on duty. When we were packing, we set aside an outfit to change before our departure and made sure our winter outfit and jacket were accessible to change in LAX.
Day 6: check-out day! Today’s weather looked much better, we finally see the sun! During breakfast, a manager came over to us and asked about our activity of the day. I said we are leaving today and I need to go to the reception after breakfast to see if we can get a day room for the rest of the afternoon to make things easier for our kids. She said she’ll go and work that out with the reception team. She came back and said all set, we can have the day room from noon till departure!!!
After breakfast, we went back to our room and took last-minute photos! We didn’t have photos of us with the beautiful mountain view from our deck!
Our kids were super good with photos today 🙂
After that, Jason and I went around and took more photos while my mom finished her last-minute packing. The boardwalk at the 200’s bungalows did not have the direct central view of Mount Otemanu but I liked the curved view.
The beach facing the St. Regis side:
Shallow water that you could probably walk to the overwater bungalows!
We got back to our rooms, moved our luggage to the Otemanu bungalow for easier luggage pick-up. We called reception to pick up our luggage and us to check-out. Just as we arrived at the reception at 11:45 AM, a boatload of new guests just arrived and waiting to be checked in so I had to wait another 15-minutes to check-out. I looked through each line item carefully, given the number of times they messed up our restaurant bill! The final bill was correct, for the 5 nights, we spent $2000 USD on food, destination fees for both rooms and taxes. Not bad!!!
Then, we got the room key for the day room (beach villa 102), the staff drove us to the room and then he dropped off our luggage as well. I took a video but no photo of the room inside, it was the basic villa that has the sink and tub next to the bed which we found it weird. Each beach villa has a plunge pool, it looked smaller than the pool we had in the overwater bungalows. The view of the mountain and the resort’s lagoon, the view looked nice. Like I said before, if the beach at the resort’s beach is more sandy, I would consider it but it is so compacted that my kids won’t be able to play with it.
The beach villa is very close to the fitness center and the turtle center so I tried our last time to see if there is any turtle in the lagoon….
The rain from the last two days flooded the viewing “platform”:
Disappointedly, no turtle in the lagoon:
We took turns taking shower back at the beach villa and got ready for our departure. At 4 PM, I called the reception to come pick up our luggage to the boat dock. Another couple was there and then the boat arrived. They loaded our luggage into the boat and time for us to depart. No staff was there to say goodbye, no gift, no seashell necklace, nothing!!! For a “luxury” hotel in Bora Bora, they didn’t make an effort to say goodbye to their guests while all other hotels have some form of goodbye from waving goodbyes from the team of staff to ceremonial seashell blowing.
We arrived at the airport, apparently all hotel boats arrived at around the same time, so there was a line to check-in. Our flight was on time and our last views of the beautiful island of Bora Bora! See you next time!!!
The check-in to our Air Tahiti Nui flight is not until 8:30 PM so we had 1.5 hours to wait. It looked like it might rain and we couldn’t check in our luggage so it would be a hassle to drag our luggage and our kids up the hill to Ocean Restaurant to have dinner (we later saw there is luggage storage lockers at the airport, I am not sure if it takes credit card or not though). Instead, Jason and I walked to the restaurant to order take-out. We ordered 4 dishes and white rice for less than 10000 xpf ~$100 USD. Once we go back to the airport with the food, it started to rain so we were lucky! We missed Chinese stir-fried dishes; it was the best meal we had in French Polynesia!
After dinner and checked-in, we headed to the lounge. Air Tahiti’s lounge looked exactly the same as the last time we visited – same old cup noodles, snacks, and the best was the Rotui mango juice! We had our last cups of the yummy mango juice. We changed in the lounge, it got cold so it was fine to wear our long sleeves. At the lounge, a guy came to me and asked if I had children’s Tylenol as his toddler son is having a fever. I gave him my chewable bottle and he was so thankful to us. They were on the 9:30 PM flight and it got delayed.
We walked down to the gate when our boarding time and found out there is a minor delay. The flight that was at 9:30 PM (our original flight) has been delayed to who knows when, they said it was mechanical issue so could be canceled. If they canceled that flight, our flight would be delayed even further to accommodate some of the passengers from that flight! We went back to the lounge for further announcement. Half an hour later, we heard the announcement to board, phew! After we boarded, the flight attendant came to count the number of empty seats in business class and gave the “10” hand signal. We knew right away that flight was canceled and they tried to accommodate the passengers to this flight. The family that we met in the lounge with a sick toddler boarded our flight. The grandfather told us that they were traveling in a group of 10 family members, the airline tried to split them up to only rebook the business class passengers (4 of them) to this flight while the remaining 6 on economy would need to wait for the next available flight which is not until midnight of the next day!!! After back and forth, the airline finally agreed to put them on this flight. We were so lucky that we switched the flight, otherwise, we could be stuck in Tahiti!
It was our kids’ first time on business class, my daughter said wow the seat was super comfortable! We waited and waited to take off that she fell asleep and I too! When I woke up, it was a 2 hr delay and we finally took off! I was so tired so the lay-flat bed was very helpful to get a good night sleep.
Since it was a late-night flight, they didn’t serve a dinner but instead a “cold light meal”. I was glad that we had a full meal from the take-out and not relying on this or the lounge!
The cold meal didn’t look appetizing at all….the chocolate raspberry mousse was pretty good and not too sweet!
My kids slept all the way till breakfast! I picked the omelette, it was fine:
I preordered the kid’s meal for them and it turned out to be the pancake with chocolate sauce and a chocolate milk:
Time flies when flying in business class, we arrived LAX and we had 2.5 hours to go through immigration, security, and then lounge versus the 4.5 hours we originally had because of the delay. Glad that we made our flight back to Boston and that flight was comfortable too on AA’s “flagship business” so we had the lay-flat seat as well!
Our Christmas week in Bora Bora was overall very nice despite the hiccups with every single restaurant bill. The overwater bungalows were modern, new, clean, comfortable (except the mattress), and beautiful. We hang out a lot in our plunge pools so that made our upgrades worthwhile! The food wasn’t as bad as I anticipated; every dish was edible and some were decent! We didn’t have a bad meal unlike the Four Seasons or the IHG Thalasso. The kids’ discounts helped to reduce our bill. I just wish they rotate their menu, it was VERY repetitive by the 3rd day, so I wouldn’t recommend staying more than 3 nights unless you want to take advantage of the 5th night free on award redemption! The staff were friendly and helpful, the free activities were good, the hotel grounds were beautiful; it has one of the best views of Mount Otemanu (the other one being the IHG Thalasso). Their check-in process was not on par with other 5* hotels in Bora Bora for a luxury start and they don’t even have any staff present at departure! Will I stay at the Westin the next time? Nope! Do I recommend the Westin? Yes, for first-timers for its views and new overwater bungalows. If the St. Regis gets renovated, I would return in a heartbeat…
