Best Time To Visit Bora Bora & Mo’orea
The best time to visit French Polynesia is around October to early November. That’s when you have the least chance of rain and mostly sunny weather.
The high season in Bora Bora, though, is in December, because it’s around the holidays and that’s when people travel the most. It’s also when prices are the highest and hotels are at full occupancy. We highly recommend you DON’T visit Bora Bora in December as that’s the worst part of the rainy season with highest chances of rain and bad weather. Many people don’t know this and visit in December for the holidays, then end up disappointed.
How Expensive is Bora Bora?
Bora Bora vs. Mo’orea
Lots of people ask us if they should just skip Bora Bora and go to Mo’orea as it’s much cheaper. Both Bora Bora and Mo’orea have overwater bungalows, snorkeling, similar food, excursions, etc. So why pay the premium Bora Bora prices and not head straight to Mo’orea?
It depends on what you’re looking for but overall we don’t recommend this, and here’s why.
The truth is, the water and beaches in Mo’orea don’t even come close to those in Bora Bora. There’s no comparison. The beaches in Bora Bora have powdery white sand and rich turquoise waters. From the moment you step off the plane and head to your boat transfer, you are just stunned by the colors of this island and can’t stop staring in awe.
The beaches in Mo’orea, on the other hand, are pretty average, the water isn’t as blue and clear and the sand is not as nice. Outside of the couple luxury hotels on the island there are almost no white sand beaches, with a couple exceptions. And still, they don’t come close to the stunning beauty of Bora Bora beaches.
In addition, if you care about taking beautiful photos, mount Otemanu is visible from virtually every hotel in Bora Bora and adds a beautiful exotic touch to your beach shots.
One thing Mo’orea has on Bora Bora is the snorkeling. We stayed at the Hilton Mo’orea, which is basically built on top of a coral lagoon. You can literally just walk out and enter the lagoon right from your overwater bungalow’s deck. We loved walking around the overwater part of the hotel and just watching the fish swim by underneath us. There is almost no coral around the bungalows in the Bora Bora hotels we visited, so the most you could see there were some stingrays. Those hotels do have their own lagoons though, so you can still do some snorkeling.
There is also some hiking you can do in Mo’orea as well as the stingray/shark excursions, but the latter is available in Bora Bora as well. You can rent a car in Mo’orea and explore the island a little more but if you are looking for a more adventurous trip, we think Hawaii has a lot more to offer. We wouldn’t recommend you to come all the way to French Polynesia just to visit Mo’orea.
Overall, if you are going on your honeymoon or a special occasion and want to experience a once-in-a-lifetime kind of place, you absolutely have to go to Bora Bora.
How To Get To Bora Bora
Thankfully, French Polynesia has re-opened to international tourists with a few COVID safety measures. To travel to Bora Bora you will need to provide a negative RT-PCR test result taken no more than 3 days prior to departing and a completed ETIS form that you can find here.
During your stay you may also need to do a self-administered test four days after your arrival. You will receive the test with instructions at your arrival in French Polynesia.
If you are coming from the US, you will typically have to fly to Faa’a International Airport in Tahiti (PPT) through either San Francisco (SFO) or Los Angeles (LAX). The average duration of a direct flight to Tahiti from one of these two airports is around eight hours. Once you arrive in Tahiti, you would typically take a domestic Air Tahiti flight to Bora Bora. Make sure you sit on the left side of the plane so you can get that stunning view of Bora Bora as you’re flying in.
Itinerary
We had 2 weeks total in French Polynesia and we spent half in Bora Bora and half in Mo’orea. It was the perfect amount of time for us, but it’s totally doable in about 10 days too, if you want to visit both places.
Here’s our full itinerary:
– Tahiti (spent 1 night here)
– Flight to Bora Bora the next morning
– 6 nights in Bora Bora
– Flight back to Tahiti
– Rent a car in Tahiti
– Ferry from Tahiti to Mo’orea
– 6 nights in Mo’orea
– Ferry back to Tahiti
– Return rental car and fly out
Keep in mind the internal flights in French Polynesia are on the expensive side (around $400/person from Tahiti to Bora Bora roundtrip). Mo’orea is the only island that you can get to by ferry from Tahiti, which costs only […..] per person.
That’s why after Bora Bora we flew back to Tahiti and took the ferry to Mo’orea.
Renting A Car
You definitely don’t need a car in Bora Bora as you’ll mostly stay in the resort and there’s not much to explore on the main island. If you’re visiting Mo’orea though, you will need a car if you’re planning to leave the hotel and see the island.
It’s more cost-efficient to rent the car in Tahiti and take it to Mo’orea, even when you include the price of the ferry ticket for the car back and forth. You can also rent a motorcycle at [….].
Also keep in mind that the rental car agencies here have a surcharge for every 100km driven, if you don’t opt for unlimited mileage.
There is only one main road in Mo’orea, which is well-maintained. But the rest of the roads can be pretty rough so keep that in mind.
Bora Bora
Where to stay
Things to do
Mo’orea
Where to stay
Things to do
