Our Kids Travel: French Polynesia rewards nights

Showing posts with label French Polynesia rewards nights. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

What You Should Know Before Traveling to Bora Bora

Our trip to Bora Bora, Moorea and Tahiti

You do not need to bring shampoo, conditioner or body wash. Save the room in your luggage, especially since the weight restrictions on luggage is so carefully monitored on the smaller planes, like Air Tahiti. The resorts gave me new ones every day. I left a note for extra conditioner since my hair is so long, so everyday I also received multiple conditioners.

Bring your own water shoes. Most areas we encountered coral in the ocean. I have read way too many reviews where someone cut there foot on the coral and it ruined their trip. Apparently there is also a coral looking fish that will ruin your day if touched.

If you go in French Polynesia's summer season, be aware that a mossy seaweed can grow on the ladders from the bungalow to the lagoon. The resorts try to keep this to a minimum, but it's just the season for it. If you come in contact with it, it can cause an unpleasant rash. Be prepared and pack a lotion for the rash, or maybe benadryl. It happened to me on day 2. Luckily it went away on it's own and was never bothersome, just strange looking when I was trying to look all cute in my swimsuit.

If you cannot splurge on a spa treatment, ask about day pass rates. At the Intercontinental Thalasso you can get a day pass for $35 or $50 with the steam room. My husband was able to get the pass and spend the whole day at the spa with me using the many amenities. I would highly recommend spending one day at the spa. The views here are the best at the resort.

Use the correct credit cards! For instance, use the Chase IHG card at the Intercontinental Resorts, the American Express Hilton card at Hiltons, the SPG American Express at the Marriott properties. The amount of points earned when using the correct card are insane! Even on free reward nights, I earned thousands of points on everything I charged to the room, which was then charged to the coordinating card.

If staying at Intercontinental Resorts, pay the $200 to become an ambassador. You get a guaranteed upgrade whether you are staying on a points stay or you are paying. The difference in room categories are over $300 a night, so you would make your money back on the first night. After all, the view is why you are coming here. It also gets you other perks, like a fresh fruit plate every stay. We were able to snack on it throughout the evening then save the rest for breakfast. You never know what other perks it will bring. We also received a nice IC Thalasso beach bag and Tiare Monoi, valued at about $38. There is also a special area for Ambassadors to check in. A chic seating area with incredible views. We received welcome drinks and refreshing hand towels. The manager came out to welcome us at each resort as well, making us feel really special.

Another Ambassador perk is you get a Buy 1 Get 1 free on a weekend night stay. It could come in handy if you are paying for this trip and staying over a weekend. A free night in Bora Bora could save you over $1,000 easily!

If you are staying near Viatape, go off the resort and check out the snack shack on the beach! It has the most amazing view and on one of the best beaches in the world! It's called Snack Matira. It is also the perfect place to watch the sunset. They do not keep usual hours, so have your concierge call in advance to see if they are open. Also make sure they are serving fish that day, if that interests you.

Everywhere seemed to accept Visa and most of the time Mastercard. But other cards like Discover or American Express weren't always accepted. Be prepared. Also alert the credit card companies of your travel dates to prevent declines based on possible fraudulent charges. Ask the credit card company if they charge a foreign transaction fee.

Everywhere accepted American dollars, but you lost out on a few cents here and there. If an item was 1500 xpf, they would charge $15 instead of $13.84, if paid by American dollars.

Out of respect you should try to learn some basic French and Tahitian sayings. It only takes a few minutes to learn and it will make you feel comfortable to be able to speak greetings with locals and the staff.

To find hotels, apartments, and hostels in Bora Bora, click here.

Intercontinental Moorea Review and Trip Report

Our trip to Bora Bora, Moorea & Tahiti

We were just sitting around being bummed with the less than spectacular Hilton Diamond stay. We decided to hurry up and pack and take an early taxi to the IC Moorea. The private taxi was $25 from the Hilton to IC and a scenic 10 minute trip. The rain held off until we got our luggage out and under the roof of IC. Perfect timing.

We were greeted with usual amazing ambassador recognition. We were led to the ambassador check in area, which were nice seats in a roped off, exclusive area. We were served two fruit drinks with hand towels that had that amazing Tiare fragrance that I have fallen in love with. I looked at the Mister and said "we are home." He very much agreed. They gave us two vouchers for Mai Tai's at the bar for our Ambassador welcome.

This trip has hands down shown me which hotel chain will receive my loyalty.

While we waited for our room, we went to see the dolphins and the sea turtles. We were able to see both and take pictures to email to the kids back home.

Sea Turtles

Dolphin Habitat

We had just come back from swimming with the dolphins in the Bahamas, so seeing the sea turtles was exciting and new for us!

The landscape and scenery here are exactly what I was looking for when I decided to come to Moorea. Hilton let me down and made me a little nervous of my decision to come to Moorea, but this is exactly what I wanted to see. Lush, velvety-green mountains (that are extinct volcanos.) Turquoise emerald waters with the mountains in the backdrop are to die for. I think I would rather have a lagoon bungalow here or a beach bungalow (versus an overwater bungalow) because of the views.

There were no robes or slippers in our room. Maybe the bungalows have them?

We spent several hours in the infinity pool. The sea wasn't the view I couldn't stop staring at, but the volcano was the most beautiful part. I was mesmerized. Unfortunately both our cameras were charging so we didn't get any pictures of this.

We received a pinapple delivered to the room as a thank you gift for being an Ambassador.

Ambassador gift

Upon checkout I chatted with a lovely lady from the South of France named Maud. She had helped us the day before when checking in also. We discovered that both of our Grandmas are from the Amiens area of France! She commented that my French accent was good and it made me so happy. I felt my Grandma was beaming with pride. I have been using my late Grandmother's wheel chair and feel like I am bringing her presence with me on these trips. Again we were thanked for our loyalty as we were leaving.

Premium Lanai room

Bathroom amenities

Complimentary Mai Tais

To browse other Moorea hotels, click here.

Hilton Moorea Review

Our trip to Bora Bora, Moorea & Tahiti

When we arrived to the airport in Moorea, I had my camera out ready to take a picture of the person who was going to be waiting for us with a sign with our names on it, which was arranged through the resort. No such person was there. Several minutes a van pulls up and a man walks in with a piece of paper asking if we were one of these four couples. We were, so we loaded up in the van. A French couple was with us as well and they had a small child with them and held her, not worrying about a carseat. It was maybe a 15-20 minute ride from the airport to the Hilton. It was pouring and there was mild flooding going on in low lying areas of the streets.

View from plane

It was $32 for the pick up of 2 people from the airport to Hilton, with a shared taxi. We were able to charge the taxi ride to our room upon arrival. This saved our cash plus then we were able to get HiltonHonor points for the taxi ride!

We arrived and I was shown where the front desk is to check in. Silly as it may be, I was like "ohhhh, I have to use the front desk!" I have more status with Hilton as a Diamond member than I do with Intercontinental as a Platinum Ambassador, so I was expecting to be wow'ed at least the same. When it was finally my turn, we were told we had been "upgraded" to the same room just closer to the beach. We were also told we were upgraded to a room with a pool, when the room we booked clearly states it has a pool. We were not close to the beach at all. Sometimes through the trees I could see a very small glimpse of blue that I assumed was water. We were offered pineapple juice at check in. I had to ask about the diamond (and gold) member benefit of free breakfast as there was nothing in the envelope she handed me about it. I was told I would get the continental breakfast free and that to upgrade to the American breakfast was $10 per person. Just show up and they would know it would be free. I also was concerned there was no water given to me, but I wasn't feeling well and just wanted to get to my room so I could lay down. We were told that normally the concierge would want to talk to us but because we were diamond she didn't want us to have to wait. We waited for a porter to take us to our room in a golf cart since it was raining.

Front desk

The outdoor appeal was okay, nothing gorgeous.

Garden Bungalow

Inside the bathroom were our 2 waters. No recognition note or amenity. But the wifi worked well so I set it up quickly, climbed into bed and FaceTime'd the kids back home. There was an ice bucket, but no lid or liner. The bucket itself was dirty on the inside.

Bedroom

View from bed

Bathroom vanity

Shower

View of pool at night

For lunch we went to Rotui and shared a Margherita pizza beachfront.

The restaurant's Margherita pizza has black olives on it, where as room services does not. But room service has a $17 fee for delivery so we opted to go out. It was raining so we did not have a great view, however the insane heat was now just a nice breeze. No need for sunscreen or hats and sunglasses. After lunch we walked around, then headed back to the room as it was pouring and there were no activities we could join.

I called the spa but they were booked for Valentine's Day. I decided to take a dip in our private pool. Once I got in, about knee deep, I realized it was way too cold for me. The rain may have played a part in that.

Instead I decided to take a hot bath in the pretty claw tub.

I went to turn it on and there were hairs the opposite color of mine in there, plus dried old soap. I called and told them and they sent housekeeping to re-clean it. I had to wait about 45 minutes for the cleaning to happen, which meant there was no time for me to take a bath before our 7pm dinner reservations.

They did provide two robes, but it also had hair on it. No slippers. Before we left for dinner our phone continued to make a ticking noise. We finally called the front desk and were told we needed to come back and see the concierge about booking their travel for when we left the resort at checkout. I thought that was tacky to bug us to come spend more money.

The Arii Vahine steakhouse had just changed their menu, so we each had to pick out new entrees from our previous selections. No big deal on my end as I just picked a different pasta. But the husband was looking forward to swordfish and had to switch it out for mahi mahi. Overall our dinner was good. We asked to be moved inside under the fan because it was so humid. Before we left on the trip, I was emailed a Saint Valentine's Day schedule of events and special dinner. We decided not to reserve the dinner because it was food we did not eat, such as kangaroo steaks. I was eager for the dancing however I never saw any special Valentine's Day activities at all. Obviously the beach dinner had been rained out and moved to the Rotui restaurant. But there was no dancing? Not a huge deal. As we were eating, a lady came over and verified our room number. She said we were receiving a complimentary bottle of champagne and cookies and we asked that it be taken to the room instead.

Mahi Mahi

Valentine's Day

The room did have great air conditioning. On the way back to the room we made a stop at the crepe restaurant where we were told at night there are sharks. We in fact were able to see 3 sharks and many fish.

Reef shark

The sounds of the birds were intimidating. One sounded like a baby crying. We seriously thought there was a baby in the ocean until it dove at our heads and we realized it was a bird. Some birds growl. It felt a little like the Wizard of Oz's flying monkeys were about to make an appearance.

We also stopped in to the concierge to make those taxi arrangements to the next hotel. We were not offered a late checkout, but I am completely okay with that. I would rather get to the Intercontinental sooner where I feel appreciated.

The champagne was waiting for us in a nice new clean bucket of ice as well as a thank you card for being a diamond, and a box of cookies.

Ambassador gifts

The bed was comfortable and I slept well until I was awoke at 5am with roosters crowing. Another new bird noise, similar to a whooper wheel had decided to make my window its home. They could be heard over the pouring rain.

Breakfast was served at the same steakhouse that we had dinner at. The continental breakfast was more than enough for us to get full on. I had a taste test of all the local jams. There were doughnuts, pain au chocolate, croissants, breads, cereals, yogurts, fruits, eggs, cheeses and cold sliced meats. Juices, milk, hot chocolate and coffee were also included.

I stood up from my chair to get more peanut butter and apparently I had been sitting on a lizard. It scurried across my seat and I was sure to switch chairs.

After breakfast we wandered around taking pictures again. At the front desk, they were giving flower and shell necklaces to those arriving. We did not get either yesterday so I was a little let down.

Since it is still raining I wanted to finally take a hot bath. No joke, brown water came out. They had told us not to drink the water and only drink bottled, but I was not expecting brown bath water. So I never got to take a bath.

The grounds crew staff does work very hard to keep the resort grounds beautiful. They were out very early to clean the leaves after the storm had stopped.

Looking back on the stay, I wished we would have just asked and paid for an upgrade. Maybe it would have made our stay enjoyable, having a great view.

*edited to add, upon leaving we were given a shell necklace. Apparently on arrival we were supposed to have received the flower lei and departures receive the shells.

Another note, I was just not happy with how this stay went. When I got home I reached out to customer service with my complaints and I feel they made it right with me. Kuddos to their amazing customer care team.

To browse other Moorea hotels, click here.

InterContinental Bora Bora Resort Thalasso Spa Review

Our trip to Bora Bora, Moorea and Tahiti

We checked out of IC Le Moana feeling sad to leave. The staff completely wow'ed us and I was a little anxious that Intercontinental Thalasso wouldn't be able to give the same level of recognition and service that Le Moana showed us. We also had a perfect view of the motu and had only booked into the Emerald villa at Thalasso. How was I supposed to give up that view?

We took the free shuttle boat that goes in between both Intercontinental resorts. For me it is like an excursion itself. It goes halfway around the island, and you go through so many shades of blue water.

Complimentary boat shuttle between IC Resorts

Upon arrival there was a golf cart waiting for us. It whisked us away to the Ambassador check in area, which was beachfront and jaw dropping gorgeous. It looks exactly as it does in photos, there is no photoshop to make the waters look better. We were brought chilled Tiare tea and face towels with Tiare water.

Ambassador welcome area + Tiare tea & cold towels

This fragrance is now my favorite in the whole world!! We were thanked for our loyalty to IHG several times. The manager came out and thanked us and wished us a great stay. He was from France and we chatted about France for a bit. He was very personable and I felt he really cared how our stay went. We saw him later on in our stay and he made sure everything was going great.

At check in we were offered 50% off breakfast if we paid it for all nights, so we accepted. We got back on the golf cart for a tour of the resort. IC Thalasso is larger than IC Le Moana. After getting our hearts racing with gorgeous views, we were driven to our bungalow, #118. We were upgraded from an Emerald to Sapphire bungalow. There was a fresh fruit plate on the table awaiting our arrival. The room is much more spacious and chic/luxurious than IC Le Moana. By no means is Le Moana roughing it, just a different style.

View from deck of sapphire bungalow #118

I had brought a huge adult pink flamingo pool float all the way here with the hopes of getting an amazing picture of me riding it in the lagoon with the picturesque aqua backdrop. I called concierge and asked if they had an air pump. They sent a pool boy to our villa to get it. Soon after, I received a call in the room and the man on the phone exclaimed "I see a flamingo headed your way!" It had to be brought to me on the top of the golf cart. I also brought 100 feet of rope. I quickly tied the handle of my flamingo to the ladder of my deck and belly flopped on it and sailed off (100 feet) into the lagoon. It was pretty relaxing just floating around atop the flamingo. If I had to do it again, I'd bring 200-300ft rope so I could go a little further out in the lagoon.

Pool boy delivering my flamingo float

Being a kid again

That night we split a pizza for $30. There was a $5 fee to take it away from the restaurant and back to your room, but it was at least double that to have it delivered through room service. While we waited for the pizza, we relaxed in a hammock and watched the sunset.

After a bath with a view, I turned in early as I had booked an early spa day. Even at night, the way the bungalows are lit, it is gorgeous outside!

I awoke eager to try out the breakfast. There was absolutely everything you could ever want to eat for breakfast available. The kiwi was seriously the best fruit I have ever ate. It was so fresh and it tasted so different than the kiwi at home. There were an abundance of breads and pastries, muffins, cheeses, yogurts, crepes (Nutella jars are next to them!) waffles and pancakes, fruits, potatoes and an assortment of other hot dishes. I was always too full after one plate to try any more. But breakfast was a great add on at this resort. Especially at the half off rate we selected upon check in.

Breads, muffins, tartes, pastries

Meats and cheeses

Juices, yogurts, cereals and milks

My favorite, fruit tarte

Hot breakfast dishes

We spent the rest of the day after breakfast at the Deep Ocean Spa. There will be no other spa in the world that will live up to the standard that has been set for me. Incredible doesn't begin to describe.

In my opinion, the best view in the resort, from the spa's jacuzzi

Stacy at sunset

When the spa day had come to an end, we spent what was left of the day swimming in the lagoon with new friends, for hours. We had music playing and the husbands were doing crazy stunts off the deck into the water. Brian was climbing up the ladder to the bungalow to jump again as a giant ray jumped out of the water about 20 feet behind him. I was so surprised, (ok I was terrified) I had no idea they jumped! I think he scared it. My other theory was a shark was chasing it! The mister and I drank a bottle of champagne while sitting on the life jackets (provided in bungalow) and floating in the lagoon at sunset, in awe of the motu and all of it's majesty. Such an incredible memory!

For lunch and dinner we ate our GoPicnic meals on the deck of the bungalow. We take these with us every trip in case there is no food I like.

At one point, I totally felt like I was on "Couples Retreat." Sitting on the deck listening to the resort across the way playing some awesome music. I wanted to swim over to Le Meridien and party with them! Our resort looked much nicer. But I wish we had a DJ at our pool.

The deck of the bungalow was amazing and private. There is actually a deck off the deck that has a shower to rinse the salt water off. The upper deck has a nice sized table and two chairs, as well as two lounge chairs with nice thick cushions. I always see that hotels photograph their rooms with the cushions, but upon arrival they aren't there or are measly. That is not the case here. They are very comfortable cushions. There is a door off the deck that goes straight into the bedroom. The floor to ceiling window in front of the bed also has two secret doors on either side. There is also a sliding glass door that opens the whole wall into the living room from the deck.

The bed was very comfortable and large. The bathtub had an amazing view as well. It looked out to two different windows across the lagoon. I was worried that it would not be able to get as hot as I like it, but there was always hot water. The rain shower was nice and spacious with a wooden bench. I loved the scent of the bath amenities as well. They were the same brand from their spa, Algotherm. There were two nice, new looking robes and two pairs of slippers provided that were really comfortable for my hurting feet.

Living room view from front door

View from deck door

Looking straight out to the deck from living room

view from sapphire bungalow #118

bedroom

View of tub through bedroom from deck bedroom door

Bathroom vanities

Rainshower

Amazing bathtub

Spacious closet

Ambassador waters were replaced daily, as well as several small bottles of Evian water in the bedroom. The living room had complimentary teas and coffee as well as a minibar for purchase. There was an electric kettle that we used and added our instant mocha coffee that we brought for our morning drinks. There is also a Nespresso machine but I believe the pods were around $5 each. Nice glasses, wine glasses, champagne glasses, tea, coffee and espresso cups were available.

Nespresso machine

Complimentary coffee & tea and cups

I was very pleased with everything that was available in room.

There were two tv channels in English, one being CNN. Not an issue because I didn't come here for tv.

The internet speed was great! We FaceTime'd with the kids back home a lot with zero issues. It worked out on the deck, but not the bottom deck near the water.

This was by far the best resort I have ever stayed at. From the view, to accommodation, to the recognition, everything was flawless.

Every day we were called to see if there was anything we needed or if they could help us with anything and some nights they came to the bungalow and asked if we needed anything stocked.

The morning we had to check out to catch our flight to Moorea, we received a wake up call without having to ask.

One of the nights they left a gift on my bed for being an ambassador. I received a nice canvas beach bag and Tiare oil. The gift shop had them for $38 total, so I was pretty pleased with the gift!

Ambassador gifts

We donated the pink flamingo to the resort instead of trying to take it back home. They took it to the pool. So if you see him please take a picture and let me know he is enjoying his life in Bora Bora!

This resort is handicap accessible. Wheelchairs fit everywhere and there is a wheelchair lift in places they don't. But you can also ask for a ride via golf cart anywhere.

The only negative thing I can think of is that there were no USB outlets and very few outlets in general.