Bora Bora’s Mount Otemanu looked like a jigsaw puzzle piece, backlit by the smeared red and orange of dusk and fronted by the shimmering wrinkles of a now purple Pacific Ocean.
Seated on the edge of a wooden deck — my legs swinging in a fragrant breeze and my board shorts still damp from swimming in the warm lagoon beneath me — I was spellbound by the day’s last light, doing my best to take note of all the colors while tasting the salt on my lips.
My stay at Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora earlier this year was loaded with moments I did not want to forget, and a great many of them took place in that very spot, just looking out over the lagoon from the deck of my overwater bungalow.
Guests who have visited Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora during the pandemic have had positive feedback about the renovation.
Credit: 2021 Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora
Annette Sordoni, an Encino, Calif.-based Protravel International advisor, told me during a later interview she knew exactly how I felt.
“It was like living in a screensaver,” said Sordoni, who celebrated her 60th birthday in September with her husband and two sons at the property. “It was the most magical time of our lives.”
Overwater Bungalows Get a Major Refresh
A 14-month, $30 million renovation to Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora wrapped up at the end of 2019. Diego Stembert, the property’s general manager, said the upgrade included the addition of eight new overwater bungalows, along with an extensive overhaul to the interiors of the existing 100 overwater units and the resort’s seven beachfront villas.
“Some of the furniture was starting to get a bit tired,” Stembert said. “We really uplifted the whole room. It’s now modern while maintaining some of those important, traditional Polynesian elements.”
All the guestrooms at the Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora received new furniture and soft goods in the renovation completed in 2019.
Credit: 2021 Four Seasons Resort Bora BoraNew furniture, soft goods, televisions and other tech enhancements were installed in all the guestrooms, along with substantial improvements in each of the property’s bathrooms. Stembert noted extensive work was completed in the outdoor spaces for each of the multibedroom beachfront villas.
“When you’re in one of the beach villas, you are expecting to spend time outdoors,” Stembert said, noting that some of those products feature outdoor kitchens. “So, we extended the decks, and we extended the pool from an original plunge pool into a full-size swimming pool.”
Protravel’s Sordoni, who first visited the property in 2009, said she was extremely impressed by the upgrades she saw in September, and she raved about her overwater bungalow experience.
“My major client base are families, and the Two-Bedroom Herenui Overwater Bungalow Suite is perfection — in particular for families traveling with teenagers,” she said, explaining that the Herenui options include two separate bungalows connected by a shared outdoor deck, featuring a private plunge pool. “There’s nothing better in the Tahitian Islands for a family like mine.”
But from the moment we opened the door, demand has been terrific.
Stembert said business was terrific over the summer, noting that about 95% of the resort’s guests have been American, due to COVID-19 restrictions in other source markets. Many have been repeat visitors, he mentioned, saying feedback about the renovation has been “phenomenal.” “Obviously, we’re not seeing the numbers we did in 2016 to 2018,” Stembert added, saying bookings have been “very strong” for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. “But from the moment we opened the door, demand has been terrific.”
Four Seasons Bora Bora Shark Tours
Face to face with a seven-foot, blacktip reef shark, I found myself wondering: “Is he going to turn, or am I?”
Snorkeling just outside Bora Bora’s barrier reef in some of the clearest water I’ve ever seen, I was surrounded by more sharks than I could count, and I passed extraordinarily close to the curious ocean predators on many occasions.
Bora Bora Cultural Lagoon Tours owner Narihau Taruoura, who launched the activity business with his wife in 2019, picked me up at the Four Seasons dock earlier that morning, making stops to swim with sting rays and manta rays before heading outside the lagoon to snorkel with the sharks.
Close encounters with black tip reef sharks can be common on a Bora Bara Cultural Lagoon Tours outing.
Credit: 2021 Tahiti Tourisme/Gregory LecoeurCommissionable at 15% to advisors, Bora Bora Cultural Lagoon tours offers full- and half-day options, providing all the necessary equipment and featuring not only time in the water but also on land owned by Taruoura’s in-laws. There, clients enjoy a delicious Tahitian meal and a tour of the 1-acre oceanfront property, which Taruoura said is home to more than 40 native fruit and medicinal trees.
Time spent with Taruoura, who was quick to laugh and break into song with his ukulele, is another major selling point.
“I grew up in the water,” he said. “I was with my father fishing every day since I was 10.”
The chance to work again on the ocean while sharing his knowledge of Bora Bora and the Tahitian culture is something Taruoura said he enjoys tremendously.
“People travel thousands of miles to see our lagoon,” he said. “So, it’s important for someone like me to tell them more about what they see when they get here.”
