Good morning Bora Bora! I was really looking forward to the breakfast at Le Meridien and was disappointed! Compared to the Sofitel Moorea, it looked more upscale but the food choices were just okay.
The juice table but the mango juice was not my favorite Rotui brand, it has a sour taste 🙁
Hum….looked like a salad bar?
Fruits and smoothies, at least they have fresh and sweet mango.
Cheese and salami table:
The bread and pastries section where they have nets to protect from the flies unlike Sofitel.
Next the hot food section, the typical American breakfast of scrambled egg, beacon, etc.
My breakfast plate, the only special item was that semi-cooked egg on coconut milk. They also have a make your own miso soup section but the miso soup base was tasteless.
After the quick breakfast, we walked around for photos as you can see Mt. Otemanu was super clear. Like I said, the prime lighting is between 10:30 AM – 2 PM and it was very harsh light during the early morning…it was before 9 AM when I took those photos:
We walked back to wake up Peter and Jeffrey since they didn’t have breakfast included, I told them that they didn’t miss out on anything as it really doesn’t worth the $50+ per person since they would need to pay in cash.
Just before 9 AM, we walked to the pier and our boat and captain, Will, were there already. I booked the 5 hours private lagoon with
The 23′ catamaran was comfortable for the 4 of us plus the captain. The weather was perfect to cruise the beautiful Bora Bora lagoon with blue sky and some clouds, and the “lagoon” breeze was totally relaxation.
The first stop was the snorkeling site near the Intercontinental Le Moana. Few boats were already docked there, look at that transparent water! The guys went in to snorkel while I took pics of them. I’ll wait till the next stop to snorkel 😉
The guys came back onto the boat and we headed to the next spot where we passed by the Intercontinental Le Moana.
Lots of photo ops on the way! I think we passed the Conrad Bora Bora as well but not totally sure since I haven’t stay with the Conrad yet.
The next snorkeling spot was out at the shallow water of the reef to swim with the stingrays and blacktip reef sharks 😀 Even though it wasn’t my first time swimming with the stingrays and blacktip reef sharks, it was still a very fun activity! Jeffrey bought a dome for his Go-Pro specifically for this trip so we tried to use it to take those half underwater and half above photos. I haven’t seen his photos yet so let’s hope they came out well. Us in the water while Will attracting the stingrays with food.
See how many sharks surrounded us?
After some fun time playing with the stingrays and photographing/videotaping the sharks, we went back to our boat to the next stop – deep sea to see bigger sharks. I didn’t went in since I am a weak swimmer so I stayed in the boat to take photos.
You really can’t see the bigger sharks and fishes from the boat since they tend to stick at the deeper sea. Peter and Jeffrey were able to see the lemon shark underneath.
After more than 3 hours of snorkeling, our last stop was the picnic at a motu. It’s called Motu Ha’apiti, it has an abandoned house there.
While Will preparing our lunch, we walked around the deserted island to take photos and with our boat.
Different than other picnic lunch I had before, this was a “water lunch”…right on the water, how cool!
View of Mt. Pahia on the background.
I tried flying my drone since no one there except us but it was near the airport so no-fly zone 🙁 Nevertheless, we got awesome photos on ground.
I thought we will join other tour groups for the motu picnic but instead we had the whole island to ourselves, it was totally awesome and worth every penny of the private cruise!
Lunch is ready!
For 18,400 xpf (~$173) more to add the motu picnic, it was super worth paying the extra to include it. We wouldn’t have such great lunch in the hotel for this amount for the 4 of us.
Delicious grilled steak, tender chicken, fish fillet, and shrimp kebab, those all grilled to perfection, thank you
A plate of fruits afterward, yummy yummy!
Also a plate of salad and some cakes for dessert. Look at our table full of food!
In addition, the fishes smell our food and swimming around us. It was so fun watching them while we eat 🙂 It was a unique experience!
We took our time to finish most of the food, cleaned up, and headed back toward our boat.
Our 5 hours cruise came to an end and we headed back to our hotel. On the way, we passed by the Four Season:
The St. Regis where we’ll be heading the next day.
Arrived at the Le Meridien, it was a full loop around the turquoise lagoon of Bora Bora 🙂
Peter and Jeffrey decided to snorkel more at the inner lagoon while Jason and I went back to our room to shower and change. Afterwards, we went back out for more photos around the resort as it was still a good time in terms of lighting.
Do you see Jeffrey on the platform right in the middle of the lagoon?
Doesn’t the hotel look empty, although the occupancy rate was pretty high? I always wonder where all the other guests are? I had the same feeling when I stayed at the Intercontinental Thalasso years ago. That’s what makes French Polynesia a true luxury paradise.
Peter was taking a nap in the shade 😉
Continued on with taking photos around the resort.
I was hoping for a colorful sunset but no luck……nevertheless, whatever sunset (if there’s any) is still pretty awesome in Bora Bora with this view!
I went back to my room’s deck to wait for sunset….
Jeffrey and Peter finally went back to their room to get ready for dinner. Jeffrey wanted to swim over his room for this photo:
For dinner, we were thinking to try out Le Te Ava but it was closed, what???? We walked to Le Tipanié and it was a buffet night….which was over $100+ per person. I really don’t think it’ll worth the money given the food quality and selection from the past two meals. We decided to head over to Miki Miki bar to have a “quick dinner”. We ordered a lot of appetizers including the pork belly and chicken wings that we had at lunch before, fried fish and calamari, burgers, and a Hawaiian pizza which wasn’t too bad.
We actually had food leftover! Our casual dinner was $170 for the 4 of us. After dinner, we headed back to our room to rest and I took some photos of the Milky Way that was visible with the naked eyes. You are in the middle of nowhere so not much light pollution 😀
Looks enticing.If only it were cheaper and closer.
Quite a few bikini photos,so much for my modesty theory.
If it was cheaper and closer, it would be crowded like the Caribbeans 😉 That’s what makes it exclusive.
Can I ask if you remember where did you get the yellow dress? TIA
It was from Forever 21.