Conrad Bora Bora Review
Booking the Hotel
The Conrad Bora Bora is a 114 room resort (all rooms are villas of one kind or another) that opened in 2017. It is considered one of the top luxury resorts in Hilton’s global portfolio.
Back in February, 2022, the property opened up standard award availability for most of the year. I quickly booked 5 nights on points (Hilton Silver members and higher receive the 5th night free on points stays). At the time of booking, standard rooms cost 89K Hilton points/night.
For 5 nights, that meant the total point cost was 356,000 Hilton points with the 5th night free. Considering cash rates run north of $1k/night, this was an excellent use of Hilton points and taking advantage of the 5th free night benefit. Standard nights are now 120K points, still providing good value particularly if using the free night certificates from various Hilton co-branded cards.
Location
The Conrad Bora Bora is about a 20 minute boar ride from Bora Bora airport. The hotel offered round-trip transport for about 7,400 XPF per individual. French Polynesia is an archipelago of islands and the primary mode of transport is via Air Tahiti (not to be confused with Air Tahiti Nui) for inter-island transport or cruise ships for multi-day island hopping.
The Conrad Bora Bora is located on its own island on the outer edges of Bora Bora and faces the open ocean. As it faces the open ocean, much of the resort doesn’t have the iconic views of Mt Otemanu on the main island compared to some of the other luxury resorts such as St Regis or IHG Thalasso.
Check-In
Our flight on Air Tahiti arrived to Bora Bora around 5:30pm. There was a dedicated concierge waiting for us to escort us to the boat transfer to the hotel. We were the only ones on the flight headed to Conrad and had the boat to ourselves.
The airport had a great view of Mt Otemanu in the background. Meanwhile, the boat to transfer us to the hotel was very nice.
The boat ride took about 20 minutes. The sun was setting as we stepped on and was dark by the time we reached the property. A couple weeks prior to arrival, the front desk emailed me about requesting a room upgrade and pre-paying for an over water villa. The upgrade request was about $500/night. I declined and took my chances at check-in due to low occupancy with off-peak rainy season. My instincts proved right as we were able to be upgraded to a deluxe overwater villa for all 5 nights of our stay for no additional cost.
During our entire stay, occupancy seemed to be at best half full on the resort. Our concierge, Danilo (Italian via France), recognized my Diamond status, gave us an overview of the resort, and provided us welcome drinks along with processing the room upgrade. I was handed an envelope that described our Diamond benefits at the resort including complementary breakfast as well as wrist key fobs that were waterproof that the hotel uses as room keys.
After checking in, we were escorted on a golf cart to our over water villa towards the edge of the hotel grounds.
Conrad Bora Bora Room
There are three separate sets of docks with overwater villas and ours (317) was located towards the far end of the property facing the ocean. While a few elements can vary from room to room, guests can expect handsome neutral tone design of hardwood floors, sleek wooden furniture, comfy white linen beds and minimal decorations in the form of black and white tropical themed artwork.
The overwater villa is advertised as being around 1,250 square feet, though that definitely includes the outdoor space. The villa is really just one big room and it felt pretty luxurious inside. Being just over 5 years old, I do have to say that the rooms are just showing some small signs of wear and tear however. The centerpiece of the room is a large King bed.
Off to the side towards the entrance was a sitting area that could comfortably sit two. There was also a welcome amenity conferred due to my Diamond status consisting of some juice, chocolate and sparkling water.
On the opposite side of the room next to the mini bar was a round table and chair.
The bathroom was located behind the bedroom and was huge. It was partitioned off with sliding doors from the main area. It featured double sinks on opposite sides of the room, a large soaking tub. There was a toilet and shower in separate rooms on opposite sides.
One note about the soaking tub is that it seems to be largely decorative. During the room tour with the concierge, he explained that all the rooms are powered by solar panels. The amount of water provided daily is just enough to fill about ¾ of the tub. If wanting to soak that would just be enough to use it but not be able to shower until the panels have enough time to recharge.
Also standard are minibars, Nespresso machines, kettles alongside tea, closets with safes, bathrobes and ironing facilities
The closet was next to the bathroom and provided ample space for our luggage. There was a complementary canvas bag one could take home. On the property it was useful to carry towels and personal items to the pool.
Tech amenities are top-notch including Bluetooth speakers found both inside and outside terraces, flat-screen TV’s and multiple plug sockets (including American outlets), and free wi-fi.
Of course the highlight is the outdoor space. On one side of the deck was a table with two chairs and on the other side were two lounging chairs. In addition there was a net you could lie in.
There were stairs leading down to a lower deck, should you want to swim directly from your room. Our room faced the ocean side of the resort and waters were more wavy than those that faced the lagoon side. We were still able to see some tropical fish throughout our stay.
Dining
The property has five restaurants. The primary restaurant is Iriatai which is located in the main building and where the buffet breakfast is served. In the evening, it is a fine dining French restaurant. Also located in the main building is Banyan, which is a Chinese restaurant. There is a casual restaurant open for lunch (Tamure Beach Grill) and next to it the Tarava Pool Bar. Lastly, next to the reception area is Upa Upa Lounge Bar which serves sushi an d cocktails. During our stay, dinner reservations were required for all restaurants except Upa Upa.
Thanks to my Diamond status, the breakfast buffet was complementary each day. The buffet had a wide variety of hot and cold items. In particular, the bakery section had a great number of options. We were also given menu cards where one could order custom made to order eggs, pancakes, crepes, etc from the kitchen for an additional charge. However, there was a service cart where you could get basic eggs made to order and basic crepes for no additional charge. I also appreciated that one could order custom coffee and/or tea drinks for no upcharge.
On our second day, we also decided to have dinner at Iriati. As a French territory, French cuisine is quite prevalent around French Polynesia. The dinner menu primarily consisted of a couple different set menus (no a la carte available). We though the food was good, albeit over-priced.
One of the nights, the only dinner option available at Tamure Beach Grill for a Polynesian dance buffet show unless you opted to eat off resort. There was a wide array of hot and cold dishes and desserts. The dance show is similar to a Hawaiian luau. Compared to what a luau typically costs in Hawaii, I thought that the buffet provided great value (it was around $140/person).
One of the days we opted to have a late lunch/early dinner at Tarava Pool Bar. The food is prepared from Tamure Beach Grill located next to the bar area. I had a tuna burger which was very good.
To keep overall costs down, we primarily had two meals a day and supplemented that with instant ramen brought from home. We went to the main island one of the nights to have dinner at one of Bora Bora’s most famous upscale dining restaurant, La Villa Mahana.
Facilities and Service
People visit Bora Bora for the beaches and water activities. Bora Bora is world famous for turquoise blue waters that are protected by the lagoons surrounding the main island. At check-in, our concierge mentioned that Conrad Bora Bora has the largest sand beach of any of the hotels in Bora Bora. One side of the beach was supposed to be dedicated to Diamond members. The beach was never busy though considering we were staying in low season.
Along the beach were a variety of non-motorized water sports including kayaks for rent.
The hotel’s main area is the two level infinity pool near the main building.
There was plenty of seating around the pool including traditional lounge chairs with umbrellas and mini-cabanas.
The Conrad is built into the side of a hill, and you can walk all the way to the top. The spa is right at the top, but it can be worth going just for the views with unobstructed views of Mt Otemanu on the other side.
The Conrad also has a 24/7 gym which is pretty well equipped. It consists of two main rooms, one with cardio and the other with weights. Next to the gym is the kids club. Behind the gym are the day use “transit” rooms that are available should your flight from Bora Bora leave later in the day after required check-out time. The resort also has a tennis court and a golf stimulator (one hour use costs approximately $100).
The hotel provides complementary boat shuttle to the main island (Vaitepe) during daytime hours. You need to contact the concierge desk ahead of time. Evening transfers cost approximately $50 per person. The boat ride is about 10 minutes each way. We took advantage of the boat ride one day for a snorkeling excursion and another day to have dinner at La Villa Mahana.
In general I found the service to be good, but not flawless. Almost everyone working at the hotel was local so whenever we passed by an employee at the grounds we were always greeted with a hello. However, there is a bit of an element of “island time” to everything so at times seems slow to fulfill requests. For example, when it was time to check-out I had to call twice to have the golf cart brought by to carry our luggage.
Final Thoughts
Bora Bora is world renowned for its famous blue waters. The Conrad Bora Bora is an excellent choice for staying. The primary downside is that there are limited rooms with unobstructed views of Mt Otemanu, the signature picturesque backdrop for the area. I loved that French Polynesia is only a two hour time zone difference from Seattle, minimizing jetlag. The property is an excellent use of Hilton points and/or free night certificates.
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