4-Star Hotels in Windward Islands, French Polynesia

Starting from the location, the hotel is about 4 kms away from the airport, and you can hear the planes lifting off and landing. However, note that this hotel does not provide a shuttle service, meaning that you need to arrange for your own transportation - even if you arrive at 3 in the morning, and this means either taking a taxi or renting a car (but the second option won't work if you arrive outside of work hours). The taxi will cost about 20000 XPF, during day time and also if you have a large group of people. Not more. I got scammed by a taxi driver on the night I arrived. Lost about 4.5k XPF on that. Great start to the stay. The city, Papeete is reachable by walking about 15 minutes along the coast road, which doesn't always have a great pedestrian walkway. This is also somewhat of an annoyance, where the hotel is of decent make, but the environment doesn't match with that. Next, the hotel staff itself, and the service they provide. It is totally a mixed bag. It horrifies me to say that your experience will be dominated by whom is serving you. Some of the staff are horribly inflexible and utterly arrogant. Others are extremely helpful. And this also applies to the Hilton Moorea, where people won't even rent you a changing room and a towel, even when you have a booked tour with their event providers and the bloody tour starts from the hotel pier. If the hotel wasn't clean, I would have been very disappointed. The beds are okay. Tried some facilities, the swimming pool, three of four restaurants and the Spa, and I have to say that everything is exceedingly expensive, but as a redeeming point, the service at these facilities is also rewarding, though maybe not at the level you would expect at this price class. Overall I consider this place not worthy of being called a five star hotel. Due to my experiences with the staff, I wouldn't even give them a fourth star. The Intercontinental is better altogether.

Check in and our room were fine. The biggest problems were at the bar and restaurant. At the poolside bar, they never came back asking for refills. Had a hard time getting bar tenders' attention. When we finally asked for refills after waiting for 20 minutes, they gave us bills to be signed before serving us drinks. When they asked us to sign the bill, we said we wouldn't unless they give us the drinks we ordered. This went on for three refills. We finally got fed up and left for the restaurant. We did not have a reservation (just two people) and they simply said ”no seating without a reservation”. The front desk never suggested it nor the restaurant staff checking to see any openings at different time slot. This was our last night of our vacation and we were looking forward to a nice final dinner and drinks. But instead, we had to leave with a bitter taste in our mouth. Very disappointed.

It's a piece of paradise, unbelievable service, every person who works there is helpful, and willing to go above and beyond to ensure you feel at home .. definitely recommend staying there. You can snorkel right there - the bungalos are on the edge of a small coral riff

We have been waiting through the Covid years to go to the Le Bora Bora Pearl Resort on Bora Bora and since a layover in Tahiti was required, we decided to stay at the company’s Tahiti resort for 2 nights because there was a good combo deal with the Bora Bora hotel. The late night arrival, one full day and another night ended up costing us about $US1000, including lunch and dinner but not breakfast. Do I think it was worth the price? Probably not. (BTW, the breakfast buffet, while expansive, costs around $US35 per person). The room was spacious with a good bathroom. The bed was comfortable though the pillows were a bit flat. The balcony overlooked the black sand beach and the sea. It is a pretty resort. Moorea can be seen from the beach and you can swim or walk. The pool was nice but right next to the restaurant which seems to be common. There were cane chairs on the lawn and poolside lounges to sit and relax. The staff are helpful and friendly. Issue number 1 is the TV. CNN is the only English speaking station and it’s not worth watching anymore. The problem with all the French speaking stations is that the only subtitles available are also French. So no value for any later night television. Issue number 2 is the food options. They were OK without being exciting. And if you happen to need gluten-free, then your meals will be steak and salad. I probably expected more from a high class resort. Issue number 3 was the bath tub plug. It was broken and unusable. It was one of the pushdown models and it had snapped off. Now obviously we could have called about that and it would have been fixed with a bit of effort. However for an upmarket resort, it shouldn’t have been broken in the first place. It should have been noticed before our stay. Issue number 4 is “kill the rooster”. They have a wandering rooster and chickens. All very free range and natural. But the rooster crows not just at dawn but all day and more seriously, all night long. Our sleep was interrupted several times both nights by the random series of crowing at all hours. There are many positive things about this resort, which probably compensate for the few negatives. However, I just don’t think it was worth the expense. It is difficult to compare to any of the other resorts on the main island without having been to any. This may be the standard. I was expecting a bit more.

Starting from the location, the hotel is about 4 kms away from the airport, and you can hear the planes lifting off and landing. However, note that this hotel does not provide a shuttle service, meaning that you need to arrange for your own transportation - even if you arrive at 3 in the morning, and this means either taking a taxi or renting a car (but the second option won't work if you arrive outside of work hours). The taxi will cost about 20000 XPF, during day time and also if you have a large group of people. Not more. I got scammed by a taxi driver on the night I arrived. Lost about 4.5k XPF on that. Great start to the stay. The city, Papeete is reachable by walking about 15 minutes along the coast road, which doesn't always have a great pedestrian walkway. This is also somewhat of an annoyance, where the hotel is of decent make, but the environment doesn't match with that. Next, the hotel staff itself, and the service they provide. It is totally a mixed bag. It horrifies me to say that your experience will be dominated by whom is serving you. Some of the staff are horribly inflexible and utterly arrogant. Others are extremely helpful. And this also applies to the Hilton Moorea, where people won't even rent you a changing room and a towel, even when you have a booked tour with their event providers and the bloody tour starts from the hotel pier. If the hotel wasn't clean, I would have been very disappointed. The beds are okay. Tried some facilities, the swimming pool, three of four restaurants and the Spa, and I have to say that everything is exceedingly expensive, but as a redeeming point, the service at these facilities is also rewarding, though maybe not at the level you would expect at this price class. Overall I consider this place not worthy of being called a five star hotel. Due to my experiences with the staff, I wouldn't even give them a fourth star. The Intercontinental is better altogether.

Check in and our room were fine. The biggest problems were at the bar and restaurant. At the poolside bar, they never came back asking for refills. Had a hard time getting bar tenders' attention. When we finally asked for refills after waiting for 20 minutes, they gave us bills to be signed before serving us drinks. When they asked us to sign the bill, we said we wouldn't unless they give us the drinks we ordered. This went on for three refills. We finally got fed up and left for the restaurant. We did not have a reservation (just two people) and they simply said ”no seating without a reservation”. The front desk never suggested it nor the restaurant staff checking to see any openings at different time slot. This was our last night of our vacation and we were looking forward to a nice final dinner and drinks. But instead, we had to leave with a bitter taste in our mouth. Very disappointed.

We have been waiting through the Covid years to go to the Le Bora Bora Pearl Resort on Bora Bora and since a layover in Tahiti was required, we decided to stay at the company’s Tahiti resort for 2 nights because there was a good combo deal with the Bora Bora hotel. The late night arrival, one full day and another night ended up costing us about $US1000, including lunch and dinner but not breakfast. Do I think it was worth the price? Probably not. (BTW, the breakfast buffet, while expansive, costs around $US35 per person). The room was spacious with a good bathroom. The bed was comfortable though the pillows were a bit flat. The balcony overlooked the black sand beach and the sea. It is a pretty resort. Moorea can be seen from the beach and you can swim or walk. The pool was nice but right next to the restaurant which seems to be common. There were cane chairs on the lawn and poolside lounges to sit and relax. The staff are helpful and friendly. Issue number 1 is the TV. CNN is the only English speaking station and it’s not worth watching anymore. The problem with all the French speaking stations is that the only subtitles available are also French. So no value for any later night television. Issue number 2 is the food options. They were OK without being exciting. And if you happen to need gluten-free, then your meals will be steak and salad. I probably expected more from a high class resort. Issue number 3 was the bath tub plug. It was broken and unusable. It was one of the pushdown models and it had snapped off. Now obviously we could have called about that and it would have been fixed with a bit of effort. However for an upmarket resort, it shouldn’t have been broken in the first place. It should have been noticed before our stay. Issue number 4 is “kill the rooster”. They have a wandering rooster and chickens. All very free range and natural. But the rooster crows not just at dawn but all day and more seriously, all night long. Our sleep was interrupted several times both nights by the random series of crowing at all hours. There are many positive things about this resort, which probably compensate for the few negatives. However, I just don’t think it was worth the expense. It is difficult to compare to any of the other resorts on the main island without having been to any. This may be the standard. I was expecting a bit more.

Starting from the location, the hotel is about 4 kms away from the airport, and you can hear the planes lifting off and landing. However, note that this hotel does not provide a shuttle service, meaning that you need to arrange for your own transportation - even if you arrive at 3 in the morning, and this means either taking a taxi or renting a car (but the second option won't work if you arrive outside of work hours). The taxi will cost about 20000 XPF, during day time and also if you have a large group of people. Not more. I got scammed by a taxi driver on the night I arrived. Lost about 4.5k XPF on that. Great start to the stay. The city, Papeete is reachable by walking about 15 minutes along the coast road, which doesn't always have a great pedestrian walkway. This is also somewhat of an annoyance, where the hotel is of decent make, but the environment doesn't match with that. Next, the hotel staff itself, and the service they provide. It is totally a mixed bag. It horrifies me to say that your experience will be dominated by whom is serving you. Some of the staff are horribly inflexible and utterly arrogant. Others are extremely helpful. And this also applies to the Hilton Moorea, where people won't even rent you a changing room and a towel, even when you have a booked tour with their event providers and the bloody tour starts from the hotel pier. If the hotel wasn't clean, I would have been very disappointed. The beds are okay. Tried some facilities, the swimming pool, three of four restaurants and the Spa, and I have to say that everything is exceedingly expensive, but as a redeeming point, the service at these facilities is also rewarding, though maybe not at the level you would expect at this price class. Overall I consider this place not worthy of being called a five star hotel. Due to my experiences with the staff, I wouldn't even give them a fourth star. The Intercontinental is better altogether.

Check in and our room were fine. The biggest problems were at the bar and restaurant. At the poolside bar, they never came back asking for refills. Had a hard time getting bar tenders' attention. When we finally asked for refills after waiting for 20 minutes, they gave us bills to be signed before serving us drinks. When they asked us to sign the bill, we said we wouldn't unless they give us the drinks we ordered. This went on for three refills. We finally got fed up and left for the restaurant. We did not have a reservation (just two people) and they simply said ”no seating without a reservation”. The front desk never suggested it nor the restaurant staff checking to see any openings at different time slot. This was our last night of our vacation and we were looking forward to a nice final dinner and drinks. But instead, we had to leave with a bitter taste in our mouth. Very disappointed.