The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort

Our second visit to Bora Bora, we chose St. Regis due to past experience at a St. Regis Maldives and some measure of Bonvoy “brand loyalty”. Thanks to well-designed facilities, talented staff, and of course breathtaking backdrop, it did not disappoint! Booking/Coordination. Booking though the Bonvoy site we found the best rate for our needs and at a total lower cost than other sites/options. Pre-arrival coordination was conducted through e-mail with the St. Regis Liaison. Transportation, experiences, and dinner reservations were all quickly and accurately coordinated with expert advice. Check-in. Coordinated the boat transfer with Liaison from the airport, we checked-in with the greeters and they give us tags for our bags and after grabbing them we returned to the kiosk and they took us and the bags to the boat. We didn’t have to wait for the 15-minute ride over to the resort. They use different boats, some branded, some not. Pleasant and comfortable enough. Our assigned butler was present on our arrival. St Regis Bora Bora does not make a “production” of arrival and departure short the butlers welcoming and bidding farewell. Pleasant and simple. Check-in is where we spent the most time with our assigned butler, unlike St. Regis Maldives. A nice personalized tour of the grounds, a short visit to reception for an efficient and friendly check-in, then we grabbed a light lunch awaiting our villa becoming available. They provide an option of course for bags and a place to change but we were fortunate that our room was ready early and before finishing lunch Emma was there to take us to our room and give us the rundown. Our bags were already in the villa. Overall one of the smoothest resort check-ins we have had. Room. We booked the Overwater Superior. For overwater, the category of room is really based on view and whether or not you have a deck hot-tub. The layout is the same. Our third time staying in an overwater bungalow we have learned that view is not always “better” on the upgraded rooms and this visit proved our point. With that, looking out from your room at Mount Otemanu is inspiring but for us not worth the extra dollars. Same for the deck hot-tub. Looks nice though. Of the three bungalows we have enjoyed, this was our favorite layout and although some say the interior “antiquated” we quite liked it. Only real comment is the closet space is rather small but adequate. It was immaculately maintained and we really enjoyed the porch and gazebo, the depth of water perfect for easy entry and floating in the lagoon. Most of the time sea state and wind were idyllic to that end. Facilities. The undeniably inspiring grounds are expansive but walkable and with provided bikes easy to get around. When fancy shoes demanded, they had plenty of golf carts available for a ride. The longest wait was 20-minutes. The main swimming pool and beach areas are fantastic with pretty views of the lagoon and island however not of Mt. Otemanu due to the geography. They have an “adults only” oasis which looks terrific but service was limited to “room service” and likely due to the delays and additional charges that implies it was virtually empty. The Lagoonarium was a very nice bonus and although certainly not complex snorkeling, rather wonderful. We did not take advantage of any of the spa services but of course was full of tempting options. We enjoyed much of our time at the resort pool-side and chairs were always available both at he pool and the beach not requiring any kind of annoying morning “chair grab”. Dining. Breakfast is served at Te Pahu, a beachfront open air dining area offering a nice buffet and a la carte options. Highlight was Eggs Benedict. We generally had lunch poolside with a limited but nice menu. Highlight was the pizza. Dinner is our favorite meal, and to us a critical to our overall resort experience. Although they offer four named restaurants for dinner, only Lagoon can be considered a distinct restaurant with front and back-end staff that could stand-alone outside the resort. The other three are more like different places to sit to eat themed cuisine. Like many resorts, using common serving and kitchen staff, and even moving the location of the “restaurant" based on demand, the only distinct part about it is the menu and your place setting. That said, with the exception of one of the evenings, we enjoyed the quality of food and friendliness of the staff when eating at them. - Lagoon. With truly talented front of house, kitchen, and engaged chef, St Regis has a terrific restaurant in Lagoon. Fine dining with a price-tag to match we enjoyed it three times and would have not gone wrong if we ate every meal there. Offering Polynesian inspired modernist cuisine tasking menus, expansive wine-list, and superb front of house staff to bring it all to life in their intimate overwater dining room with stunning views of Tuuraapuo Bay. From our first to third we had a unique and wonderful dining experience. St. Regis Bora Bora provided plenty of reasons for us to return, but we will come back for Lagoon alone. - Aparima Grill Night. Aparima is the pool restaurant with open air dining room beachside (next to and connected to Te Pahu, the breakfast spot). A few evenings a week they feature a “grill night”. Top quality meat and fish with excellent preparation. Highlight was the tenderloin. - Polynesian Night Buffett. Taking place in the Te Pahu dining room, it features a nice quality buffet and fun cultural performance. For us it was much more about the show than the food. I am never a fan of buffet and this didn’t change my mind but again….nice. - Farniente. Italian cuisine, the dining room is located set back behind the pool next to Bamboo. They have an open air and indoor dining room option but to us, no clear idea where Farniente ends and Bamboo begins in the open air area. They had a nice Italian menu with solid preparation and friendly service. Highlight was the Tiramisu. - Bamboo. Perhaps circumstantial but this dining experience was a complete failure. Bamboo and Fariente share a building, open air dining area, serving staff, and I would assume kitchen. On the night of our reservation it seems demand had them expand Fariente into the entire seating area and move “Bamboo” into Te Pahu (the breakfast area). A shortage of staff was readily apparent with 45 minutes from seating to appetizer, us only seeing our server once when we ordered, us running out of drink, and finally after waiting at a table with empty plates for way too long, got up to find someone to get us a check. Worst part was the sushi quality (rice particularly) was on-par with cheap grocery store sushi. Extremely disappointing seeing management choose quantity over quality but thankfully a departure from the other six meals on property. Staff. St. Regis Bora Bora has attracted some of the brightest and enthusiastic staff, ensuring they provide an industry leading experience. Certainly the life-blood of the resort they make the experience and gifted us with may lasting memories. St. Regis is known for their signature butler service, toted as anticipatory and personalized. We experienced this in the St. Regis Maldives and it is truly remarkable with the butler knowing what we wanted before we knew it, and just “showing up” with what we needed; orchestrating our stay based on their requested and gleaned knowledge of our preferences and desires. Our experience in Bora Bora was much more typical of a high-end resort, with services/assistance provided "on request" via a phone call (unfortunately no WhatsApp and Bonvoy App Messenger not dependable). The St. Regis Bora Bora butlers were much more reactionary and impersonal (some folks may prefer that). To be clear the individual Butlers were experts and very sweet but short of a nice greeting and tour, daily “check-in”, and being present at the departure, service was provided by whomever answered the phone and cannot be considered “anticipatory”. I believe this is an organization choice, not a reflection nor indictment on the individual butlers skills. That said, staff around the pool and restaurants really did attempt to make a connection, remembering names and preferences, and making us feel special. These kinds of interactions really “make the experience” for us. Although our list is long we want to say a personal "thank you" to a few of our standouts. “Tim” at the pool, his enthusiasm infectious. Roxanne, the “boss” at Lagoon, she runs a tight ship and knows how to make every guest feel the most important. Numa, two-times our server at Lagoon, orchestrated our culinary experience with friendly and personalized attention to detail. Finally Pierre, the sommelier that is much more than just a qualified expert but exudes a personal connection to the wines he recommends and serves. Nice job St. Regis Bora Bora, you have an amazing staff - take care of them! Tips. Intensely contested and personal decision. Facts - 5% service charge and a tip line on each check. The additional tip is divided among the staff (no specifics provided on who is qualified for the distribution). There is no taboo or cultural offenses with tipping but not expected nor compulsory as it is in the states. That said, for us, being at a US owned resort, ourselves clearly being from the US, we tip. We tipped via the “tip line” and had cash for transactional moments (rides, cleaning, etc.) and individualized for some servers. If you want your server to have the cash, hand it to them directly. If left in bill folder, will be divided. We gave a “lump-sum” to our butler at the end of our visit based on number of days we stayed. Generally not a fan of the custom but I believe to refrain is to punish the wrong people. At St. Regis Bora Bora is was always graciously received and never expected. Membership/Loyalty Program. A Bonvoy property, they honored all published program benefits in keeping with St. Regis brand. As a Platinum Member we enjoyed the complimentary Buffett breakfast, points multiplier, and late checkout. No upgrade however St. Regis Bora Bora has very few room classes to upgrade into. Although late check-out was quoted as being due to our status, I believe if they can provide it, they will provided it regardless of status. There is no such thing as a perfect property but St. Regis Bora Bora strives for it thanks to the staff it attracts and fosters. Although it would have been nice to have more anticipatory butler service and zero flaws in their restaurant management, we had a wonderful time, and when returning to Bora Bora it will be the top of our list. Thank you to the men and woman of St Regis Bora Bora, you gave us a memorable holiday!

OH MY GOSH, is all we can say! This place is amazing and we highly recommend you put the entire "Bora-Bora" experience on your Bucket List. Starting with Laure, our "butler". You must request here. She is everything and everywhere. She is gracious, thoughtful and caring and saw to our every need and then some. She speaks French, English and German. Along with her colleague, Julian, we were WELL taken care of. Though we recommend taking day excursions you will find everything you need right on the campus of St Regis to fill your every need. And, by the way, the water color, warm temperature and clarity are true to the pictures. Though we love Hawaii, THIS St Regis experience (a lot of it was due to Laure's expertise) we feel like Bora Bora trumps even the beauty of Hawaii. Pack your bags!!

We stayed for 4 nights from the 13th of April in a beach side villa with pool facing the lagoon including breakfast. We wish we would have stayed for a week. We were allocated villa 402 and our main butler was Emma (she worked from 1400-2200 and Le’Andre was around in the mornings). Emma took us on a tour of the resort on arrival before we checked in, showing us where everything was and explained the resort. The villa was huge, with its own pool and hammock in the garden. The room had slippers, robes, beach towels, umbrellas, ponchos and assigned bikes. There was a safe and a fridge to use and also turn down service in the evenings. We loved having our French press coffee back in the garden after breakfast. Breakfast was good, the only gluten free items on the buffet though were bread, no pastries/cakes/biscuits or cereal/granola, you could ask for pancakes or waffles to me made, so this would be a nice touch to add, all items had allergen labels. We saw no marine life outside of the hotels private lagoon which is in the middle of the resort where you can snorkel and meet Moana, have never seen a fish like him, huge! We took out a canoe and paddle board; there is no time limit restriction placed on you which was nice. You will need your mosquito spray, day, and night. We did the sunset cruise on vitamin sea and a morning half day snorkel tour with manta and then eagle rays, we could not recommend them both enough, the top 2 tours of our entire trip. We ate in Lagoon, the Grill, the Italian and started in Bamboo but I wasn’t feeling well, we had the starter delivered and the mains were about to come out when we asked to cancel them, the staff could not have been more helpful or concerned. They only charged us for the starter, we fully expected to pay for it all as It was ready, this was exceptional service. I found the Italian the most limiting as I am gluten and dairy free, the others were able to accommodate my needs easily whereas the Italian was pasta and tomato sauce, they didn’t even bring out gluten free bread which was a little disappointing as the others had. The food was good in all restaurants, but don’t expect large portions. We were in Bora Bora as a delayed birthday celebration as was meant to go in 2020, Emma had a cake delivered as a surprise to commemorate the occasion, such a lovely surprise (and it was gluten/vegan!) We asked for a late check out, but we were unable to stay in our room as was booked for new guests, this was the morning we went on the snorkelling tour. They did however move our luggage to another room, a beach side villa 509 on the other side facing the ocean whilst we were out so we could use that when we got back from 1200 until 1330 where our boat back to the airport was at 1400. There was no charge for this, and they were very helpful in arranging this for us, it enabled us to make full use of our last morning. Our only tips for improvement on perfection would be to supply refillable water bottles with water stations around the resort (you do get about 4 small bottles of water per person in your room each day) to help save on plastic use, have more gluten free items on the buffet at breakfast that you can help yourself too ( I don’t like feeling like a burden asking for special items) and a washing line in the bathroom to hang wet swim wear on as there was nowhere to do this. We would highly recommend the beach villa over the water bungalow, especially as very little marine life to spot. Having our own pool and hammock to lay in was just bliss. We got to see both beach villas on each side of the resort, the ones on the ocean side were slightly bigger with a larger pool (which was colder) but was windy as fully exposed to the ocean, the lagoon side was very calm, and the pool was a nice temperature to use. We preferred the lagoon side. We were sad to leave and hope to return one day. Thank you so much Emma and team.

The St Regis delivers A true once in a lifetime experience... This Resort is truly a special in every sense of the word. The location is breathtaking, and every part of the property feels absolutely world-class. The rooms, restaurants, pools, beaches, and overall grounds are immaculate, beautifully maintained. What truly sets the resort apart, however, is the staff. Every single person we encountered was exceptional—warm, attentive, professional, and genuinely focused on making every moment of our stay unforgettable. Their attention to detail and ability to anticipate guests’ needs is remarkable. A special thank you to Jenna, who was absolutely outstanding and helped make our trip even more memorable. She and EVERYONE we encountered embodied the level of hospitality that makes this resort so extraordinary. The St. Regis Bora Bora delivers exactly the experience you dream about when imagining a luxury Bora Bora vacation. It exceeded our expectations in every way, and we cannot wait to return. (ps. Make sure to get morning coffee delivered and your shirts pressed. You can skip the Private Beach dinner. BUT make sure to book dinner at the lagoon restaurant.) (make sure to pet the onsite cat "regis")

I need more stars. This resort is amazing. The staff goes over and beyond the call of duty. They recognized me at the airport and immediately went over my preferences. The villa was perfection. I only wish there were more food options for lunch. Definitely visit Bamboo for dinner more than once. It has the best food on the property. Our butler was also amazing.