The Westin Bora Bora Resort & Spa

Location is everything - and the Westin Bora Bora does not disappoint as it located right in front of Mt Otemanu with the bluest of blue lagoons. I thought solo travel would be weird - anything but! Property is beautiful with plenty of places to find a quiet spot to simply chill as well as your room/balcony. The Spa was out of this world - services are great & you can easily add another hour or 2 enjoying the steam room and plunge pool. Heaven. All the staff was welcoming and attentive: the Polynesian night is a must. It's a little confusing what you can book on line/What's App vs need to go to the concierge for. Food is good - but a little mundane for the price; but the portions are huge. This is FRENCH Polynesia - would have loved to seen more French and Island specialties (or something like CoCo Beach on Moorea). I liked that half potions were an option for may dishes (except dessert - also huge portions!). At the 'O'A the "tapas" we too big and wished they had smaller portions - ordered 2 that dinner. Maere is the highlight for foodies - book well before you arrive in Bora Bora as seating is very limited. The hidden gem is Honu Tiki....afternoon bliss. Eco Center is great - but only one turtle. :-( My only disappoint for a resort of this caliber was the coffee, lattes & cappuccinos, were horrible - its push the button from an industrial machine (think airport lounge). They need a cool stand alone coffee area with a real espresso machine (had the BEST in Papeete) for iced lattes, matcha and some yummy (small) snacks....! This property is a GREAT place to stay to relax - often for once in a lifetime trip!

We just left the Westin after an unforgettable four-night stay. The location of this brand-new resort is arguably the best in the island, topping their competitors. It is hard to miss the picture perfect view of Otemanu everywhere in the resort, but the never-crowded beach and enormous pool add to the magical beauty of the place. The rooms were spacious and spotless, with jawdropping views. The grounds were impeccable, well-thought out, and designed. The food ranged from adequate to great, and far better than we expected, and always situated in beautiful, calm settings. The bicycles all over the resort became an event unto itself—we loved just biking from our room to the main facilities and back! But really the most indelible part of this stay was the hospitality and service. We can truly say that the Westin team went above and beyond to make our family so well cared for. There was a consistent high level of service, from the warm welcome upon arrival by Manon to the rock star concierge team of Alexandra, Leilani, and Sebastien, to Maxime, Hinatea, and all the staff at the restaurants, to the countless warm smiles and ‘ia ora nas from any Westin groundsperson, bartender, transport, and housekeeping staff we saw (and there were many!). One afternoon, we were waiting at the dock for a boat to take us on an excursion when a member the concierge team (Evelline?) struck up a lovely conversation with us to ask about our stay and what we were doing—it was remarkable to experience such genuine interest in our well-being as guests. This was not the only such interaction with the Westin team, but one of many. Needless to say, my family was made to feel special (even though we weren’t honeymooners!) and I couldn’t recommend this place highly enough. This is clearly a very well-run and trained team, and it is so difficult to maintain such a high level of service and hospitality across dining, housekeeping, concierge, front desk, and transportation to have it run so seamlessly, so consistently, that it deserves special mention. Bravo, Westin! You made a magical place even more memorable through your hard work. (And no, we have zero connections to Marriott!)

We had an amazing stay at The Westin Bora Bora! The whole island is unlike anywhere we have ever been. A special shoutout to our friend Alan, who works at the resort! He went above and beyond to make us feel welcome and made our time in Bora Bora even more memorable. It’s the people who can really make a great trip special, and Alan definitely did that for us.

This was the most beautiful resort we've ever stayed at! The service everywhere was top notch. Everyday we were on the beach or at the pool we got the best service. Alan was incredible at taking care of us. He was our favorite person on the resort. Our family had the best time and every time we walked by or saw Alan he would make a point to talk to us and make sure we were having a good time! The drinks are so good! Don't miss out on the Mai Tais if you go! So good. Can't recommend this place enough!

Subtracting 1 star for food being meh and overpriced. ROOM: Our room was beautiful, and housekeeper did a great job. They knew we were in the room by whether our bikes were there and always timed their cleanings when we were out. When we arrived, they had a card, beach bag, and alcohol free champagne waiting for us in our room with a card thanking us for spending our babymoon with them. AMENITIES: The amenities are absolutely gorgeous. Some highlights were: -Transport to/from airport - They pick you up from the airport and give you a boat ride to the resort. -Water - When they greet you at the airport, they give each guest a large water bottle to refill at the water stations conveniently located all over the resort. -Kayaks & Paddle Boards - You get free access to kayaks, paddle boards, and snorkel gear, which we appreciated although I recommend bringing your own snorkeling gear -Bicycles - They have bicycles located all throughout the resort that are first come first serve that we really enjoyed using. However, for safety reasons, I would strongly recommend they add bells to the bikes so riders can signal to the golf carts that they are coming. -Gym - They have a beautiful gym that was never too crowded and has good equipment. -They have a Bluetooth speaker in the bungalows so you can play music while on your bungalow deck. SPA: The spa prices were absolutely astronomical. We live in San Diego (an expensive city), and a high end deep tissue massage here is about $120 (before tip) for 90 minutes. The price at the Westin was $250 per person for one hour. At that price, even though we could afford the massages, we refused to book anything because those prices are unreasonable. Had the services been reasonably priced, we would have likely gotten multiple services. TURTLE DISCOVERY: The turtle experience was cool. In my experience, also overpriced ($70 per person for a 1 hour presentation), but at least it goes to a good cause (turtle preservation). FYI though, they only have one turtle right now. Maere - The upscale dining restaurant. The name means surprise, and the point is that you are supposed to not look at the menu, do the tasting, and be surprised. When making the reservation, I specifically notated that I was pregnant (so no raw fish, etc.) and my husband has a mushroom allergy. By the first course, they served my husband mushrooms. They immediately fixed it and apologized profusely, but given what happened later, I am concerned they did not keep our allergies straight and also, you just expect better from an upscale restaurant like this. Within 30 minutes of returning to our room, my husband becoming violently ill and vomitted for 20 minutes straight. I was concerned he would need a doctor. Although my reaction was not as bad (I suspect because due to being pregnant and avoiding nostalgia of the fish, etc.), but I did feel like I was back in first trimester for the next 24 hours (no appetite, queasy, plus the 2nd trimester heartburn). We felt so terrible that we had to cancel our Wednesday night reservation at La Villa Mahana, which I hear is the best restaurant on the island. Given the caliber of this restaurant, I was very disappointed that they did not pay more attention to our allergies, and that we apparently had food poisoning and lost an entire day of our trip. O’A - Happy hour spot with a view and where the wine and rum tastings are located. Te Ava - Swim up bar at the pool. Honestly, this might have the best food at the restaurant. The spicy goat cheese honey pizza and chicken Caesar Salad were great (although we ordered room service one night, and they forgot the dressing on our salad). The margarita pizza is bad and not worth it. Wings were decent. That being said, they brought us the wrong drink more than once (e.g., I would ask for a Coke zero, and they’d bring me a full sugar coke, or they would bring my husband the wrong beer). A simple coke or mocktail is the price of what an upscale cocktail would be in the U.S. Honu Tiki - Beach bar that is supposed to have waffles and cocktails. They never had waffles once the week we were there because allegedly, the guests kept breaking the waffle makers at breakfast, so Honu had to give their waffle makers to Tippanier? Tippanier - *Breakfast buffet - On Day 1, we did the buffet. Being pregnant, I try to prioritize protein, but I also cannot eat a lot of fish, so I was really disappointed to see that the only egg option that day was extremely runny scrambled eggs that tasted as bad as they looked. I couldn’t believe they didn’t have an omelette bar, so I was left with eating mostly pastries and feeling like crap. Well, 2 days later, we learned that they DO have omelette with the buffet, but your waiter has to ask you for the order, which never happened with us and was why we had no idea omelettes were an option. When I did order the omelettes on later days, they were good. I ordered a la carte a few days, but honestly, if you get a drink + an a la carte item, you have basically reached the buffet price and may as well do that. *Dinner with the show - Honestly, I’m just trying to view it as we paid for the show and not the dinner because the price of $160 per person was insane for the quality of food and options. As a pregnant person that could not really eat the fish, I again had extremely limited options. I basically just ate the fried chicken. They had another non fried chicken option that was terrible. They also had beef, but I wasn’t in the mood for it. The desserts were the best part. The show was 45 minutes and entertaining, but the audience involvement was a bit much for me. Vivara - Restaurant on the beach. More of a casual dining restaurant. The food was pretty average. SERVICE OVERALL: Overall, everyone was super nice, but after your food is served, they don’t check on you enough, and we often had to literally flag someone down to get our check and sign out. When you are paying $1,800 per night, this is kind of unacceptable. If I was paying $200 per night or less, I wouldn’t care, but at the price of this resort, you shouldn’t need to flag servers down for the check at every meal at every restaurant at the resort. ADVICE: If I stayed here again (probably wouldn’t even though we had a great stay—would probably try somewhere else with better food), I would do the following differently: -I’d bring 2 floaties with ropes to tie the floaties to our bungalow and float at our bungalow -I’d leave the resort more for dinner (most places will transport you to the restaurant for free and pick you up from the Westin dock) -I’d make sure to be aware that there are omelettes at the buffet.