InterContinental Tahiti Resort & Spa

We stayed at the Hilton before our cruise and at the Intercontinental afterward. I prefer the Intercontinental. Both are "airport hotels" to an extent and neither a true luxury five star resort. That said, the Intercontinental has beautiful grounds/pools and the rooms, while small, have been well renovated/decorated and are perfectly fine. (The Hilton's rooms are larger). The staff at the Intercontinental is very well-meaning and polite. Zero complaints. Check in was easy, particularly given that it was crowded. The restaurants are good to very, very good. Prices are high as they are everywhere in French Polynesia. The TripAdvisor reviews on this hotel are so mixed that we arrived with cautious expectations. It's turned out to be a very nice hotel and a very solid choice.

This is a lovely hotel. Yes, it’s expensive, but everything in Tahiti is. We were upgraded to a top floor Moorea room which was lovely. The pools are both amazing, we enjoyed the lagoon with fish. We arranged a tour with Te Mana o te Moana which talked about the turtles being rehabilitated at the resort which was fab. Marquesas night at the resort was well worth it. I would highly recommend this hotel. My only criticism is that we were told we couldn’t use the facilities for a few hours after check out (pool etc) before leaving for our cruise without paying for day passes. For this reason, we booked the Hilton up the road for after our cruise, as they were happy for us to use the facilities before and after check out. The intercontinental has nicer rooms though!

Recommend this hotel for stays in Papeete. Clean room. Friendly staff. Beautiful grounds and impressive breakfast buffet.

This property has a lot of potential but fails at service and details. The grounds are very pretty. We had an overwater bungalow. It was okay but needed some renovation. The AC worked poorly and there was no air circulation in the bathroom. The restaurants are busy and quite expensive and overrun with children. Staff are nice but overwhelmed. We needed help getting our luggage from our bungalow to the front lobby on checkout day and that took three 3 calls and 45 minutes. Overall, not a luxury experience.

The Intercontinental Tahiti was "just ok," though there were stellar employees at breakfast and concierge services. Our top-floor, ocean-view room was unremarkable; it was small, and nothing to get excited about, and there were several problems with the room. We also had problems with some of the meals and drinks. Thank goodness for Isaac in the restaurant who was fantastic as an F&B manager/server who helped us get 100% guaranteed gluten-free meals. We wish we could have had Isaac with us at our other FP hotels! Then there was Teva Lai Mink, a "Gold Key" concierge. Go to Teva Lai Mink with any questions about the hotel and travel within French Polynesia. Isaac in the restaurant and Teva at the concierge would be the reasons we would return to the hotel. Unfortunately, other aspects of the hotel would compel us to stay elsewhere. Our bed in room 325 was like concrete. We asked housekeeping to do something, and later we noticed a paper-thin topper had been put on the mattress which had no effect. At the front desk I requested something better, but the staff member insisted that the hotel did all that can be done. "Really? Can't they put a few more on? They are thin!" I asked. The staff member demurred and declined further help. She seemed pleased that I gave up because she had no idea what to do and didn't really care. This bed caused a protracted sciatica flare-up affecting the rest of our time in FP. Thank goodness we only had two nights on the InterContinental's concrete bed. Then, there is the poorly-designed shower floor casement in 325. Its corner protrudes so you can cram your foot into it, and cut yourself if you are not careful, when moving around the shower and toilet. OUCH!!! At the front desk, another person named Teva (not the concierge) said that they knew about the issue but could only nominally downgrade our room rate for our injuries. Last but not least, we had a terrible dinner on our last night. It was the worst fish sandwich I've ever had. The sandwich was gluten-free, but gluten-free doesn't mean "flavor-free." There was not one bit of salt or pepper on the fish (nor was there salt and pepper on the table). There was no sauce in the sandwich and the waiter said they omitted the cheese because "maybe there was gluten in it..." Whaaaaat? Clearly, some of the servers have **no idea** what gluten-free means. It was an awful dinner. And, by the way, **all** of the cocktails we had at this hotel were weak with nary a scant taste of alcohol. Overall, I recommend stopping by the hotel for a meal with Isaac and talk to Teva at the concierge if you need help in your travels, but find another hotel with better-trained dinner servers, stronger drinks and definitely with better beds.