Le Bora Bora by Pearl Resorts

Le Bora Bora by Pearl is a freshly renovated Relais & Chateaux resort on the southern tip of Motu Tevairoa, the largest of the outer-reef islets — around ten minutes by boat from the airport and fifteen across the lagoon to Vaitape village, which makes it the most conveniently placed of the off-mainland resorts, with no neighbours on the horizon and Mount Otemanu beyond. Formerly the Bora Bora Pearl Beach Resort & Spa and reborn after a full 2020/21 refurbishment, its 108 rooms and villas carry some of the island's most authentic Polynesian design in wood, bamboo, stone and rope: overwater bungalows and suites that open onto the lagoon, the most secluded End-of-Pontoon Overwater Suite with its own pool, garden and beach villas with private plunge pools, and the two-bedroom Royal Beach Villa with a private pool and kitchen. Dining runs across three restaurants and two bars, led by the gourmet Poerava for dinner, the Tevairoa buffet with its Monday Polynesian dance show, and the lagoon-view Otemanu terrace, with international and Polynesian cooking. The TAVAI Spa, a seven-hundred-square-metre haven among lily ponds, brings traditional Tahitian architecture, monoi-oil massages and Polynesian treatments, with a steam bath, saunas and even a tattooing room. A large freshwater pool and the private villa plunge pools sit beside the To'a Nui coral nursery, which the overwater bungalows open directly onto, and there is a Blue Nui dive centre, a floodlit tennis court, mini-golf and complimentary non-motorised water sports — with an easy evening boat to Vaitape's restaurants and shops. It is the overwater Bora Bora dream at a more accessible, convenient tier.