Timely thread. Came here because researching honeymoon in Bora Bora. St. Regis and Four Seasons are around $20k for 5 nights with a plunge pool room.

Couple breaking up 3 days before their $40k honeymoon.

It was $20k, not $40k. But still. I still to this day do not knew what happened. Not really my place to ask (but believe me I sure wanted to know lol). So for now we just pushed the date back to this Dec. I'll reach out soon to see what he wants to do. He's allowed to have one name change.

But I did have a $45k booking that canceled cause they broke up. That one was very painful lol.

Where did they stay?

Well they didn't stay anywhere cause they canceled I had them booked at Jumby Bay, Antigua for 10 nights.

JMac03 said:

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I did a clients trip in January for about $8800 for flights and OWB in Bora Bora (booked last March or so). Probably spent another $1200 or so on excursions. Have no idea what they spent on food but they loved it.

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Did you have a question? Or was just quoting it?

Yes, I was curious where they stayed in an OWB in Bora Bora including flights for $8,800 and how was their experience?

My thought is if I do that trip I want to stay at Four Season or St Regis, which is much more than $8,800 not including flights.

Went to Fiji for our honeymoon. Stayed at LikuLiku Lagoon Resort in their overwater bungalows. It was awesome.

The island off in the distance is where they filmed Cast Away haha. Here's the website: http://likulikulagoon.com/over-water-bure/

They had a great time. I didn't get super detailed feedback but all in all it was good. It's on its own little island so you have to take a short boat ride to the mainland (free during the day, nominal charge at night).

This is super helpful, thanks for all the comments.

Our budget is probably going to be 10-12K, so I'm thinking we MIGHT be able to swing Bora Bora after all, but I like that Fiji idea too. Hear good things.

Bluecat_Aggie94 said:

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I've always wanted to stay in one of those over-water bungalows in Bora Bora or the Maldives. But realistically, I'm probably too cheap to ever pay as much as that for a vacation.

I've found some options that are in the Carribean or Central America that are much more affordable.

I am planning a getaway with my wife for our 20th in just over a year, so looking at options now. Few questions for you Aggie travelers:

1) For those who have stayed in an over water bungalow, is it all that?
2) Has anyone stayed at one in Belize, Panama, or the Carribbean that are not quite as expensive as Tahiti/Bora Bora? Are they a good option, or should I just save up and do it right?

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Just found this thread and thought I'd share some thoughts. Wife and I did Maldives for 7 nights back in March.

Pricing:
We stayed in an overwater bungalow at the Robinson Club Maldives. Bought a deal on TravelZoo for around $2,900 or so. Roughly $415/night. This is the best pricing I've seen for that region.

BUT, that price factored in the all-inclusive nature of the resort. So, that's $3k for room and food/drinks. Sounds like some resorts will have separate food costs, but I think a lot of the islands are all-inclusive only; no pay-as-you-go.

That said, our trip cost a small fortune but that's b/c it was a late honeymoon and I upgraded us to business class on Qatar air. An fantastic experience in every respect other than my bank account. If you do this, be prepared to drop at least $10k - $15k on the flights alone.

Bungalow worth it?:
Depends. We loved it, but next time we will probably go with a beach bungalow. The OWs are almost always the furthest away and they have zero tree cover. Yeah, it's only 80-84 degrees at the peak, but you're practically on the equator so the sun just beats you to death. Walking 400-500 yards across an uncovered deck gets old real fast.

But, the ability to just walk out on our deck and dive into the green waters and go snorkeling was really too cool to pass up.

Biggest drawback of the Maldives:
Travel time by far. About 35 hours of travel. 3 large jet flights and one small regional flight from island to island, and one boat ride from island to our resort. Return trip was a boat ride, two regional flights and three large jet flights. Plus layovers....

If you go, look for a resort as close as possible to Male (the main airport). You might be able to just face a 20-30 minute boat ride when you get there and it will save you a few hours or more.

If you have other questions just email me: surveillancevantexags at gmail

Just booked a stay in Bora Bora.

Trying to decide if I should book all through AA, or AA reservation to LAX then a separate reservation directly through Air Tahiti Nui. Will separate reservations be a pain with luggage?

Following. I'm sitting on ~1.5 million Hilton points ~620k United miles along with the wife's -150k miles. If it were up to me I'd blow them all on an epic European ski trip of some sort but I'll get vetoed. The wife really wants to do one of these over water deals. I think we're still a few years out from being able to go (just had twins to go along with our 6 year old) but if we can drop them off with the grandparents in a few years we'll probably do one of these trips.
Is there a better Hilton property to go with in one location vs another? I really want to make this happen asap as I know the devaluations of points/miles is just gonna get worse and worse.

I mean I'm not loaded so haven't been to everyone to compare them all. But the Conrad Maldives will be hard to beat, imo. Between the underwater restaurant and almost every meal we had being a true 5* experience, though you'll pay for it.

CaptnCarl said:

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Just booked a stay in Bora Bora.

Trying to decide if I should book all through AA, or AA reservation to LAX then a separate reservation directly through Air Tahiti Nui. Will separate reservations be a pain with luggage?

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If you are checking bags I would just book the whole thing through AA unless there is a price difference for doing so.

Also, there used be penalties with Air Tahiti for excess-weight baggage (this is the airline that flies from PPT to BOB), not sure if that is still the case but you may want to check that as well. Easy answer is to pack light and carry it all on.

We went to Bora Bora twice on points. IHG points and American points for flights. Both trips cost less than $3K each primarily for food and activities. Overwater bungalows are awesome but second time we stayed at beach bungalow at IHG Le Moana. Was also really nice and was exact same size and layout as the overwater bungalow. Bora Bora is awesome and lots to do there. Lagoon is so unique I was happy just diving and snorkeling other than relaxing by the water.

We are carrying on our luggage on the SWA flight to LAX and would like to not have to check the luggage w/ Air Tahiti at LAX.

Our luggage has dimension of 47" and is two inches over AT's 45" limit.

Does anybody have experience with how strict Air Tahiti Nui is with carry on luggage dimensions?

Did the over water thing in Malaysian Borneo. Place was called Sipadan Kapalai resort. Bit of a hike to get to but worth. Spiritual experience level diving at Sipadan.

I've heard there is an issue with snakes getting into these things, is that true?

Spent a week at the Pearl Beach resort in Bora Bora back in Dec of 2013...been a while now I admit but we saw no snakes anywhere. Roaches however we did see. They seemed to favor the thatched roof material of the over water bungalows. Not a huge problem but they are there. Only saw a few and did not detract from the overall wonderful experience.

We never saw any snakes. Biggest "issue" were the sharks, lion fish, and rays that liked to hang out near our steps into the water.

My wife and I did Maldives Six Senses back in March for 6 nights. I had points via IHG and got an OWB but rack rate was running $2k a night and just included breakfast.

I had airline points so flights were covered but long. Think it was about 35 hours going and after delays and missed connections a whopping 65 hours back. Thankfully we had Business class back so it could have been much worse.

One of the biggest challenges to the Maldives is just getting there and back.

We still spent a small fortune on food, beverages and excursions but considering all else was paid, it was worth it for us. We spent one day on our own private island. Just dropped off, gave us supplies and see you at the end of the day. It was the most amazing thing we did.

We enjoyed the OWB and never got bored. Always things to do and honestly you can't beat an evening sunset or even some sunrises across the water.

It's been a life long bucket list for me and it was completely worth it!