Hotels in Bora Bora

Bora Bora is the image most people carry of the South Pacific: a sunken volcano whose twin peaks, Otemanu and Pahia, rise 727 metres from the centre of a lagoon so vivid it looks retouched. A near-continuous ring of coral motu encircles that lagoon, and it is on these low sand islets that the overwater bungalow was effectively invented in the 1960s.

The island itself is small, about 30 km to circle by road, with the main village of Vaitape holding the shops, banks and pearl dealers. Most visitors stay on a motu and cross to the main island by boat, which means the lagoon functions as the road network. Snorkelling with rays and blacktip reef sharks, lagoon tours and diving on the outer reef fill most itineraries.

Bora Bora is expensive by any standard, and there is no realistic budget version of the overwater experience. Family-run pensions on the main island cost a fraction of the resorts and give a more grounded sense of Polynesian life, with the same lagoon a few steps away.