Mr. J wrote about our nicest hotel in 2015.
The Intercontinental Thalasso Spa is right up there too. Actually looking back, I think this room was our nicest of 2015.
This post is a tour of our stay at The Intercontinental Thalasso Spa.
Intercontinental Thalasso Spa
Logistics
The Intercontinental Thalasso is only accessible by boat from the Bora Bora airport. You will need to pre arrange your transportation with the hotel. If you read our post on the Le Moana, then this will be repeat information for you.
Note: There is also a public ferry that goes to the main town of Vaitape, but then you will need to locate a taxi to take you to the Le Moana and then catch the water shuttle to the Thalasso. Who wants to deal with that?
IMO, the hotel’s private water taxi is worth the “splurge” -it’s convenient, it’s private (or with other hotel guests), someone helps you with your bags, and its direct to the hotel (you may stop at the Le Moana, but that is the only other stop).
Ambassador Status
At the time of our stay we had Intercontinental Ambassador status, which gave us the VIP treatment – Our own check in lounge area with refreshments.
What a welcome! I still dream of this vanilla ice tea.
The main check-in area is open air, welcoming and spacious.
Accommodations
The Intercontinental Thalasso Spa has 80 bungalow units classified from Emerald to Diamond level. The difference is purely location. Each bungalow (villa) is 95 sq. meters – 65 sq. meters of room and 30 sq. meters of deck space.
We were in an Emerald bungalow, so closer to the beach.
This room is epic. The room is styled with contemporary furnishings, which is a contrast to the island feel of the Le Moana.
Living Area
You enter the hotel room into a living area with a beautiful view and a full couch (sleeper sofa, for the kids or that third adult, no judgement).
Like the Le Moana, a glass coffee table shows the clear blue water below. The aquatic life is almost non-existent, but for stingrays that come for a daily feeding by the hotel.
The ceilings are high with fans. In the evening, you can open the doors and turn off the AC to feel the refreshing lagoon breeze.
Here are a few more pictures of the decor and living area.
Large patio style doors open to a two tiered deck (shade and sun) with loungers and seating.
You can literally roll into the lagoon, but I would only try from the lower sundeck. The water was about 4.5 feet deep at our bungalow.
Bedroom
The bedroom has a king size bed with luxury linens.
The large picture window allows you to wake up to a beautiful tropical paradise. You barely notice the tiny tv.
At the back of the bedroom is a giant closet with a safe. The Thalasso offers laundry and an unpacking serivce, if you should need such enhancements to your stay.
Bathroom
The glorious bathroom offers a double sink and a soaking tub. Toiletries from the Thalasso Spa will delight your senses.
The separate rainfall shower is spacious, and ladies look at that teak bench – delightful for shaving.
If you think the room is gorgeous, then you should check out the rest of the resort.
Restaurants
The Intercontinental Thalasso offers several dining options.
The Reef
Breakfast is served at The Reef. We enjoyed the amazing buffet here everyday.
The buffet is pretty intense and delicious.
Dinner is also available at the Reef. However, we enjoyed our dinner at the Sands (in the bar mostly).
The Sands
As its name indicates, the Sands is located on the beach (there is also seating the deck). The Sands is open for lunch and dinner. Somewhere in between, the Sands offers a Happy Hour with two for one drinks and small plates.
We enjoyed happy hour here just about every night. The drinks while pricey are the most reasonable you will get at the resort. The small plates were delicious. I loved the potstickers (or goyza).
The Sands is also a great spot to catch the sunset.
Bubbles Bar
No romantic getaway is complete without sparkling wine, and this is what Bubbles Bar gives you. Champagne and specialty cocktails are available in the evening.
Bubbles has a trendy contemporary feel to the space with plenty of seating, and offers bar games to pass your time.
For fine dining you can try Le Corail. Le Corail offers a chef’s tasting menu (or a la carte) with the largest wine cellar in French Polynesia (Yes, not just Bora Bora all of French Polynesia). We did not eat here on our stay, but I am sure it is delicious.
The Intercontinental Thalasso also offers romantic private dinners (on the beach, your bungalow, on a dock) canoe breakfast and theme nights. Theme nights usually include a Polynesian buffet and a entertainment.
You can ask the concierge for off resort dining options. We tried Bloody Mary’s. Note, you will have to take a boat to the Le Moana, and then a taxi to Bloody Mary’s.
The Property
The Thalasso has several areas you can explore and numerous spots to relax.
The pool is even a sand pool. 
Take some time to explore the property including a walk over to the ocean side for a completely different perspective of the island.
After a short walk, you may need to relax.
After relaxing, you might need a little excitement.
Activities
The Thalasso has many different activities, some included with your rate others are additional.
The non-motorized sports are included. We really enjoyed the SUPs. The Thalasso is pretty sheltered, so the water is smooth for paddle boarding and using the kayaks.
The snorkeling equipment is included as well, but the actual snorkeling is awful. The is no coral in the area, thus no fish. They have tried to make a few “reefs” (i.e., under the glass coffee tables), but compared to Moorea and Tahiti not great snorkeling.
You can schedule a snorkeling trip that will take you out to another spot in the lagoon, where there are fish and reef sharks.
Diving is also available. I looked into diving, but I wanted to do an ocean dive (the lagoon is pretty shallow). However, the weather didn’t cooperate (too windy), so we never went out.
The concierge can help you arrange other excursions as well. One other excursion is visiting the main town of Vaitape.
In Vaitape, you can enjoy lunch, do some shopping, or just wander around. I don’t know if I would recommend a visit unless you want some souvenirs, or are just looking to get out of the resort for a bit. We did get some beer and snacks from the grocery store, which was very reasonably priced.
The Spa
If you are not quite done relaxing, then be sure to check out the Spa. The rumor is the Thalasso Spa is the best spa on Bora Bora.
We did not end up using the spa, it was not in our budget. This is one thing I would say about Bora Bora is be sure to budget for activities and food! We averaged about $200 a day on food, and this was with breakfast discount and taking advantage of happy hour.
The Bora Bora Guide has a great post review/tour of the spa. I have to say it looks amazing, and other couples at the resort loved their treatments.
Stingray Feeding
This is pretty cool. You can watch or participate in the stingray feeding everyday.
Recommendation
Bora Bora is beautiful. The Intercontinental Thalasso is an amazing property. I would happily stay here again, and highly recommend the property to those looking to visit Bora Bora.
Typically, the resort will be full of couples celebrating a honeymoon or another romantic trip. We saw very few families.
This beauty and luxury comes with a hefty price tag. Emerald Villas start around $800 per night. On top of that, you will need to budget $200-$400 for food and beverages per day. On top of that, you need a flight from Tahiti. Don’t forget about, the flight to Tahiti, souvenirs, excursions, the new resort wear you need, tips, and transfers.
My point: be sure your travel budget includes all your expenses (the accounting nerd in me). We did not (there were a lot of fuzzy numbers), and the stress of money took away from our enjoyment of the property. Just like we shouldn’t live beyond our means, we shouldn’t travel beyond our means either.
Using points and free nights is an option to give you great value at the Thalassso, and help with the budget. However, finding availability can be very challenging.
Consider the Le Moana, Le Cursoe or even staying on Tahiti at the Intercontinental Tahiti as more cost effective alternatives.
I will leave you with dreams of budgets and the rest of our photos. You can also check out our video here.
The photos look under exposed and the color temperature is off, you can really notice it in the last photo where the blue sky is in shade of pink. The bright turquoise water of Bora Bora’s lagoon can fool your camera’s sensor thinking it’s too bright so it under expose the photo.
You are right. I had it in auto for several of the pictures. It was too hard to use manual while being swarmed by stingrays. :) Mr. J will tell me, I told you so as he is the photographer and I am just learning. Thanks for your feedback.
Thanks for the review. it brought back memories of my honey moon there. Why didn’t you get upgraded from an Emerald to Sapphire level OWB with Ambassador status? Did they give a reason? I stayed with a Costco vacation package that included meals and before IHG added the “may not get an upgrade if you didn’t purchase direct” clause.
Thanks for the comment! Sounds like you had a great honeymoon. Going through these photos brought back some great memories for me too. We used our free night certificates, so the language includes similar wording as your package something like – status benefits do (may) not apply. So, I think it is at the discretion of the management whether they upgrade you or not. We probably could have pushed the issue since they half-way recognized it. Sometimes, I just don’t have the energy to debate. Plus, the Emerald villa was amazing, so no complaints. In contrast, we were upgraded on a free night certificate at the Le Moana (from a beach bungalow to an overwater).
I need to check out these Costco packages. I have had a few people ask me about them. Did yours include airfare? And were you happy with it? Just curious.
Regarding the OWB’s, the room size, structure, etc. all the same at the Thalasso. It’s just the location that differs upon level. We booked Sapphire hoping for (and got) Diamond (second to the end) with Ambassador status without prompting.
The Costco Travel agent for French Polynesia was very knowledgeable about suggesting an itinerary given our trip length. We weren’t sure how long to stay on each island or which islands to visit, so having a knowledgeable agent was invaluable.
Our package included the TN LAX-PPT and the VN PPT-BOB flights, but for some reason I can’t recall they did not offer to sell us the connecting flight to LAX (SJC-LAX) and I had to purchase my own separate air ticket (not very expensive at all) and do my own research to figure out that AA was the best (closest to TN’s TBIA gate, interline agreements at the time). I think it was because web fares from AA would have been cheaper than the agent price of an add-on fare.