#16 in Top 20 Bora Bora for a Honeymoon · ★★★★★
InterContinental Tahiti Resort & Spa
Papeete, gateway resort with overwater bungalows, the connecting-flight honeymoon stop.
Papeete, gateway resort with overwater bungalows, the connecting-flight honeymoon stop.
"Papeete, gateway resort with overwater bungalows, the connecting-flight honeymoon stop."
The InterContinental Tahiti Resort & Spa is the smart bookend for a French Polynesia honeymoon rather than its centrepiece. It sits at Faa'a on the western edge of Tahiti, about five minutes by car from Faa'a International Airport (PPT), the gateway to the whole archipelago, which makes it the natural place to spend the night you land and the night before you fly home. With around 250 rooms and bungalows, including lagoon and overwater bungalows looking across to the island of Moorea at sunset, it gives couples a first taste of overwater life before the onward flight to Bora Bora. Be clear on what it is: this is an airport-adjacent city-edge resort, not the secluded private-island idyll most people picture for Bora Bora, so plane noise and a busier setting are part of the deal. Booked as the first-and-last-night anchor, though, it does exactly the job you want.
Request an Overwater Bungalow (the Ocean View or Motu category) for the sunset over Moorea on your first or last night; a Lagoon Bungalow is the slightly calmer, lower-cost step down still close to the water.
Treat it as the airport overnight before your Bora Bora flight, which usually leaves PPT early in the morning, so an overwater bungalow a few minutes from the terminal saves a stressful dash. With time to spare, central Papeete and its market are about 15 minutes by taxi for an easy half-day.
InterContinental Tahiti Resort & Spa sits within our broader Top 20 Hotels in Bora Bora for a Honeymoon list. It scored an aggregate 9.4/10 across the three editorial criteria, competitive against the field but, on a honeymoon-specific factors, the angle above is what earned its rank. For the alternatives in the same Bora Bora neighbourhood, see Tahiti, Faa'a and adjacent. For a different city entirely, see the related lists below.
Book the overwater bungalows well ahead, since there are only a couple of dozen and they sell out first, especially in the May-to-October dry season. If you only need a comfortable, convenient airport night, a garden or lagoon-view room is far cheaper and still puts you minutes from the terminal for an early Bora Bora flight.
Sign up for deal alerts: fifth night free offers, resort credits, and the upgrade windows we would book ourselves.