Bora Bora in the South Pacific

Friday, 15 November 2013 - 01:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination:
Category/Kategorie: General
Reading Time:  8 minutes

© Taka-0905

© Taka-0905

Bora Bora is an island in the Leeward group of the Society Islands of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the Pacific Ocean. The island, located about 230 kilometres (143 miles) northwest of Pape’ete, is surrounded by a lagoon and a barrier reef. In the centre of the island are the remnants of an extinct volcano rising to two peaks, Mount Pahia and Mount Otemanu, the highest point at 727 metres (2,385 feet). Bora Bora is a major international tourist destination, famous for its aqua-centric luxury resorts. The major settlement, Vaitape, is on the western side of the main island, opposite the main channel into the lagoon. Produce of the island is mostly limited to what can be obtained from the sea and the plentiful coconut trees, which were historically of economic importance for copra. According to a 2008 census, Bora Bora has a permanent population of 8,880. Today the island’s economy is driven almost solely by tourism. Over the last few years several resorts have been built on motu (small islands, from Tahitian) surrounding the lagoon. Thirty years ago, Hotel Bora Bora built the first over-the-water bungalows on stilts over the lagoon and today, over-water bungalows are a standard feature of most Bora Bora resorts. The quality of those bungalows ranges from comparably cheap, basic accommodations to very luxurious and expensive places to stay.

Most of the tourist destinations are aqua-centric; however it is possible to visit attractions on land such as WWII cannons. Air Tahiti has five or six flights daily to the Bora Bora Airport on Motu Mute from Tahiti (as well as from other islands). The island is served by Bora Bora Airport on Motu Mute in the north, with Air Tahiti providing daily flights to and from Papeete on Tahiti.

Public transport on the island is nonexistent. Rental cars and bicycles are the recommended methods of transport. There are also small, two-seater buggies for hire in Vaitape. It is possible to rent a motorboat to explore the lagoon.

© Tryfon Topalidis/cc-by-sa-3.0 Matira beach and lagoon © Scott Williams/cc-by-2.5 © K5 Boardshop/cc-by-sa-3.0 North-East view from Mount Pahia © flickr.com - rachel thecat/cc-by-sa-2.0 Bora Bora Airport © Saga70/cc-by-sa-3.0 © Taka-0905
<
>
North-East view from Mount Pahia © flickr.com - rachel thecat/cc-by-sa-2.0
Snorkeling and scuba diving in and around the lagoon of Bora Bora are popular activities. Many species of sharks and rays inhabit the surrounding body of water. There are a few dive operators on the island offering manta ray dives and also shark-feeding dives.

In addition to the existing islands of Bora Bora, the new manmade motu of Motu Marfo has been added in the northeastern corner of the lagoon on the property of the St. Regis Resort.

Read more on Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora and Wikipedia Bora Bora. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Johns Hopkins University & Medicine - Coronavirus Resource Center - Global Passport Power Rank - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.




Recommended posts:

Share this post: (Please note data protection regulations before using buttons)

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

[caption id="attachment_205969" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Supercarwaar/cc-by-sa-4.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art. The museum's current collection includes over 33,000 works of painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, desi...

[ read more ]

Roonstrasse Synagogue in Cologne

Roonstrasse Synagogue in Cologne

[caption id="attachment_234232" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Interior © Horsch, Willy/cc-by-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Roonstrasse Synagogue, located in Cologne, Germany, is the only surviving of the five synagogues of the city before the Nazi era. On August 19, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI visited Roonstrasse Synagogue. This visit was the second ever visit to any synagogue by any one of the Popes. There, he condemned Nazism and antisemitism. The Jewish community in Cologne has the longest history in Germany, being fi...

[ read more ]

Dumfries House in Scotland

Dumfries House in Scotland

[caption id="attachment_164289" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Dumfries House © geograph.org.uk - Gordon Brown/cc-by-sa-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Dumfries House is a Palladian country house in Ayrshire, Scotland. It is located within a large estate, around 2 miles west of Cumnock. Noted for being one of the few such houses with much of its original 18th-century furniture still present, including specially commissioned Thomas Chippendale pieces, the house and estate is now owned in charitable trust by The Great Steward of ...

[ read more ]

Zerbst in Saxony-Anhalt

Zerbst in Saxony-Anhalt

[caption id="attachment_160645" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Zerbst - City hall © Mazbln/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Zerbst is a town in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, in Saxony-Anhalt. The city has about 22,000 inhabitants and is locatd between Magdeburg and Wittenberg, near River Elber. In 1745 princess Sophie Auguste Friederike von Anhalt-Zerbst married Peter III, successor to the Russian throne. As Catharine II (the Great) she was crowned in the Dormition Cathedral at Moscow Kremlin and reigned ve...

[ read more ]

Banff Springs Hotel

Banff Springs Hotel

[caption id="attachment_167535" align="aligncenter" width="590"] © Kim Payant/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]The Fairmont Banff Springs or simply the Banff Springs Hotel is a former railway hotel constructed in Scottish Baronial style located in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. The original hotel, designed by American architect Bruce Price, was built between spring of 1887 and 1888 by the Canadian Pacific Railway, at the instigation of its President, William Cornelius Van Horne. The hotel was publicly opened on Jun...

[ read more ]

Williamsburg in Brooklyn

Williamsburg in Brooklyn

[caption id="attachment_165471" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Bedford Avenue © flickr.com - LWYang/cc-by-2.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Williamsburg is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, bordering Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant to the south; Bushwick, East Williamsburg, and Ridgewood, Queens to the east; and Fort Greene and the East River to the west. Since the late 1990s, Williamsburg has undergone gentrification characterized by hipster culture, a contemporary art scene, and vibrant nigh...

[ read more ]

Manhattan Marvel: Townhouse With a Living Room Pool

Manhattan Marvel: Townhouse With a Living Room Pool

[caption id="attachment_152381" align="aligncenter" width="468"] Pool in Living Room © dornob.com[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Going for a dip in the pool can be a fantastically relaxing activity, but most of us have to at least traverse a few hallways to get there. The residents of this incredible five-story townhouse in Chelsea have only to go as far as their living room to enjoy the benefits of a swim. You would never know it to look at the outside of this townhouse, but contained inside its conventional walls are some ...

[ read more ]

Büsingen on the Upper Rhine

Büsingen on the Upper Rhine

[caption id="attachment_160955" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Büsingen am Hochrhein © Prekario[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Büsingen am Hochrhein, commonly known as Büsingen, is a German town (7.62 km2 or 2.94 sq mi) entirely surrounded by the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen and, south across the Rhine, by the Swiss cantons of Zürich and Thurgau. It has a population of about 1,450 inhabitants. Since the early 19th century, the town has been separated from the rest of Germany by a narrow strip of land (at its narrowest, about 7...

[ read more ]

Theme Week Bhutan

Theme Week Bhutan

[caption id="attachment_221249" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Rice terraces - Eli Shany/cc-by-sa-3.0[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Bhutan, officially known as the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in the Eastern Himalayas. It is bordered by Tibet to the north and India to the south. Nepal and Bangladesh are located in proximity to Bhutan but do not share a land border. The country has a population of over 754,000 and a territory of 38,394 square kilometers (14,824 sq mi) which ranks 133rd in terms of land area, and 160th...

[ read more ]

Rhodes, the sunny island

Rhodes, the sunny island

[caption id="attachment_153542" align="aligncenter" width="590"] Maltan Knights Castle in Rhodes City © Polimerek[/caption][responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"]Rhodes is a Greek island approximately 18 kilometres (11 mi) southwest of Turkey in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes peripheral unit, which is part of the South Aegean Periphery. The principal town of the isla...

[ read more ]

Return to TopReturn to Top
Porto Maurizio © flickr.com - Jukka1/cc-by-2.0
Imperia on the Riviera di Ponente

Imperia is a coastal city and comune in the region of Liguria. It is the capital of the province of...

Marmaray Project © R1410/cc-by-sa-3.0
Marmaray: A tunnel connects Europe with Asia

Marmaray is a rail transport project in the Turkish city of Istanbul. It comprises an undersea rail tunnel under the...

Beach at the village of Dhërmi © Dori/cc-by-2.5
The Albanian Riviera

Albanian Riviera is a coastal area in the County of Vlorë running along the Ionian Sea under the Ceraunian Mountains...

Schließen