InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa

Character and identity

Reached by a 20-minute boat transfer from the airport, this resort sits on stilts in one of the most photographed lagoons in the Pacific, two curving piers of overwater villas reaching out toward the silhouette of Mount Otemanu. The design register is sharply contemporary, closer to South Beach than South Pacific: floor-to-ceiling glass, Lucite ceiling fans, black slate bathroom floors, and the all-white, Starck-influenced Bubbles bar. Eighty villas (plus the larger Brando Suites at the pier ends) share three restaurants with French bistro cooking and what is said to be the region's largest wine cellar, an infinity pool, and the Deep Ocean Spa, the first thalassotherapy centre in French Polynesia.

Who's it for

Bottom line

What defines a stay here is the combination of design clarity and the thalasso spa: this is the Bora Bora overwater experience filtered through a sharp, contemporary lens rather than a thatched-roof one. Book a lagoon-view villa at minimum, stretch to a Brando Suite if the budget allows and you want a private pool, and build in a snorkelling or motu picnic excursion to break the villa spell.