We took a short break from planning the honeymoon, but it didn’t take long before we were revisiting the plan. Revisiting the plan was not in the original plan, but here we were revisiting the plan! It was actually a little frustrating, and we made it more stressful than it had to be, looking back. As I had talked about in my previous post, Planning an Adventure, we had a short list. We went through our list, and considered if we were being too critical. But, how could we be too critical if we wanted everything to be perfect? Then, I’m not sure who came up with the suggestion and maybe we would both take credit for that, but up came Bora Bora. We knew nothing about Bora Bora, other than it being in the movie “Couples Retreat“. Great movie, by the way.
So, we started researching
Not knowing anything about Bora Bora, we started searching the internet. We discovered that Bora Bora was in fact, not a country, but part of French Polynesia. French, you say? We both speak French. French is the official language in French Polynesia, so we would be able to communicate fairly comfortably. French Polynesia is also considered a safe place for tourists. Typical guidance to hide your valuables still applies, like anywhere else in the world. The weather around the timeframe we were looking is typically very fair, with not much chance of significant wind or rain. It had beautiful beaches and a nice tropical environment. Between the two of us, we couldn’t find any reason for this not to be the perfect honeymoon (or vacation) destination.
Getting There
As with any vacation, getting there is more than half the battle. To get there, we would have to fly into Los Angeles. From there, we would have to fly into Pape’ete. Once we got there, it would be too late to continue on to Bora Bora. To come this far, we would already have been travelling for more than 24 hours with layovers. We decided that if we were going to Bora Bora, we would take a few days to settle before continuing on. We had a lot of fun because of this and made some great memories.
Financial Details
Travel is always wonderful, until you start considering money! We had an idea that French Polynesia would be expensive. Most of the places we had picked would probably have been expensive. We started looking at hotels. Hotels actually weren’t that bad, compared to all other locations we were considering. For our honeymoon we wanted to spoil ourselves. I wouldn’t believe anybody if they saw an image of an overwater bungalow in Bora Bora and didn’t want to try it. We couldn’t have been convinced not to after looking at them. This is where things get expensive pretty quickly.
Softening the financial blow
By this point in my career, I had already been travelling for work for years and had saved up quite a few points and status with Aeroplan and Starwood Preferred Guest (now Marriott Bonvoy). I was able to pay for the entire stay in Pape’ete with loyalty points. This was, however, not the best perk we took advantage of during this trip. Through Starwood Preferred Guest, there was an offer for the Bora Bora segment of our stay to buy one night at full price and get 40% off the second night. We could take advantage of this for as many nights as we wanted, or could afford. This worked out to about a straight 20% discount, and on a roughly two week vacation this can really add up. Lesson here: If you travel, loyalty rewards programs can really be a useful tool to make your vacations more affordable.
Commitment
By revisiting the plan, we had to seriously consider how we felt about 4 or 5 options. After comparing each destination, we had decided that French Polynesia made the most sense for us. It was able to meet everything we thought we wanted out of a dream vacation at the time. It would give us experiences that nobody we knew personally had had. We still didn’t know much about French Polynesia, but we knew that we would be going there to decompress as soon as we were married.
Next Up
Next up, I’ll take you to the actual travel day. One of my most memorable travel experiences, truly. Until then….
Keep Dreaming!
Originally from Atlantic Canada, where the beaches are always close, and the weather is occasionally warm enough to enjoy them. Moved to Ontario, Canada, where I now live with my wife and 3 children. I work in IT. I play guitar, I lift weights, and I’m an Open Water Diver.
I love the ocean and hope it can be enjoyed by all future generations. I’m looking forward to living somewhere much closer to the beach, where the weather is always warm. Somewhere with palm trees and tropical fruit growing in my back yard. Somewhere that I can scuba or surf with my family when I’m not working.